“Pops taught me how to make your coffee. So, I hope it tastes good.” He set the cup on the table and went back to cooking.
Cora came prancing over and rubbed her metal body against my leg.
“Hey, Cora.” I reached down and touched my finger to her nose. She wanted attention, and I would have to give her plenty after breakfast.
“Morning, Pops.” I walked over to my dearest friend, and he had his little hand out for a fist bump.
“Good morning. I checked the news this morning for you and found only one article of interest. More people have been getting sick, and the water toxicity levels are rising. Nothing said about Terratrex being the ones behind it yet.”
Not good news. I was glad he checked and reported, but nothing was being done.
The coffee Arthur made was perfect, and I thanked both him and Pops for making it for me. I was grateful to have them.
“I think I will call you mine. I guess I don’t need a label. You’re more than a boyfriend, but you’re not my husband. So, mine will work for now.”
It made sense to me; I felt so much more than what I would consider someone would feel about a boyfriend—it lingered near the edge of husband, the person you wanted to be with forever. But marriage wasn’t something I could think about right now. There were already so many changes in my life I had to adjust to. Just having someone to call mine was a huge change for me.
“Let’s just take it slow and at your pace. I’ve already mentioned I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me as long as you want me.” His words were sweet as he set the two loaded plates at the table.
Of course, I should have guessed that he was an artist at everything, including pancakes.
“How did you make these?”
I stared at the pancake faces of Cora and Pops, looking almost too good to eat.
“I’m a pancake prodigy, what can I say?” He poured some syrup on top and dug in. Cora came over to look at her doughy reflection then walked off without any sign she liked what she saw or not. Pops, however, loved that Arthur made him into a pancake.
I didn’t know who was more in love with the man, me or Pops.
The thought was startling to me, to say the least.
Love wasn’t something I felt like I knew anything about.
Love was not routine. Love didn’t follow a straight line. Love was everything I couldn’t handle and that couldn’t handle me.
I knew I was in for a meltdown—the thoughts and the emotions of this realization were too much. It was one thing to know Arthur loved me, even if he hadn’t said it yet. But another to feel it for myself. It made everything real.
I managed to tamp down my freak-out so I could make it through breakfast, and then he promised he would stop by my office for lunch.
I already knew I wasn’t going to make it much longer, let alone lunchtime. Cora was reading my heart rate and knew I was close to melting down, too. She was by my side instantly, alert and on guard.
Arthur and I kissed goodbye, and as soon as I watched him leave in his SUV, I ran to my bed and gripped my hair tightly, trying to ground myself before the emotions that were overtaking me just consumed me whole.
I missed our lunch and felt bad about it later. But I was scared and didn’t know how to handle this new emotion called love.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Gwendolyn
“What do you mean, they aren’t working right?” I was so confused, listening to Amelia, the head nurse, describe some strange behavior from the robots. They were breaking down. I know this was a trial, but my robots were flawless. I honestly wouldn’t have put them around people if I thought there was a chance that they would break something or hurt someone. The perfectionist in me wouldn’t allow failure like that.
“I think you should come in and inspect them.” Her tone concerned me, so I grabbed my bag. Cora and Pops were ready to go, jumping onto my shoulders. We were bundled up for the cold and driving to the hospital within five minutes.
Arthur called as I was pulling in, and I answered quickly, telling him I’d have to call him back.
Thankfully he wasn’t mad at me that I’d missed lunch yesterday, after I explained to him that I had a meltdown and was passed out for four hours. I should have called, but I was still learning, and now there was this new level of nervousness when it came to him.
He’d requested that I come over tonight, though, and I hoped I had my shit together by then so I wouldn’t freak him out.
Nurse Amelia met me at the automatic doors at the front of the hospital.
“Thank you for coming. One of the robots was charged with a little boy who was just in a bad car accident two weeks ago. He broke his spine and has been in and out of surgery since. Last night the robot started twitching and then kept telling the boy knock-knock jokes while banging on the walls like an animal. We had to move the boy to another room because there are now holes in the walls.”
I almost forgot how to walk. My robots would never do something like that.
“Are there others not working properly?” She nodded, and we walked toward a supply closet.
“When did these strange occurrences start happening?” I peeked in through the little window and saw one of my robots in the closet, it was making a mess all over the place, like it had gone mad.
“First report came in at nine p.m. last night. It’s been almost nonstop since. We didn’t know what to do, the others aren’t doing anything harmful, but this one was scaring the daylights out of that boy, so we had to move him in here.”
This was the exact opposite of what I wanted with these robots. They were supposed to help people, make them feel safe—not scare them!
I opened the door, Pops and Cora ready to help if I needed them, and approached my cozy robot.
“Cozy robot. This is Gwendolyn. Report internal status.” I gave it the code for my moderator status and its reply was standard. All internal drives and software were working properly. Obviously, something was off, but I’d need to get inside and see.
“Cozy robot, power down.” The command was an easy one that anyone could say, and it would do as told.
But this one turned its eyes toward me and blinked. It wasn’t shutting down.
“Knock, knock, Gwendolyn.” It started walking toward me, dropping the plastic gloves it was holding.
“Cozy robot, power down now.” I repeated the command, and it still didn’t.
Its hands lifted in the air just as its knees bent, ready to jump and strike. Without thought, I lifted my hands and melted the robot down. Whatever happened to it was not repairable right now without danger. I’d need to examine the others that hadn’t been a threat to people physically.
“Something tells me this is not going to be a good day.” Pops looked down at the melted parts on the ground. I hoped it wasn’t hard for him, seeing that. Technically, I could do the same to him. But I wouldn’t. Pops was my best friend. He and Cora both, I needed them in my life forever.
I cleaned up the mess of the melted robot, and we left the closet to go check out the others.
After an hour of investigating through so much coding and software, I’d found the problem. A virus.
Someone had given my robots a virus, making them behave unpredictably. I was being sabotaged, and there was only one logical explanation for it.