Must Be Nice

Six months later

"Alright. ALRIGHT." Ken was standing on a chair. Holding a microphone. "Can I get everyone's attention for a second."

The room laughed. Someone whistled.

"I'm not gonna talk long because I know y'all are trying to eat." He raised his glass. "But I gotta say something about these two."

Maya leaned into Shayan. His arm was already around her chair.

"I could not be more excited. I've watched these two go back and forth for a minute now." Ken shook his head. "It took them long enough."

A bigger laugh this time.

"But they figured it out. And I couldn't be happier for my brother." Ken's voice dropped. "Nima. Get up here, Azizam!"

Nima stood up. Buttoned his jacket.

Ken stepped down. Pulled him in. Clapped him on the back twice. Handed over the mic.

"Hey everybody. Thanks for being here." Nima chuckled. "I'm sure some of you are thinking this feels sudden."

A few tables cracked up.

"Allow me to explain. Actually, Leyla doesn't even know this." He turned to Leyla. Winked. "But I want to share the story of the first time I saw her."

Leyla's mouth dropped. She leaned forward. Chin in her hand.

"I was at a fundraiser. I used to volunteer for IRF a lot. She had just started. I don't think she'd been with us more than a few weeks."

"We had a silent auction that night. And one of the donors was bidding on his own item. Everyone knew. Nobody was going to say anything because, you know, he's a big donor. He's older. It's awkward."

He took a sip of his champagne.

"Leyla walks up to the group. Hears about it. And walks straight over to him and tells him he can't do that."

"And he tried. He was smiling, doing the whole, you know." Nima waved his hand. "But she wasn't having it. She was polite. Direct. Didn't make a scene. She just said no."

The women at Leyla's table erupted. Aisha yelled, "That's our girl!"

"The man was outraged. Everyone else was watching from across the room like—" He mimed hiding behind a drink. The tables laughed.

"But then he conceded." He held out his arm to Leyla. "Fast forward to two hours later... she's on the dance floor with him!"

The laughter carried through the room. Guests holding their napkins high, waving them in the air.

"And they were having a great time. She got the DJ to play Baba Karam for him. Pretty sure she made his night."

Leyla had her face in her hands.

"So I'm standing there thinking..." Nima reached out again to her. "Who is this person."

Leyla bit her bottom lip.

He turned back to the room.

"She was... I mean, look at her." He gestured at Leyla. Laughter spread through the room. "I didn't stand a chance."

"But—" Nima raised his finger. "She had a boyfriend. So I had to go on with my life. Until three years later, on a hot summer night, where we literally bump into each other. In the middle of Dupont Circle."

Maya squeezed Shayan's hand. He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"...It's her birthday. She's with her girls. I'm with my boys. And finally, she's single. But Leyla—" He turned back to her. "Getting this woman's attention is like—"

Another wave of laughter. Leyla raised her glass. Rolled her eyes.

"She spent the whole night making sure everyone else was having a good time. I don't think she looked my way once."

Leyla pouted at him from across the room.

"But a few months later, it happens again. Except it's daytime. At the H Street Festival. She barely registers I'm there."

Leyla shrugged.

Aisha and Salma's elbows were on the table. Chins in their palms. Eyes wide.

"This is so sweet," Salma turned to Gabriel. He kissed her shoulder.

"But we ended up spending the whole day together. As a group. I got to see this person. Again." Nima smiled. "But now our best friends had become recently... you know, entangled."

"Ay!" Shayan pointed at Nima. Maya pulled his hand down.

"So what could I do? Nothing. Right? She wasn't even giving me an in." Nima threw his hands up. "So again, I went on with my life. Until months later. When her dating profile pops up."

He pumped his fist. Laughter and cheers rocked the room.

"I immediately swiped. So fast I sprained my finger. That eager. Even once we matched, she wouldn't send her number. For weeks she still made me work for it."

Maya's eyes caught Leyla's.

"But," Nima cleared his throat, "I did finally get this woman's attention. Long enough to let me take her out on a damn date. And make her realize she's my wife."

He looked at the room.

"Happy to report I made my case and won it."

Every table started cheering. Salma started kelling. Ladies across the room joined. Ken started a chant. "Nima! Nima! Nima!"

"So when my Leyla joon told me if I wanted to marry her it would have to be at Burning Man —"

The groans were immediate. Shayan covered his face with his hand.

"I knew none of y'all were coming to that." Nima raised his glass. "So tonight is what we've got. And it wouldn't be real without each of you here."

Their friends and families raised their glasses. "We love you!" rang out from every table.

Nima looked at Leyla. "So here's to all of you. And here's to my future wife. May you never again be too distracted to notice how much I love you."

"Be salamati!"

"Be salamati!" the room echoed.

Glasses clinked. Kelling started from somewhere and spread.

Nima walked back to Leyla. She was standing before he reached her. She grabbed his jacket with both hands and kissed him.

Then she put her hand on the mic. He let go.

"Okay, okay. Just for the record." She turned to the room. "I knew exactly who this man was."

Nima braced himself.

"I knew because women talk." She smirked. "We talk a lot."

The ladies in the room started cheering.

"Of course I remember Nima from that fundraiser. Yes. I noticed him. Every woman in that room noticed him."

Ken shouted "ye-ah!" Shayan put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.

Leyla looked at Nima. "You weren't a secret."

Nima grinned. Almost started blushing.

"So I did what any respectable woman would do." She shrugged. "I ignored him. For years."

The room erupted in laughter.

"I mean, come on, those thirst traps he kept posting online." She shook her hand like it was on fire. "I'm too busy to try to fight other women on social media."

Nima raised his hands up. "They're car detailing videos!"

"OW, OW!" Salma and Aisha shouted.

"But I'm woman enough to admit when I was wrong." She turned to Nima. "Thank you for making me finally stand still. And see you."

Nima put his arm around her. She lifted her glass.

"To my future husband. May you always remember...that I'm always watching."

Glasses went up across every table. The room was on its feet.

Leyla turned to Nima and kissed him.

Five hours later

Leyla was in Nima's lap. His chin on her shoulder. Her fingers drawing circles on his wrist.

David had Aisha's feet in his hands. Slow circles along the arch. Seven months pregnant. Five hours of dancing. Her eyes were closed.

Maya and Salma at the end of the table. Heads together. Whispering about something only they were allowed to hear. Gabriel was enjoying the last of his wine.

Shayan and Ken were shoulder to shoulder. Ken was pointing at something on Shayan's phone. Shayan was scrolling.

Nine people in a room built for a hundred. Chairs stacked along the walls. One waiter folding linens near the back. The staff had stopped asking if they needed anything.

Maya was looking at her phone. She covered her mouth. Then lost it. Salma followed. Their laughter woke the table up.

"What." Leyla sat up.

Salma couldn't talk. Maya held up her screen.

It was a video of Nima. Three hours ago. In the center of the crowd on the dance floor. On the ground. Full suit. Face down. Doing the worm.

Behind him, Maya and Shayan dancing. Cheering him on.

Leyla's jaw dropped. "WHEN WAS THIS?"

"You were in the bathroom!" Salma was crying.

Ken was on his feet. "PLAY THAT BACK."

"I didn't know you could move like that." Maya wiped her eyes. "Nima, you used to be so stiff. I swear you'd barely make eye contact."

Leyla pressed her lips to Nima's neck. "That's because I made him so nervous."

"I was not nervous." Nima reached for the phone. Ken held it higher. "I was assessing."

"Assessing." Ken repeated. Didn't even look at him.

Aisha's voice came from behind closed eyes. David's hands paused on her foot.

"You know what I remember?" She opened one eye. "That day at H Street. When we were first hanging out." She looked at Nima. "I could've sworn you didn't want to be there."

Nima and Shayan looked at each other.

"Yeah," Aisha continued. "I saw you two arguing at one point too."

"I remember that." Maya smirked.

"I was just being protective." Nima turned to Maya. "That's my boy. I didn't know your intentions."

"Well we did." Leyla interrupted. "She wouldn't shut up about him."

"For the record," Maya lifted her chin, "I had rules for a reason. We had a business to build first."

Shayan leaned back. Rested his hands on the back of his head. "I wasn't worried."

"So guys, tell us." Gabriel leaned in. "How close are you now to launching?"

"Well," Maya tucked her leg under her. Exhaled. "That's a good question."

"Hopefully soon." Shayan pushed a hair out of Maya's face. "Unless a new AI model drops and this one gets another great idea."

"Not just me," Maya corrected. "But we can do more now than we thought. The agent I just built us knocks what I made last year out of the water."

"But nothing is holding you guys up?" Gabriel sipped from his glass.

"Maybe Shayan's perfectionism." She squeezed his knee.

"Or is it that good 'ol government efficiency?" Nima chuckled. "My boy likes to take his time."

Maya rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it."

"Ay!" Leyla raised her hand. Pointed at Maya.

Leyla and Maya reached over the table to each other. High-fived.

Shayan put his arm around Maya's chair. "There's a learning curve. When you're finally allowed to use your whole brain."

"More like, there's a lot to unlearn." Maya met his eyes. "Before you can really get to work."

She put her hand on his leg. His fingers locked on to hers.

"Sounds like it's been productive." Gabriel smiled. "I'm ready to see it."

"You and me, both." Shayan exhaled.

"And they will." Maya sat up. "When it's ready."

"But you've been saying 'almost ready' for a while," Nima cleared his throat. "You guys have enough runway to keep pushing it back?"

Maya and Shayan looked at each other. Back at him. In unison. "We're okay."

"We get it." Leyla pointed at Shayan. "Ya'll have 100 Bitcoins!"

Maya laughed. Shook her head.

"I believe you guys are ok." Aisha shifted David's hands to a different spot on her foot. "But I just don't understand how."

"Yeah, a month in Costa Rica. That week in El Salvador." Ken put his arm around Shayan's chair. "You guys are acting like you're in early retirement."

"Well, my new boss lets me work remote from anywhere." Shayan grinned. "And those places are Bitcoin hubs. You can pretty much live off of your Bitcoin there."

"But the taxes on the gains will get you." Salma pointed at Maya.

"We don't sell it. We spend it." Maya pointed back at her. "Down there, buying groceries with Bitcoin is just sales tax. Same as cash."

"Once you find people who accept Bitcoin as payment," Shayan reached for Maya's water. "Everything gets cheaper for you."

"We are more than okay." Maya stretched her arms above her head. Yawned. "Bitcoin went up. Our costs are low. We sell only when we need."

"When did it go up?" Salma frowned. "It crashed this year. Again and again."

"Is this a crash if you bought in at 30k?" Shayan smiled.

David leaned forward. "Is that what you bought at?"

"I first bought much lower than that. But sold too early. Like an idiot." Shayan shrugged. "Eventually I started just doing regular buys. And I don't touch it."

Maya turned to David. "Even just a dollar day is enough."

"But you guys aren't worried? Cause what if it crashes more?" Aisha repositioned her belly in her seat. "I'm so worried about the economy right now."

David put his arm around Aisha. "We'll be fine."

Leyla sighed. "I've reviewed more severance packages this quarter than in the last two years combined."

"The layoffs at my firm won't stop." Salma added.

"The tariffs are still crushing us." Nima shook his head. "But I'm not going to let anyone go. We'll figure something out."

"At least AI isn't coming for you, Nima." Salma turned to Leyla. "Thank god we're also personality hires."

Leyla winked at Salma.

"Hopefully we can all just ride this out." Ken exhaled. "A lot people are struggling right now."

The table got quiet for a moment. Maya's hand was on Shayan's knee. His arm still around her chair.

"Must be nice." Ken said. Softer now. "Not having a boss to worry about."

"Or employees." Nima said.

Maya looked at Shayan. The smallest smile.

"It's been very nice."

One year later

The red light came on.

"Welcome back to LIVE with News Channel Six. I'm Lisa Williams. There's a new tech startup right in our backyard here in the District. And you may want to hear about it. Meet founders Sean and Maya. They have a new social media app that wants to pay you crypto to use it. Welcome."

"Thank you." Maya answered.

"Thank you for having us." Shayan added.

Lisa turned from the teleprompter to Shayan. "Now your app is called NextBlock."

They both nodded.

"And it wants to pay people to watch ads." Lisa leaned forward. "So how much are we talking here? How much could someone really make on your app?"

"Well," Shayan cleared his throat. "That's what we're trying to find out."

He blinked to block the bright lights shining on his eyes.

"Right now social media companies make billions selling our attention. But you get nothing." He smiled. "NextBlock flips that. If someone wants to advertise to you, they pay you directly."

"Okay." Lisa turned to the camera. "But how much would I make watching one ad?"

He laughed. Repositioned himself on the couch. "The reason I can't answer that question is because that's up to you. And the market. We called it the attention marketplace."

Maya interrupted. "Think of them as billboards, instead of digital ads. These billboards pay out after you've looked at them. Like in a video game. If you pass one and choose to watch, you'll earn some coin."

"Well now..." Lisa danced in her anchor chair. "That kind of sounds fun."

"A billboard doesn't pop up unless the promoter was willing to pay your rate." Maya pointed at Lisa. "You set your price. Not the advertiser. Not us."

"Well that's interesting." She leaned in. "So on average, how much can someone make?"

"Well...that's the fun part of NextBlock." Maya shifted in her seat. "That number changes about every 10 minutes. Because we time matches with new blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain."

"Get it? Next. Block." Shayan grinned.

Lisa humored him with a laugh. "But right now? How much to watch an ad."

Shayan pulled out his phone. "7:18 am eastern time, on a Tuesday morning... about 20 sats. So 3 cents."

"Okay," Lisa tossed her hair. Looked at the camera. "So no one is quitting their day job here."

Maya and Shayan's eyes darted to each other. She smirked.

"Well." Shayan smiled. Wide. "We believe as this new promotion model grows, the price will change. More accurately reflect market demand."

Maya leaned forward. "I personally think consented attention is more valuable than we realize. Considering it's an opt-in experience—"

"But that's only half of NextBlock," Shayan interrupted. "The other is our social experience. Where you can take what you just earned watching a billboard, and tip that out to content creators."

"Oh, that's interesting." Lisa leaned back. "So it's like tokens you earn to give out?"

"It's Bitcoin." Shayan sat up straighter. "Bitcoin. Which is real money. The best money. Because you get it instantly."

Maya put her hand on Shayan's arm. Lightly.

"The point is that people can earn and tip on a regular basis," Maya kept smiling. "Content creators get paid directly by the people who love them. No platform taking a cut."

Lisa looked up, over Maya and Shayan. Shouted to the weatherman, "What do you think Jim, would you want viewers to send you crypto for your weather reports?"

Jim was standing at his green wall ten feet away, scrolling his phone. He looked up. Laughed. "I think I'm good over here."

"You can always exchange it back to dollars," Shayan added. "But in our app, everything moves on Bitcoin."

"Right so let me ask a technical question if you don't mind?" Lisa turned to Shayan.

"You'll have to ask Maya." He turned to Maya. Put one hand on her back. "She's our CTO. This is her brainchild."

"Oh, that's great." Lisa's eyes sharpened. Then she looked between them. "And you two are a couple, right?"

"We are," Maya answered quickly.

"That's lovely." Lisa paused. "Okay Maya. How do you know a real person watched the ad? What about bots? What if I'm tipping AI?"

"So everyone on NextBlock has what we call a Block. Think of it like your address on the internet. People visiting your Block see your content, but also links to all the other places you are on the internet. A way to pay you. All of that lives on your Block."

Lisa reached for the mug on the glass coffee table between them. Nodded.

"And to get a Block, you have to be verified, not by us, but through a Bitcoin wallet with Know Your Customer laws. That's how we battle the bots." Maya's hands were moving fast. "One real person, one Block."

"It's also how we restrict the age on our app to 18 and over," Shayan added. "We don't advertise to children."

"As for AI," Maya continued, "if you like a video and you want to tip the person who posted it, or the AI that made it, that's your business."

"But some of us need help spotting that AI." Lisa sat up. "Right Jim!"

Jim shook his head. "It's getting trickier every day."

Maya forced a laugh. "Well. We're all adults. You can decide for yourself what's worth your money."

Lisa paused. Looked down at her cards. Looked back up.

Maya tried to look at Shayan through the corner of her eye. He was looking at Lisa.

Lisa cleared her throat. "Well alright. Fair enough."

Shayan exhaled. Tapped his shoe against Maya's. Tick. Again. Tock.

Lisa turned to camera. "The app is called NextBlock. You can check it out at joinnextblock.com. Sean, Maya, thank you both."

The red light went off. They both sank into the couch.

Lisa was already on her feet, unclipping her mic. "Not bad for your first segment, you guys. You'll get faster."

She walked off without waiting for a response.

One year later

The crowd was already laughing when Sheri put down her water glass.

"You would be surprised how little men know about Bitcoin."

The laughter swelled. A woman in the third row clapped once.

"Oh, I know," Cory said from the moderator stool. "Your phrasing though..."

The room howled.

Tuesday nights at PubKey usually held fifty. Tonight there were over a hundred. The bar had run out of seating an hour ago. Eyes were locked on the three-person panel on the stage.

Sheri cleared her throat. "But what I mean is, it's easy to assume the husband who talks about Bitcoin and crypto actually knows what's going on. Unfortunately, we know that's not always true."

She paused.

"And usually it's crypto, right? Not Bitcoin. They're losing a lot. Hiding it from their families."

Cory turned to Drew. "Drew. You wrote about this."

Drew nodded. "I did. There's a storyline in my book. Jessica trusted her husband. He was into crypto. He kept hiding his losses."

"So real," Sheri interrupted. "I've represented a few Jessicas."

"But you can't fault her." Drew continued. "She had too much on her plate to take on learning a whole new currency. But it also wasn't right to blindly trust her husband with their finances."

Sheri leaned forward on her stool. "Two years ago, I noticed a pattern. Same case. Over and over. Different husband, same wife sitting in my office."

"He'd been talking to a 'trader' online for months. Charts. Updates. Returns. The trader was helpful. Patient. Knew his kids' names."

A woman in the front row exhaled. Sharp, audible.

"By the time the husband tried to pull the money out, there was nothing to pull."

Sheri lifted her water glass. Sipped. Set it down.

"And in case any of you still think the trader is a person...she isn't. The trader is an AI. Running thousands of these conversations at the same time. Building a relationship with each husband. Never sleeping. Never forgetting what he told her."

The room was silent.

Drew turned to the room. "Jessica was supposed to be that cautionary tale. The character whose husband got caught up in it. Because every single thing about that world is a scam."

"And they're targeting men." Sheri added.

Maya lifted her mic. "Crypto is just digital beanie babies. That's all it is for men. Something to play with."

Drew jumped in. "Everyone has that friend. The one who told them to buy Bitcoin five years ago. Ten years ago. They didn't. And they've believed ever since that they're too late."

"And the scammers wait for that feeling." Sheri explained. "Then they pitch a new coin. 'You can't be early on Bitcoin anymore. But you can be early on this.'"

Drew shook her head. "Which is why women can't afford to not understand this stuff anymore. We can't sit on the sidelines and trust the men in our lives are figuring it out."

"Exactly." Maya smiled. "We have to figure it out ourselves."

Cory looked to Drew. "And that's why your book has been so important. It's brought so many women to Bitcoin."

He paused. "Or, should I say, it brought Bitcoin to where women already were."

The room broke out into applause.

"I'd been trying to tell the women I love about Bitcoin for years." Drew said. "None of them were going to read a book called How Bitcoin Works. I knew that."

Laughter rolled through the bar.

"So I wrote Stacking Bread for them instead. A bakery inherited by a woman. She needs to find money or it closes on Christmas. And this annoying Bitcoiner guy who is a regular there, who she doesn't realize had been paying her grandma in sats since 2015."

Drew smiled. "I wanted to show people Bitcoin can solve real problems. That it's a way out of this crumbling system."

Maya gestured around the bar. "And to show the simple example of a business accepting Bitcoin as payment...that's something we're all doing here tonight."

The room cheered. Glasses up at the bar. "Bitcoin is the best money!" from somewhere in the back. The place clapped for itself.

"But not every city has a cool Bitcoin bar like PubKey." Maya continued. "Drew's book showed people the subculture already exists. All around us. Alongside the old world."

Drew watched Maya. "And publishing it on NextBlock's Library...that's how I was able to connect so closely with my readers. Every chapter was like an open book club."

Sheri spoke up. "I learned a lot in those comments. Found other good Blocks to visit. That's where I found the Flirting with Bitcoin Neighborhood."

Cheers from the room.

"From there I had a place I could keep coming back to." Sheri exhaled. "I finally found the community I needed to understand Bitcoin for my career. And for my life."

Cory faced Sheri. "Sheri, if you could leave the women in this room with one thing, what would it be?"

Sheri didn't hesitate. "Trust your husband. Verify him anyway."

Maya's eyes darted to Shayan. He was grinning.

From the edge of the third row Ms. Patrice stood and clapped.

Maya's eyes caught her. She waved from the stage.

Ms. Patrice blew her a kiss.

Cory swung back to the panel. "Speaking of husbands."

He let the laughter settle.

"We should mention, our NextBlock founders Maya, and Sean over there, actually just got back from their honeymoon."

"Really?" Drew's head snapped to Shayan at the bar.

Maya laughed. "Sheri, don't worry. I put this guy through the ringer."

Sheri turned to look at Shayan. Squinted her eyes. "Good."

The whole bar cracked up again.

Maya let it settle. "It's wonderful Sheri is seeing it this way. Because what that means is that she understands Bitcoin is money. And once you understand this invention, the ideas start coming. For how to use it. What else it can be."

"And that's where NextBlock came from?" Cory asked.

"With these two revolutionary technologies, Bitcoin and Nostr, we were able to completely reimagine social media." Maya continued. "If you have something to share, a video, a book, whatever, you should be able to. Without anyone else's permission."

He smirked. "But you can't force anyone to see it anymore."

"Exactly!" Maya pointed at Cory. "You've got to earn it. Either by paying for it. Or by being interesting enough that someone shares it."

A hand went up in the second row.

Cory looked at the crowd. "We aren't doing questions tonight. But...ok yes?"

A woman stood. "When are we getting DMs on NextBlock?"

Maya found Shayan's eye across the room. They both smiled.

Maya took a deep breath. "Never, probably."

The crowd stayed quiet.

"When we started building NextBlock, DMs weren't reliable. But I'd also been talking to women on Nostr. The harassment in DMs was impossible to escape. It's a place where anyone can hit your attention. Over and over. Without you ever granting them permission."

The woman in the second row nodded. Sat down.

"Even when it's labeled a 'request.' You can mute them. But the first one already landed."

"Right." Cory agreed. "I've heard you say this. 'DMs are too intimate for social media.'"

Maya nodded. "And I wanted them completely separate from the city we were building. On your Block, you specify how to be reached. Email. Scheduling link. Comment publicly. Don't contact me. You publish it. But knowing my Block address doesn't grant you a private channel to me. It never will."

A few scattered claps came from the crowd.

"I believe when you change the incentives in a game, you change behavior." Maya opened her hands. "NextBlock should be the more empowering experience. For anyone who uses it."

Drew leaned over toward Maya's mic. "Can we get a round of applause for this woman?"

The claps grew.

Maya looked across to Shayan at the bar. "Well, give some to my sweet husband. Half of this applause is his."

"Half?" Sheri shot Shayan a look. "She's being generous."

Laughter filled the room one last time.

Cory nodded toward the line. "Thank you, Maya. Drew. Sheri. I see a line forming already. Can you stay?"

They nodded.

Shayan and Ms. Patrice were already at the stage steps. Behind them, a line.

Maya sat back in her stool. Smiled.