Chapter Ten
Blitz
The female didn’t understand that to come and pick her up would have been our pleasure, but we agreed not to be too pushy.
Even if the real reason was she liked the idea of being able to leave anytime she liked, we were fine with that.
Humans, at least as I understood things, didn’t have the same sort of mating system.
On TV and in movies, they spent months, sometimes years courting one another before getting engaged and then even more time before spending enough to buy a house on a fancy wedding.
Generally they all ended up mad at one another, and it was a miracle that anyone actually ended up married at all.
As I said…I got my information on the big and the small screen.
But I believed there was enough truth that humans did not meet and immediately mate as we did. When we invited her to come visit this weekend, she’d appeared startled, and I half expected her to refuse, but she had agreed.
Since we’d lunched, we’d texted back and forth and had one video call.
I couldn’t wait to see her again, and neither could either of my friends.
Fortunately, with her coming to see both our home and the shop for the first time, we wanted to make the best impression, so we were busy cleaning from rooftops to basement, as well as planning the special dinner and doing our regular work.
Friday night, we looked around the house in defeat. “It’s not clean enough,” Comet said. “Humans are always sanitizing everything and look at this. Still dust over on that table. Jackets hung three deep in the front hall. Whose shoes are those sticking out from under the couch?”
I slunk over and picked them up. “Sorry. I didn’t see them. Do you really think she’s going to check for dust?”
“No.” Dash shook his head. “On TV, human women don’t actually expect their mates to be neat.
We’re not bad as males go, but if she’s coming to judge us, she isn’t the right female for us.
I think we did a nice job on straightening up and the shop is eat-off-the-floor immaculate as always.
” With the sensitive equipment out there, it had to be kept that way.
“Let’s cook a frozen pizza, have a couple of beers, and go to bed early so we’re rested and ready to enjoy her visit. Good idea?”
We both had to admit it was. “All we can be is ourselves,” I said. “And we don’t want her to be anything other than what she is. If she is our fated mate, this will work out.”
Thus relieved, we did just as Dash suggested and had a nice, relaxing evening of frozen pizza and a beer or two apiece. Then an early bedtime to make the next day get here more quickly.
Aideen arrived in the early afternoon, looking even more beautiful if possible in jeans and a light-blue hoodie over a scoop-necked gray tee. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a ponytail, showing off her graceful neck. Everything about her was lovely, and I would gladly have looked at her all day.
Except that would have been weird.
So, instead, we greeted her with a kiss on the cheek each and took her right to the shop for the grand tour.
“When you said you made toys, I pictured something a little less…modern?” She walked from station to station, asking questions and making us even prouder of our operation. When she’d made the full circuit, she paused, studying the screen in front of her. “You’re making an android?”
“A what?” Comet looked from her to the screen and back again. “It’s a robot.”
“And it’s top secret, for a very special client,” Dash said. “Which, technically, we shouldn’t have shown anyone.”
“I won’t tell.” She tilted her head to the side. “If I’m not mistaken, all androids are robots, but all robots are not androids. I remember that from a movie, I think.”
Dash moved to darken the screen, but Comet covered the button. “Wait. Android. That’s a robot that looks human, isn’t it? I wonder if using that term would solve the problems I’ve been having.”
The AI was gone, the update cleared, but we’d still been struggling with some of the features.
“Do you think it could be that easy?” I moved in to watch.
“Let’s find out.” Comet typed just a few letters then stepped back. “Oh. My. Goddess. Aideen, you did it! You’re a genius.” To my shock, he gave her a big hug, lifting her off her feet. “Thank you.” He set her down and flushed bright red. “Thanks.”
We traipsed into the house and gave her that tour as though it never happened because Comet was the one of us who had been hesitating, and neither Dash nor I wanted to do anything to spoil his step forward.
Dinner was nice, more than nice, sitting around the table and sharing food with the female, my deer and I were sure she was our fated mate.
Conversation flowed easily, and we wound up sitting at the table for hours, just talking.
Like the lunch we had together, we were at ease, with a layer of attraction always present.
“Oh my gosh it’s dark.” Aideen was carrying some of the dishes into the kitchen, after insisting on helping clean up, when she passed a window and stopped. “I was having such a nice time, I didn’t realize.”
The idea of our female driving an hour on the highway in the dark did not sit well with me. “It sure is getting late. Aideen, could we talk you into spending the night? We have a very nice guest room you could use.”