Emily rubbed her eyes. She hadn’t slept much last night, or the nights before. Looking back at her screen, she smiled. The lack of sleep would be worth it if she could pull this off. She focused back on her coding software and made a few small corrections.

“Let’s see if it’s smoother now,” she mumbled to herself.

Emily glanced down at the clock. It was already 3PM. Valentine’s Day was mostly over already. She opened the application she’d been working on and smiled again as one of Full Circle Games’ cutest characters appeared. The plumpy hippo was Lea’s favorite.

“What’s your name?” the digital creature asked.

Emily grinned. She typed, “Lea.”

“Lea, welcome to your daily love briefing,” the hippo said. “What would you like to do?”

A list of options appeared. Emily spotted a typo and pulled up another window. She corrected her mistake and saved. She would continue for now and correct other mistakes after testing everything.

She went back to the hippo and selected the daily love poem. The hippo read a sonnet by Shakespeare in its somewhat robotic voice. Emily planned to keep updating this game with new poems, so she couldn’t work with a voice artist. The AI voice would have to do.

After the hippo was done reciting the sonnet, Emily selected the next option: the daily personal message. The hippo ran out of the screen and returned with an old-school stereo system on its shoulder. It grinned, placed it on the ground and hit play.

Emily cringed a little as her own voice sounded through the speakers. She had recorded the message just minutes before. It was embarrassing to hear herself telling Lea how much she loved her, but she knew Lea would love it.

“Okay, that works,” Emily muttered after the message ended.

She would need to record many more messages like this one and incorporate them into the app’s database. She could add a couple later today. After those, she would add new ones every few days.

“What did I get myself into,” Emily sighed with a grin on her face. She would probably regret this crazy idea soon enough, but she also knew how happy it would make Lea. And again, that made everything totally worth it.

---

Lea’s phone beeped. She glanced at the clock of the oven. It was ten past five in the afternoon. She was from completing the article she was writing about a new low-budget smartphone she had tested. The deadline was tomorrow.

In attempt to keep her focus, she ignored the phone. Another notification sounded, though. Lea frowned. Her phone was set to do not disturb. That meant Emily was probably texting her, since she was the only one allowed to interrupt.

Lea picked up her device and saw that Emily had indeed sent her two messages. One said “Happy Valentine’s Day,” which made Lea smile. The other message contained a link. She didn’t recognize the url: everydayIloveyoumore.com.

Grinning, she tapped the link. What on earth was Emily sending her? That URL was cheesy as hell. To her surprise, the webpage that appeared was empty except for a text box labeled “password.”

A new message arrived. It said “the password is your name followed by three exclamation marks and your favorite number.” Lea shook her head, the tips of her ears tingling with anticipation.

She entered the password. A new page loaded. Again, it was mostly empty except for a download button. Lea shook her head again and tapped it. An application started to download.

“What is this?!” she whispered.

Soon enough, a new icon appeared on her home screen. It was an image of a Full Circle Games character that she loved. She opened the app, increasingly excited. Had Emily sent her a preview of something?

The hippo appeared on her screen and asked for her name. Lea smiled while typing. She was tempted to leave the app for a moment and send Emily a message to ask her what she was looking at.

But the hippo now surprised her with something that was called a daily love briefing. Lea reread the sentence in the speech bubble several times, tilting her head. What on earth was a daily love briefing?

She looked over the list of options. A love sonnet? Puppy of the day? Today’s daily message? She wondered what all of this was, giggling now. She selected ‘daily love message’ and the hippo disappeared.

When it came back with a stereo on its shoulder, Lea laughed out loud. The cute creature hit the play button and Emily’s voice suddenly came out of Lea’s speakers, making Lea gasp in surprise.

“My love, I know we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day.”

An intense feeling came over Lea: a warm glow that originated from her chest and soon spread throughout her body. It was a feeling of being loved, feeling special and feeling seen. Emily had created this just for for her.

The message continued.

“I want to make you feel special every single day of the year. I know I probably don’t. Things get in the way and I focus on work too much or other silly practicalities. But please know that I want to do better and Valentine’s Day is as good a day as any to do that.”

Lea teared up as she continued to listen. Emily was always so hard on herself.

“I hope you enjoy this app. I built it just for you. You can discover new things and new messages in it every day of the year.”

“Oh my God,” Lea laughed, wiping her cheek.

“I love you, Lea. Every day of the year. I want to spend every day of my life with you. Happy Valentine’s Day.”