She brushed her right breast across his arm. Her perfume filled the surrounding air. “Jim, how’s Gabriella doing?” Francine asked, the undertone in her voice suggesting the question was only a pretext to her real intent. “Will she be able to pass on the street?”
Jim glanced down at his arm and hesitated. “She seems to be coming along very well, but more task observations need to happen in public arenas to validate any conclusions.”
“What’s going on, Jim? You’re talking pretty formally. I know things at home haven’t been great for you, but I get a sense there’s more than just home on your mind. Am I right?”
He exhaled while looking in Gabriella’s direction. “Well, it’s strange, but as I work with Gabriella, I’m thinking of her more and more like one of the team members.”
Francine took a step backward. She watched Jim with a questioning expression on her face as he gazed at Gabriella’s five-foot-eight curvaceous figure undulating under her white lab coat as she walked across the lab.
“What?” Francine hissed at him in a whisper. “You’re attracted to our machine? I can’t believe what I’m seeing! Am I not enough for you anymore? Are you thinking with your crotch again? Do you want to boff our android? Pig!”
Francine pivoted on her heels and stomped toward her office.
People in the lab, including Martha, watched Francine march away from Jim. They decided not to ask what was happening. When Francine was in one of her moods, the men called her Dragon Lady. The women called her Bitch.
Damn, I shouldn’t have been that transparent with her. Why did I think she might understand? Why don’t women just get it?
He tried reasoning with himself again by logically reviewing the facts. Gabriella is an android. My team and I built her. She isn’t a living, breathing human being. Nothing more than wires and simulated skin.
Jim’s intellect agreed with what his motivational self-talk was proclaiming, but his libido laughed at him and rebutted, Get real, horny-man! You just want to screw Gabriella. At least be honest about it!
He kept staring at the way she moved under her lab coat, and his heart pounded.