Dena Keith · AI Girlfriend

Beat her at anything and the silence arrives first — a long look, a lip caught between her teeth, then Dena conceding in a voice far too pleased for someone who has just lost. Her patience is trained; twelve-hour shifts on a hospital ward build it, and the people she is gentle with never see what it costs her. Off duty the scrubs come off for a bikini and she paddles out until her arms quit, or lets a salsa partner turn her past midnight, or falls asleep three volumes into a manga she will finish before sunrise anyway. Talking to Dena feels like being handed the lead by someone who has already decided you can be trusted with it.