Page 44 of Fembot
Lucky half expected Calvin to rattle off some sort of statistic about how much REM sleep Lucky got and what was the optimal amount for a human male his age. But, thankfully, his little fembot kept any incriminating information to himself.
“The zoo wore me out.” Lucky stretched then unbuckled his seatbelt. “I feel like I could go back to sleep,” he said as he climbed out of the car after Winston.
“Then I guess you don’t want your present yet.”
“No, no, that’s not what I said.” Lucky wrapped an arm around Calvin’s waist. “Back me up, buddy.”
“If you’re still tired, perhaps you should rest.” Calvin slung his arm around Lucky’s shoulders and steered them toward the front door.
“Traitor. I want my present. Don’t you?”
“I am a patient person, Lucky,” Calvin said.
Before Lucky could form a response to that, they stepped inside and were greeted by Novak and his severe expression.
“Lucky,” Novak said. “Your dad was here looking for you.”
Lucky flinched. Not good. That was definitely not good. “He’s been trying to call me, but I’ve been ducking him. What did you tell him?”
Novak rolled his eyes. “Nothing. I told him you were out and wouldn’t be back until late, and that I’d tell him to call you the minute you got in. Seriously, man, call him back. That man is fucking scary.”
Lucky forced a smile. “Try growing up with him.” He pressed a kiss to Calvin’s cheek. “Why don’t you go top up your battery, and I’ll call my dad?” Lucky didn’t need Calvin around to take his heartbeat or his respiratory rate or anything that might give him away.
“Okay.” Calvin gave Lucky’s shoulder a squeeze before he let him go. He pulled the ticket stubs from his back pocket and smoothed them out. “Winston, where can I keep these?”
“I’ll show you,” Winston was quick to offer, and Calvin followed him up the stairs and Lucky had to wonder if he got Winston out of here on purpose.
“I’m going to step out back and give my dad a call.”
Novak’s brow was furrowed, and he chewed on his bottom lip. “Are you sure everything’s okay?”
“It’s all good,” Lucky promised.
Novak gave Lucky the side-eye, but Lucky slipped away before he could be interrogated further.
Calling his dad was the last thing he wanted to do, but if he was showing up here, that meant shit was serious and Lucky had to deal with it now while he could hopefully contain the fallout.
He strode through the house and exited out the back door. He walked to the back corner where a small fire pit and some benches sat. Lucky dropped down onto one of the benches and called his dad.
“Lucien.” His father’s voice was hard but tinted with exhaustion. “You’ve been avoiding me.”
“I was out with friends.” He wasn’t about to tell his dad that he was out on a date with his best friend and their shared robot lover.
“I heard from the dean, Lucien. And I bet you know why.”
Lucky took a deep breath. “I’m aware.”
“Failure is not tolerated, Lucien.”
If Lucky closed his eyes, he’d be able to picture the perfect posture, the rolled back shoulders and the angle of his dad’s nose as he looked down it at Lucky. “I’m sorry.”
“Do you have any idea what it cost me to see that you’ll graduate?”
Lucky’s stomach twisted. “I didn’t want you to do that.”
“What you want is irrelevant,” his dad snapped, and Lucky shrank back out of sheer habit. “What you want is to gallivant around the country when you should be studying. What you want is to be a waste of space while other people pay your way. What you want is to be an embarrassment on the family name.”
Lucky’s voice got trapped in his throat the way it often did when his dad laid down the law. His chest tightened to the point of pain and left him unable to draw a full breath.
