“No.”
“Then fix it.”
Adults made relationships harder than kindergartners believed they were.
He envied her.
Friday afternoon, his supervisor called him into the maintenance office.
A pump controller had failed at a large warehouse.
The contractor recommended replacement.
Forty thousand dollars.
The Single Dad asked to inspect it.
Two hours later he found a cracked solder joint and a failed twelve-dollar component.
The warehouse restarted.
His supervisor stared.
“How do you keep doing that?”
He shrugged.
“Old habits.”
On the drive home, anger returned.
Not at the Woman exactly.
At everything.
He was still that engineer.
The job disappeared.
The skill did not.
But the world had priced him differently anyway.
That night, he texted her.
Coffee. Public place. No job offers.
She replied in thirty seconds.
Yes.
They met Sunday morning.
The Woman arrived alone.
At least visibly.
The Single Dad assumed security existed somewhere.
He sat across from her.
“What exactly did your company think automation was replacing?”
She considered.
“Diagnostic workflow.”
“That’s corporate language.”
“Yes.”
“What did they think humans did?”
She looked down.
“Repeated tasks.”
“Data interpretation.”
“Fault classification.”
He nodded.
“And what did the model miss?”
She looked toward him.
“You tell me.”
“Context.”
“Improvisation.”
“Knowing when the sensor is wrong.”
“Knowing when the technician before you tightened the wrong bolt six months ago.”
“Knowing a machine makes one sound in summer and another in winter.”
“Knowing when the manual is technically correct and practically useless.”
The Woman listened.
He continued.
“The AI tools weren’t useless.”
“I used them.”
“They were good.”
“That’s what made the layoffs so stupid.”
She frowned.
“Explain.”
“They treated a tool that made experienced engineers faster as proof that fewer experienced engineers were needed.”
He leaned back.
“So what happened?”
“Fewer people.”
“Same systems.”
“More alerts.”
“More reliance on contractors.”
“Less memory inside the organization.”
The Woman thought about performance reports.
Automation savings had exceeded expectations.
So had outsourced maintenance costs.
She had never connected the two.
“What would you do differently?”
she asked.
He laughed.
“You said no job offers.”
“This isn’t one.”
“It sounds like consulting.”
“I’ll buy the coffee.”
“No.”
She smiled.
The tension eased slightly.
Then the Single Dad became serious.
“I don’t want compensation from you for stopping on the road.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want a made-up executive position.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want you hiring me because we kissed in your imagination.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I never said we kissed.”
“You looked like you were thinking about it.”
“You noticed?”
“I’m not dead.”
Her smile appeared.