In BlackRock's Palo Alto office, Anamika Durgavathi, Nina's mother let out a growl as she surveyed the projected graphs on her computer monitors.
Despite BlackRock's sophisticated AI models that she had designed and trained herself, Sirius Software bucked all projections and predictions.
By all rights, Aaron Zakhrov's vile and toxic company should have gone out of business years ago.
However, not only was Sirius Software thriving, Aaron had successfully thwarted all of BlackRock's attempts to gain a controlling stake in Sirius Software, and thus consolidate all of America's gaming and entertainment industries under their extensive portfolio, and in compliance with BlackRock's expertly crafted, AI-powered social-engineering policies designed to foster diversity, inclusion and globalization.
Nina's new defensive attitude towards Aaron also worried and frustrated Anamika.
Four months ago, Nina was an ardent activist and vocal critic of Sirius Software, the perfect weapon to infiltrate and crush Sirius Software from within. Getting Nina's application past Aaron's filters had been extremely difficult for Anamika. What was happening in that horrible company that Nina had flipped from critic to apologist?
----
Nina fell onto her small bed in exhaustion, glad that Aaron had given her the next week off after their business trip to Tokyo.
While the trip itself was exciting, and the experience was nothing short of wonderful, the transition from Japanese culture back to the egalitarian and excessively politically correct American culture and world-view had taken an unexpected toll on her.
She and Aaron had exited the Boston Logan International airport in their black leather business suits to judgemental and hostile stairs from surly airport staff and stressed commuters travelling in the Thanksgiving rush.
The ride back to Sirius Software was an agonizing crawl through the jammed Boston traffic, a far cry from the neatly organized Tokyo traffic and the friendly welcome from the Japanese airport staff.
The wonder and novelty of Japan had worn off and Nina had started to second-guess her choices and behavior again.
She swung between horror and appreciation at her new, leather-clad appearance.
Her feelings and opinion of Aaron was also swinging like a pendulum.
On one hand, she felt sympathy and respect for how successful he had managed to make Sirius software despite the massive amounts of hostility and controversy his games had created, while on the other hand, she felt fear and fury at how cold and authoritarian he was, and how much he seemed to be influencing her.
Her feelings still a confused mess, Nina succumbed to the fatigue and fell into a fitful sleep.
----
Nina sipped on her Starbucks coffee as she waited for her mother to arrive.
After some introspection and soul-searching, she had grown more comfortable and confident in her new appearance and style, and had used a substantial chunk of Aaron's generous bonus to get more black leather clothing.
The glass doors of the Starbucks opened and Anamika Durgavathi, her mother entered.
Nina marvelled at the energy and poise that her mother exuded, despite being over 60.
Anamika's blue denim jacket and jeans perfectly fit her toned physique, the only indicators of her age, were her graying close-cropped hair and the crows-feet around her eyes.
Anamika looked around the nearly empty Starbucks before her black eyes settled on Nina.
Her friendly smile gave way to a look of disbelief and shock as she took in Nina's new look of long flowing black hair, silver hoop earrings, bold makeup, and her outfit of a black leather blazer over a white turtleneck sweater top, tight black leather pencil skirt, thick black pantyhose and black leather pumps with 8 cm high stiletto heels.
It was almost as if Nina had deliberately chosen every item that Anamika herself despised, yet hadn't articulated to her daughter.
She viciously fought down feelings of confusion, dismay and anger while hastily adjusting her features into a smile.
"Nina? What the hell? I hardly recognized you!" she exclaimed.
"Hi mom, you're looking good yourself." replied Nina, standing up and giving her mother a warm hug.
"So. What brought this on?" asked Anamika gesturing at Nina's leather clad appearance.
"Well I decided to experiment with my looks a little. Like it?" asked Nina giving her mother a twirl to show off her outfit from all angles.
Anamika swallowed a wave of revulsion. Nina looked so much like her, that it was like seeing a younger version of herself. One that she was not proud of.
"Well I suppose it does look nice on you" she said, forcing herself to act normal.
Nina sensed her mother's discomfort, and hastily sat down and changed the subject. "Well, how was the lecture at MIT?" she asked.
"It was quite productive. I believe I managed to get my points across about how AI must be used responsibly and ethically. Unfortunately, those cesspools of Stable-Diffusion models that are trained on pornography are out of our jurisdiction now" grumbled Anamika.
"Well I suppose it will be only a matter of time before BlackRock's chief AI engineer has those models purged and sanitized." chuckled Nina nervously.
"You can count on that. So how was Japan?" asked Anamika.
"It was so beautiful! The people were so warm and friendly. I had a blast! Aaron even took me on the most beautiful scenic tour of Tokyo and Saitama" gushed Nina enthusiastically.
"Tell me more!" asked Anamika excitedly.
Anamika's excitement and curiosity started to rapidly wane as Nina recounted her experience at Star Crossed Maid Café and how she had gained a newfound respect for Aaron and the responsibilities he bore.
"I would have thought that I had raised you better Nina" said Anamika coldly as Nina finished recounting her experiences.
"What are you talking about?" asked Nina in confusion.
"Do you really think that your boss was helping those girls by building a café where they could be harassed and exploited by rich, powerful men?" spat Anamika in disgust.
"Didn't you even listen? Aaron's vetting system keeps those unsavory elements out! I saw that myself! The men and women in that café were all polite and discreet!" snapped Nina, appalled that her mother would make such a horrible conclusion.
"Well, this boss of yours seems to have a lot in common with your father" grumbled Anamika quietly.
"What do you mean?" asked Nina. Her mother had always been extremely tight-lipped about her father, only mentioning that he and his family had created an extremely toxic environment for her back in India.
"He, too was obsessed with video games, submissive women, black leather and Japanese Anime culture. I wish I knew about his obsession with dressing me up in sexy outfits before I married him." sighed Anamika.
Nina reflected on her mother's words thoughtfully.
All her life, she had believed her father to be this big scary bogey-man from whom her mother had bravely escaped, but now she had started to develop a growing curiosity about his side of the story.
"Well anyway, how about we go back to your place? I'll whip up some home-cooked Indian food" suggested Anamika.
"Absolutely not! The smell of your cooking took days to get rid of!" said Nina firmly.
"Well what would you suggest?" asked Anamika fighting down the hurt that Nina did not want her cooking.
"Since, Mr. Zakhrov has been so generous with my bonus, let's go to Restaurant - F" said Nina excitedly.
Anamika swallowed a sigh, "Very well, let's go" she said, wishing that Nina was as frugal as her.