"To think you hid something so significant from me." My dearest partner expressed, her eyes glaring daggers at me as she sat at her desk.

"Look, okay, I promised Hunter that I'd keep it a sec-" I tried to plead back as her expression turned colder and more annoyed.

Fiery anger and cold resentment, only you, Myla, would be powerful enough to master both elements of contempt.

I joked to myself as I experienced the fallout of my stunt with Hunter. Two days had passed, and Hunter and Ilya had finished the first day of their anniversary. I came into our office only to see my partner face me with a glare as she held her phone in her hands. I walked closer to find the reason for her expression only to see Hunter, the klutz, had accidentally sent the thank you message about me secretly helping him propose to Ilya as well as the photo of him doing so, in which you could see a surprised and overjoyed Ilya, and a nervous but determined Hunter.

If he wasn't such an idiot, I would be crying tears of joy for him right now; I think all that's going to come out of my head today is blood.

I pondered as Myla continued, ending my recollection.

"You even dragged Fable into this, I see. What else could you possibly have hidden from me that could've made this job easier?" She stated, pointing to the photo once more where I could make out Fable playing a love song for the couple, something I had asked for when she had helped us with the dilemma.

I should've gotten another ticket to avoid this crap.

I thought as Myla let out an annoyed sigh and faced me with her signature stern look.

"Though we do not think alike, our jobs still require us to share data with each other regarding our clients; if you are to perform any such stunts again, think carefully." Emphasizing the last line in a threatening display of superiority.

Hey, I thought I was the older one here. Then again, whether I was eighteen or eighty, she'd probably still talk to me like this.

I considered as I faced her with a curious expression.

"By the way, I know it's kind of our dynamic, but you seemed more annoyed about this than normal. What's that all about?" I asked, beginning to prepare my bag of the documents and schedule we'd need for the day.

"You have a poor track record regarding concealing possibly valuable information about relationships. Of course, I'd be irritated at seeing that behavior still present in you now." She said coldly, though I felt that wasn't the entire story.

"I thought you were over the "Berate Bridger Over his Failed Marriage" phase of quips. Get new material," I replied, standing up to perform our first duty of the day. She simply let out a Hmph in response and stood up as well, leading the way as she stepped in front of me, exiting the office. It was strange of her to be so annoyed at my "track record" but even from the beginning we didn't see eye-to-eye, so I couldn't exactly pinpoint a conclusive reason. Normally, I'd prod her about it, but today was an important one as we were to meet,

"The AI division is on the fourth floor, right?" I asked as we entered the glass elevator of the marble-white stronghold that was our workplace.

"Correct, it will be your first time being here as it is the first match make you'll be handling,"

Myla replied, her gaze focused on the outside of the glass elevator, revealing the soothing blue skies that hid the radiance of the morning sun. We had to arrive earlier today as we'd be meeting with someone from the AI division to give us a rundown on the partner for Amanda. As we reached the level, we stepped out and were greeted by the common area of our resident tech experts. It was similar to the Surveyor's Division in aesthetic and form. Large windows let in the gentle natural light and gave us a bird's-eye view of the landscape. Sofas and tables were scattered around, providing respite for the work they'd have on their hands. The walls were decorated with the same modern art that had become familiar to me. And while also having vending machines of many kinds, it seemed that there were more that contained energy drinks than anything else.

The six necessities of life for anyone working with computers are as follows: Food, Water, Clothing, Sleep, Shelter, and Caffeine.

I thought to myself as we began making our way through, reaching a hallway with a line of doors on each side. Each door served as the entry to an office where the tech guys would work, and that was about all I knew. This was information I gathered by looking through the windows from the outside and the occasional chatter I'd hear from coworkers. Everything from this point onwards was foreign to me.

"It's the third one to the left, right?" I asked my partner, who continued to lead the way.

"Yes, this will be your first time meeting someone from the tech division. They can be...eccentric." She replied, her face turned away from me, but I could sense a slight annoyance in her tone.

Everyone is nowadays. Gotta have a gimmick, or you're screwed.

"That's fine. It's not like I'm not used to working with strange people." I quipped back as we made it in front of the door.

"Working with yourself does not count." She countered, her gaze now pointed at me with an irritated look.

As peachy as ever.

I swallowed that thought as Myla knocked on the door, making our presence known.

"It's Myla. We're here to get the data for Amanda Adler." She said through the door when behind it, I heard shuffling - and a slight fuss as a response was returned.

"Alright, you can come in now!" A reply chirped back, and we made our way inside. The place was spacious, more so than our office, and carried the same style as the rest of the building. The white walls were covered by modern splashes of art and the large windows through which I had first observed the tech division at work gave a view of the vast parking lot outside. In the center of the room was the cubicle, marble-white with glossy black accents befitting the contemporary aesthetic of the building. There were four computers and desks separated by the cubicles, and each had enough space to allow the workers to bring in their personal articles and whatnot. Other than that, all that truly stood out was the man in front of us; he had messy dark-blue hair with a stubble-like beard and small mustache, looking about the same age as I was; he sat in a relaxed pose on his office chair.

"You're the new guy, right. Well, as new as it gets around here, at least." He said with a welcoming smile and gestured with his arms in a shrug. His outfit was similar to ours, except instead of either the blue or pink outlines, his was that of a lime-green. His slightly larger figure also stood out, his coat outstretched slightly.

"Oh, yeah, nice to meet you. Bridger Blaithe is the name. Thanks for the hard work." I replied cordially, as he let out a snicker.

"C'mon, dude, you're older than me, and it ain't like there's anybody else here. No need to be so formal, the name's John Charles Jacobs, but JC is cool." He said with a friendly smile as he threw an anxious nod to Myla.

"Good morning, John. Were you busy cleaning up?" She stated, walking up to his desk and opening the browser, which was minimized. The browser opened to life, revealing that he was currently watching a show on a streaming service.

Anthropomorphic raccoon and blue jay, what an ordinary show.

My dear partner threw him a glare, to which he responded with a sigh.

"Guess I was caught. But, hey, you guys were taking so long." He said in his defense as he closed the browser and opened up an application with aiAI's logo and many variables and symbols unfamiliar to me.

Ah! Programming! It burns!

I thought as they continued.

"If you are so inclined to slack off during the job, perhaps you'd prefer taking my partner instead." She said, facing me with an annoyed look.

"Right, right, it's my fault, and I suck, let's get this over with before you try to throw my head into a monitor." I quipped back as I took a seat on one of the vacant office chairs.

"Give me a second, I just gotta isolate the data you guys need, and you can be off." He stated as he began fiddling with the PC. Myla sat down next to me, opening her book, which she had been reading through over the past few days. Normally, I'd banter with her, but I had a promise to keep, and part of that was to understand how this entire process worked.

"By the way, how does the whole thing work, the AI, I mean?" I asked JC, who was currently typing away on his PC.

"Two weeks in, and you're still only getting the basics. I'm almost impressed." Myla quipped, her attention not leaving the book in her hands.

Focus on one of your hobbies at a time, dear partner.

I thought as JC gave me a reply, his head partially turned to face me.

"Well, it's pretty simple. The software you and Myla had downloaded on the client's devices does the collection of data and sends it here for the servers to do most of the heavy lifting." He stated with a friendly tone, though his gaze returned to focus on his monitor as many variables started flashing in and out. I replied with an Mhm to signal him to continue.

"We collect a bunch of things, search histories, frequently visited websites, shopping lists, social media footprints, and with the in-built GPS, places they tend to go to for work and leisure. The software also records audio, but when it comes to that, we just have the AI skim through it to ensure some privacy in that regard, pretty much, we're Facebook, but we aren't sneaky about it."

A fellow social-media hater, this job just gets better.

"Guess it's a lot more efficient than eight years ago, huh," I said, a nostalgic smile making its way onto my face. It was less in-your-face about the whole ordeal and wasn't as uncomfortable.

"And here I thought you said I was the one stuck in the past." My dear partner commented as she turned the page of her book.

No, seriously, you seem more annoyed at me today. Could you perhaps be?

As I was about to formulate an answer, JC let out a snicker, his face still not visible to me.

"You guys never get tired of that, do you?"

"No, I'm very much fed up with her," I said, facing the object of my exasperation.

"Yes, I too am beginning to become tired of my partner's antics." She replied with an equal amount of exasperation in her voice.

"That's good to hear since, with our jobs, our partners don't usually joke back," JC said as he turned to us with an amiable smile. I tilted my head in curiosity, which he took as his signal to explain.

"Well, think of it this way, the AI gathers all of the info we get and starts sorting it. My job is to be the common sense of the duo and guide it, so it doesn't do anything stupid or unreasonable; sounds kinda like you guys' whole shtick, right?" He explained, simultaneously facing us and typing away at his computer.

Hey, focus. This is my ex-wife's boyfriend we're dealing with,

I thought before giving him an approving nod.

"See Myla? Even he agrees that I'm here to make sure this partnership has common sense."

"If you wish to compare me with a hyper-intelligent and efficient AI, do so as you please,"

It seemed that even with robots, these guys formed a healthy and conducive relationship when it came to working. If only I could say the same about the actual human I was partnered up with,

Seriously, if I could replace her with a robot, I would.

I considered when I heard the chair beside me skid, and my partner stood up.

"We may be spending too much time here, I will get the car ready, get us the file, and we can read it on the way." She said, already beginning to make her way to the exit.

"She seems more annoyed today. I'm certain of it." I said, getting up and approaching the busy tech specialist in front of me.

"Really? She seems cold as usual. I guess that's what you call a partner's intuition." He replied, speeding up his work. I let out a short sigh and wondered for a possible reason other than Hunter's mishap.

"It might be reaching, but do you know of anything that could've ticked her off?" I asked, a bit tired.

"Aside from her hating both of us? Nope."

Well, it was worth a shot.

"Although, a year or so back." He said as he began inputting something into the PC, making the nearby printer come to life.

"I do remember talking with her and Alex. The name of this client you have, Amanda, was it? I remember them mentioning her name a bunch."

"Wait, them?" I asked back as the printer finished creating the file of the person we'd be meeting.

"Yep, but that's about all I got, they stopped talking about it all of a sudden after a while, so I never really asked." JC finished, giving me the piece of paper in a folder.

Strange, she never once mentioned it.

I pondered on it when I looked at the clock in the office, signaling that I was cutting it close.

"Oh crap, gotta go. Thanks for the work!" I shouted as I hastily ran out of the office.

"Don't mention it! Seriously, I might get in trouble!"

Worry about Myla doing that, not me.

I hurriedly made my way to the elevator and down to the first floor, panting as I did when I finally made it to the main lobby, exiting the building.

Where is she? She's not only annoyed but also late. Is she really?

I was about to continue pondering on it when I realized I could seize this time to observe the file that was given to me.

I opened the folder up to reveal the dossier of the partner-to-be. It revealed the man's details and a photo of him in the corner. He was 23-years old and lived nearby; his short dark brown hair was neatly fixed to the right. He, however, had an almost emotionless expression, though I think this is more to do with it being a neutral photo than anything else.

You're the one, huh? Nice to meet you. The second time's the charm, after all.

"Daydreaming about our client? Or perhaps plotting to sabotage his chances?" I heard a cold voice state as a familiar vehicle came before me.

"Yeah, yeah, took you long enough. I was even rushing to get here." I opened the passenger door, seating myself for the day ahead.

"Patience is something even children can learn, yes?"

"And good manners too, y'know?" We continued bantering as the vehicle came to life. As it did, the random thoughts I had in my head finally came together, providing me with the possible answer to my partner's annoyance.

It might really be, she's,

"Hey, are you on your period?" The car went silent, the familiar green landscape beginning to come into view.

"No, but I can make you bleed instead if you continue your absurdity," The car began to speed up after that, and I started to fear for my own safety as well,

Note to self, follow in my partner's footsteps and don't even try being considerate.