Page 43 of CHOICE Lover
Why does he always say the wrong thing when it comes to her? Because she’s a human woman. She’s dangerous, and his self-preservation instincts are nonexistent. He replays their conversation in his mind. There has to be a way to backtrack.Hold on. “Not that I’m trying to date you, but why wouldn’t you date me? What is wrong with me?”
She whirls, marching back toward him to jab her finger into his chest. “You think manupartners can provide human companionship, and I think that’s whacko. This society has a serious superficiality problem. Like rotten candy.”
“Rotten candy?”
“Yeah, everyone looks pretty—like perfectly manicured lawns, but people. You have access to all of this entertainment. Choices to suit every whim, but it’s all a veneer. The entire experience is empty. Like rotten candy—it looks like it might taste good, so you have a lick, only for a foul taste to fill your mouth, but you’re supposed to smile and act like you like it.” She flings a hand in his direction. “Then you get cavities!”
“Cavities?” he asks. She definitely needs a scan. He has no idea what she’s talking about. What are cavities? It’s clear that his lust was misplaced.
She must sense he doesn’t understand because she says, “Cavities are rotten teeth.”
“But how would society rot your teeth?”
She throws her hands in the air, letting the blanket fall to the ground. “I meant it metaphorically!”
He gestures back at her emphatically. “You are precisely why I created manupartners. Real people are a colossal hassle!” Mentally, heshifts kissing Electra Lynch into the mistakes column. He also mentally decrees,No more advice from Tommy.
Res6 takes her hand and drags her out of the simulation chamber. She’s welcome to spend the rest of her life in his Zorgdamn room for all he cares. Thankfully, for the first time since he’s known her, she doesn’t resist.
12 – Chryl
Res6
October 21, 2390.
631,452—that’s the number of steps Res6’s m-volt has registered since Electra came into his life twenty-one days ago. That is over thirty thousand steps per day and 33.3 percent higher than his normal daily average. Electra Lynch is to blame. His pacing, mainly outside her door, can account for most of it. The rest are from the walking desk in his office, where he is now, still thinking about her. That maddening, tempting, irritating, beautiful woman.
Fuck. He runs his hand down his face, massaging his eyes as he does. The problem is getting worse.
Why did he haveto kiss her?
He blurted out some poor excuse about getting caught up pretending she’s a manupartner. The unfortunate truth is, no one’s ever looked at him the way she does. Tease him like that. Her very presence seems to hold back the inevitable wave of grief that always comes when he thinks about Jerme. She was about to accuse him of trying to date her. So, in a move he’s still trying to reconcile, he kissed her. And for Zorg’s sake, she kissed him back.
Is a real woman what he’s been missing this entire time? It goes against everything he stands for. Not to mention his plan with his brother, or that his customer base will think he’s a hypocrite if they find out what she is, which would be terrible for his company. Considering she equated him and his world to rotten candy, plus said they would never date, it isn’t worth it. She isn’t worth it. How foolish of him to let his guard down, even for a moment.
He needs a manupartner to help him with these urges that are getting more insistent by the day.Another great idea.
He steps off the walking desk in his office and shuts down his system. He could select one and take the time to activate it, but that would extend his Electra problem another week. Unless the current Jerme trial succeeds, which is unlikely given how quickly the first ones failed. There’s just no time to grow a manupartner. He’s in crisis mode. He flings his office door open and marches through it straight to the bank of elevators that will take him downstairs to the recycle station. A lighted sign flashes above the sleek metal doors: Momentary Service Disruption.
He and Electra got caught up in something neither of them was prepared for. His stomach twists uncomfortably.Jerme, is this what happened to you?
He taps his foot, suppressing the urge to shout at something. Why did she have to make him feel so unmoored? He was perfectly fine before she appeared. Now, not only does he have to manage himself,but he also has to wade through the emotions of a real human woman. A nearly impossible task. He’s obligated to share his space with her. Inconvenient. Therefore, he must interact with her, which leads to his unfortunate interest in her well-being. Inconvenient isn’t the right word for that.
Dangerous.
Right. But he invented a solution to this problem. He’s been stupid not to have used it. He rushes to the emergency exit, running down the stairs before he loses his nerve. Staff scatter as he throws open the doors to the M Quadrant recycling station. Some of the staff here have probably never seen him in real life, but they all know who he is. He barks at the first person he sees, “Where are the units waiting to be recycled?”
They jump at his brisk tone, but nod toward a door labeled Holding Rooms: Authorized Personnel Only. He approaches the door’s locking panel, doing a quick retina scan. The door opens and he enters a room full of manupartners waiting for decommissioning. He scans the rows, looking for a suitable specimen. When he spots a woman with unblemished pale skin, big blonde hair and even bigger breasts—the exact opposite of Electra—he paces over to her. “What’s your name?”
The unit blinks twice, as if coming out of a trance. Then she gives him a feral grin. “Chryl. What’s yours, handsome?”
“Res6. I’m your new owner.”
Her eyes brighten, and she loops her arm through his. “Looks like it’s my lucky day!” she gushes.
As he escorts her into the SAT, he retreads the mental gymnastics it took to convince himself that a new manupartner as a buffer was a great idea. Anything to distract him from the temptation in his unit until his brother is back. But as Chryl rubs a burning hole in his thigh, and it takes everything in him not to rip her hand away, he’s having second thoughts.
After a tense fifteen-minute SAT ride, he’s ushering Chryl into his unit, having third and fourth thoughts. The third: with Chryl, the body double manupartner, and the actively growing Jerme, the spare room will be uncomfortably cramped. The fourth: the irate woman whose deadly stare might as well be a sparkler beam aimed at him.
