Algorithm

_A Novel of Love and Deception_

*Chapter 1: Algorithm*

Maya didn’t believe in soulmates. She believed in Wi-Fi signals, shared Spotify playlists, and the statistical improbability that out of 8 billion people, the right one would just _appear_.

Then she met Jay.

It started the way everything did now — with a notification. A match. A message. _You have good taste in sad indie music._ She’d laughed, because no one ever noticed the bands in her bio. By the third day, they were sending voice notes at 1 AM. By the second week, she was saving his goodnight texts.

_Fate > algorithms ❤️_ he’d written, after she said she couldn’t believe they met on an app. Maya had screenshotted that one.

That Tuesday, it rained. The kind of rain that made the city feel like it was holding its breath. Jay said he was stuck at work. Again. _Deadline_, followed by that tired-face emoji he always used. Maya curled up by her window, phone warm in her palm.

_It’s raining here too. Weird._

She didn’t expect him to answer. He was “working.” But at 11:47 PM, her screen lit up.

_Can’t sleep. Wish u were here._

For a second, she let herself believe it. Let herself picture his office, him looking at the same rain, thinking of her. It was a dangerous kind of hope — the kind that made you ignore the way he never called when he said he would, the way “work” always seemed to happen after 9 PM.

Her thumb moved on its own. Snapmap. A habit she hated. His Bitmoji wasn’t at the downtown office tower she’d memorized from his stories. It was across town, at a pin labeled “Kiki’s.”

The rain suddenly sounded louder.

She typed before she could stop herself: _Then why does your snapmap say you’re at Kiki’s?_

The three dots appeared. _Jay is typing…_

Then vanished.

Then appeared again.

Maya’s chest felt tight. She knew what was coming. An explanation stitched together from half-truths. She’d heard them before, from other men, in other chats. But not from Jay. Not from the one who said _fate > algorithms_.

_That’s my cousin’s place. Phone died so I borrowed hers._

It was too quick. Too rehearsed.

Maya switched apps. Instagram. She didn’t follow Kiki, but she didn’t have to. Kiki’s story was public. Five minutes old. A crowded living room, music, laughter. And there — in the blurry background, just over Kiki’s shoulder — Jay. Someone’s arm around him. His arm around someone else. He was smiling the way he smiled in the selfies he sent Maya.

Her hands didn’t shake when she screenshotted it. They only shook after she sent it.

_Maya wait. That’s not what it looks like._

She stared at the words. _Not what it looks like._ As if she hadn’t spent weeks learning to read him. As if love didn’t train you to become fluent in someone else’s lies.

_Then what does a lie look like, Jay?_

_Jay unsent a message._

The notification mocked her. He could delete the text. He couldn’t delete the image burned behind her eyes: his face, caught in someone else’s flash.

_You can delete the text. Not the truth._

She threw her phone on the bed like it had burned her. Twenty minutes. That’s how long it took for him to decide what version of himself to send next.

_I love you._

Three words. The ones she’d wanted for weeks. Now they landed like stones.

Maya picked up her phone. Her thumb hovered. She thought about the girls who would’ve written back. The girls who would’ve begged for more context, more excuses, more reasons to stay.

She wasn’t that girl anymore.

_You loved the idea of me._

She hit send. Watched the _Delivered_ turn to _Read_. And before the three dots could appear — before he could type his way back into her doubt — she left the chat.

Outside, the rain kept falling. But for the first time in months, Maya felt like she could finally breathe.

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*End of Chapter 1*

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