Page 48 of Ezra
“No.”
“Neither am I,” she quips.
“Then I guess we’re friends.”
“Okay, we’re friends.”
“Okay.”
We both fall into an awkward silence. In that moment, I get a message from Deion, asking for an update on how things are going. Rather than brief him now, I swiftly respond, asking him to meet me here before he heads into the office tomorrow morning.
Katrina breaks the silence first. “I suppose I should let you get to work.”
Work isn’t quite what I want to keep on my mind right now. I’m too focused on the energy between us, how it flows, how my systems respond to her every glance, the sound of her voice. “Deion will be stopping by tomorrow morning.”
She rolls her shoulders a little. “I’m going to shower and relax for the rest of the night, if that’s okay?”
“Asking permission from an android,” I tease her lightly, doing everything in my power not to imagine what she looks like when she’s showering. “How the tables have turned.”
“Very funny.” She scoops up Charlie and smothers him with kisses as he beeps. “Come on, Charlie.”
Lucky bot,I think to myself as she carries him off to the bathroom.
I’m downloading everything to the tablet and preparing all of the information that Deion will need to begin questioning museum employees, having listed all of them in order from most likely to be involved in the security footage tampering to least likely. Obviously, all the guards are at the top of this list, but that doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t be technologically savvy enough to perform a cover-up. Nonetheless, Jayne Rose and the other investigators are going to have their hands full going through everything I’ve accumulated from existing evidence.
When Katrina is finished showering, she dresses in silk pajamas and drapes herself on the couch, inserting small flat spheres into her ears as she pets and plays with Charlie. I check on her from time to time from my position near the windows.
The game seems to be her tossing Charlie gently to the end of the couch. He trills, then scampers back up her body to put himself back in her hands. This occurs over and over again. It entertains them both, and Katrina giggles.
“You silly boy,” she says softly and finally settles with him perched upon her chest. She glances at me. When our eyes meet, she quickly looks away and sinks lower into the couch.
I assume she doesn’t want to talk, but then she puts Charlie on the couch, sits up, and clears her throat. “Do you like music?”
I nod slightly. “Sure.”
“May I?”
She extends an earbud to me. I lower my head a little as she places it into my ear. The music is faint, upbeat and yet somehow simultaneously melancholy. Guitars, drums, and a saxophone stream through my audio receptors.
“It’s my favorite group,” she replies. “Fly by Midnight. They were big back in the twenties. My dad would listen to them when I was little. What do you think?”
“Not bad.”
“Do you have any favorites?” she asks tentatively.
Outside of family, no one has ever asked about my favorite anything. “Not really,” I admit. “It’s not something I’ve really thought about. I enjoy the sound, but beyond that... I’m not sure.”
“Well, when you figure it out, let me know.” She leaves the bud in my ear and returns to the couch, lying down and allowing Charlie to situate himself on her abdomen. She shuts her eyes and rests, content to simply listen. Soon, she’s dozed off, snuggled with Charlie amid a few decorative couch pillows on the sofa.
I listen with her. I’m reminded of Jayne, how she likes to play music in her ear when she’s working. Keeps her focused, she says. It does seem to help me work faster. The lyrics are typical of the human experience. Heartache, moving on, falling for someone new.
And Katrina wants me to experience it with her.
She’s much different than her father, from others in Humanity First. I’m not one to normally hope for anything, as it’s one of the more human emotions that has a tendency to elude me. I’ve been disappointed far too many times. By thedepartment that owns me. By work. By the prospect of lasting romantic relationships.
But I think she can do it. I hope she can. Humanity First wouldn’t be such a pain in our asses at the ACU if people like her were the ones with platforms, the ones speaking out.
I’ve made a new friend,I consider, pensive. One I didn’t expect. This could go a long way in ensuring cooperation with law enforcement, but that isn’t why I care.
