“I really don’t want him near people.”
Finally, Logan chuckles. “I hear you.”
Lindy’s a good, engaging lecturer, but between the app for Cynnie that I’m now really excited about creating and that extra credit code that’s still teasing at the back of my mind, I’m not as focused as I should be.
Lindy nails me, asking me a series of questions that I fumble because I wasn’t listening. After he excuses the class, he glares at me and I slink down the steps to lean against the wall separating his podium from the rows of seats.
“Where the fuck was your head?” he asks.
“I’m really sorry, man. I should’ve been paying more attention.”
Lindy sniffs. “Slacker.”
“Sorry. Hey, listen, that code you put up for extra credit?—”
Lindy nods. “I liked what you did with it. Your solutions were a hell of a lot more innovative than your answers in class.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. That code, it felt really familiar. I’m sure I’ve seen it before. Have you published it somewhere?”
Lindy frowns. “No.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“I wrote it. What’re you suggesting, Max?”
I hold up my hands. “Nothing. It just felt familiar. But, you know, when you’ve seen billions of lines of code, everything feels familiar.”
Lindy chuckles. “True, that. C’mon. Nachos and beer.”
“Sounds good.”
“You pay and I won’t even fail you for spacing out in my class.”
I shake my head at him. Cheapskate. But I don’t argue.
Once he has me fed and watered, I admit what had me distracted and show him the design for my app for Cynnie. At first, Lindy’s condescending about a “reward-based app.” But after I show him how it’s really a positive-feedback loop, he gets into it. He helps me work through the architecture of the reward levels and start the coding.
While Lindy’s at the bar getting another round of drinks, I check my email and find a link from Squid to a shared box full of graphics files. I scroll through them, grinning. Squid has a thing for chibis, the Japanese-based caricatures with big heads, small bodies, and big eyes. I figure Cynnie will like them, too, since they have a similar aesthetic to fairy kei. In the hours I’ve been in class and working on the app with Lindy, Squid and his twelve-year-old nephew have created a dozen chibis of me and Cynnie. Fuck, they’re cute.
I close out of the files as Lindy returns. I’m okay with him knowing I’m creating an app to reward my girlfriend for eating three meals a day and drinking enough water. Showing him a caricature of me with a big head, tiny body, wearing a tiger suit, is an emasculating bridge too far.
I always lose time coding. But with a never-ending supply of Mexican food and beer, I lose more time than usual. Outside the restaurant’s windows, the sunny day has faded to dusk. I check my phones to make sure I haven’t missed anything important. There are a few messages from Logan and Manny but nothing urgent. I pop a text to Cynnie to see how she’s doing and grin when she immediately responds.
Bumble: Oppa! Oppa! Oppa! Wants to see you!
I want to see you, too, baby. Tonight?
Bumble: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Yours? Mine?
Bumble: Yours! Chase me!
Meet me at mine in an hour? I’ll chase you until you’re a dizzy bee.
She sends me back a string of bumblebee emojis.
“You fucking sucker,” Lindy says, watching me grin at my phone.
