Page 30 of Fembot
Winston had been gone for thirteen hours, fifty-seven minutes, and twenty-four seconds.
Calvin put the groceries away, making sure to rotate the stock. And then he thought about ACR-4X11 again. Why wasCalvin so different? Was it because Calvin was a newer model? ACR was old by robot standards. Technology moved at a breakneck pace. Calvin was likely obsolete by now.
Obsolete.
Did Lucky and Winston think of him as obsolete?
The idea that they might made his code race to the point that it nearly caused a system failure. Calvin threw up some failsafes to stop the errors from compiling. Once he’d gotten himself under control, he ran a systems diagnostic.
There was nothing amiss.
But he’d almost crashed.
To test, he again ran the word obsolete through his mind. When his code started to race again, he was able to get ahead of the errors and get himself under control.
Winston had been gone for thirteen hours, fifty-nine minutes, and thirteen seconds.
Fourteen hours and Calvin had nearly had two system failures in his absence.
He needed more data. Going from room to room, he examined every item to determine if he liked it or not. He was indifferent to things like food unless he thought about making food for his humans. That made his circuits light up.
Calvin liked the big windows, but only during the day when they let light in. He didn’t care about the television, but he liked sitting on the couch with his humans when they watched things on it.
He liked the clothes Lucky had let him wear. The skirt. He liked the way Winston looked at him when he dressed that way. Lucky had told Calvin that he could wear whatever he wanted from Lucky’s closet whenever he wanted.
Lucky’s room was a mess, which Calvin did not like, and he spent a few minutes cleaning it for Lucky before he opened the closet.
Calvin didn’t know about fashion, but that was easily fixed. After downloading some fashion advice from various sources, he ran them through his processors, searching for things that made his circuits light up and flagging them for future reference.
Armed with knowledge, he picked out his own outfit.
Lucky had a plaid skirt that was very short. Calvin liked the short skirts the best. He knew he had well-built, aesthetically pleasing legs, and the short skirts showcased them. He found a pair of tall stockings that only went as high as mid-thigh. Being extra careful as to not ruin Lucky’s clothing, he put the stockings on.
Calvin was unable to find a shirt that he liked, but everything he’d downloaded told him his outfit was incomplete. Spying a tie in a color that complimented the skirt, he slipped it over his head and left the knot loose.
Winston had been gone for fourteen hours, thirty-five minutes by the time Calvin climbed the stairs to his room to wait for him.
Winston had been gone for fifteen hours when he returned.
Calvin’s circuitry lit up when he heard Winston and Lucky enter the house.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN_
IT’S BASIC MATH
Lucky had reachedthe limit of what he could take when it came to Winston ignoring him. So far, his plan to get Winston out of his head was working. They were out together, enjoying a no-expenses-spared kind of date. Lucky might not be good for much, but he did have money of his own. Thanks to a trust fund from his grandparents.
Winston wasn’t a hard guy to figure out. At least, Lucky didn’t think so. Winston wanted what everyone wanted—love and acceptance. He wanted to know that he wasn’t messing things up. Winston had always been so careful to let Lucky know exactly where they stood. They might have the most compatible hearts on the planet, but Winston wasn’t willing to let Lucky settle for anything, or anyone, who couldn’t give him everything he needed.
Lucky sometimes hated that he needed to be topped. In a perfect world, he and Winston would have been two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly together. But their world wasn’t perfect.
Not yet.
After dinner, Lucky took Winston for ice cream. They strolled through the park, Winston eating his bowl of pistachio, which was a horrendously unappealing shade of green. Lucky hadchocolate, no syrup, no sprinkles. It didn’t take much to make him happy.
“If we were back in my hometown, we’d be walking along the pier instead of through the park,” Lucky said. The pier was the place to take a date back home. It was lined with restaurants ranging between fast food and flip-flops to fine dining, jacket required, tiny stacked foods.
“Do you miss the ocean?”
