BUILD YOURSELF A BETTER BOYFRIEND

By

MICHAEL S. WITHERSPOON

Adam Simon was tired as hell what with his heavy workload at the office and so after a quick dinner he sat mindlessly watching television. But when one of those weekly hour-long news programs came on he sat straight up. The intro before the real program came on said, “Stay tuned for our special hour-long look about how to build a better boyfriend”, and then went to commercial. Well, needless to say he wanted to hear what they had to say on the subject. Since he came out of the closet he had not had one decent relationship. Maybe it was him or maybe it was them, who knew. His friends told him that he just kept getting involved with the wrong kind of guy. If ‘the wrong guys’ were airplanes, then certainly he must be the airport from hell. He was sure that this program was probably geared to the female audience but what the heck, maybe the good doctors on this show could throw a little help his way too. A quick trip to the kitchen for another soda and he made it back to the sofa just in time to see the program from start to finish. And he didn’t budge an inch till it was over.

“Welcome to our show tonight.” The commentator started. “Have you had a string of bad relationships (DUH) or perhaps just one that was so devastating that you are unwilling to go out and test the waters again? Well we just might have the ideal man for you, because you build him just the way you want him. Our guest tonight is Dr. Ivan Mandalay and he is here to talk to us about the new android technology that will soon be available. Get a pen and a piece of paper ready because at the end of our show we will tell you where to call to have a chance to participate in a research study program and receive one of these androids free for just being part of a test study.”, The anchor said.

The good doctor and his staff had created these little beauties that could easily be mistaken for human. One of them was sitting right there, listening and talking with the doctor and they didn’t tell you that he was one of them until the middle of the show. The inner workings (computer chips, data banks, voice recognition and audio-video feeds, etc, etc.) were already programmed for normal operations and only waited for its owner’s commands to complete them. His exterior, the hair, eyes; body type and skin tone were all waiting for the owners to describe in detail the complete the package. The android would then listen to your voice as it’s master/mistress and from that point on you would be in complete control. “For taking part in this controlled experiment there will be no monetary payments, other than any possible damages, however if things work out well and you wish to keep your android lover, it will be yours free of charge, except for normal maintenance.” Dr. Mandalay said. “They will sell for around half a million dollars each when they go on the market, so you can see we are not talking about toys here. The programming that you enter would be for personal commands such as personal security and for protection, or for having him enjoy the same things as you do, and display affection in the manner that you dictate. Those are the kinds of things that you will want to add.”

Adam was getting a raging hard on just looking at the already completed models, and at this point he still didn‘t know that the doctors assistant on this show was one of them. Those guys could have just walked off of a photo shoot they were so hot. And you get to choose just about everything about the looks of your new buddy. Oddly enough, they said that they were looking for gay men and straight women in order to get an all round view of how things would go for future models and how to gage sales. It was further stated that your ‘boyfriend’ could be set up as a top, bottom or versatile and you choose everything about him right down to the size, shape and cut or uncut of his lower equipment. Adams head was spinning and he was even dizzier than normal. Your new ‘boyfriend’s’ body would be covered in a new material that was extremely realistic both to the sight and to the touch, and they were still waiting for their patent of an even newer skin, that they promised was realer than real. No one other than a doctor or other health care professional would be able to tell the difference. They went on and on throughout the rest of the hour, but Adam was simply waiting for the phone number to come up. He had the phone in his hand and was ready to dial instantly.

He could not believe his luck because when the number did show up on the screen he dialed it immediately, and got thru right away. He spoke with the woman that answered the phone and she took some preliminary information from him. It was being done on a first come first serve basis and he was definitely up there as his was the third call received. It would take them about twelve hours to run a background and credit check on him and make sure that he didn’t want his android to go around robbing banks or anything like that. (You know, you don’t even think about those kinds of things until they plant those seeds in your head.) Although there was a lot of programming that would keep that from happening, they wanted to go to every extreme to try and insure the safety of him and themselves. He would also put himself in front of you to protect you from being shot or otherwise harmed. The screening woman told him that he would be called between eight and ten o’clock the morning after next to make sure that everything checked out and asked him if there would be a problem with that. Also, to make insure the safety of their ‘boyfriend’, he was told not to speak to anyone of this matter. Not your parents (like that was going to happen) close friends, co-workers, absolutely no one. Once you are cleared you will need to spend about two weeks here with us, at our expense of course, including roundtrip airfare. At that time your preferences would be loaded into his data bank and you will also be making choices about his physical appearance. It would be nice if you already have a name chosen when you arrive so that he can start talking to you and he will recognize your voice as the main one to answer to. He will have no free will, ever. Don’t panic though, you will be able to give him additional commands when the two of you leave here. She then asked if he had any further questions at this time?”

He told her, “I’m just trying to absorb all of the information you have just given me. I know that I will have more questions as soon as we hang up but right now I’m drawing a blank.”

She said, “She understood and that if he had any questions or concerns to just write them down and he could ask them when he got there.”

He did very quickly ask, “Do the units have regular biological functions and were they sexually functional?”

“Your unit will be able digest food but it will be burned up inside his system, anything he drinks will come out in the normal fashion when his gages hit a certain limit and he will ask you for directions to the bathroom about a half hour before that happens.” She told Adam. “In the event you are one the road or in an area where facilities are not available, he can wait up till one hour beyond that limit. Sexually he will be able to function with the grace and ease of a regular human male and a fluid imitating sperm will be released on your command that is harmless to humans, can be ingested and has a pleasant mint like flavor.” And on that note, they ended their conversation.

He barely slept for a day and a half, even calling in sick from his cell phone so as not to miss a possible early call. He knew his background check would go through, he had to have one for work because his company worked on government contracts and all employees had to be cleared. He kept the television and radios turned way down low so as not to miss the call. Reading was out of the question as his concentration was nil. He had tried to read and read the same paragraph of the newspaper three times and still could not tell you what he had read.

As a distraction Adam tried to make up a list of names for his ‘boy friend’ but nothing seemed right. He didn’t want anything too macho nor too feminine either. Definitely none of his old boyfriends, lovers or tricks names would do. Then he remembered that his sister Maryann had left a book of baby’s names when she was visiting. She had come to town to spend some time with her older brother and started having morning sickness. They had gone out to by a couple of those home pregnancy tests to check and make sure before calling her husband who had been unable to make the trip with her. She saw the book and picked it up just to browse threw, bought it and wound up leaving it there for him just in case he ever got pregnant. A joke between them. since she was the only one in the family that knew about his true sexual orientation. It turned out that she was pregnant and flew back home to tell him in person. Adam took a pencil and started at the back of the book moving forward, scratching out the names he knew he would definitely not use.

When he finally found the right name he could not believe he didn’t think of it on his own. Ethan. There was a film star a while back that was a very hot man and he teased with his friends after seeing one of his films that if he ever had a child he would name it Ethan whether it was a girl or a boy. Everyone got a laugh over that and called him a nellie old queen. Well wait till they see his baby Ethan now. He wondered if Ethan would be able to tolerate alcohol or not. If you are going to be able to hang with his friends you better be able to. While he was thinking about he wrote down that question.

Finally the phone call came in and he was told that he was approved for the experiment. The following Friday he would go to the airport, his ticket would be prepaid waiting for him and all he had to do is show them a picture ID at the ticket counter and they would hand him his roundtrip ticket to New York City. She had given him the time of the flight, the flight number and the name of airline, and then told him that someone would be there to meet him on there end and drive him the rest of the way. It would be a two-hour ride after the flight, so he should wear something comfortable. When he arrived he would first be taken to his room and someone would come and get him after he had a chance to freshen up and unwind. And after that they would take things one step at a time. It will probably be three or four days before you actually get to see him but don’t be worried or disappointed. We will be getting your specifications for him and doing some voice matching with you and teaching you some commands to use and teach you some minimal maintenance that you will have to be able to perform to keep him up and running so that nothing major goes wrong.

A friend drove him to the airport and promised to check his mail while he was gone. At the airport his friend asked again for an emergency phone number and he said that he had packed it but would call later in the day and leave it on his machine. He wasn’t sure if there would be a phone in his room or not that would allow for incoming calls, but the friend felt better knowing that he would call.

It was turning out to be a glorious day. Not a cloud in the sky as he waited for the skycap to finish tagging his luggage. Once inside, he marched his happy ass right over to the ticket counter and said that he had a prepaid ticket on the computer and handed the agent his driver’s license. She keyed in some information and she handed him his ticket, told him his gate number and pointed him in the general direction of the gates. He checked his watch and found he had enough time to get one more diet soda down before the flight. I will probably be pissing myself to death on the plane, he thought. With his newly acquired soda, briefcase and trench coat in hand he headed down to the gate. When he checked in at the gate they told him that he would be sitting in first class today and he said something about a first time for everything and she looked at him with a puzzled face. He figured that most passengers knew what part of the plane they would be sitting in even if he didn’t.

A light brunch was served and he had a Bloody Mary, since they were free. His flight was as smooth as ice until the got close to the New York area. The flight attendants were telling the passengers that there was a light snowstorm surrounding the airport and there was a lot of wind associated with it. The captain was making the adjustment now to correct things and assure a safe landing. Adam ordered another Bloody Mary and asked her to make it a double. Within a half-hour they had touched down to a very smooth landing. As he was deplaning he noticed that the snow was really coming down now. When he finally reached the terminal side of that tunnel he saw an older man in a driver’s uniform holding a place card with his name on it and he signaled the driver over to the side. The driver first took him to the limo with the heat already on, and then he took Adams tickets and collected his bags and put them in the trunk of the limo. The old fart knew how to drive on those icy roads and since Adam was nice enough to tell him to just call him Adam the driver softened up and started pointing out what he thought were sights of interest. The third shot of vodka was kicking his ass and he told the driver he might just nod off for a bit. When he awoke they were at the offices of the MANN Industrial Complex. Not knowing if this was the place or not, Adam waited for the driver to catch the door. He said that his bags would be sent directly to his room. Adam tried to tip him but he explained that they paid him quite handsomely and he was not permitted to take tips. He did, however, thank him for the offer.

Once inside the main building people were falling all over him. They only had one ‘host’ (what they called the recipients of the androids) arriving on any given day so they had more than adequate staff. Six of the staff members were gathered around a large conference table as the seventh led him in. At the time he had no idea why there were so many but he would be told later. Two of them were psychologist and a psychiatrist, one was a doctor, a nurse, one was a biological engineer, a linguistics coach and the seventh was a facilitator for the whole group. They put him through a battery of questions some right on top of the other. What they wanted to see partly was how he would be able to stand up under stress. If they had just asked him he would gladly have told them what his last five lovers had put him through and why this was going to be the best thing that ever happened to him. In fact, the psychiatrist and the psychologist would be questioning him on his former relationships to hopefully prevent the same thing from happening with their android. When they asked him if he had chosen a name yet, he told them right away. They asked why that name and he explained it to them. Would he like the android to look like the actor? He said, Hell no, everyone would be after him and trying to take him away from me if I did. Mind you I want him to be very good looking but there is already one Ethan, the actor and person. If anything ever happened to him, I would be saddened at the very sight of my android.”

The group at the table had been waiting for him to speak of the android in a possessive phrasing. He did not know how they were grading him but he passed this test at least. After about fifteen more minutes of questioning he was taken to his room. The room was really a suite of rooms and he almost wondered if they were going to put two or three other people in there with him. It was every bit as large as his apartment back home. His clothes were already unpacked and put on hangers or in drawers. Hell this place was so nice maybe they would just let him and Ethan stay here. There was a twenty-four hour cafeteria that served just about anything you could imagine, and you didn’t have to wash the dishes either. If you wanted to just stay in your room and eat, you could just call in an order and they would deliver it to your room. There was a television with all of the cable channels you could possibly ask for and a VCR but no tapes and no mention of a library either. There was a phone in the room for incoming and outgoing calls but there was no secretarial service. He called his friend back home and gave him the phone number and told him that his Aunt had no answering machine so he should just keep trying if there was an emergency. Adam also gave him his sisters phone number and quickly called her to tell her he was out of town for two weeks and had told the guys he was in New York with his Aunt. She laughed and said that they didn’t have an Aunt in New York and he said he knew. She tried pumping him for information as to where he really was and he told her she would have to wait for when his memoirs were published. They talked for a couple of minutes and then he hung up. He knew that all of this secrecy would drive her nuts because they have always told each other everything since they were kids.

About an hour after he got to his room there was a knock at his door. The medical doctor wanted to get a complete history and physical on him and thought he might be more comfortable doing it here rather than some cold, sterile office. Adam agreed that it would as he hated doctor’s offices all his life. He collected the history information in great detail and then told him to strip to his underwear. The problem was that he wasn’t wearing any and forgot that fact until his trousers were half way off and he was already exposed. The doctor quickly reassured him that this was okay, he was quite used to seeing the male human anatomy and found no shame in it. He poked and probed everywhere and then took some blood samples and told him he could dress now if he liked or just stay naked however he felt most comfortable. Adam retrieved his bathrobe and put that on. They talked for a few minutes longer and then the doctor asked him if he would like to join him for dinner. Adam told the doctor that he thought he would but he needed to dress again and would meet him there. The doctor said he had to get the blood to the lab and put his reports in the computer and could meet him there in about fifteen minutes.

They found each other with little trouble, as there was hardly a soul in the place. Adam went for a killer bacon burger and fries, diet soda and cheesecake for desert. The doctor just had a shrimp salad and a glass of iced tea. He said he was trying to maintain his weight. Adam could eat anything with his metabolism and not put on a pound. But he didn’t feel the need to make the doctor hate him by disclosing this information. Adam queried the doctor as to his report on him and he stated that Adam was as sound as a bell they would just have to wait on the lab results to be certain. They talked for about an hour past finishing their dinner and then the doctor excused himself and thanked Adam for his company and left.

Adam returned to his room and stripped down to his robe again and watched a little bit of television. Again there came a knock on the door and this time it was the company lawyer wanting to ask him a few questions if he wasn’t too tired. This guy was a knock out and he could ask him anything he wanted. After letting him in, Adam said he would go put some clothes on and would return to the room. The lawyer said that it was okay, he looked pretty good just like that. So he joined the lawyer in the living room just as he was dressed. There were questions about him having a will and told him that he would have to make arrangements to turn Ethan over to a friend or family member or he would have to revert back to the company. Adam had honestly not given that any thought. Especially since he had not seen or interacted with Ethan as yet. So far he was still a dream waiting to come true. Then the lawyer talked to him about his financial future, had he made plans for the future; a 401k or IRA account; stocks or bonds? You will almost be taking on the role of an adoptive parent here and we are prepared to offer you financial advice if you would like. While Adam’s head was spinning, the lawyer asked if he might get something cold to drink. Adam walked the steps over to the fridge and returned with a canned soda and gave it to him. He then admitted to the lawyer that he had not really thought that far ahead and the lawyer told him that he could get back to them later, he just wanted to plant a few seeds.

Then out of nowhere, the lawyer told him. “You are a very handsome man and I’m sure you will make some lucky android very happy.”

Adam blushed and returned the compliment and asked, “Do you have a lover?” And was very surprised when the lawyer said, “No, but that the very sight of you is making me extremely excited.”

Adam told him, “I’m feeling the same way and the room is paid for, so unless you have some place you have to be I strongly suggest that you get comfortable.” The lawyer removed his suit jacket and tie and walked over to where Adam was now standing, took him in his arms and gave him one of those kisses that make you weak in the knees. The lawyer then untied Adams robe and let it fall to the floor. Next he let his hands follow all of the curves of Adams body and brought his hands to rest on his cheeks and ears and gave him another of those kisses. Adam was opening the buttons of the lawyer’s shirt as fast as he could and was fondling his nipples and burying his head in the hairy manly chest. Next he stepped back and undid his belt and trouser snap then tugged the zipper down until the pants fell to the floor. The lawyer slipped off his loafers and then stepped out of the pants and kicked them across the room. Adam bent down to the floor and helped him out of his socks and then pulled down his paisley boxer shorts and admired the view while the lawyer stepped out of them. As he rose from the floor, the lawyer lifted him up and carried him over to the bed and then got in next to him. This time their game of touching and feeling was extended to every inch of each other’s body. Hands and tongues going everywhere that they could. And some of the very best kissing that either had ever had. They got into some very hot sex and in every position imaginable, and then doing it all again. Adam was exhausted and covered with sweat. He told the lawyer he had not had sex in almost a year and it had never been that great. The lawyer agreed but said he had to go now but he would see him again before he left with his android.

Left alone with his just his thoughts, his head was just spinning. What if there was something wrong with his blood, maybe he had not done enough to protect the interest of the android and they would not let him have one. And if not, could he take the lawyer with him or stay here with the lawyer. The next thing he knew it was morning. They had not given him an itinerary so he didn’t know what to expect. He got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. He saw the doctor sitting alone and asked if might join him. They sat and talked about the results of some of the blood test. So far everything looks good the doctor had said. Then Adam asked him some questions about the company and commented on how smoothly everything seemed to be running. He answered all of Adams questions and said that the company had a rough start but that everything was going just smashingly now. He did not know what they had planned next for Adam but he could ask the next person that visited him. They should be able to help him. When they finished their meal he went back to his room and took a catnap while he waited.

He didn’t have long to wait. About a half-hour into his catnap a knock rapt on the door. It was the lawyer and he let him in. He said he was going to have a full day but wanted to know if they could meet for dinner and maybe he could stay the night. Adam’s response was an emphatic yes, and YES.

Ten minutes after the lawyer left there was another nock on the door and it was a Voice Recognition Specialist. She took him to a pair of booths in the east wing of the complex. After leading him into his booth she explained that she would be in the booth facing him. He had a set of headphones and a microphone that was built into the counter, and the height could be adjusted. There was a pitcher of ice water and a glass to his left for him to take drinks of water when she told him to. They would both be wearing the headphones and her microphone would go directly into his headphones. She would say a word and he would repeat it twice into his microphone, with a breath in between times. This was being done so that Ethan would be able to understand him when he spoke.

They would take a break at the top of each hour and this whole process would take about four hours. There was a thick cushion on his chair, otherwise he would have hemorrhoids the size of grapefruit by the time he got done. He was not looking forward to this but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do for his boyfriend. It just hit him that she had said, his android, Ethan.”

He asked her, “How did you know what his name was, since they had not discussed it.”.

She told him, “All of the information gathered thus far was on the chart and since only one of them would be working with him at a time, they had Ethan’s name already on his chart. Would you like to change that name?” But Adam said no.

The time was actually passing faster then he had expected. After a long list of words, they went on to phrases and then sentences. Then she told him, “We will run your voice patterns through the computer tonight and let him know if everything went well or not. Sometimes we may have to call you back for a couple of words or phrases just to make absolutely certain things will run smoothly when the two of you leave here.” She led him back to his room and talked much less technically than she had over the last four hours. Almost pleasant and with a lilt. “If something needed to be repeated we will call you by ten o’clock in the morning. Otherwise it was nice meeting you.” He said the same and then went into his room and took a quick shower before meeting the lawyer for dinner.

The lawyer was standing by the entrance of the dining hall waiting on him. Adam told him that he should have gone in rather than wait for him. But the lawyer told him, “Just watching you walk down the hallway made it all worth the wait.” Adam started blushing then the lawyer turned and led the way into the seating area where they sat and talked for a couple of minutes.

Adam said to him. “I feel so embarrassed, I never even asked your name last night. Come to think of it, no one has used their names around here.”

The lawyer told him. “They were simply not allowed to use names. We use our employee numbers even when talking to each other and that his was seven twenty-six. But you can just call me Seven.”

Adam cracked up and was saying, “My birthday is July twenty-sixth, 7/26. No way, “

“Really?” The lawyer said. “I must have skipped right over that and not noticed. Well then, I’m starved and you are going to need your strength later so lets eat up.”

They talked more over dinner. The lawyer was asking where exactly was Adam from, what was it like there, did he have many friends, what kind of work did he do? Adam said to him, “If I didn’t know any better I might feel like I’m being interrogated.”

“I’m Sorry, I guess it is just the lawyer in me.” The lawyer said. They looked across the table at each other and knew that it was time to leave.

The sex was just as wild and as much fun as it was before or maybe even better, then their first pairing. When they finally took a break, Seven asked him, “What do you think or at least hope sex will be like when you and Ethan got back home?”

Adam said, “I’m not quite sure what I should expect, hopefully it would be as good as what we have had. I was hoping that everything would go well and that we would have a long and enjoyable life together.” Now it was Adam’s turn to do a little questioning, “Will Ethan have any kind of feelings or emotions?”

Seven told him, “With the technology of today as good as it is, a well tuned Ethan will have a type of emotion but he would be dedicated only towards you and there would be no chance of him leaving you. He would be a fool to want to.”

Seven (Adam hated all of this secrecy with the names thing) told Adam, “In my best opinion, you are the type of loving and caring individual that anyone in their right mind would be looking for to make a lifelong commitment with. The hours we have spent together will stay with me forever.”

Adam was almost in tears and started kissing him and holding him. Then Adam started telling him about all of the bad relationships he had been through and the heartache they had caused him not only during but even after the relationship had ended. To run into his former partner in the bars or worse than that was to see them with someone else, was a killer. He wasn’t really sure how it was that he survived those times, except for the love of his friends. And when the television show about this place and the androids came on, well it seemed like the perfect solution to a great deal of my problems. When you are happy at home it reflects on the rest of your life. Truth of the matter is, I feel like I’m cheating on Ethan with you and I haven’t even met him yet. That must sound stupid to you but that is just exactly how I feel.”

Seven told him, “That it didn’t sound stupid at all, actually it was quite romantic and that he to hoped to find the ideal mate someday. Someone just like Adam.”

Room service brought the coffee, juice and toast at nine the next morning just as Adam had ordered it for him and Seven. They had already showered and dressed and were talking and watching the morning news. There was a knock at the door and he found another technician waiting on the other side waiting to take him down to the lab and go over the plans for Ethan’s completion. Seven looked at his watch and said, “I’ve got to get to the office right now but I would like to call you or just come by later if that was okay.”

Adam said, “Sure.“ And locked the door to his suite before headed down to the lab with the technician.

When he got to the lab he found that with all of the choices to be made he could be there all day. Eye color, hair color, skin tone, language and accent, height, weight, build etc. It was overwhelming to say the least. He thought he knew exactly what he wanted before he left home but now he wasn’t sure. The last couple of nights that he spent with Seven had his head spinning. He felt like he might be falling in love with Seven. Not just his looks or the great sex, but he seemed to be exactly what Adam had been looking for in a man all of his life. Then again, Ethan would never leave him. Adam and Seven both had good jobs and established lives that would mean one of them might have to be up rooted and he didn’t see that happening. To have Ethan built to look and act like Seven would be an insult to them both, and even if Ethan didn’t know, he would. He wasn’t sure what to do. The lab technician asked him if there was a problem and he said yes, and asked if it would be possible to see one of the psychiatrists. She called the doctor and he was able to see him right away.

The doctor had made arrangements to meet with Adam in his suite, thinking he might be more comfortable there and more likely to open up. To his credit, Adam didn’t go straight for the liquor cabinet but just headed for the fridge and got a diet soda while he waited for the doctor to arrive. When he got there they sat at the small table in the kitchen to talk. Adam had some of the best talks of his life over a kitchen table. He spilled his guts talking to the doctor, holding nothing back. The doctor asked him what he wanted to do to solve this situation and Adam but said, quite honestly, he wasn’t sure. He asked the doctor, “Is there was any kind of advice that you could offer and the doctor said he wasn’t sure, this situation had never occurred before?” Adam was holding up, but he wasn’t sure for how much longer. The doctor said he had to check on a couple of things and asked if he could get back to him in a couple of hours and Adam said sure, no problem, and the doctor took his leave.

About an hour later Seven showed up at his door and asked if he could come in. Adam let him in and told him, “A problem has arisen.”

When he was asked what was wrong. Adam told him the whole story and wasn’t even trying to hold back the tears as he did. Seven walked over to where Adam was standing and took him into his arms, just holding him tight and letting him get it all out of his system. When he finished, he backed away and grabbed a tissue. Adam felt like some nellie old queen again, but with red puffy eyes. Adam said, “I know it must seem silly or stupid and maybe both, but I have fallen in love with you. You are like no man I have ever known. By far you are the best lover I have ever had. You don’t hold back your feeling, unless I am reading you wrong, and with my track record I must admit that it is possibility. On the other hand, I know that Ethan will never leave me. Will never get sick or die on me and will take care of me always. You might say that you would do all of the same things, but all of my former lovers said the same thing and then they changed over the course of time. And you could as well, and I don’t want to go thru that again I want and need the security of a relationship to regain myself confidence, to throw myself head first into my work and build a career for myself and a fuller richer life for my partner and me.”

The doctor showed up at the door just as Adam finished talking. When he opened the door, both doctors and the nurse were standing there and asked if they could all come in and Adam opened the door wide to allow their entrance. They moved to the living area and seated themselves as he and Seven followed suit. They ran out of seating and Seven went to the kitchen and brought back a chair from there to sit on.

The psychiatrist Adam had spoken to said, “We were prepared for some of our guests to have innocent flirtations with some of the staff members but nothing on this scale.”

Doctor number two told him, “You are only the fourth person from the outside to be here and that the others seemed to only want a “robot” and nothing more than that. Along with your deep emotional caring you have also displayed strong logic, both rational and emotional.”

The first doctor said, “Those seemed to be a rare quality indeed to show these characteristics, as most humans don’t seem to be able to make the stretch beyond themselves. You are aware, I am sure, that you signed a privacy contract with us when you checked in, and Adam nodded, but didn’t know what this was leading up to. Then brace yourself. Everyone in this room is an android.” They gave him a minute to look at all of them trying to find something to prove what the doctor was saying was untrue. Everyone looked normal and human, and then he looked at Seven who reached out his hand to him. He took it but he felt a sense of betrayal, from all of them.

The second doctor explained, “It was the express desire of their benefactor that no one ever knows that the entire staff are androids. He too had felt the many stings of romance and was about to live his life alone when an inventor came to him with an idea. The first android ever built was for their benefactor and she was his loving companion until the day he died. The second went to the inventor with the same results. She was built with every likeness and feeling of his wife that had died in childbirth along with their only child. Their goal was to help others find the same happiness they had once known.”

Doctor number one said, “Every profile we ran on you showed that you would be an ideal candidate, and you have proven that every time we tested you, although I’m sure you were not always aware you were being tested. And Seven, as you so lovingly call him, was sent to test your sexual energy levels, compassion levels and your ability to give and receive love. He was only sent here once, the second and third times were completely on his own. We are not robots, we are far beyond the tales of old science fiction. What we are is science fact if you must put a label on us. There are some emotions built into us but the ability to expand those emotions exists and we are sure that is the reason Seven came back. He came back to us and told us an abbreviated version of the one you told me earlier. He had requested to have all of his memory chips be stored into the unit you want named Ethan so that he could stay with you.”

Adam turned to Seven and asked him, “Maybe it would just be easier to name you Ethan. Ethan Simon for that matter.” Ethan smiled at him and said he would like that very much.

It was the doctor’s turn to talk now he was very much in favor. He felt that Adam would be able to help Ethan grow emotionally faster than by staying here in his present position. But before they went any further, the doctors wanted to know how he would feel about staying on with them. There was much for them to learn and him to teach about human emotions. It would be a paid position of course, double what you are making back home, a fully furnished two-bedroom condo in the tower for the two of you and a limo at your disposal. In return they would ask that he sign a five-year contract to work with them, one that could be renewed or cancelled after the first five-years was up. Adam was caught up in all of the jubilation and then a sort of frown came across his face.

When asked what the matter was, “Adam told them about something that had been bothering him since Ethan’s first visit. He had said that Adam would have to make arrangements for Ethan’s care once he was gone and that brought his own mortality into view. He didn’t want to ever live without him, but now it would be Ethan that would have to go on without him.”

Doctor number one said, “Adam, first off you are still a young man and secondly we are one step ahead of you. We are going to make a mold of your body now so that a couple of years down the road, well you know.