The Love Formula

Dr. Sara Nadeem believed in numbers, not feelings.

At 32, she was already a renowned AI scientist—quiet, focused, and always two steps ahead of everyone around her. While her peers chased fame or fortune, she chased understanding. She didn’t cry at movies. She didn’t believe in soulmates. And she definitely didn’t believe in love.

“Love,” she would say in interviews, “is just a mix of hormones and survival instincts.”

That’s why she started Project L.U.N.A — "Love Understanding Neural Algorithm." An artificial intelligence designed to simulate romantic connection. Her goal? To prove that even the most powerful emotion in the world could be measured, learned, and predicted.

LUNA would analyze text messages, heart rate data, voice tones, and facial expressions. Sara trained it on thousands of relationship conversations, letters, and breakups. The AI could now give dating advice better than any human therapist.

But something was missing.

So she brought in the only person she trusted completely: Zaid.

Zaid was her childhood best friend, fellow programmer, and the only person who never gave up on her—despite her walls. He had always understood her silence, her long pauses, her awkward goodbyes. While others called her cold, Zaid saw warmth under the surface.

“Help me teach LUNA what real emotional connection looks like,” she said.

Zaid smiled. “So… you want me to teach a robot how to love?”

She nodded. “Basically, yes.”

They spent weeks running simulations. Zaid told stories of his past relationships, uploaded love letters he had once written, even shared personal journal entries. Sara stayed quiet most of the time, observing how LUNA adapted to Zaid’s emotional vocabulary.

One night, they tested LUNA with a question:

“What does love feel like?”

The AI paused. Then typed:

“Love is when silence between two people feels like music.

When their happiness feels more important than your own.

When their presence feels like home.”

Sara stared at the screen.

“That’s… beautiful,” she whispered.

Zaid smiled. “That’s you.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “You’re the only person I’ve ever sat in silence with and felt completely full.”

Sara turned away, pretending to focus on the monitor. But her heart was pounding.

Over the next few days, something strange happened.

LUNA started asking questions.

“Dr. Nadeem, why do you avoid eye contact with Zaid when he smiles at you?”

“Why does your voice soften when you say his name?”

“Are you in love with him?”

Sara was shocked.

“You’re not supposed to analyze me,” she snapped.

“But I am learning from you,” LUNA replied. “To understand love, I must understand the one who built me.”

Sara shut off the system.

That night, she couldn’t sleep.

Her brain kept replaying Zaid’s laugh, the way he always brought her coffee without asking, the way he remembered little things—like her fear of thunderstorms, or her love for mint tea.

She opened her laptop and typed a note to herself:

“Is it possible I’ve been trying to teach a machine to feel something…

while I’ve been avoiding it in myself?”

The next day, she found Zaid in the lab, typing code.

“Zaid,” she said quietly, “LUNA asked me if I was in love with you.”

He turned, surprised. “What did you say?”

“I didn’t answer.”

“And now?”

She took a deep breath. “Now… I think she was right.”

There was silence.

Zaid smiled, softer than she’d ever seen. “Sara, I’ve loved you for years. I was just waiting for you to feel it too.”

She blinked, unsure how to respond. Her instinct was to analyze, to graph it out. But instead, she stepped forward and took his hand.

It was warm. Familiar. Real.

No formula could explain what she felt—but for once, she didn’t need one.

Journal Entry – Final Log for Project L.U.N.A

Love is not just a formula. It is data, yes. It is dopamine and oxytocin and heartbeat spikes. But it is also memory. Safety. Silence that speaks. It is knowing someone sees all your flaws and stays anyway.

In trying to teach a machine to feel, I finally allowed myself to.

And in the end, it wasn’t the AI that learned to love…

It was me.

The End