Technical Difficulties of the Heart

the Tuesday morning when an important video call with potential investors coincided with what Ken and Toni had come to call "Samba's keyboard dance."

Ken had been methodically explaining the innovative software that Sweetieport Systems had developed when Samba decided the presentation needed her input. With the grace of a bowling ball on ice, she leapt onto Ken's desk, walked directly across his keyboard, and sent the presentation into a spiral of random slides and accidental effects.

"As you can see," Toni smoothly interjected, "our system is so intuitive that even our office cat can navigate it. That was actually a demonstration of our robust error recovery capabilities."

The investors had laughed, charmed by the authenticity of the moment and the quick recovery—never knowing that behind the scenes, Ken was frantically untangling Samba from the headphone cord she'd wrapped around herself in her hasty retreat.

Later that evening, as they celebrated securing the investment with a bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir, Ken raised his glass. "To Samba, our secret weapon in business negotiations."

"And to the TK LOVE BOT 2.0," Toni added with a smirk, referring to Ken's latest romantic gesture—a small robot he'd built that delivered handwritten love notes from his desk to hers throughout the workday. "The most ridiculous and perfect way anyone has ever said 'I love you' without actually being in the room."