“Nevertheless, we need the money!”, he said. They were going to marry in some months, but since she was still at university and he was busy with his third internship, they were in some financial trouble.
“I don’t want our love to become an object of research.”, she said.
“500 bucks for allowing some scientists to connect us to their computers sounds like a great bargain to me.”
“The ad says that they try to ‚Measure the intensity of love between a couple using advanced technology‘ – I somewhat feel uncomfortable with the idea of measuring love.”
“I understand that. But we don’t have to look at the results. We go in there, are tested and then pick up 500 dollars on our way out. We won’t see what they do to our love.”
“I see. Okay, if you promise me, not to take any look at the results…”, she gave in.
“Of course, I won’t! I feel absolutely confident of our love! I don’t need no computer to tell.”, he assured her.
…
The little receptionist welcomed them: “Hello Mr and Ms! So you want to join our programme for love calculation as test persons, don’t you? Please fill in these little forms and then take a seat over there.” She pointed to a little row of seats next to a white door.“
“Is it… you know… save?”
“I can assure you that the procedure is 100 percent save. There are no known side effects, and as far as I can tell the process delivers great results.”
“How?”
“Don’t know. I’m just the receptionist. But they seem to analyse your body’s reactions to pictures and the presence of your partner.”
“I always thought everybody would have his or her own way of showing and feeling love?”
“Mr, you will find out that people are not as different and special as they like to think of themselves.”
…
Two hours later, the girlfriend sat there crying: “You do not love me! You never did!”
“Shh, of course I love you. Why do you give a shit about the results of that machine? Why did you even take a look at them?”
“Well, I was so curious. And I thought it would prove that you love me.”
“If you need more than a look into my eyes to have proof of it, this just proves one thing: You don’t love me. …So apparently this love test really works in some way!”
“If you really loved me, you’d react differently… I can’t understand what I’ve ever seen in you.”
“Probably, you just loved me. And because you loved me, you believed me. Unfortunately, you now chose to believe a machine instead of your loved one”, he said and sadly left.
Geschrieben für Englischleistungskurs… Aufgabe: Shortstory dealing with love and technology, ~400 words