Page 10 of Nolan
I’m beaming so wide my cheeks are already hurting. I rattle off my number to him before I forget.
“I’ll send you a message,” he says.
“Where is Apollo, anyway?” I ask, glancing past him.
“I think one of your parents called, he’s stepped away,” Nolan replies.
I have questions whirling about in my head. He just asked for my number. It’s not like there’s wedding bells ringing in my head or anything crazy like that, right? He just said he’d like to talk more. It’s no big deal.
Still, I have to ask. “Is Apollo cool, with this?”
Nolan’s answer is diplomatic. “Honestly, I didn’t ask. But he asked me when I met you to make sure you felt comfortable in my presence, and to make you feel welcome. He explained what happened.” His expression sobers up. “Sorry about your job. I hope you know, that’s not my directive. And I don’t think it should be any android’s directive, taking people’s livelihoods.”
“It’s okay,” I say quickly, though I’m touched. Both that Apollo told him to make me feel welcome, and that he’s being sensitive to my situation. Normally I’d be embarrassed, but it’s actually pretty sweet.
And I’m okay with him not asking for Apollo’s permission. For right now, anyway. Maybe my brother would love to play the protective role, since he kind of missed those cues in my younger years. But for right now, it’s nobody’s business if we’re only communicating.
Take it easy. We flirted. That’s it, so far. And he’s supposed to make me feel welcome. Maybe that’s all this is. Just a friendly exchange. Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Mia. “So . . . I’ll talk to you soon?”
Nolan nods with a faint smile as Apollo approaches us both, shoving his cell phone in his pocket. He pinches his brow at me, glancing at Nolan quizzically. “Sorry about that. Mom just wanted to make sure you’re safe and sound.”
“Looks that way,” I reply, waving a little at Nolan. “Nice meeting you.”
“Good night, Mia,” Nolan replies. “The pleasure was mine.”
On the way home with Jessica, I’m trying to chill out and hide it, play it cool, but I’m walking on air. I just landed in New Carnegie, and I’ve already managed to meet the sexiest man I’ve ever seen in my life, bionic or otherwise.
“You look like you’re in a good mood,” Jessica remarks. “Excited about the new job? It’s not bad, right? I know it’s not Paris, but we do good here.”
“It’s amazing,” I reassure her. “And yeah, I’m in a good mood. So far this is turning out great.”
Jessica smiles and focuses on the road. I could tell her about Nolan, but I think I just want to keep it to myself for a little while until I get settled in, at least, and I wouldn’t Jessica to tell Apollo just yet. So much has happened in just one day.
And I can’t help but wonder when I’ll see him again.
2
Nolan
My gratification drive is practically running laps around my motherboard beneath the cool, neutral exterior I don like a mask when I return to Apollo’s side.
“What was that about?” Apollo asks, bewildered, with just the slightest twinge of suspicion—enough that I have to be careful right now, or the ice beneath my feet will become dangerously thin. We walk together back to the station with a moonless sky hanging over our heads, the only light of the evening coming from the white glow of the turn-of-the-century lampposts that line the Belmont streets.
“Nothing, just small talk,” I say with a shrug, ignoring the uncomfortable pulse that washes over my body.
Deception. I’m technically not supposed to be capable of lying. It’s against my programming to do it. But I can omit certain truths, and what I told him wasn’t a lie—it was small talk. Just happened to have a ten-digit phone number attached to it.
I can’t let Apollo know that his little sister gave me her number. No matter how guilty it makes me feel. Not until I better understand what’s going on, so I can figure out how to handle it.
This isn’t like me. When Apollo mentioned excitedly that Mia was moving here to be closer to family, to live somewhere more affordable—to essentially start over, find her feet again—I didn’t think twice about it.
But then my gratification drive latched on to her the moment she tried to offer me something to eat. It was odd at first. Almost uncomfortable, like the uncertainty I felt the first time I walked into a blazing fire, unproven.
It was so new. I always thought Apollo was my person. When I was first activated, it was in front of my entire ladder. Apollo was the one who really took initiative to embrace me. To others, at first, I was just a fancy new toy. They were never cruel, but curious, inquisitive, encouraging me to push my limits. But Apollo treated me like a person. He took me under his wing, taught me things, how to behave more like a human than a machine.
But resting my eyes on Mia was like being connected to that activation cylinder again, starting over. My cooling systems had to initiate. Errors were littering my optics about an internal temperature spike, and my battery began to drain a little faster than normal.
I never expected this to happen. And my grat drive freaked out when I left without having any guarantee of seeing or speaking with her again. I had to go back. I had to make some kind of permanent connection, or I might short circuit.
