By my Side
Page 3
She just lets him hold her silently and closes her eyes. She says, “thank you for sticking around.”
Gert is her best friend when Dakota leaves. She cries almost every single night. Gert keeps passing her tissues and she says to him, "you know, he was the only one who ever paid attention to me. Who ever wanted to get to know me... I never had any friends other than him--other than androids and robots. I don't care if he felt obligated to care. I felt really loved. My parents always just ignored me--everyone else did, too."
***
Dakota meets up with his new wife, Mary. In contrast to Andrea, she's a tall beauty with yellow hair and high-cheek bones. He can't tell if she's not his type or if Andrea has just become his ideal type.
Her apartment is spotless and she shakes his hand like he's on an interview and says, "hello, I'm Mary. Dakota, right?"
Dakota is frowning and looking past her. "Right..."
Unlike Andrea, she is not funny or quirky. She doesn't like robots and she didn't quit a higher paying job to twirl a sign because she doesn't like people very much like Andrea. Instead, Mary likes social sciences and going to college. He is cold to her, even though he doesn't mean to be and she seems very nice.
When the end of the night comes, he doesn't want to sleep with her.
"What's wrong?" Mary asks.
He tells her the truth. "I'm sorry. I still love my previous wife."
Mary is surprised. She was told that he had a previous wife, but that it wouldn't be a problem from her social worker.
Mary doesn't know what to say, but she recognizes it's best not to push him. "Alright, you don't have to..."
***
There is no reason why Andrea can't co-habit with someone else, but she was thoroughly attached to Dakota. She is not attracted to anyone else, and she tended not to trust anyone else.
She works hard at her robot designs. Her boss is shocked when she introduces a robot she made to him. It's just a bare bones robot that's designed to do simple tasks and doesn't talk much, but her boss is impressed. He lets her be one of his mechanics after that.
Andrea dives into her work. Somehow, even though he's not around, she wants Dakota to be proud of her.
***
Three months pass and Andrea realizes she feels very sick in the morning. She goes to the doctor and finds out she is pregnant.
She isn't sure what to do, but she tells her social worker about the situation. Her social worker tells her that situations like this happened all the time, and it was up to the male whether he wanted to come back to her or not.
Andrea was not surprised when he parked in front of her apartment building.
Gert watches them from afar, leaning on Dakota's car. He decided to move out a week ago, but they invited him to their reunion. He knows they will be okay now. Andrea can't wait for Dakota to come up to her apartment. She waits for him outside in the parking lot. Andrea runs up to Dakota and he drops his suitcase and holds out his arms. She dives into them and he spins her around in the air.
Gert smiles. The previous seven years he wasted with his girlfriend didn't matter: this is why he is here.
The End