Page 58 of Nolan
My mind wanders, remembering what my BioNex creator, Dr. Genevieve Taylor, told me once during my first recalibration. Despite the company’s attempts to cater to corporations, businesses, factories, they cannot deny the inherence, the foundation, of our original programming.
Androids are meant for families, and in every family, there’s always one we bond with more than others. It’s inevitable. We gravitate toward them, home in on their wants, needs, commands. We were meant to make human life easier, better, happier. Someone needs us, and we need them.
I didn’t understand what Dr. Taylor meant. Then, as I settled in with the department, I calculated that it was Apollo.
I miscalculated.
The moment Mia walked into my life, something in me evolved.
“Nolan?” She brings me back to reality. “You all right?”
“Fine.” I bury my face in her neck, keeping my arms wound around her soft, curvaceous figure.
So long as Mia is with me, I always will be.
9
Mia
Somehow, during talking to Nolan in between our bouts of lovemaking, I fell asleep. I don’t remember doing it. But when he gently rouses me with a few sweet kisses to my mouth, cheek, and temple, I open my eyes and see it’s still dark outside.
“Time to go?” I whisper, glancing at him and stealing a kiss.
“Yeah, so the guys don’t notice you.” He helps me gather my clothes, and I get dressed with his assistance. Not that I need it, but he’s so gentle when pulls my dress down over my hips and threads his fingers through my hair. “But I wish you didn’t have to.”
Last night was amazing. It wasn’t even just the sex, it was how much ground we covered. About me, about him. I’ve never opened up to anyone the way I did to Nolan. Something about the way he looked at me with those bright white eyes, and all my thoughts, my dreams, my strengths and insecurities came spilling out of me like a dam opened.
Like, what if I don’t have what it takes to do what Jessica does and become a designer myself? Or what if I try and try and try, and it doesn’t matter—I still don’t make it? What if I’m just a burden to my family? If not to my parents, then to Apollo and Jess? I want to make it all up to them, stand on my own two feet, make them simultaneously proud and pay them back for all they’ve done. Somehow working for Jess just doesn’t seem like enough.
My upbringing didn’t leave a lot of room for vulnerability. I can’t remember ever feeling comfortable opening up to my parents, or even some of my close friends. I even apologized for talking about it.
Nolan never judged me. Not once. In fact, he seemed mystified about my apology. “What are you sorry for?”
“I don’t know. I guess I just feel like I’m talking too much.”
“I like it when you talk. I want to hear everything. Don’t stop.”
So I didn’t. And when it was his turn, I listened as he talked about the thanklessness of his job. About how even though Apollo and the Weekenders were great, the weekday guys didn’t embrace him quite so willingly. About the curfews, the limitations when entering certain establishments that either refuse or can’t afford expensive android scanning equipment for safety.
About TerraPura, and that horrible confrontation with the police android.
I wish there was somewhere we could go; somewhere he could always be himself, without hiding his bionic nature. And that’s when something clicks inside me.
Accomplishing my dreams isn’t just about me anymore. It’s also about Nolan.
I can’t say it aloud. I’m too scared, I’m not ready. But what if everything goes right here? What if I could support us both? What if I keep working hard and really make it big—big like Kyrone Johnson, the newest billionaire of New Carnegie and the Western world since he founded the Bionic Fighting League, to where I have fuck-you money? Nolan and I could do anything we wanted, go anywhere.
Big dreams dance in my head. The logical side of me says, Slow down, Mia. Everything might go wrong.
But it could also go very, very right.
Normally I don’t think this in-depth about the future. I like living in the moment. But Nolan actually has me thinking about it. Jessica loves her business, but I don’t see myself working for her forever. But maybe I could be a marketing consultant as I keep working toward my big break into fashion. I’ll freelance for small businesses to help get them on their feet and flourish, teach them how to combat big businesses for the spotlight.
But when I picture my future, I see a small home. Not a crazy mansion or a penthouse, but a little condo somewhere warm, in a style that’s mine. Something with a cozy office for me to work from, maybe a cat. Marriage and kids like Apollo were never really part of my equation. But I can see Nolan there with me.
I want him in my future.
“Someday,” I tell him as we get ready to sneak out together, pointing at the pole in the corner of the room. “You’re letting me slide down that thing. Deal?”
