Page 53 of Nolan
I scoff. “I would never.”
“Never?”
“Well, not in your car.”
“You swear?”
“I swear.”
Jessica grins and tosses the fob to me. I catch it expertly. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Well, with Nolan, I can’t get knocked up and in trouble like somebody I know, so . . .”
She playfully bats me away, and I giggle. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”
“Be safe.”
My mind races as I drive to the fire department headquarters. So much has happened since I came here. New Carnegie, and by extension, Belmont, is called the City of Innovation. I’m finding myself, reinventing myself here. I have a family supporting me. Someday I want to support them too. My dreams of designing are slowly coming to fruition. I often doodle in my room or at Cyber Street in the back office in between my social media work. I hope we’ll hear back from Amber Rivera soon about that convention in New York. What I wouldn’t give to see Jessica get the international praise she deserves.
I’m not certain how I’ll make that dream a reality, but I know everything will come with time. What I am certain of is how I feel about Nolan.
I never expected to find anyone like him here. He was never a part of my plans, and yet now, I’m trying to include him in every vision, every dream, every fantasy. There may never be retirement for him, or at least, not for a long time, not until BioNex creates a more souped-up bionic down the line. I wonder if that will bother him someday, or if he’ll be happy to live his own life. If he’d like to live that life with me. I don’t mind being a sole earner if necessary. Someday I want to move out, have my own apartment. Would he be there with me?
I don’t even bother telling myself to slow down. I’m allowed to think of the future, dream of what I want it to look like. But no matter which way I dream it, Nolan is always there. I’m always fitting him in. And I would like to fit into his life too, if that’s what he wants.
I’m terrified of saying all of that out loud to him. It’s probably too early. But my mind is made up. My emotions are tied up just as tightly as his own gratification drive.
I try to think of not being with him. Being with someone else. And it’s becoming impossible for me.
I don’t know what that means, or if I’m losing my mind, but in this crazy, stupid, selfish world, Nolan is a shining light in a hellish darkness.
He’s the only one who makes sense.
Following Nolan through the headquarters after he lets me in the back makes me feel like a teenager sneaking around a lover’s lane.
We’re both cautious and quiet. Nolan leads me up two flights of stairs to a utility area and a ladder that leads to an attic. “They put you up here?” I ask, climbing up the ladder carefully after him.
“Yeah. This building was built back in the 1800s, if you can believe it. It’s been reconstructed quite a few times. The second floor was the barracks, and this used to be a storage area for animal feed.”
“Animal feed?” I marvel.
“Sure. Hay, oats. Firetrucks used to be horse-drawn carriages,” he says. “Belmont goes way back.”
“And firemen would sleep here?”
“Yes. Well, technically, they still do in the barracks downstairs. Just not up here.” He takes my hand and pulls me to him.
I straighten, instantly enchanted. I never really gave much thought to the fire department’s history, but I can appreciate it, knowing that Nolan respects it, belongs to it, is making his own. As I take it all in, I can’t help but laugh. “Did they decorate it for you?”
I didn’t think androids could become embarrassed, but Nolan chuckles and sheepishly rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah. I know, it looks like a kid’s room, right? Some of them were pretty excited when I joined the team. They may have gone overboard.”
Everything is firetruck themed. Between a few toys on some shelves and framed, old-fashioned black-and-white photographs of firefighters long past mounted on the walls, his room is half museum, half schoolboy. “I can relate. I think Apollo decorated my room like he thinks I’m in middle school. But I guess I did bring a fluffy stuffed unicorn, so it’s cute.”
I see a pole in the corner of the room and gasp, heading toward it. “Does that go down to the first floor?”
“Oh!” Nolan sounds excited as he walks with me to admire it. “Yeah. First day I came here, that was the first thing they made me do. Kind of a rite of passage.”
“Do they use it?”
