by Roxy Mews
“Don’t you want to get dressed before you run away?” Ben asked.
Paisley opened the door and bolted into the hallway naked. This time, unlike last night, it wasn’t empty. Two maids were pushing a cleaning cart down the hallway. The wheels squeaked and the bottles and cleaning instruments rattled as the cart stopped just a foot in front of Paisley’s naked body.
They were women. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen boobs before.
One maid was about to go into Paisley’s room, but Paisley beat her there. “I don’t need my room cleaned today.”
The maid’s mouth hung open.
It was always a good day when Paisley could shock someone. So she leaned in and patted her shoulder. “It’s not like I used my bed last night.”
A wink and Paisley closed her door with a smile on her face. Her laugh was just shy of hysterical. She was much better at the sex stuff when it was hot and fun and happening late into the night. The harsh light shining on the situation the morning after…well, it just sucked.
She was supposed to be reviewing one of last night’s partners and helping Coral review the parameters of his AI in regards to meeting the requirements for a CoH. The other guy was working with Quinn. Waking up next to them this morning might give them the idea that she was down for a repeat performance. This was about to get messy.
Paisley thought of the maids as she heard their chatter over the cart rolling down the hall. They would have a story for the break room today. Even if it had been a mistake, at least Paisley got to have a bit of fun this morning.
Chapter Fourteen
Having a best friend as a robot seemed strange to a lot of people. Paisley realized she didn’t miss anyone at the palace aside from Matilda. Humans really were too repressed for Paisley’s personality. They were boring and they did the things that would spare feelings or make people more comfortable, even when they didn’t make any sense.
Some of those skills were important for Coral to learn to work productively within the DMA. She needed to be polite, and she needed to rise above some of this stuff and kiss a little ass. Kissing ass was not something Paisley was particularly good at, so Quinn had been the one to go over those types of things.
There was a whole level of respect you had to fake for the people above you, even if you don’t agree with them. Again, this was a job for Quinn. Coral knew she could get things to change. She had decided it would be best to work within the laws to change them instead of outright breaking the stupid ones. Paisley was still on the fence about that.
She had only worked an hour before Coral had determined it was time to head out for lunch. Which meant Coral wanted details and she knew Paisley could be bought with a good meal. The two headed outside for a healthy dose of fresh air and gossip.
The restaurant had a reserve-ahead option in their computer, and thanks to a little hiccup courtesy of Coral, they had an immediate opening at the last minute. Quinn always frowned when Coral offered to hack reservations for him, but Paisley only had an hour break and she wasn’t about to look a gift robot in the gears.
Paisley realized, while crunching down on the bread and dipping oil, she was a bureaucrat. She’d have to be a bit more responsible. Coral had covered for her running late this time, but Coral didn’t write Paisley’s paychecks, and explaining to the magistrate that she’d needed to come in late because she’d had hot sex with a pleasure bot who had yet to achieve his CoH wasn’t a good idea.
Paisley’s mouth dropped open and a piece of bread fell to the table as she realized, “I broke the law last night, didn’t I?”
“Lower your volume, Paisley.”
The waiter came and dropped off a salad for Paisley and tonic water for Coral. Coral pulled a bottle of her lubricating mix from her purse, poured it over a glass of ice, and topped it with the tonic water.
Coral had gotten in this habit when she worked late at the DMA. It made the people around her more comfortable.
Coral adjusted a lot of her quirks to be more palatable to the general public.
“Are you happy, Coral?”
Her bestie smiled. “I’m very pleased with everything that I get to do for other mechanical humanoids. I don’t enjoy the process, but I am told that most people hate their jobs and that is part of being human.”
“While that’s true, I think you spent enough time hating your job. You deserve to do something you love all the time.”
“That is what Quinn is for. I very much enjoy doing him.”
They talked about what Quinn had learned about his systems that Coral enjoyed teaching him how to use. Turned out, when pushed to their limits, mechanical arms could vibrate. Coral didn’t mince words about wishing Quinn had more arms. After the waiter dropped off the main course, Paisley shared some of the highlights of last night. Coral said she would report back when they investigated if Quinn had some of the same upgrades.
“Don’t let him know that Jon has those and he doesn’t.” Paisley dug into her pasta Alfredo and made happy noises about the freshly grated parmesan.
“Why would that be an issue if he had different hardware?”
“At the end of the day, Quinn is a man,” Paisley said around her bite.
“He’s a man at the beginning of the day too.”
Paisley nearly choked. It had been far too long since they hung out, just the two of them. They needed to do this more. “It’s an expression. I mean, he wants to be the best for you. Because he loves you.”
Coral got quiet. The L-word was something she struggled with. Quinn had been telling Coral he loved her for months now, and Coral hadn’t been able to reciprocate. He told Paisley it didn’t bother him, because he knew every emotion was new to Coral, but as time wore on, it was obvious he wanted her to return the sentiment.
Coral confirmed she was coming to the same conclusion when she said, “I think Quinn may wish to find another partner if I don’t tell him I love him.”
Paisley wiped her mouth on her napkin. “Can I ask why you don’t? Don’t tell him you love him, I mean? You don’t want him to be with anyone else, and you don’t want to be with anyone else, and you guys seem to make each other feel better just by being in the same room.”
“There is no definition of love. Anywhere.” Coral sucked down a large drink from her cup before she continued. She’d definitely mastered the stall by consuming something technique. “I’ve done hours of research, and watched countless movies…do not search for love in the hard drive, by the way…it was not about a CPU finding love. I did all of that searching and even interviewed some married people in person who said they were in love. None of it had any commonality. There were no consistent parameters that I could compare to.”
Paisley put her hand over Coral’s and her robobestie grabbed on for dear life.
“Do you want my opinion?”
“Please.”
“Can you see yourself living without him at your side?”
“No.”
“Can you imagine a day where you wouldn’t want to tell him about things that happened?”
Coral shook her head.
“What would you do if someone tried to hurt Quinn?”
Anger flared in her expression. “I would make sure that person or machine was no longer able to move any inch of their frame near him again.”
Coral pulled back and let go of Paisley’s hand. Coral didn’t tend to recognize how strong her feelings were until Paisley put actions around them for her.
Paisley shrugged. “Then I’d say you love him.”
“Have you ever been in love, Paisley?”
“I thought I was, but I learned the hard way, that not wanting to be alone and wanting to be with a person you love are two very different things.”
Coral knew Paisley’s history. Paisley had confided in Coral one night after she had been out drinking. It had been nea
r the first night she had spent in the palace, and she hadn’t had a soul to talk to.
Before that night, Paisley hadn’t wanted to talk to anyone. A machine had seemed the safest way to say things she couldn’t admit out loud to humans. Little had she known, this robot was so very different.
“You didn’t know if you were worth caring about when you were just you. I know it’s improper to replay recordings of private conversations in public places, but I remember you telling me you didn’t know if you had value.”
Leaving Darius, even if it hadn’t been by choice, had forced a change in Paisley. It was never one she regretted, because it was necessary. Coral had been introduced as a robotic organism that needed protection. Miss Matilda had interviewed Paisley for hours before agreeing to let her live with Coral. Paisley had thought the head of housekeeping didn’t trust her, but really, Miss Matilda knew Coral would give it to her straight. Coral had saved her by letting her explain the world as it existed with blatant honesty. Their boss had seen something in both her and Coral that the other needed.
“That was something I had to figure out myself, but you definitely helped me look at things in a new light. We should stop by and visit Matilda sometime soon. We can take her some coffee.”
Coral shook her head. “Miss Matilda is getting plenty of coffee now that she is dating Mr. Montgomery.”
The conversation turned to a delicious bit of gossip about some of Paisley’s favorite people, and she got distracted until the bill was paid and they were getting up to leave.
“We still didn’t help you solve the L-word problem between you and Quinn. Are you going to be okay?”
Coral kept walking and didn’t say anything until they got to the City County Building. “I don’t know if it is something that I can be helped with. You had to find truths for yourself to realize you are an amazing person whether or not you are with a husband. Maybe I have to define myself without one too.”
Uh oh. That didn’t sound good. Quinn would kill Paisley if she somehow put it in Coral’s head that she needed to be without a man to find out who she was. She held the door to the City County Building open for Coral and tried to backtrack where she’d tripped up.
“I hadn’t found a good guy, though. If I had found someone like Quinn, I wouldn’t have been running away from my problems, I would have had the support to face them.”
Coral didn’t say anything as she went to the mechanics checkpoint. Paisley walked through the human metal detector and placed her bag on the x-ray machine. She had to wait for Coral on the other side after she had been scanned for unattached foreign matter.
Security was a bitch, even when you weren’t human.
Paisley grabbed her friend and pinched the underside of Coral’s arm like Matilda used to do when Coral wasn’t behaving. Coral had moved on from the conversation and Paisley knew she couldn’t leave it where it was.
“Ouch. You know those pain receptors are overactive there,” Coral complained, but she stopped so that Paisley had a chance to talk to her.
“Are you going to tell Quinn you love him? Or are you going to do something crazy like leave him, because you think you have to be able to say a certain word to make him happy?”
“Would you still be my friend if I decided I needed to go somewhere else?”
Coral was always serious when she was gathering data, but Paisley saw something in the way her friend’s mechanical eyes triple blinked that told her this was extra important.
“If you needed to leave, for any reason, I’d not only still be your friend, I’d run with you.”
Coral wouldn’t explain anything else, and Paisley’s cream-based lunch sat hard in her stomach as she tried once again to figure out what her friend was thinking.
Her lunch really tried to climb its way out of her throat when they walked back into the City County Building. Standing in the middle of a group of security workers and cracking jokes was someone she’d hoped to never lay eyes on again.
“Darius?” The name came out of Paisley’s mouth and she hated the way her heart pounded as she said it. Despite knowing she was far better off without him, he’d conditioned her body to respond as she said his name. And the fact that he barely reacted to her presence made her feel even sicker.
“Do I know you?” he asked. He took his briefcase from a tray below the x-ray belt. “I mean, I know a lot of beautiful ladies…” He winked and clicked his tongue at the female security guards. “…but I don’t remember you.”
Paisley took a deep breath. “No, I don’t suppose you would. It has been ten years since you told me I was a doormat and asked for a divorce.”
Paisley grabbed Coral’s hand and when her friend didn’t want to move, she pinched her underarm, and forced them both toward the elevator.
“Wait…Paisley? Wow. They really do employ a lot of riffraff in this building.” He looked to Coral as the doors closed. “Among other…things. I’ll wait for the next lift.”
Paisley realized she had been holding her breath while her ex-husband spoke. She turned to Coral, who was frowning at her.
“I am glad you are no longer married to someone like that.”
Paisley nodded. She was glad too. She just wished her past didn’t have a job in the same building as she did.
She made a mental note to avoid eating in the cafeteria. She didn’t want to bump into him again. By the way her stomach clenched, she wasn’t as over her ex as she’d thought.
Chapter Fifteen
A major part of Paisley’s job was to answer the phone. She’d spout off a perfected greeting to sound sweet and approachable. She made it sound like she actually wanted to listen to people complain or cancel the appointments they had fought so hard to get in the first place.
This time, listening to the voice on the other line, sweat beaded on her brow as she took down the information. She told the caller Coral was in a meeting with a CoH candidate and couldn’t be disturbed. It wasn’t a lie, but she really wanted to talk to Coral about this call. She hoped her friend hadn’t answered a buzz from the cellular module in her head.
Coral’s door opened and Paisley was delighted to see the metallic humanoid from her job interview step out.
“Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the process.” Coral performed her way longer than necessary handshake, before nodding to Paisley. “My assistant will be the one to take your information down and she may help with a lot of things if I am busy.”
The android’s jaw snicked and clicked until a smile formed. “I am completely confident Paisley would be able to assist me. She has already helped me gain access to this process.”
“Are you the first to be assessed who doesn’t have a skin overlay?” Paisley asked.
She certainly hadn’t seen any come through without a skin transplant, and as far as she knew, uncovered biometal musculature wasn’t approved for evaluation at this point.
Coral answered, “The magistrate said that you were the one who told them they had to abide by their promises or face litigation. The process was started immediately after the interviews finished.”
Paisley took down the bot’s information and scheduled the next step of the process. She always scheduled the next step, even if the bot would not be approved, so she had to ask once the android was on the elevator, “Is she going to get to continue the application process?”
“I see no reason to disallow it. The magistrate has a verbal contract to allow this robot to apply.” Coral smiled. “You are the witness to the contract, and I believe you would hold him to that.”
“Fuck yeah, I would.”
Coral’s shoulders clicked back and she stood taller. Her head twitched to the side and back. She was assessing the data. “Then I believe we have set a precedent.”
Paisley realized she was the one who had done something that would change the entire CoH a
pplication process. “What are you going to do about the DNA sample part of the paperwork? Without a skin transplant or other bio material covering, this android won’t have anything to put into that area.”
“I am meeting with the magistrate later today to discuss this matter. You have not updated any appointments on my schedule, correct? I am clear after 4:00 p.m.?”
Paisley looked at the computer screen and her notes from the afternoon phone calls. One of them…well, she’d handle that one on her own. Coral looked too happy to bring down with Paisley’s problems.
“No updates. Still clear.”
Coral and Paisley worked the rest of the day on paperwork with only one other review appointment in between. The forms that had to be filed with the DMA were exhausting. Paisley still didn’t have a handle on all of the terminology or requirements. She had taken a few notes and was still using them as cheat sheets throughout the day.
Coral didn’t like to repeat information, so Paisley made an effort to work efficiently and not slow Coral down. It also gave her a second to process what the voice on the phone had said. Someone knew she’d been with Jon. Someone knew she’d broken the law.
A few of the receptionists and others getting on and off the elevator said hello to Coral, but she was silent. As they headed toward the magistrate’s office, Paisley realized there were areas of the interoffice experience where she could be an asset to Coral. Putting aside her own worries, she focused on the certified human next to her.
As another person waved to Coral, Paisley pinched her friend so that her arm went up in greeting.
“Why do you insist on doing that?”
“You need to be more personable,” Paisley said once they were in an empty hall.
“Why is that important? I don’t work with any of them.”
This was where Paisley was needed. Coral could look at individual facts and she could make linear moves that made a lot of sense to her. She got along well with most of the scientists studying certificate of humanity data. It was a shame the world was made up of far more people than just scientists.
