Page 64 of Ideal Life

“Hey, I signed up for an open poker tournament in San Jose this weekend. It’s called Summer Million, and first prize is… Guess.”

Talia grinned. “A million dollars? Sam! I’m so excited for you!”

He waved it off. “There are over two thousand other players. I still have to play well.”

“I’m sure you will.”

Sam thought she glanced at her watch.

But no, he must’ve been mistaken. She’d promised she wouldn’t use it on him.

Talia drove them back to the lighthouse. As she pulled into the parking lot, she asked Sam to hand her her phone from the glove compartment.

They said their goodbyes, and he was halfway out the door when she started checking her messages.

Talia gasped. “What?”

Sam slid back into the car. “What happened? Are you okay?”

She gaped at her phone. Then she passed it to him so he could read the message.

Erin: Oh my gosh, I just saw on YouTube that Libby and Jacob are pregnant! Congrats on becoming an aunt soon!!

“Libby didn’t tell you?” Sam asked. The sisters weren’t as close as they used to be, ever since Libby got married and started jet-setting around the world, but they still loved each other fiercely, and he knew Talia would be very hurt that she hadn’t found out before the entire internet.

Talia sank into the driver’s seat. “I think she tried to. But I was too busy.”

The Ideal Life app dinged as a suggestion popped up on her phone. Sam was still holding it.

Ideal Life Queen Elizabeth: I am detecting increased activity in your bilateral limbic and paralimbic structures, which may signal transient sadness. I see you have also just read the message from Erin Berg about your sister. Assuming a correlation between the two, perhaps your feelings are related to Libby, with whom you had a truncated conversation last week and have not reconnected with since.

To alleviate your distress, may I suggest that you reach out to her, as I suggested you do with Sam?

His heart sank.

It hadn’t even been Talia herself who’d wanted to see him. It had been an AI bumblebee that had reminded her that he was her friend.

Disappointment was too weak a word to describe how he felt.

Sadness? Dismay?

But it didn’t really matter if he could define it, because the knot in his chest was tight enough that it was hard to speak.

Sam shook his head as he put the phone down on her console. “Call your sister, Tal,” he said quietly. “I’ll… see you later.”

Then he got out of her car and walked away, not sure whether this friendship only went in one direction anymore.

Talia

Talia watched Sam walk across the parking lot to his bookstore. She waited for him to turn around again and wave, but he didn’t. Was he upset about something?

She thought about rewinding for a few minutes to double-check, but she couldn’t do that, not after she’d just undid her kiss earlier this week.

Then she picked up her phone and saw Ideal Life Queen Elizabeth’s note.

“Oh no. Sam!”

Talia opened the car door to go after him, but then her phone rang.