Chapter 3 #2
“What’s your name, Firelight?” he asked.
“Firelight?” she replied.
His fingers grazed her spine. “Your tattoo. They’re dragon scales, right?”
As she turned into his arms, meeting his gaze, her heart lurched.
He was beautiful. Lustrous copper hair, matching eyes ringed in violet, and smooth, pale skin that her fingers itched to touch.
“K8,” she said, a little afraid she’d fallen in lust at first sight.
An unsettling proposition, considering how dangerous such strong feelings were.
But the way he was looking at her . . . could he be feeling the same thing?
Her pulse skittered with excitement when he asked, “What can I do to set your world ablaze?”
He was stroking her back now, slipping inside the fabric of her dress. His tantalizing fingers teasing, leaving little sparks of anticipation for what was to come.
“A fantasy?” she yelped. Zephyr, what was this man doing to her? She needed to get it together. Think about it rationally.
“Tell me your deepest desire, Firelight,” he urged.
What was her greatest fantasy?
“Tell me and let me give it to you. Anything you ask is yours.” He leaned down to graze his lips against the shell of her ear.
What did she want? It struck her suddenly. “I want a boyfriend. A real human one like they had in the old days.”
The man’s posture stiffened for a moment, but then his body eased against her. “I think I understand what you’re looking for. I’m glad we met because I want that, too.”
From that moment on, her heart latched on to every word he spoke. She led him back to her unit, and all the while he said increasingly romantic things that filled her chest near to bursting.
When they were finally behind her closed door, she was aching with need.
The man took his jacket off, draping it across her desk chair. “So this is home,” he said, and her stomach flipped. Noticing her reaction, he drew her into his arms. “It could be our home.”
Her knees went weak. He chuckled as he caught her and carried her into the bedroom. He slowly undressed her, whispering about what a rare treasure she was and how he’d been so lucky to see her that night.
Then he crawled over her, never once breaking eye contact. When his fingertips brushed across her stomach, her chest squeezed in a way it never had before. “Maybe one day . . .”
Her pulse hummed. “Go on.”
“Maybe one day, your belly will swell with my child,” he finished.
She remembers whimpering, and he rewarded her by sliding inside. She doesn’t remember much after that. Only that right as she was about to climax, he asked her to marry him. “I think I fell in love with you the moment our eyes met,” he said.
Retrospectively, it was a ridiculous notion as marriages were no longer legal, but she said yes, then fell into unmatched bliss.
It was what came after that she remembers the most clearly.
Within seconds of him rolling off her, he picked his trousers off the floor and slipped into the bathroom.
He came out with a warm cloth, handing it to her.
There was something off about his demeanor even before he said, “Will you need anything besides this before I go?”
She took the cloth with a trembling hand and said, “But I thought—”
“Listen, I have a manupartner kit at home halfway through its activation that I haven’t watered since I left. You know how finicky those things are.” He leaned forward, reaching toward her, but then he jerked his hand back and stuffed it in his pocket.
She stared at his tucked away hand, blinking. His initial reaction had seemed instinctive. Like reaching for her had been natural. They were engaged, after all. But for some reason he stopped himself.
She can see herself sitting on the bed, clutching the crumpled sheet to her chest as her heart caught in her throat. Almost feel her mind swimming as it did back then.
She opened her mouth to ask him how they might reconnect, but he said, “Enjoy the rest of your evening,” before turning and leaving her speechless.
She thought since he knew where she lived, he would come to her, but he never did.
So she searched until she felt vacant and exhausted.
The day she realized her efforts were futile, she wept.
Why had he forgotten her so easily? They had shared something, hadn’t they?
Sure, it started off as a fantasy, but it felt real.
Her flood of memories makes her clutch the GROW kit tighter, causing the box’s hard edges to dig into her skin.
How could she have been so stupid to confess such a vulnerability as a desire for a real human boyfriend to a stranger? Back then, her embarrassment almost made her delete her Old News subscription, foolishly blaming her fondness of the old articles for her romantic notions.
A little chuckle escapes her as she stares at the attentively waiting man before her. His copper eyes glitter as he studies her like he did all those years ago.
“Something funny?” he asks.
“Yes, but you wouldn’t understand.”
It was never the Old News articles—her desires went much deeper than that.
For her first twenty years, she watched her parents’ dedication to each other.
So unshakable that they held hands the day of their Peaceful Passing Procedure.
They’d been 220, telling her they’d lived long enough.
They came from a time when their life expectancy had already doubled.
Her mother once told her they’d planned to do it a few years before she was born, but the morning of the appointment, they found out they won the birthing lotto.
They continued living for a while longer to have her, postponing the procedure until after she was grown.
For that, K8 had been lucky. Living without them was difficult for the first few years, but their memory and the knowledge of their connection had helped ease some of the grief.
But now she resented having to bear witness to such a pure connection because it only made what she’d never have so heartbreaking.
But it wasn’t her parents’ fault. Surely in eighty-six years she’d have found one person . . . Something was wrong with her. She was the one that didn’t fit. The oddity, the outsider. As though her programming had glitched at birth, like a faulty, twitching manupartner.
K8 shakes her head, anchoring herself to the present.
She can’t let those thoughts seep in. Not in front of him.
Not after how easily he forgot her. In all her life, she’s never felt so insulted.
All those years ago, he didn’t want her.
Made her feel like he chose her, only to have been faking it for a fantasy she was stupid enough to request. He offered her everything she wanted, just like she asked him to.
But it was only a role—and like a helpless fool, she hoped it was real.
Believed it. Tears would fall if she didn’t get it together.
“Even if you activate your kit today, your manupartner won’t be ready for a week. I’m free tonight,” he presses, interrupting her thoughts.
If only she could be satisfied with one of the flesh robots like everyone else.
“What’s your name?” she asks, because she needs to know.
His grin reappears. “Viper.”
Viper, really? The man she’s been pining for all these years is named Viper? Zorg, strike her down now. This situation can’t possibly get any worse.
“Valued Customer K8, the manager is ready to see you,” a voice calls over the intercom. K8 cringes, praying the shiny white tiles of the lobby floor will swallow her whole.
Viper’s brows twitch like they’re trying to lift in concern.
But when she sways, and he doesn’t even reach out a hand, her humiliation dips to a new low. No wonder she is in her current predicament. Yet she refuses to cower in front of this man.
She marches away with her chin held high. Before she makes it to the counter, Viper calls, “About tonight?”
The arrogance. Without thinking, K8 spins, holding the manupartner kit between them and throws everything she’s learned during years of Respectful and Considerate Conduct Courses in the recycle bin. “I would rather wait a lifetime for this manupartner to GROW than spend a single night with you.”
Gasps come from the several bystanders waiting for their turn with customer service.
Viper’s mouth drops open, and she’s fairly certain he doesn’t know what he’s done.
That doesn’t dampen her triumph as she turns toward the counter to find the original agent along with her manager, who is smiling pleasantly.
The manager says, “What excellent news to hear that you’ve reconsidered. We are pleased that you’ve decided to keep your GROW kit.”
Her eyes widen as she realizes her mistake.
The first agent chuckles. “Bye now. Be sure to let us know if you need help with the activation process.”
K8 makes her way home with the details of her failed mission clashing in her mind—her anger toward Viper seeming to win out every time.
How dare he? She spent fifty years thinking about that night.
About what she must have done wrong and why he left without ever giving it a second thought. How had it all seemed so real?
She determinedly unboxes the grow kit, positioning it in the center of the floor in her sparse spare bedroom. She’ll activate the thing out of spite.
Oh Zorg, is she really doing this? She grits her teeth.
She should behave like the rational scientist she is and make a pros and cons chart, but here she is.
Not only is she doing it to erase the memory of Viper from her mind once and for all, it’s time to see what the fuss is about.
Why everyone is so crazy about these monstrosities.
If that means she’ll have to make a trip to the recycle center, so be it.
In a way, it will be the walk of shame she’s earned.
As she tosses her head back, lifting the slab of biological material to the glowing lights of her ceiling, it still feels like surrender. “You win!” she shouts to no one in particular.
She slams the flesh patty onto the center of the GROW Pad, then peels off the protective gloves and discards them in the pile with the rest of the packaging.
Her hand trembles as she holds the bottle over the water slot.
The instructions say a single drop will start the process.
Then the light will turn green when it’s full.
When it turns red, an alarm will sound, and you repeat the process.
Before she can let her better sense talk her out of it, K8 tips the bottle and watches in a mixture of wonder and horror as a steady stream of water pours into the slot. When she finishes the entire bottle, she holds her breath. There’s no going back now.
A few tenuous seconds later, the light turns green.