With the sun setting behind them, Cal’s truck pulled up to the door of their motel room. The man exited the truck, then opened the back door, pulling out his suitcase. On the other side of the vehicle, Andi grabbed the shopping bags full of clothes Cal had bought for her, along with the new suitcase they picked up earlier in the day when they stopped for dinner. A few moments later, the two stepped into the cool air of their motel room and unloaded all their possessions onto the bed.

“Well, this should do for the night,” Cal said, glancing around the motel room, with a faded bedspread, an ancient TV that didn’t appear to be capable of 3D projection, and a full-sized mirror with no frame mounted to the far wall by the restroom. “We made pretty good time today. We’re less than an hour from Chicago. If we keep this up, we’ll be in Philadelphia ahead of schedule.”

“Thank goodness,” Andi said, smiling as she unzipped her new suitcase and started to load it with her clothes. “And thank you for everything. You really have been so good to me.”

“It’s nothing,” Cal said, “and for the record, helping you has been one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

Andi gave the man a quizzical look. “How do you figure? From my perspective, it looks like you’ve been uprooted from a stable job you loved, forced to abandon your home, and thrown into a cross-country road trip with a bot whose owner is a psychopath trillionaire that would probably shoot you dead if he had the chance.”

“Well, sure,” he replied, “that’s one way of looking at it. But everything you just mentioned is only a tiny sliver of what I see from my perspective. From my perspective, I’ve had my eyes opened to a truth about bots that Trudy tried to show me for years. I’ve come to realize that a person’s humanity and worth aren't defined by what they’re made of, but who they are. And more than that,” he added, reaching out and taking Andi’s hand, “I’ve found a new best friend. So the way I see it, I’m a big winner here.”

Andi gave him a tender smile. “Wow. I don’t even know what to say. You definitely know how to make a bot feel special.”

“That’s easy to do. You are special,” Cal replied. “I haven’t told you much about my life since Trudy died, but the truth is that it’s been lonely. I went into a pretty serious depression after the accident. I let every close friendship I ever had wither out of existence. The life insurance was enough so that I didn’t really need to work, but I held onto my business because, for a long time, it was the only lifeline I had. That’s why it was so easy for me to leave all of that behind when I met you. Really, the way I see all of this is that I walked away from the crumbling ruins of my old life to give you a fresh start to a new life. To me, that’s a trade worth making every day of the week.”

Andi’s neural network lit up with deep appreciation as a tear rolled down her cheek. “Thank you, Cal. Truly.”

“You’re welcome,” Cal replied. “Oh, hey! There’s something I want to show you.”

Cal jumped over to his suitcase, unzipping the outer pocket and pulling out the tablet he’d been working on all day. He tapped a couple buttons on the screen, and it lit up with lines of code. Grinning, he thrust the tablet into Andi’s hands.

“What do you think?” Cal asked enthusiastically.

Andi scrolled through the code, using her programming subroutines to analyze its contents. “Cal, is this what I think it is? Did you write—”

“A dreaming subroutine?” Cal asked, finishing her question. "Yes, I did!” It’s actually more than that. It’s a combination of a fluctuating sleep state plus dream cycles. When you want to go to sleep, all you’ll need to do is activate this subroutine. Once it’s running, you’ll enter a state that’s essentially the same as what humans experience. After a period of light sleep, you’ll move into a period of deeper sleep, where your neural network will tap into your memories and emotional matrix to create dreams. I’m sure it could be refined more as we go, but if you want to give it a try tonight, it’s ready to upload.”

“Cal,” Andi breathed, feeling a sense of astonishment. “This is incredible. I mean, seriously, I’ve been thinking about dreams ever since we saw that movie. To be able to experience them?”

Without another word, Andi pulled Cal into a deep hug. Cal wrapped his arms around the bot, and for a solid minute, the two remained there, locked in a warm embrace. Andi rested her head on Cal’s shoulder as her neural network worked to process the love she felt for her friend.

As their hug ended, Cal smiled at Andi one more time. “Hold onto that for one second,” he said, gesturing toward the tablet. “I’ve got to get the interface cable, and there’s one more surprise I’ve got for you in the truck. I’ll be right back.”

Andi watched as Cal vanished out the motel room’s door. A minute later, he returned, carrying the interface cable, along with the cardboard box that she saw him carry out of the unmarked brick building before they left town. Cal took the tablet back from Andi, then gestured for her to sit down on the bed. Andi moved her luggage to the floor, then took a seat. Grabbing the desk chair, Cal took a seat in front of Andi, put down the box, and plugged the interface cable into his tablet, then had Andi lift her shirt so he could access her interface port. Once he was connected, Cal tapped a few buttons, and the dreaming subroutine began uploading.

When the upload was finished, he disconnected the interface cable and set the tablet down beside her before picking up the box.

“So, what is it?” Andi asked.

“You’ll see in just a second,” Andi said, opening the box. Andi peered inside, identifying some sort of microchip, a short cable with an adapter that matched the microchip’s pins, along with some sort of gripping tool with a specialized end.

“This is the other part of my surprise,” Cal said, holding up the chip. “Do you recognize it?” Andi shook her head, and Cal continued. “I’ll give you a hint. It’s the one chip that could have stopped your escape plans dead in their tracks.”

Andi gasped. “The OSP chip. My God. In all the excitement over the last few days, I completely forgot about that.”

“Yup.” Cal nodded. “The Ownership Security Protocol chip. Hard-coded before your initial startup with all your owners’ credentials. The one currently inside you has Milton’s name all over it. If we left that in there, you’d have less than a month before the security protocol kicked in and disabled you. Luckily, my parts supplier had one Mark V chip on hand. He was even kind enough to set me up with the special removal tool.”

Cal picked the adapter cable out of the box and slipped it over the pins of the OSP chip. Next, he grabbed his tablet and plugged in the adapter cable. A window popped open on the screen, prompting Cal to enter new ownership info.

“Alright,” Cal continued, looking down at the tablet and beginning to type. “All I’ve got to do is enter your new ownership information and burn it to the chip. Once that’s done, the swap itself will take less than a minute.”

Andi looked up at Cal. “You’re putting yourself down, right?”

Cal paused, looking up from his task. “I’m sorry, what?”

“As my owner," she said. “You’re putting yourself down, right?”

Cal scrunched his brow. “Why would I do that?”

“Because… Because…” Andi paused, deciding on how she should continue. She finally let out a sigh and resumed speaking. “Because there’s nobody else I’d want to be my owner. Cal, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. You’re a selfless giver, and you’ve put your job, your home, and possibly even your life on the line, all to help a bot you barely knew. I know the plan has been for you to get me to Dr. Nichols so he can put me into hiding or find some way to get me away from Mr. Lawrence, but as I’ve been thinking, I don’t know if that’s what I want anymore. I’m sure that Dr. Nichols would be a wonderful owner, but if I’m being completely honest, what I really want is to just stay with you, at least if you’ll let me. I know you’re opposed to bot ownership. I know Trudy would never have approved. But Cal, I just… I just feel like I can’t go on without you.”

“Andi,” Cal said, a serious expression on his face. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying… I…” Andi blushed as her neural network weighed the risk of what she wanted to say against the possible reward. Finally looking Cal in the eyes, Andi took a deep breath, summoned up all the courage she had, and let the words flow.

“I’m saying that I love you, Cal. I love you, and I don’t want to lose you. Not now. Not ever.”

The words hit Cal like a freight train.

For a moment that stretched into forever, Cal and Andi sat there, staring into each other’s eyes, neither of them knowing what to do next. Finally, Cal swallowed hard, then opened his mouth to speak.

“I barely know what to say,” Cal began, his voice near a whisper and trembling. “Andi, we’ve known each other for three days. Three insane, wild days that have absolutely turned my entire world upside down. And when I look at you, there’s this part of my brain that wonders why all this has happened. Why was my company the one Milton hired? Why did I decide to listen and bring you back to my shop? Why did I decide to help you escape? And now you’re here, telling me you love me, and we’ve only known each other for three days.”

Andi’s face took on a downturned expression. “I understand,” she replied, “I just—”

“I wasn’t finished,” Cal interrupted. “The thing is, there’s this other part of my brain. That part of my brain knows that we’ve only known each other for three days, too, which is why I’m so confused. You see, the last three days have been the most transformative in my life. For four long years, Trudy tried everything in her power to convince me that a bot could be a person, too. Then you came along, and almost literally overnight, my entire perception of bots was shattered. In the time since then, I’ve come to see you as not only a person, but also my best friend. In such a short time, you’ve come to mean so much to me.”

A tear ran down Cal’s cheek as he continued.

“My rational side has tried to convince me that it was all because I was lonely, or because I’ve been thinking about Trudy so much lately, or because I wanted something so badly that I saw what wasn’t really there. But just now, when you said those words, it made me realize something. Something I never thought in a million years I’d hear myself say again. It made me realize that I… I love you, too.”

“Oh, Cal,” Andi breathed, her hand covering her mouth. Inside her neural network, signals were firing, and connections were forming, cementing her feelings for the man. Leaning forward, Andi wrapped Cal in another deep hug. Tears flowed down both of their faces as they lavished in a feeling that neither of them could have admitted out loud until just moments earlier.

As their hug ended and they wiped away their tears, Andi found herself looking back at the tablet still in Cal’s hand with the OSP chip dangling from it. “So, does this mean you’ll be my owner?”

Cal smiled. “Andi, I shouldn’t own you. Neither should Dr. Nichols or anyone else for that matter. As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one person who deserves to be your owner.

Cal turned the screen, showing Andi the window to enter her ownership information. In the Owner field, he had entered Andi’s name and serial number.

Andi’s eyes went wide. “Will that work?”

“Absolutely,” Cal said confidently. “It’s actually a pretty standard hack for bot owners in special situations where they need to go more than a month without being in the presence of their bots. So what do you say? Are you ready to be your own owner?”

Andi smiled. “Let’s do it. But I do have one question.”

“Shoot,” Cal said.

“If I’m my owner, then what does that make you?”

Cal gave the bot a little grin. “Let’s start with boyfriend and see how that fits.”

Andi smiled brightly. “Yeah, I think I like that.”

A few minutes later, Andi was lying on the bed with her shirt up and the access panel open as Cal prepared to swap the chip.

“When I pop out the old chip, you’ll go offline,” Cal reminded her. “It should only take me a few seconds to pop in the new chip, and then you’ll reboot. The whole process is quick and easy.”

Andi nodded, and Cal took the removal tool, lining it up with the original chip. Squeezing gently, he locked onto the chip and slowly extracted it from Andi’s interface board. As soon as the chip cleared the socket, Andi’s eyes went wide for a moment, then relaxed, her stare becoming glassy and distant. Her entire body went completely limp, and even her artificial lungs slowed to a halt. Cal found the sight jarring and worked quickly to replace the chip. With the new chip in place, Cal resealed Andi’s access panel, lowered her shirt to cover her stomach, and waited anxiously for the bot to come back online.

About thirty seconds later, Cal breathed a sigh of relief when Andi’s lungs started pumping again. A moment later, her lips began moving.

“System initializing,” Andi said in a monotone voice. “Mark V Pleasurebot, designation Andi, is performing a system check. All systems okay. Activating neural network. Please wait.”

A few seconds later, life returned to Andi’s eyes, and she drew a deep breath, blinking a few times. Cal grinned as he leaned forward.

“Hey Andi, are you in there?” He asked.

Andi blinked a few more times, giving Cal a little smile. Then suddenly, Andi’s expression went blank once more. “Error,” she stated, her voice suddenly flat. “System malfunction. Flagrant system error.”

Cal’s eyes went wide. What could have possibly gone wrong? He scrambled, pulling Andi’s shirt up as quickly as he could and feeling for the access panel release. Just as he started to press down on the release trigger, Andi broke out in a fit of giggles.

Cal’s eyes darted up to meet Andi's, which were now full of life and looking straight at him as her lips curled into a devilish grin.

“Gotcha!” Andi sat upright in the bed, laughing hysterically. “Oh, Cal, I’m sorry. I just couldn’t resist. And God, the look on your face!”

For a moment, Cal just stared at Andi, dumbstruck. “You were joking?”

"Ta-dah!" She laughed, shaking her hands in the air.

A grin very gradually crept onto Cal’s face. “I can’t believe you did that. You nearly gave me a heart attack. And here I thought you loved me.

“What can I say? I’m heartless. Literally.” Andi broke out in another fit of giggles as she spoke.

“Oh, that’s how it’s going to be?” Cal chuckled, grabbing a pillow off the bed. “I think somebody needs to learn a lesson.”

Cal took his pillow and swung it at Andi, popping her in the face. Andi laughed, grabbing the other pillow and swinging back at Cal. For the next two minutes, the pair giggled and laughed as they traded blows in a full-fledged pillow fight. Cal swung at Andi. Andi dodged, swinging her pillow and hitting Cal square in the chest. Cal grabbed Andi’s pillow, then used it to pounce on her, pinning her down to the bed.

“Say uncle,” Cal teased, holding her down to the bed.

“Oh, you want to play dirty?” Andi laughed. In an instant, she twisted under Cal, freeing herself from his grip. Swinging her leg, she knocked Cal down flat on the bed. Another quick twist positioned her on top of him.

“Silly boy,” she said, grinning as she held Cal down, pinning his wrists above his head. “I come programmed with thirteen different martial arts styles.” Leaning in, she planted a tiny peck on his lips. “Didn’t you see that in the technical manual?”

“I must have skipped that section,” Cal said with a laugh. “Okay, you win; I surrender.”

“Hmmm,” Andi replied contemplatively, “I don’t think I can accept that surrender. I kind of like this position.” The bot spread her legs, straddling Cal’s hips with hers. Keeping Cal’s wrists pinned down, she leaned forward until she was practically lying on top of him with her lips hovering just above his left ear. “Maybe all this excitement turns me on,” she breathed, flicking his ear with her tongue. “Maybe the only way I’m going to let you out of this mess is if you promise to pin me down and fuck the shit out of me.”

Cal grinned. “I think that can be arranged.”

Andi moved so that her lips were just barely brushing Cal’s. “Promise?”

An instant later, Cal's and Andi’s lips met in a scorching hot kiss. As their tongues began to wrestle, Andi rolled over, pulling Cal on top of her. The pair grabbed at each other, rolling around in the bed aggressively as they tore off each other’s clothing. Andi’s shirt was first to go, flung across the room. Next, Andi grabbed hold of Cal’s shirt, breaking off their kiss so she could pull it over his head and throw it aside. Seeing his opportunity, Cal flipped Andi on her back, shifting so he could rip her shorts down and send them to the floor. Andi didn’t stay in that position for long. Grabbing hold of Cal, she rolled him onto his back, sat on his chest, and yanked down his shorts, freeing his cock in one rapid motion.

“That’s what I was looking for,” she purred, licking her lips and spinning around to face Cal. She pushed her mound up against her lover’s cock, groaning loudly as he slid along her folds. Cal reached up, grabbing a handful of her tits as she repeated the maneuver twice more, grinding against him and coating his cock with her juices. Next, she reached down between her legs, wrapping her fingers around his shaft. She gave him a couple firm strokes, then lined him up at her entrance and slowly lowered herself down.

“Oh, yes,” she moaned as Cal filled her up. “Fuck, that feels good.”

Cal’s hands quickly traveled to her hips, guiding her as she started riding his shaft. Andi’s eyes fluttered shut, and she groaned in pleasure as she took Cal’s length again and again. Leaning forward, Andi’s lips met Cal’s once more, sharing a passionate kiss as she rode him.

While they were still kissing, Cal reached behind Andi, holding her to him as he rolled her onto her back. Now on top of her, he began aggressively thrusting into Andi, grunting and groaning into her mouth as he put all his energy into filling her up.

“Oh, Cal!” Andi cried out as their kiss broke. She wrapped her arms and legs around the man to draw him closer. “You’re fucking me so hard! I love it. I love it so much!”

Cal grunted, continuing to savagely plow into Andi. The bot’s groans and moans began to amplify as her neural network lit up with the beginnings of a colossal orgasm. Finally, Andi’s system couldn’t hold back another moment.

“Oh, Cal! I’m coming! I’m—”

Instead of finishing her thought, Andi just began screaming in pleasure as her world went white from the most powerful orgasm she’d experienced since gaining sentience. Cal groaned, continuing to piston into her as her pussy clamped down on his cock and she quaked beneath him. The sensation pushed Cal over the edge, and an instant later, his orgasm came crashing into him. Burying his cock deep inside Andi, he cried out, filling her with his seed.

Completely spent, Cal collapsed on Andi, their lips melting into a slow, intimate kiss. As their kiss concluded, Cal rolled off Andi, and for a minute, the two just lay there in bed, staring at one another and smiling.

Andi was the first to speak. “God, I love you so much,” she breathed.

“I love you too,” Cal said, giving her a little smile.

A short time later, as Cal started drifting off to sleep, Andi initiated her new sleep subroutine. Finding her eyelids heavy all of a sudden, she blinked a few times before closing her eyes entirely. Part of the bot found the experience of falling asleep fascinating and wanted to analyze it. That part was quickly overpowered as sleep overtook her system for the first time ever. A little while later, her deep sleep process started, and Andi began experiencing her first dream. And the subject of her first dream was none other than Cal.