Page 16 of Codi
I pull away. My son’s being a little too quiet out there, for one, and we need to get moving. I leave the room and find Lucas playing with a dinosaur toy in his hands, the one he’s elected to bring along for the car ride.
Codi follows me out as I call for my son. “Lucas, do you need to use the bathroom?”
“No,” Lucas says, but Codi pauses and gazes intently at him.
“Are you sure?” he asks. “Your bladder appears to be at 87 percent capacity.”
I have to cover my mouth to stop myself from laughing as Lucas hesitates just enough. Codi smiles and rises to his feet, taking his hand. “Why don’t we try and see?”
As if I needed another reason to brand Codi a total dreamboat. I’ve been struggling with potty-training for Lucas for an entire year. Sometimes he loves it; sometimes he can’t be bothered. But ever since Codi showed up, he’s been excited to graduate from pull-up diapers and hasn’t had a single accident. If I had a million dollars and didn’t get so hung up on having to be unique from everyone else, I’d give every single mother I know a Codi model.
He emerges from the bathroom with an amused smile, looking at me. “It’ll be a few minutes.”
“How do you do it?” I ask him. That smile of his has me grinning like a fool. I try to look away and play it cool, the way I usually do with men, but I just can’t seem to get the upper hand in this little flirtatious game we’ve been playing. “When I try to get him to sit still it’s like pulling teeth.”
Codi beams at me cheerily. “It’s the programming. Works like a charm.”
“Works like a charm?” I suppress a small giggle, feeling like a damn smitten school girl. “Didn’t realize you were programmed with phrases like that.”
An old classic song plays softly on my record player, a relic of a lost age when you could hold music in your hands, instead of digitally on a device. I like to pretend I’m old-school from time to time. I leave it on when I’m home. “I should probably turn that off.” I smile at him. “It’s one of my favorites.”
“The song?” Codi joins me in the living room, staying within earshot of Lucas.
“Yeah. My dad used to dance with my mom after I went to bed around the living room. I’d sneak out and watch when they thought I was asleep.”
Codi holds his hand out to me. “May I try something?” he asks, his white eyes gazing into mine, seeing through me.
I hesitate, but my curiosity gets the best of me and I take it. “Yes.”
A soft breath escapes me as he slowly pulls me into him. I’m not sure what he’s up to, but I want to see where it goes.
Codi doesn’t let go of my hand and places the other on my waist. Then, without any trepidation or clumsiness, he leads me in a dance around the room. It isn’t fancy ballroom dancing or that awkward side-to-side swaying I remember doing with my prom date in the high school gym. It’s slow. Intimate.
The way he holds my hand clasped in his, gentle and steady as we move, looking into my eyes, threatens to undo me right there on the spot. No man has ever danced with me just because he could. So many questions pour through my head.
“Is this something most androids do with their owners?” I ask quietly and instantly want to kick myself.Wow, Denise, good job. That’s romantic.
“I don’t think so, no,” Codi replies. He hasn’t taken his eyes off me, and he gently caresses the small of my back over my jacket with his thumb. “I can’t explain why. I just wanted to do it, so... I did.”
That intrigues me. I didn’t know androids could do something they wanted for no other reason than just because. “Do you think it’s maybe something you remember from before?”
“Maybe,” Codi says after a moment, looking unsure. “There are times where something seems familiar, but I cannot place it. I’m malfunctioning from damage, perhaps.”
“Codi!” Lucas calls in his little voice from the bathroom.
“Duty calls.” Codi smiles and lets me go, turning and leaving me there in the living room to help my son. I watch him go with more questions than answers. I allowed him to stay because Oliver said he wouldn’t hurt me, that his inhibitor chip was intact. Something about that bothers me. In the moment, I was thinking about Lucas’s safety. Becca’s words of warning, how those restraining bolts do more harm than good, resonate in my memory.
Codi doesn’t deserve to be held back, bereft of his own independence. I want that damned thing out of him. I want a dance like that again, but with the reassurance Codi is truly free to do it, of his own choice. I don’t want to second-guess this.
I want to help him in any way I can. Silently treasuring a handful of minutes lost in a stolen little dance in my living room, I put those thoughts aside. Perhaps the engineers at the Tin Man’s Heart can shed some light on it for me.
* * *
After paying the parking meter, the Tin Man’s neon sign flickers in welcome as we enter. Opening the door causes a little bell to jingle and a man with deep umber skin in his thirties emerges from the back to greet us. He’s wearing a pair of worn jeans, a simple red T-shirt, and a smile.
“Hey. What can I do for you?” His eyes find Codi easily enough.
I hold Lucas’s hand so he can’t run off, but he’s pulling and trying to wring himself free, dying to peer at some refurbished androids behind a display case, one of whom, a pretty female, waves at him. “Are you Kyrone?”
