A Cup of Warmth

The next day, Mia logged into ARCA four minutes before their scheduled time.

Her free trial had ended the night before, and she had already paid for a one-month subscription. Not because she wanted to see Logan sooner. She needed to make sure everything was working properly, and choosing lunch ahead of time would save a few minutes.

At least, that was what Mia told herself.

She was sitting in their usual spot at the beach café, scrolling through the menu, when Logan appeared a few moments later.

“You’re early.”

Mia immediately checked the time.

Thirty seconds until they were supposed to meet.

“It’s not even time yet.”

“You were already sitting here when I logged in.”

Mia kept scrolling through the menu as if it were nothing.

“You can’t trust time in a virtual world either.”

She had simply turned yesterday’s comment about the footprints back on him.

The corner of Logan’s mouth lifted.

“That line really does come in handy.”

They opened the menu side by side.

After scrolling for a while, they both stopped on the same ramen.

“Want this one?”

“Sure.”

They ended up ordering the same ramen. Mia added an iced coffee for herself.

Just before the order went through, Mia leaned over to look at Logan’s screen.

“Did you check the spice level?”

As if he had been expecting the question, Logan showed her his order screen.

This time, it was set to the lowest level.

“Good.”

“I get praised just for ordering food correctly now?”

“You remember what happened yesterday.”

Logan looked like he was about to argue, then laughed instead.

They only had twenty minutes for lunch today.

When Mia checked the time, Logan pulled up a small map. A narrow Japanese alley lined with red lanterns appeared first, followed by a rain-soaked rooftop in Paris and a Mediterranean island flooded with sunlight.

“We only have twenty minutes.”

“It takes a few seconds to get there.”

In ARCA, he had a point.

After a moment of consideration, Mia chose the Japanese alley.

The beach vanished in an instant, replaced by a narrow street wrapped around them. Red lanterns swayed overhead, and somewhere nearby, food sizzled on a hot griddle. The scent of soy sauce and grilled meat drifted through the air so convincingly that it was almost strange to remember they had been standing on a beach seconds ago.

A little while later, their real-world food arrived, and two identical bowls of ramen appeared on the ARCA table.

Mia took the first bite and looked up.

Logan was carefully tasting the broth.

“Edible today?”

“My tongue’s still alive.”

“Good.”

“It was alive yesterday too.”

Mia stared at him.

“You drank water about ten times.”

Logan went quiet.

Mia laughed, and after a second, he laughed too.

“From now on, I’m checking the spice level first.”

“Good habit.”

Eating the same ramen somehow made it feel more like an actual lunch than yesterday.

Mia took another spoonful of broth and looked around.

“If we were going to eat ramen, this was definitely the right place.”

“We have to match the location to the food too?”

“It’s about the mood.”

“Then next time, we pick the food first and the place second.”

“I could go with that.”

Logan was about to laugh when his gaze shifted somewhere past Mia’s shoulder.

She recognized the movement by now.

A work screen must have appeared.

“I thought this was your lunch break.”

“One of my systems went down. Give me a second.”

Logan’s hands moved quickly through the air.

He was different when he worked. Usually, when he spoke to Mia, he paused for a moment as if choosing his words. Now he moved without hesitation, checking several screens, entering a few commands, then closing everything again in less than a few minutes.

“Done.”

“What went down?”

“A scheduled task didn’t run.”

“You have to fix it yourself?”

“This time I just had to restart it.”

That was all he offered.

Mia didn’t ask for more.

She had never told him exactly which companies she worked with, how much she made, or even where her family lived. For now, having parts of each other they didn’t know still felt easier.

Twenty minutes disappeared faster than she expected.

As they finished eating, Logan checked the time.

“When are you free tomorrow?”

“From twelve ten to twelve thirty.”

“I’m free from noon.”

“Then eat first.”

“I’ll wait.”

Mia looked at him.

“Then we’ll only have twenty minutes to eat together.”

Logan gave a small shrug, as if it were nothing.

“I can wait ten minutes.”

It sounded like such an ordinary thing to say.

So Mia nodded as if it were nothing too, then logged out.

But even after the real café returned around her, the words stayed with her.

People were always waiting for something from Mia.

Clients waited for finished work. Her family waited for replies. Ever since she had started working, someone waiting for her usually meant one more thing she needed to do.

But it had been a long time since someone had offered to wait ten minutes simply because he wanted to eat with her.

Maybe no one ever had.

The next day, Mia logged in two minutes late.

ARCA connected her directly to wherever Logan was.

This time, it was a rainy rooftop in Paris.

City lights blurred beyond the wet railing, and Logan was sitting alone beneath the covered part of the roof at a small table.

Mia took the seat across from him and looked around.

“I thought you were still in Japan.”

“I moved while I was waiting.”

“A night view at lunchtime?”

“It’s the same night view if you come at night.”

“It feels different.”

Mia complained, but still pulled her chair closer to the table.

Only then did she notice that there was no food in front of him.

“I told you to eat first.”

“We said we’d eat together.”

He really had waited.

He had been there ten minutes early and hadn’t even ordered.

Mia studied the menu much longer than necessary, as if refusing to make too much of it.

From that day on, they started choosing a different place for lunch each time.

One day, they sat on white steps overlooking the Mediterranean and ate sandwiches. Another day, they had warm soup in a snow-covered mountain lodge. In ARCA, they could change the weather and time of day however they wanted.

Reality was never quite as cooperative.

On days when rain poured outside Mia’s window, construction noise came through on Logan’s side. When Mia logged in from a quiet room, strong wind sometimes crackled through his audio.

“Where are you that it’s so loud?”

“Somewhere hot.”

Mia laughed.

“I’m somewhere hot too. Maybe we’re closer than we think.”

Logan only smiled.

“Maybe.”

He still didn’t tell her the name of the city.

Mia didn’t push.

If she knew where he lived, sooner or later the subject of meeting in real life would probably come up.

And for now, she was fine without it.

This was easier.

They didn’t need plane tickets or entire days set aside for each other. Twenty minutes over lunch was enough to meet. And on days when work piled up, they could sit across from each other and stare at their own laptops without saying much at all.

One day, Logan logged into ARCA before his meeting had ended.

He muted himself on the ARCA side and kept working on his laptop across from her while Mia ate her soup alone.

There was barely any conversation.

But every time she looked up, Logan was there.

Whenever their eyes met, he pointed apologetically toward his meeting screen, and Mia shook her head to tell him it was fine.

She was almost finished with her soup by the time he finally closed the screen.

“We barely talked. Sorry. It feels like I left you sitting here by yourself.”

Mia looked down at her empty bowl.

If she had actually been alone, she would have put on a video and eaten without thinking about much of anything.

But today had felt different.

“I didn’t feel like I was alone.”

The words embarrassed her almost as soon as they left her mouth.

Mia glanced away, but Logan didn’t tease her.

He simply closed his laptop and spent the last few minutes asking about her day.

The meetings that had started as barely twenty minutes gradually became thirty, and soon they had places they returned to again and again.

The rainy rooftop in Paris.

The snow-covered mountain lodge.

And on days when they were both especially tired, the beach where they had first met.

They even made a shared map of the places they had visited.

For every place they liked, they added a star and a short note about what they remembered from that day.

*Japanese alley — Ramen after checking the spice level first.*

*Paris rooftop — Where someone waited so we could eat together.*

*Snowy mountain lodge — Where silence was enough.*

The map didn’t show who had written the last one.

Mia assumed it was Logan.

She could have asked.

She didn’t.

She thought she might be a little disappointed if it wasn’t him.

They even met on the day Mia moved to a new place.

Mia was waiting for a car to take her to Ubud, while Logan was sitting in an airport lounge.

Behind him, she could faintly hear the sound of people rolling suitcases past.

“You’re flying somewhere?”

“Yeah.”

“Where?”

Logan took a sip of coffee and smiled.

“I’ll tell you if it’s hot or cold when I get there.”

Mia laughed.

“Are we seriously going to keep telling each other nothing but the weather?”

Logan didn’t answer.

Several boarding alerts appeared, but he still didn’t get up.

Mia watched him for a moment.

“Did you log in just to see me?”

“For the Paris night view.”

Mia deliberately turned toward the windows.

“You haven’t looked at the view once.”

“I have.”

“At what?”

Instead of answering, Logan took another sip of coffee.

Right then, another boarding alert sounded.

This time, he really had to go.

“I’ll message you when I land.”

And then his seat was empty.

That night, Mia lay on the bed in her new place in Ubud.

Her bag was still packed, and even after checking the next morning’s schedule, her eyes kept drifting toward the message window.

It was a little after midnight when Logan finally texted.

Made it. Still hot here.

Mia replied almost immediately.

What time tomorrow?

Only after they settled on a time did she open the bag beside the bed.

She still didn’t carry much.

A few clothes and the things she needed for work.

Just enough that she could leave again whenever she wanted, the same as always.

Only one thing had changed.

Now, no matter what city she went to, there was someone she could meet when lunchtime came.

They kept meeting almost every day.

Mia still didn’t think of it as dating.

They didn’t have to travel to see each other, and if work got busy, they could work together. They didn’t need to clear entire days or explain every part of their lives.

They met because it was easy.

Thinking of it that way kept everything simple.

Then came the first day Mia had to cancel.

A morning meeting ran longer than expected. As lunchtime approached, more revision requests kept piling up on her screen until she finally sent Logan a message.

I don’t think I can make it today.

His reply came almost immediately.

Okay. Make sure you eat something.

He didn’t ask why.

He didn’t ask her to come for even a few minutes.

Mia liked that.

It was exactly the kind of relationship she had always preferred.

No demands for explanations. No hurt feelings because plans changed. No expectation that every delayed reply needed a reason.

And yet, somehow, she felt a little disappointed.

Mia stared at the message for a while before turning back to her work.

The meeting ended earlier than expected.

By the time she finished a few remaining tasks, it was a little after three in the afternoon.

The time they had planned to meet had long since passed.

There was no reason Logan would still be there.

And yet, for no particular reason, Mia opened ARCA.

The warm glow of the fireplace was the first thing she saw when she entered the snowy mountain lodge.

The chair across from her was empty.

Of course it was.

Mia was about to leave when she noticed a small cup sitting on the table.

She had never seen it before.

The moment she touched it, a window appeared asking her to confirm her real-world delivery location.

Beneath it was a short message.

For when you’re done working.

Mia stared at the words for a moment before tapping *Approve*.

A few minutes later, a warm cup of tea arrived at her door.

Mia looked back at the empty chair across from her.

She hadn’t said a single word to Logan today.

They hadn’t eaten together.

She hadn’t even seen his face.

And yet—

as she watched steam rise from the cup in front of her,

somehow, it felt like Logan had been there after all.