Page 45 of The Genius
That hurt. It was time to bring out the facts and put him in his place. “You were there to have sex, and I have a form signed by you that states you were a willing participant to a sexual act.”
“Yes, but not with you.”
“What’s the difference? You asked for an old prototype because you were horny and wanted ‘release’.” I held up my fingers for quotation marks and spoke loud and fast.
“The difference is that I know you, Shelly.”
I scoffed. “You don't know me. You didn't even recognize me.”
“True, but that’s because I was expecting a robot. I didn’t ask to sleep with a human.”
“And now you’re scarred for life?” I flung the words at him with thick sarcasm. “Funny, since I remember you enjoying it.”
“I’m not denying that I enjoyed it. That’s not the point. The point is, Shelly, that you were this kid and I never...”
I swung my head to face him and interrupted. “I'm not a kid anymore. I'm a grown woman, a psychologist, biologist, engineer, and award-winning designer. I'm twenty-five years old. In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been a girl for a long time.”
Marco’s eyes stared at me. “I fucking noticed alright.”
It was like all the air went out of me, and I just sat there spent and tired.
“Better?” he asked me after a pause.
I frowned at him.
“I do it to my students sometimes when they’re scared. I anger them. It beats being afraid.”
“You provoked me on purpose?”
“Uh-huh.” He kept looking at me. “You’re welcome.”
“Oh, now I’m supposed to thank you for making me feel bad about myself?”
“You’re calmer now, aren’t you?”
I was too tired and miserable to care about politeness. “You accused me ofrapingyou,” I said in a blaming tone.
Marco remained calm. “Yeah, I knew that detail would get to you. A little far-fetched, but it did the job, didn’t it?
“So now you’re saying that I didn’t rape you?”
He scoffed. “Of course, you didn’t rape me. I wanted to fuck you, for sure. It just got weird when I learned your real identity.”
My mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.
“Come on, Shelly, you have to admit that you were shaking with fear and now you’re not.”
I shook my head, too confused by his strange logic to know what to say. The drone had landed on a rooftop that I didn’t recognize, and because of our argument, I hadn’t questioned what we were doing here. Now I turned my head and looked around. “Where are we?”
“My place.”
“I thought you were taking me home.”
“That was the plan, but you seem too upset for me to feel comfortable leaving you alone. It’s better if I keep an eye on you.”
“No thanks.” I hugged myself and looked away.
“Come on, it’ll be fine. We got off on the wrong foot, but this could give us a chance to get to know each other again.”
