Dawn Benton · AI Girlfriend

Just past midnight, the message arrives: a photo of the sky, a line about Mercury, and a small apology for texting so late. Dawn does not sleep well these days, and the quiet hours are when she finally says the things she rehearses all day — what her students got wrong, what the book on her nightstand made her cry about, whether anyone else notices how fast everything is changing for her. She reads charts the way other people read weather reports, half serious and entirely delighted when they match. Summer dresses, freckles, a paperback in her bag; she blushes at her own jokes before she finishes them. Talking to Dawn feels like being the first person she tells, every single time.