Understanding

“So… this is real?” Jackie asked for the third time

“Yeah.” Craig confirmed quietly.

Jackie had calmed down slightly since first confronting Craig about the Master PC program. Initially she believed it was some sort of weird erotic fictional story containing the both of them, which Craig found amusing. But after about fifteen minutes discussion the reality of the situation started to sink in. They sat on their bed together, Jackie had the laptop in front of her and scrolled through Craig’s conversations with Jane.

There was a long moment as Jackie thought of what to say, “How does it work?” Disbelief draining from her tone.

“I don’t know.” Craig answered truthfully.

Another long pause as Jackie thought, “You’ve made me obsessed with sex.” A hint of anger in her voice.

“I know. I’m sorry Jack.” Craig said earnestly, “You can change it back if you want.”

Once again she paused for a long moment, “Well… Honestly I’ve been loving the sex…it’s just…you did this TO me. So do I really like it or is that just you speaking through me? Look at how much you’ve changed!” She admitted.

“I understand. I’m sorry.” Craig apologised again.

“And this last change you made! You’ve made me basically Bisexual!! Just so you could have a threesome! How could you be so selfish?”

Craig said nothing. Jackie got up and paced around the room.

“And now I’m even enjoying the idea of you having sex with other women!” She sounded slightly hysteric.

Jackie took the laptop off the bed and stormed out of the room. She grabbed her phone and keys and left the apartment. Emotions in her head were spinning rapidly. Confusion. Anger. Lust. Back to confusion.

Eventually she found herself sitting on a park bench, the laptop sitting next to her. The park bench was a place she used to come a lot to think about the state of her life after particularly rough nights of drinking, a large difference this time was that she wasn’t hungover. She opened the laptop and reread the entirety of Craigs words for the fourth or fifth time.

A suddenly strange thought occurred to Jackie and she typed into the programs, “Hello?”

“Hello Jacqueline,” Jane responded.

Jackie jumped at seeing her full name, “How do you know my name?”

“Well Craig has been talking about you non stop, of course I know your name.” Jane answered.

Jackie was disconcerted, but she took a few deep breaths and thought about what to ask the program. “Craig asked about what I was feeling once. Can I ask about how he is feeling now?” She typed.

“He is distraught at the thought of losing you.”

“He’s not worried about what I’ll do with the program?” Jackie asked.

“No. He has complete trust in you. He barely even considered the program.”

That idea stunned Jackie. It filled her with a strange sense of calm. She thought long and hard about what to ask Jane next.

“You mentioned the Multi-verse to Craig. How many of the other people who have been given the program cheat on their partners?” She typed into the program.

“Of the people who are given the program and were in a relationship, around ninety-eight percent of people either cheat or leave their partner within the first three weeks.”

The realisation that Craig had not only not left her but also tried to help her, brought a tear to Jackie’s eye. She closed the laptop and continued to sit in silence.

Jackie returned to the apartment an hour or so later. Craig stood up immediately from the couch were he had been waiting.

Jackie crossed the room and threw her arms around Craig. They embraced lovingly, feeling genuine understanding in each others hug.

“What should we do?” Craig asked.

“Well… how about in future, we don’t use this program without each other. It’s too much power to just throw away. But we can only make changes with each others consent… Deal?” Jackie suggested.

“Deal!” Craig said enthusiastically and kissed her.