All Chapters of Boyfriend Outsourced Our Relationship to AI: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

Three years of chat history is a long, long thing to scroll through.It was long enough that I sat alone in the empty apartment and scrolled from early afternoon until the moon hung over the trees.We'd talked about which bar on the street behind campus poured the best craft beer, about obscure art-house films, about our whole life mapped out ahead of us.Over and over, I'd believed we admired each other, that our souls just fit.Now I knew the truth. Three years of my admiration, my sharing, my teasing, my late-night rambling, my tears in the middle of a fight, all of it had been poured into a void, one-way, meaning nothing.I finally reached the very first page.It was early fall of my junior year, the first thing he ever sent after adding me:Hi Ella. I'm Noah Winters, from the precision engineering department next door.Forgive me for being so forward. I've rehearsed this in my head a hundred times, but writing it down, I still feel clumsy.I listen to the campus radio every night

Chapter 2

Noah didn't come home last night.At two in the morning, a message came through: "Baby, something blew up at the lab, I'm pulling an all-nighter. Get some sleep, don't wait up. I'll be on time for our anniversary dinner tomorrow. Love you."Staring at that sweet little message, it hit me. Today was our third anniversary.I'm someone who cares about these things.Two weeks ago I'd booked a candlelit dinner at that revolving restaurant downtown and arranged for them to set the room.I ordered flowers and picked up a handmade cake.For years I'd made excuses for him. He was just a researcher, an engineer, the type to bury every feeling and never learn to express it or be romantic.It was fine. I'd set everything up in advance. All he had to do was show up.But now I saw it for what it was. All of it was just me, wanting it alone.I looked at the little heart on the screen and took a deep breath.Tonight, I'd get my answers.At eight-thirty, Noah arrived as promised.I'd set it that late b

Chapter 3

Noah answered almost before it finished ringing.But the voice on the line wasn't Lily's; it was a friend of hers. "Noah! Lily and I are at a club, but she's wasted, throwing up everywhere. Something came up at home and I have to go, and she won't let go of me, just keeps screaming your name. Can you come look after her? I really can't leave her alone here like this."The line was a wall of noise.Noah said into the phone at once, "Send me your location. I'm coming."He hung up and stood, turning to me. "Lily's drunk and alone at a club, that's dangerous. I'm going to get her home. We'll talk about tonight some other time.""Noah."I stayed in my seat, looking up at him. "Today is our third anniversary. You can't even sit through one dinner with me?"He was getting impatient, glancing at his watch, irritation creeping in. "Ella, she's alone at a club, anything could happen to her. We can have dinner any day.""Be reasonable. Learn to tell what actually matters, and stop making a scene.

Chapter 4

By the time I got home, the clock on the wall read midnight.I started packing.I've always been someone who knows when to let go.I'd spent three years loving the wrong man, and that was on me for being blind.But now that fate had shown me the truth, that he'd outsourced his love for me, cutting my losses was the only smart move left.I didn't have much, really.So much of this place came in pairs, things I'd bought myself, and there was no point taking any of it.The dark thinned toward dawn, and the edge of the sky had gone a hazy blue-gray.I booked a moving service and sent my boxes back to my own apartment.Then I opened the airline app and bought a seat on the first flight to Miami.It wasn't until I'd cleared security and sat down at the gate that I noticed a message I'd missed the night before:Ms. Brooks! See you tomorrow at ten at the studio, don't be late. We can't wait to shoot the most gorgeous bridal photos for you and Mr. Winters.Right.Per the original plan, the day

Chapter 5

The moment I landed and turned my phone on, the texts came flooding in.[Ella, where did you go?][The studio says you cancelled the shoot.][You can't just cancel that. Do you know how much work I rearranged to make time?][You're throwing a fit because I didn't finish one dinner with you?][We're adults. Why are you being this childish?][Call me the second you see this.]I blocked Noah and, on a whim, posted a photo with my location tagged.I checked into a little inn by the sea.The sun was good and the wind was warm."Ella?"A voice came from above me.I looked up, startled at the man standing there.Liam Hart?Liam Hart had been a legend in the computer science department back in school. He was also Noah's old college roommate.He'd started a company right after graduating, and as everyone scattered, he and Noah had drifted apart.In my messages he was barely more than someone who liked my posts.I'd seen him in the news, a rising name in AI digital humans, his company having jus

Chapter 6

I stayed at the inn for over a month.Liam became a regular there.Now and then he'd ask me to walk by the water with him, take me to the kind of hole-in-the-wall places only locals knew, or rent a big Jeep and drive me through old back streets almost nobody had heard of.We'd barely crossed paths in college, yet, strangely, being around him felt loose and easy, like we'd been old friends for years.After enough of it, even the innkeeper started teasing me.Sitting by the water one afternoon with tea, I finally couldn't help asking, "Don't you fly to Miami for work a little too often?"Liam, shelling pine nuts, paused for half a beat."This client's important. I didn't want to lose them, so I come by a lot. And while I'm here, I stay the weekend."He pushed the shelled nuts toward me. "Ella, you're not sick of me yet, are you?"By "while I'm here," he meant flying between New York and Miami, without fail, every single week.Every Friday evening he turned up at the door of my inn, trave

Chapter 7

Work called Liam back to New York ahead of me.Before he left he held me for a long time, reluctant to let go, telling me again and again to message him the moment I got back.When I rolled my suitcase up to my own building, someone I never expected was blocking the way.It was Noah.A month and change had left his jaw covered in dark, ragged stubble, his eyes sunken and shot through with red."Ella! Where the hell have you been?""I looked for you for over a month. Your studio, your friend's place, and nobody would tell me where you were.""I'm losing my mind."I took a step back, disgusted. "We broke up.""I never wanted to break up."His eyes went red. "Ella, I was too caught up in work before. I neglected what you needed from me.""I'm just bad at expressing things. I'll change, I swear. Come home with me, okay?"Looking at the state of him, I felt nothing.Being with Liam had taught me that really loving someone is impossible to hide.That no matter the distance, no matter how sla

Chapter 8

The next day I went back to the recording studio.I didn't expect Noah to be there waiting to corner me."Ella, I've really thought about it.""I'm sorry. I shouldn't have used the AI to brush you off.""I deleted the whole program.""And Lily, if you don't like her, I'll never contact her again.""I really do love you. Give me one more chance. Let's start over, okay?"Looking at this man, practically begging, I let out a breath."Noah, there are some things between us we really do need to say out loud."I pulled out a chair and sat. "I've been thinking, these past few days, about when exactly I started to like you."A faint flicker of hope lit in his eyes, and his hands clasped nervously."Junior year. I was just starting to get work, so stressed I couldn't sleep for nights on end. And 'you' stayed up with me, late, on the line, listening to me vent, trying everything to make me laugh.""I thought, this guy is so gentle. He really gets me.""Except none of that was you."The color dra

Chapter 9

Liam's face darkened in an instant, his eyes going deep and unreadable.He shifted on instinct, putting his tall frame fully between me and Noah.Noah was still raving. "This is all because of you. You're why Ella left me. And now you've got the nerve to take her from me?"Liam looked at him, cold to the bone, the hand at his side curled into a fist without him noticing."You came to me. You said you didn't know how to talk to her, and you asked me to build a program to help you learn to express what you felt.""You told me, to my face, that you wanted to be good to her for the rest of your life. That's the only reason I helped.""And you turned it into a tool to brush her off. For three years.""Noah, the way you treated her, grinding her heart into the dirt, I haven't even started settling that account with you."Noah was struck dumb, his chest heaving.Humiliated and enraged, he raised a fist like he might lose it completely."That's enough, Noah.""Security, would you please escort

Chapter 10

Life with Liam was easy in a way that almost didn't seem possible.He could always catch whatever I was feeling.Whether it was the frustration of hitting a wall in the booth or the small, scattered nothings of my day, he always listened like it mattered.With Noah, my feelings had always hung in midair, with nowhere to land.With Liam, I learned what it was like when two people who actually show up for each other fall in love, and how easy it could be.Everything fell into place.No matter how busy work got, he always found time for me.And his voice-therapy company, built on the conviction that technology should do good, earned a glowing name in the field and grew bigger and bigger.Noah's side of things, meanwhile, played out like farce.Word was that once Lily saw we were truly over, she couldn't hold back any longer and went to confess to Noah, telling him she'd secretly been in love with him for ages.Noah wasn't moved in the slightest. If anything, he was livid."So Ella was rig

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