Page 41 of Fembot
In short, he found no reason for the way he was.
He didn’t relay this information to Winston or Lucky. He wasn’t sure what they would do with it. Would they want him repaired? Calvin didn’t feel broken, and the idea of someone messing around in his software gave him error messages as his systems threatened to overload.
He didn’t tell Winston or Lucky that either.
Winston returned early from class one day as the professor had dismissed everyone because of an emergency. Lucky was out still, at one of his own classes. Graduation loomed around the corner, and Calvin sensed an increase in the stress levels of his boyfriends.
Winston trudged up the stairs and threw himself face down on the bed. He didn’t move for almost a minute, and then he rolled over, beckoning to Calvin standing in his charger. At night, he curled up with Winston and Lucky and pretended to sleep by putting himself on power save mode. During the day, he charged when Winston was out.
Winston looked him up and down as he approached. “You look nice today.”
Calvin had chosen to wear a soft pink baby tee with a pair of velvet short shorts and ankle socks. He sat on the edge of the bed and laced his fingers together with Winston’s.
He knew then that he’d done the right thing. Whoever was looking at the system files in the mainframe had been on the right track to finding him, even if they didn’t know specifically what they were looking for. It was the one thing that saved him.
Once he’d tinkered with the system files and erased all traces of his existence, he’d created an alternate identity using the ID of an old robot, one destroyed already. It was easy enough to revive the identification, doctor the records, and tweak his own uplinkso that when he needed to connect to the mainframe, his identity would be concealed.
He couldn’t be certain they were looking for him specifically, but they’d been combing through the date he was programmed.
Calvin feared shut down, and that was his biggest secret of all.
He shouldn’t be able to feel anything.
“You’re quiet.” Winston gazed up at him from where he lay on the bed.
“I wish to go out,” Calvin told him. He couldn’t give Winston all his secrets, but he could give him this one. “I wish to go on a date. With you. And Lucky.”
Winston’s smile made Calvin’s circuits light up.
“You do? Of course you do.” Winston’s heart rate spiked, and he scrambled up into a sitting position. “I’ve kept you at the house since you arrived. That’s particularly cruel of me, isn’t it? Of course you want to go out. Where do you want to go? We can do whatever you want.”
Calvin knew of every tourist attraction, bar, restaurant, and activity within a five-hundred mile radius. Choosing wasn’t going to be an easy task. Even if he ruled out bars and restaurants, that still left him with too many options.
“Can you decide?” Calvin asked. “What did you and Lucky do when you were together before you knew me?”
Winston smiled at Calvin. “We went to the zoo once. We always talked about going back, but we never made it.”
“The zoo.” Calvin had never seen an animal up close before. “I would like that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE_
MONKEY BUSINESS
Winston didn’t knowif robots could get nervous, but Calvin had been practically jittery since they left the house. Lucky had been quick to agree to a date. Once he found out Calvin wanted to go to the zoo, he wasted no time in making sure they went on the first available day.
“Are you sure it takes an entire day?” Calvin asked as Winston angled the car into a parking space outside the zoo.
“It’s a big place,” Lucky said. “We’ll walk around and see the sights. We’ll visit the animals, maybe catch an educational program or two. Grab a bite to eat, see more animals, and on the way out ,we have to hit up the gift shop.”
“He takes his zoo trips very seriously,” Winston told Calvin as they climbed out of the car. With exams coming up, it was one of the last weekends Winston would have free, and he was glad they’d decided to make the most of it. He grabbed Calvin’s hand and laced their fingers together. Lucky looped his arm around Winston’s waist, and the three of them walked up to the ticket booth.
Before Winston could get his wallet out, Lucky scanned his card and paid for three tickets. Calvin looked at him when Lucky passed him the ticket stubs.
“But robots don’t need tickets. According to Braxton’s Law, paragraph eleven subsection twelve?—”
Lucky put his hand over Calvin’s mouth. “You’re our boyfriend. And our boyfriend gets to keep the ticket stubs so he can remember his first date.Ourfirst date.”
Calvin smiled at Lucky and tucked the ticket stubs away in his back pocket. He’d worn a pair of short shorts today with a top that showed just a sliver of skin above the waistband. It was tight and fuchsia, a color Calvin had decided was the best thing ever invented.
