After thinking it over for a moment, I decided to head out on my own two legs and join in with the healthy people walking down the street. A little stroll now and then couldn’t hurt, and I was already here in the heart of downtown, so I might as well head over to the collection mall in the station building and pick up a few things.
At the mall entrance, I picked out a collection bag with a stylish design, then headed immediately to the general goods department. Though you could easily examine items from any angle on NetCollect and have them shipped straight to your door, I still preferred to pick out some things in person; it was pretty hard to tell how charming a given knick-knack was from the 3D render. In person, I was able to quickly pick out a simple mug with an interesting pattern I rather liked and stash it in my bag to take home.
Then I headed over to the clothing department. I’d never been the type to keep a hoard of clothes I never wore in my closet, so it felt like a good idea to have a few nicer outfits ready in advance. In case of another public speaking event, so I wouldn’t have to scramble to put together a look at the last minute as I had today. I picked out a smart, all-purpose public outfit, as well as a few articles of seasonal attire. My bag was already growing fairly heavy, so if I saw anything else I wanted today, I’d opt to have it delivered.
As I was making my way to the next floor, I passed the furniture department, where a floor display caught my eye. It was a striking lounge chair with curved wooden legs weaving around and intertwining with one another, almost like a thing alive. When I sat down to try it out, it was far comfier than I’d imagined. I decided to order it right then and there.
“I’ll take one of these,” I announced. Titan immediately picked up this command via one of the floor’s omnidirectional microphones and emitted a gentle electronic ding to inform me my order had been processed for delivery. This was turning out to be a very fruitful collection trip indeed—maybe I should come into town like this more often.
Then I stopped by the café on the seventh floor. I gazed out over the city of Tachikawa spread out below me. Then I glanced down at my wrist, and the current time appeared in midair. It was still only three in the afternoon, and I had no plans for the night. As I contemplated what to do with my time, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the young man from earlier—the event planner who quite clearly had a thing for me. I knew there were plenty of men like him out there in the world, but this was the first time I’d actually met one in the flesh.
A classic romantic.
Someone who believes in love at first sight, who knows in their heart that they’ll eventually meet their soulmate by pure coincidence in the natural course of building interpersonal connections in daily life. While this was obviously unrealistic and inefficient in the extreme, there was something to be said for the fact that just taking advantage of random meetings had been the predominant way that people got together for most of human history—and we hadn’t gone extinct yet. One might even argue that overcoming inefficiency through the application of sheer numbers was the sine qua non of natural selection. Love and romance were, after all, just a means to the biological end of reproduction.
Come to think of it, I’ve been having a real dry spell for a long time now, haven’t I…
I thought back, and I soon realized that it had now been almost two years since I last tried my hand at dating, love and all of the various acts so implied. There wasn’t a single part of me that regretted turning down that puppy-boy’s lunch invite, of course, but I couldn’t deny there was something about his passionate pursuit of deeper connections that had left an impression, albeit a minor one. But I could never see myself adopting his methodology of approaching more or less anyone who might be remotely interested. This was the 23rd century, after all—I had an array of modern tools and conveniences at my disposal.
“Matchmaker,” I whispered. Immediately, an aerial holofield of search results appeared atop my little cafe table. It had selected for me several candidates of my preferred gender, each entry accompanied by a little blurb and overall compatibility rating that took into account our respective preset criteria and personal tastes. The top candidate had a compatibility rating of 84 percent, more than enough to warrant a date. I reached out a finger to select him when suddenly, several of the results disappeared and were immediately replaced by new ones.
The top candidate in the newly refreshed search results boasted compatibility of a whopping 98.1 percent—a rating I didn’t even realize was possible. I’d never seen anything remotely close to it before. My eyes went wide as I tried to imagine what type of person could ever be nearly 100 percent compatible with me. I selected the option to request a meetup as fast as I could. In no time at all, he accepted, and we officially had a dinner date here in town set for 7 PM.
3
Because there were still several hours remaining before my date, I killed some time by heading out into town and resuming my little stroll from earlier. While Tachikawa wasn’t all that far from home, I’d only come here a handful of times in my entire life and wasn’t overly familiar with the area. Walking just a single block away from the main drag where all the local public services were located brought me immediately out into a quiet residential district. Here, the only notable sounds were the twittering of little neighborhood birds and the occasional motorized hum of a dropbot’s propeller buzzing by. After walking a bit, I eventually came to a lot that was covered on all sides by a massive transparent tarp. Curious, I peeked inside—only to discover a constructor phalange currently in the process of building a new house on the property.
“Well, would you look at that,” I murmured as I stopped to marvel at the highly unusual sight. Most construction work of this nature was generally done in the wee hours of the morning so as not to disturb the local residents, so I could only assume there’d been some unforeseen irregularity that resulted in the phalange’s work dragging well into the middle of the following day. Not that I had a complaint since I got to bear witness to a seldom seen aspect of society. Like a child on a field trip to a production factory, I watched the construction work unfold with rapt attention.