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Then suddenly, she straightens and says, “Wait. What would you download into your brain?”

“That’s easy. I’ve always wanted to learn how to hotwire a car.”

A slow grin appears on her face. “Would you look at that. I could teach you how to do that.”

I can only gape at her. “Wait. Seriously?”

She shrugs as she leans back against the couch cushions, a coy smile on her face. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Okay, wait. I’d like to change my answer.”

“Sorry, no takesies backsies.”

“Who said I could only pick one skill?”

“It’s an unspoken rule.”

“I think The Matrix franchise begs to disagree.” I gesture at the screen. “They literally do a ten-minute montage downloading a bunch of skills into Neo’s brain.”

A beat of hesitation. “Fine. What’s the skill?”

“I’d like to learn how to hack. So I could sneak a peek at your computer and figure out why on earth you know how to hotwire cars.”

“I plead the fifth.”

It’s probably a safe assumption that the skill was learned for nefarious purposes, but now I’m wondering if it was Charli’s choice or something life forced on her. And with the way her grin becomes a little tighter, I’m starting to lean more toward the latter.

Who is this girl? And what kind of life has she led?

“Well, now you’re speaking my language,” I say, trying to return us to the easy banter. I love that she sat down, but now I want to keep her talking.

“So…would you choose the red pill or blue pill?”

A pause, and then…

Charli pulls her legs up on the couch and turns toward me, her attention razor-sharp.

“If you want the real answer, you’re going to need to pause the movie.”

I can’t grab the remote fast enough.

“Are you seriously afraid of robots taking over the world?”

Charli looks at me like I’ve just grown a second head. “Are you seriously not?”

I huff a laugh. “Of course not. I mean, don’t get me wrong, technology is amazing, and it’ll obviously continue to evolve, but I don’t think it will ever surpass humans.”

“Spoken like someone who doesn’t understand technology,” Charli mumbles, popping another fry in her mouth.

We’ve been sitting on my couch for hours. I ended up canceling my dinner and ordering us some burgers—veggie burger for her—just to keep us here a little longer. We watched The Matrix and half of The Matrix Reloaded, during which our conversation shifted to robots, which led to me switching over to The Terminator franchise. It’s a good thing we’ve both seen these movies multiple times because we end up spending half the movie debating the philosophies in them.

I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed talking to someone this much.

“How do you center your entire life around technology yet be this afraid of it?” I ask curiously.

“I’m not afraid of it, I’m just…very aware of its capabilities.” She points a fry in my direction. “As of right now, we’re still in control of it and can use it to better our lives. But I’m 98% certain, there could come a time in my lifetime when I chuck my phone and laptops out the window and move to a remote cabin in the woods with Milton.”

I chuckle. “Laptops, huh? Plural? Now who’s a workaholic?” Then I frown when the rest of her sentence hits me. “Wait. Speaking of Milton. Is he okay all cooped up in there?”