Chapter 7
“We’d dated in high school,” I said with a sigh, then I settled more comfortably on my side.
“He seemed like the perfect guy; he said all the right things and had a stable job. Plus, he wanted kids.” I let out a hollow laugh.
“But at some point, I stopped being a partner to him. I became the woman who cooked dinner for him and took care of the children.”
“When did you realize that things had changed?”
“Not for a while; it happened gradually. Started with little things.” I shrugged.
“First he stopped asking about my day. Then he stopped noticing when I cut my hair or dressed sexy for him.
I'd try to talk to him about things we had both previously enjoyed, and he'd just tune out. Eventually, I stopped trying.”
I cleared my throat. “I packed myself away, just like I packed away that PlayBox. I made myself small and quiet until there was almost nothing left of who I used to be.”
Lux's grip on my hand tightened. “And when the marriage ended?”
“He left me for someone at his office.” Tears stung my eyes. “Someone younger. Someone without stretch marks or baggage or kids to worry about.”
I laughed at the absurdity of my life. “You know what the worst part was? I wasn't even surprised. I'd been invisible for so long; it almost made sense that he'd look right through me and see someone else.”
“Catia.” Lux leaned forward, his free hand cupping my face, turning me to look at him. “You are not invisible. You are vibrant and alive and very beautiful. If he couldn’t see that, then that is his fault, not yours.”
“You're programmed to say that,” I whispered.
“No,” he said firmly. “I’m not programmed to say anything. I’m programmed to adapt to your needs, even if what you need is for someone to be brutally honest.”
“Brutal Honesty? I just fucked a magical sex robot. That's not exactly a healthy rebound.”
“Sex robot is also simplistic,” he said with mock offense.
And despite everything, I smiled.
My phone buzzed on the coffee table. I glanced at the screen out of habit.
Derek: Hey. Hope you're doing okay.
I turned the phone face down without responding and looked back at Lux.
“What would you call yourself then? If not a sex robot?”
He took a moment, his eyes thoughtful. “How about just Lux? A person who has an unusual backstory. Kind of like I was born on a deserted island.”
“Being born on a deserted island is vastly different from being literally created by magic.”
“Is it, though?” His eyes sparkled with humor. “Both involve a non-traditional upbringing and questionable socialization skills.”
A genuine laugh burst out of me, the kind of laugh that shook your shoulders and left you feeling lighter. “Okay, you've got a point.”
The room fell quiet again, but this time it wasn't heavy. It was comfortable.
Safe.
“Can I ask you something?” Lux said after a moment.
“You just did,” I gave him a sideways grin. “But, yes. You may ask another.”
“Are you afraid?” he asked. “Of this. Of me.”
A few minutes passed while I mulled the question over; it deserved some real thought. “A little,” I admitted. “Not of you, exactly. More of... what all this means. That I can do what we just did: with someone who isn't technically human. And what that says about me.”
“It says you're brave,” he said simply. “After what you went through with your ex, you could have remained closed off. Kept trying to protect your heart. But you didn't. You took a chance.”
“I bought a video game console,” I retorted. “That's not exactly bravery.”
“You came home to an empty house and decided to reclaim something you had loved. You allowed yourself to want something, just for you. That's bravery, Catia. And then you saw me and didn’t run. Instead, you let me in, truly in, when you had every reason not to trust me.” He leaned closer, his forehead resting against mine. “That's extraordinarily brave.”
My breath caught. “Lux,”
“I know this is strange,” he murmured. “I know I'm not what you expected to bring home when you walked out of that shop. But I'm here, and I'm real.” He was quiet for a moment. “I don't know exactly what this is yet. But I'm not in a hurry for it to end.”
“Neither am I,” I admitted, and something in my chest loosened just a bit. “Even though I can't explain what this is, and I probably shouldn't be this okay with any of it.”
“Maybe you shouldn't be.” His eyes warmed. “But I'm glad you are.”
My smile stretched before I could stop it. “So what now?”
“Now?” He settled back against the couch, pulling me to him. “Now we figure this out together. One game at a time.”
I snuggled into him, feeling the steady rhythm of an unusual heartbeat beneath his skin. “Will you turn back into the console?”
“If you need me to,” he said. “But I'd rather stay like this, if that's alright.”
“That's absolutely alright,” I said, tilting my head back to look at him. “Just warn me, if you can, if you need to transform back. I don't want to accidentally sit on you or something.”
A laugh rumbled in his chest. “Noted. Though I should mention, I'm surprisingly durable.”
“Good to know for future reference.”
“For future reference,” he repeated, his expression amused.
We stayed like that as the afternoon darkened into night. Outside, a neighbor's wind chime tinkled, and a pair of crickets chirped to each other. The sound of their steady rhythm was soothing.
“What was it like?” I asked to break the silence. “When you were in the shop.”
He shifted slightly, getting comfortable. “Well, when Selma finished building me, I became aware of my surroundings. Like waking up, I’d imagine.” He shrugged. “She talked to me while she worked. Explaining things. What I was, what I was for, and what the world was like. She was kind.”
“How much did she tell you about the world?”
“Not enough, I’ve discovered,” he said, dry sarcasm dripping from his tone. “She plugged me into a television so I could learn more.”
“That's actually really smart.”
“In theory,” he nodded. “In practice, her choice of programming was a bit too tailored.”
I looked up at him. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I know a great deal about pleasing a woman.” He met my eyes with an expression that was perfectly straight-faced. “And considerably less about other types of human interactions.”
It took me a second to catch up. “She had you watching porn?”
“Extensively,” he said.
I burst out laughing. “So, when you came out of the entertainment center, you already knew all about sex?”
“Theoretically, yes.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “I had done a great deal of research.”
“Oh my god,” I said, covering my face with my hand, trying to hold in the laughter. “That explains so much.”
“She did include some other programming eventually,” he said. “I learned about speech patterns from a sitcom and history from a documentary.”
I smiled and settled more comfortably against him. “What happened after the TV?”
“She made me go dormant and put me in a box under the counter.” His voice was matter-of-fact. “I wasn't aware of anything else until you touched me.”
My stomach knotted. How long had he been in that box, waiting for me to come in to the shop?
“That sounds lonely,” I said quietly.
“I wasn’t aware of anything,” he said. “I didn't know what lonely was and couldn’t feel anything at the time.”
He sat up straighter to look me in the eyes. “But I do believe I would be lonely now if left alone in a box.”
His words landed like a brick on my chest. He had gone from not knowing what loneliness was to understanding it completely, all because of me. All because I had walked into that shop looking for something to fill the quiet.
Maybe we had found each other at exactly the right time.
“Then I guess it's a good thing I walked into that shop,” I said, giving him a small smile.
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Yes,” he said softly. “It really is.”