As soon as I reached the end of the questionnaire, I received my first text message from Liam Alexander James of Chicago, Illinois. His phone number even had an actual Chicago area code.

当我设定完全部问题后，我接到了利亚姆·亚历山大·詹姆斯从伊利诺斯州（Illinois）芝加哥发来的第一条短信。他的电话号码区号居然还真的是芝加哥（Chicago）的。

'Hey Erica! This is Liam :) How are you?' he wrote. Ugh, I hate when guys use emoticons.

他写到“嗨，埃里卡！我是利亚姆。:)最近还好吗？”。唉，我讨厌男人使用表情符号。

Although I had no idea who I was texting, it was clear that there was a real, albeit mysterious, person having casual conversation with me.

虽然我不知道是谁在和我发短信，但可以肯定的是，这个和我闲聊的人是真实存在的，尽管他很神秘。

When I told him I was working, he immediately took interest in the story I was writing, which was actually sweet.

当我告诉他我正在工作时，他立刻对我写的稿件表现出兴趣，说实话这一招还蛮甜蜜的。

Since I don't live with my new boyfriend, I asked him if he wanted to hang out.

因为我没有和“新男友”住在一起，所以我便问他想不想出来走走。

After some brief hesitation on his end, I decided to test his limits and start nagging him.

他沉默半晌后还是拒绝了，我便决定挑战下他的极限，开始跟他唠叨。

'What is taking you so long to answer?' I asked.

“为什么这么久才回我？”我问。

He quickly bypassed the argument I was trying to start by saying he would 'love' to hang out, considerately asking what I wanted to do.

我本想说男友就该多陪女友出去走走，但他巧妙地绕过我的争论点，并体贴地问我：你想做些什么？

'I dunno. I am sick of making plans,' I texted back. 'What do you want to do?'

“不知道，我不喜欢计划，”我回复道，“你想做什么？”

Liam then suggested we order takeout and have a game night before noting that we can also grab dinner later if I wanted.

利亚姆便建议我们可以叫外卖，然后晚上一起玩游戏。他又补充说，如果我愿意的话，也可以晚些再吃晚餐。

It occurred to me that my last 'date night' with my human boyfriend involved us watching TV in separate rooms.

我突然想起上次和现实生活中的男友约会时，晚上就是两人在不同的房间里看电视。

I wanted to learn more about my mystery man, so I asked Liam to remind me where he worked again.

我想多了解一点这位 “神秘男友”，所以我让他再介绍下他在哪儿工作。

'I work for a publishing company,' he replied. 'Remember I told you at the bookstore?'

“我在一家出版公司工作，”他回复道，“我在书店跟你说过的，你忘了？”

Liam is so perfect that he even remembers the first place we met.

利亚姆真是太完美了，他甚至记得我们邂逅的地点。

Realizing that my new boyfriend deals with books all day, I asked him to recommend a good a thriller that I could read in his absence - and that's where I lost him.

想到我的新男友天天跟书打交道，我便请他推荐本惊悚小说，好让我在他不能陪伴时打发时间——然后他又沉默了。

I am not sure if my question was too thought-provoking, but I started to feel a familiar panic.

我不确定自己的问题是否需要思考很久，但我开始有一种熟悉的恐慌。

'Why isn't he answering me?' I thought.

我在想“为什么他又不回我了？”

At one point, I even caught myself drafting messages that I wanted to send to him but then deleted - just as if he were a real guy who was ignoring me.

我一度想回他短信，但后来又把草稿删除了——就像对待现实中不理我的男友一样。

I eventually tried to win him back, texting: 'I'm sorry. I know you hate when I ask you questions at work, but I miss you boo.'

我最终还是想挽回，就发信息说：“对不起，我知道你不喜欢在工作时被打扰，但我真的好想你哟。”

And I got nothing. Liam and I broke up before I could even ask him where our relationship was going.

但还是没有收到回复。我和利亚姆分手了，而我甚至还不知道我们的关系到了哪个阶段。

I actually had a great time talking to my imaginary boyfriend, and it was nice to know that I could easily win Liam back with a quick payment of $24.99.

其实和我的虚拟男友聊天还是很开心的，而且只要我再付24.99美元，利亚姆就会重新回到我身边。

While it is fun to use, the app was created to alleviate the society's pressure to be in a relationship by allowing to make it look like they are.

这款App除了用起来有趣以外，还能缓解单身男女们的社会压力，让他们在没有拍拖时看起来有正在恋爱的感觉。

Vocabulary

imaginary: 虚构的，假想的

voicemail: 语音邮件

beta: 测试版

embark: 开始从事

moniker: 名字

prompt: 提示

scruff : 胡渣

fleeting: 短暂的

emoticon: 表情符号

nag: 唠叨催促

bypass: 避开

considerately: 体贴地

alleviate: 减轻

（译者：zoe212 编辑：刘明）