Validated by Valentine's by Joynell Schultz

Author:Joynell Schultz [Schultz, Joynell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wet Dog Press
Published: 2019-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

My bedtime of eight PM had long passed by the time Ivy and Dayton left. Ethan and I laid side-by-side in bed. Silent companionship was one of my favorite parts of having a Dream Droid, but tonight, I was hung up on our near fight earlier today. Thoughts of what Ethan and Dayton had discussed about a tune-up fluttered through my mind, until I couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer.

“I want to bring something up, in case you want to talk about it. Did talking with Dayton help at all? Did he suggest a tune-up?” I bit my tongue. Maybe Dayton had already given Ethan a tune-up. I wasn’t sure how easy those things were.

“It helped some.” Ethan paused, and I kept silent, hoping he offered more. “Dayton says that humanoids weren’t given the ability to love because the human-robot ethics boards were afraid of what would happen. He says love causes people--and potentially humanoids--to do crazy things. That extreme passion is behind many of the world’s crimes. Not only passion for another human, but a passion for a cause.”

“So, humanoids are programmed not to love anything?”

“Yes, and no. Love is one of the most overused words in the English language. It’s used so often, the word itself no longer has much meaning. For example, people say things like ‘I love French fries’ and ‘I love the color purple.’ The word love here isn’t the same as what is felt between a man and a woman. The word love really only means you really like something.”

“I never realized how much humans throw the love word around until meeting you.” Ethan was right. We said we loved everything. “Sometimes, I think we even tell people we love them when we don’t—or at least not the way we say we do.”

Ethan nodded. “I have a hard block on saying the word ‘love’ to a human and there is a stop in my programming to prevent me from loving or liking something so passionately that I do crazy things. I have similar blocks on feeling hate or anger, but Dayton said I should tell you how I feel in the best way I can.”

“What do you mean?”

Ethan turned and propped his head on his arm. He reached his free hand over and traced a finger down my cheek, causing my insides to tingle. “I need you to know that I like you. I really, really like you. I want to spend the rest of my existence with you, but I want you to be happy. I want to do my job…and…” He hushed, his eyes seeming to take in every detail of my face.

After too much silence, I prodded. “…and?”

Ethan took a deep breath and pulled his hand away. “And I want you to have someone that can love you as much as you love them.” His eyebrows knitted together and he cast his eyes down to the bed.

I stiffened. Was he breaking up with me? Could humanoids do that? I had to look away from him, fighting tears.

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