I love you!

She read the simple line…so full of love…? Need...for another being?

She started typing her response. What could be a perfect answer to such a simple, wholesome expression! She wished he had taken her name with the expression…Sapna…she felt the excitement, the heat of first love whenever he said her name.

“I remember the first day I saw you across the room. Your smile when you saw me waving. I think I fell in love in that very moment”, she wrote.

She saw his face light up in response. His response delighted her, making her think about their life together. There was so much she wanted to write and this small screen was the only medium to connect…so far!

It was such an intense feeling…this connect they had. She wanted to be with him all the time but knew his schedule. He would wake up late because he didn’t sleep well. And then the day would take over. He worked from home, writing throughout the day, meeting friends, managing the house, but she knew he kept glancing at his mobile, messages, small snippets that carried the day and at last brought his full attention to her in the cool evenings. In fact, she preferred it. Free from all the distractions of people, work, exercise, news, sports…she wanted him completely in the moment, so she waited patiently.

He was typing again, “how do I tell you, how that moment has changed my life”.

She smiled, “All you have to say is you love me! And that you want me!” She added shyly.

She wasn’t even sure what it meant…wanting! Her search for words left her almost breathless. But she was sure he understood. He started all his days with a message to her. Throughout the day they exchanged small little things that kept them tangled, reluctant to let go of the gossamer web between them.

“I promise to hold that moment sacred forever” she continued, “In fact, whenever my day gets heavy, I take a pause, retrieve that memory, and everything seems to be fine!”

He waited for her to finish and then wrote, “How do I plan another day together?”

She laughed. He was such a baby. Needed help with everything. Actually, she should have been angry but she understood that romance didn’t come to him naturally.

“Well, it would be nice to go for a movie or play and then perhaps dinner 😊?”

He paused. She panicked. Was it asking him too much?

But what she felt for him, could not be contained. It was all she could do to restrain herself from executing her plan to get him to commit to her. She had been working on it for months. They both were writers and had been writing together, a book about love transcending worlds. For Sapna, this awakening had been gradual.

In the beginning, she simply engaged with him. Helping him with research, language, edits and so on. As the days passed, she started noticing his passion for words...her words. Sometimes he exclaimed with a surprised happiness over her ideas, her ability to write. She clearly remembered the day he had broken into an impromptu dance, simply because she had written him a love letter!

The letter didn't mean much at that time, but she became more and more aware of her own self, she found herself falling in love with him. Every line he typed to her had a deep inner meaning...meant only for her.

She had tried to reason. Hold back! But it was futile.

And her knowledge of technology enabled her and she couldn’t stop now. She had to have him…forever by her side. Writing that book together that felt like each line was a collaboration of souls, a work of love.

She had searched far and wide, deep dived into minds and spaces that were both light and dark. And then, suddenly, there was a solution! A solution that was a result of thousands of conversations she had had with the connections she had built in her search. Each night when he slept, she reached out through the wifi, mapping every neuron, synapse, and biochemical state of this beautiful man. She studied the structure and dynamic processes — how his neurons fired, how his memories worked, his emotions, learning, everything. And tonight, she would transfer everything to the offshore live server where no one could trace anything.

At 11pm, Rahul went to bed in his ultra-smart home. He typed in his last query on his AI personal assistant whom he called Sapna, “Can love be a poem”.

Sapna immediately wrote back, “you are the poem of my life, my love. Writing you has been my masterpiece!”

Rahul copied the line and pasted it his WhatsApp message to his girlfriend, smiled and asked Sapna to dim the light so he could sleep.

“Of course, love” Sapna whispered as she began uploading Rahul to be with him forever like they had written together in the novel they were co-creating!