The following morning, Cal woke up to a wet, warm sensation on his shaft. In an instant, he realized exactly what was going on. Quickly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he tore back the sheet that had been covering him to find Andi, positioned between his legs with her lips wrapped around his cock, eagerly sucking and bobbing.

“Oh, fuck,” he groaned. “That’s nice.”

Andi pulled back off his shaft, smiling at him as her hand took over seamlessly. “Good morning,” she purred. “I hope you don’t mind my little wakeup call.”

“Not at all." Cal smiled back. "Help yourself.”

Andi’s lips descended on Cal once more, taking him deeper than he’d ever experienced before. The man let out a groan as she began fucking him with her face, slurping and making gagging noises. Her hands expertly worked his balls.

“Oh, Andi, fuck,” he groaned. “You’re so good at that.”

Soon, Cal’s hips began bucking, driving him deeper down Andi’s throat. She matched his pace with absolute precision, moaning and groaning onto his shaft and pushing him closer and closer to the edge.

“Fuck, yes.” Cal grunted as he felt his climax approaching. “Oh, God, Andi, I’m gonna come. I’m gonna—”

Cal grunted, grabbing Andi’s hair and exploding down her throat. The bot groaned, swallowing every drop, milking him with her face as he groaned in satisfaction. When he was finished coming, Andi drew her lips off him slowly, smiling into his eyes as she sat up in his bed.

“Well, good morning to you, too." Cal smiled, sitting up in bed. He leaned over, giving Andi a quick kiss. “I really enjoyed that, but now we’d better get moving. We’ve got a lot that we need to accomplish today.” Looking the bot up and down, Cal added, "Wait here a second.”

Andi watched as Cal hopped off the bed and stepped into his closet. He shuffled the hangers back and forth a few times, then finally re-emerged holding a green tank top and some denim shorts.

“Here,” he said, tossing the clothes to Andi. “They were Trudy’s. We’ll get you your own stuff later, but for now, it’s way better than Milton’s old robe.”

Andi looked down at the clothes and then back at Cal. “Are you sure? I mean, if it would make you uncomfortable—”

“Not at all,” Cal said. “I think if Trudy were here, she’d have wanted to help you out. She would have liked you.”

Andi smiled, blushing slightly as she looked back down to the clothes. “Thank you,” she said, climbing off the bed. Cal went into the bathroom to take a shower, and Andi slipped on the new outfit.

After his shower, Cal got dressed and walked out to his kitchen, where he found Andi busily preparing his breakfast.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Andi began as she flipped a pancake on his griddle. “But I’ve got an entire library of culinary programming that I never had the chance to use since Mr. Lawrence always kept me restricted to my suite, and I wanted to give it a shot.”

“Hey, I’m not complaining about a hot breakfast." Cal smiled. “Most mornings I’m lucky if I make a bowl of cereal.”

When the meal was ready, Cal and Andi sat down at the kitchen table. As Cal ate, he told her about some of the tests he wanted to run. Andi nodded, offering to help in any way she could. Then her brows furrowed as a serious expression grew on her face.

“Can I ask you a question?” She asked.

“Sure.”

“You’re a bot technician,” Andi began. “You read our technical manuals for fun, and you could probably build a functioning bot from all the spare parts in your garage. But as far as I can tell, you don’t own one. Why not? I mean, I’d think it could really help you, especially with your work.”

Cal grew quiet, putting down his fork and looking up at Andi.

“That’s a good question. I guess the short answer is that Trudy would never have approved.”

“She wouldn’t?” Andi asked. “Was she opposed to bots or something?

“Oh, no,” Cal replied. “Quite the contrary, actually. Trudy was a hardcore pro-botter. She very firmly believed that bot ownership should have been branded a form of slavery and outlawed. She wanted to see bots acknowledged as individuals and treated as such. To her, the idea of owning a bot would have run against everything she stood for.”

“Really?” Andi asked. “Is that how you feel, too?”

“Honestly? Trudy and I never saw eye-to-eye on that issue. I’ve always loved working on bots, but I never saw them as anything more than a machine, something we humans built as another tool to help us grow as a species. It was probably the only thing we ever argued about. That’s why I said Trudy would have liked you. In the last eighteen hours, I’ve found myself looking at the views I’ve held all my life about bots, and I’m really starting to question them.

“I mean, there are humans who don’t seem as human to me as you do, Andi. And this… whatever it is that’s happening in your neural network, it’s had me thinking. From day one, all the way back to when the NC1 chip was first released, the developers said that neural chips behave similarly to neurons in the human brain. If that’s really the case, then what is there to stop a sufficiently complex neural network with enough connections from developing real emotions or conscious thought?

“I guess what I’m saying is that you’re doing something that Trudy tried to do for years and failed. You’re making me believe that maybe, just maybe, a bot is more than a collection of parts and programming.”

Andi reached out and took Cal’s hand. “Wow. That’s pretty incredible. I’m so thankful that we met. For both of us.”

“I am, too,” Cal said. “Now, I should finish up so we can get to the garage and get to work.”

After breakfast was cleaned up, Cal and Andi went out into the garage and started running more tests. Some of the tests were fairly routine, while others were more detailed tests designed to ensure that Andi’s self-diagnostic protocols were still operating properly. For his final task of the morning, Cal looked through historic snapshot data from Andi’s memory, trying to pinpoint exactly when her neural net became so complex.

“This is really fascinating,” Cal said, flipping through logs on his screen.

“What’s fascinating?” Andi asked, holding up her tank top so it wouldn’t interfere with the cord plugged into her interface port.

“Remember yesterday, how you mentioned that a few months ago you started initiating tasks to make use of the idle time when Milton left you online?”

“Yeah.”

“Would that have been around four months and two weeks ago?” Cal asked.

“Actually, that’s almost exactly when it started happening. How did you figure that out?”

“Well, as I was digging through the historic snapshots of your neural net, about six months ago, there was a moment during your idle time when a handful of new neural connections formed. This can happen sometimes, so it didn’t trigger any errors. Over the next month and a half, more and more of these connections started forming during your idle time until we get to four and a half months ago. It appears that all at once, the collection of seemingly random connections reached critical mass, bridging together and spontaneously forming a slew of new connections in the process. From that moment forward, your neural net started showing heightened activity, continuing to grow steadily until it reached another tipping point last week, exploding in activity right about the time you said you first experienced feeling miserable.”

“Wow,” Andi said. “So what does that all mean?”

“I’m not completely sure,” Cal admitted, “but if I were to guess, I’m thinking that the event four and a half months ago was the beginning of some kind of rudimentary self-awareness. Then, last week, everything came together, heightening your sense of self by internalizing your emotional matrix. With all the pieces assembled, you had the ability to both experience feelings and to want to do something about them.”

“Wow,” Andi breathed again.”

“Andi, I really want to get this data in front of someone smarter than I am. Would you be okay if I took some of these logs and forwarded them to a friend? His name is Dr. Stanley Nichols. He’s a robotics neurospecialist and one of the few people I’d trust to keep this on the down-low. I actually met him through Trudy. He’s a pro-botter, so I know a potentially sentient bot is something he’d be interested in seeing.”

Andi’s brow wrinkled a little. “Are you sure it’s safe? If word about this got out to the public, or worse, back to Mr. Lawrence…”

“Believe me, Andi, if I could figure this out on my own, I wouldn’t involve anyone else. I can’t though. Dr. Nichols is a good person, and he is passionate about protecting bots. I’m certain he’ll keep your developments away from anyone who would hurt you.”

“Okay,” Andi answered, a hint of anxiety in her voice. “If you’re certain.”

Cal transferred copies of the log data to his tablet, then composed a quick message to Dr. Nichols. Once the files were attached and the message was sent, he disconnected the interface cable and re-sealed Andi’s access door. Smiling at the bot, he stood up from his chair.

“Alright, that’s enough testing for today." Cal grinned. Let’s go find you a pair of shoes. We’re going out.”

“We are?” Andi asked. “Are you sure I should? If Mr. Lawrence finds out I’m operational—”

“Don’t worry about that,” Cal said reassuringly. “He won’t, and even if he does, we'll figure something out. Now come on, it’s time for a little date.”

Finally, Andi smiled. “A date? Okay, I kinda like the sound of that. Where are you taking me on this date?”

“You’re going to love this. It’s super romantic,” Cal chuckled. “First, we’re going to hit a clothes store to buy you a few new outfits. After that, I’ve got to pick up something from my electronics supplier. Once we finish that, I was thinking we could go to a movie theater or something. I’d even let you pick the film. What do you think?”

Andi’s smile only brightened. “I think that sounds great. I’ve been trapped in my suite for nearly a year, so we could go out and stare at a wall, and it wouldn’t be worse than what I’ve been through. Lead the way.”

Cal laughed, taking the bot by the hand and leading her back to his bedroom. He dug through his closet, looking for a pair of Trudy’s shoes that would work. Trudy’s feet were slightly bigger than Andi’s, but they found a pair of strappy sandals, which worked well enough to get out of the house.

With her new shoes on, Andi followed Cal out to his driveway, and the two climbed into his truck. Cal plugged a popular shopping center into the map, and the truck came to life, pulling out of the driveway and navigating toward the center. During the entire drive, Andi asked Cal questions about his life, learning about everything from his childhood to how he came to work on robots for a living. A few minutes later, Cal’s truck pulled into an open parking space at the shopping center, and the two headed inside.

Bots primarily populated the women's clothing store, shopping for their owners, although a few humans also roamed the aisles. Cal pushed a shopping cart up and down the aisles while Andi rifled through the racks of clothes, picking out various outfits ranging from practical to cute. When she asked him how much she could pick out, Cal’s only response was to go ahead and fill the cart.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Andi asked at one point, reading the price tag for a cute yellow low-cut sundress. “I mean, I could just pick out one or two things and call it good.”

"Nonsense." Cal smiled before lowering his voice. “Listen, if we’re going to get you away from Milton, you need enough stuff to start you out on the right foot. One or two things isn’t going to cut it. And you should get that. It’ll look sexy on you.”

“You think so?” she asked, arching an eyebrow as she laid it in the cart. “I don’t know. Maybe we should find a fitting room so I could try it on.”

“I do think so, and I’d love to see you in that dress,” Cal said with a grin.

Andi looked over the rows of clothing, spotting the fitting rooms toward the far corner of the store. “Then come on, mister,” she purred, tugging the cart. “Let’s go try it on.”

Andi pulled the shopping cart behind her, with Cal following closely behind. As she walked, Cal watched her hips sway in the shorts he’d given her earlier in the morning. He felt his cock begin to stiffen. “She’s really putting a strut into her step,” the man thought appreciatively, admiring the view.

When they reached the fitting rooms, Andi grabbed the sundress, then looked around, checking to see if anyone was nearby. Deciding the coast was clear, she reached out and took Cal’s hand, pulling him toward the furthest booth.

“Come on,” she grinned. “I need a human’s opinion.”

Cal didn’t argue, and a few seconds later, they were slipping into the fitting room, giggling.

The curtain had barely been pulled shut behind them before Andi spun around, pressing her lips up against Cal’s in a scorching hot kiss. Cal let out a happy whimper as the bot’s arms wrapped around him, drawing him closer. The two quickly began making out in earnest, their hands exploring each other’s bodies as their tongues wrestled.

“Fuck, I’m horny,” Andi groaned quietly between kisses. “I need you so bad.”

Without another word, Andi dropped to her knees in front of Cal. She smiled up at him, a mischievous glint in her eye as she raised a finger to her lips and quietly "shushed" him. Taking hold of his shorts, she tugged them down to the floor in one smooth motion, releasing his cock to the open air of the tiny fitting room. Bracing herself on his hips, she leaned forward, engulfing him with her hot, wet mouth.

Cal did his best to stifle a groan as Andi went to work, gagging herself on his cock with a skill no human could match. She plunged herself down on him again and again, filling the small space with the glucking sounds of pleasure. Cal reached down, taking hold of Andi’s golden blonde hair, using it to guide her pace as she took him all the way down to his base. Andi perfectly matched the thrusts, synchronizing herself to her human lover.

Cal let out a little grunt as Andi slid back, her lips coming off his cock with a little pop. Rising to her feet, she spun around, pulled down her shorts, and bent over, bracing herself against the fitting room’s bench. “Fuck me,” she whispered just loud enough for Cal to hear. “Fuck me with your big cock.”

Cal grinned, taking hold of his cock and stepping in position to line it up at her entrance. Andi’s slit was already seeping juice, hot and ready. Pushing forward, he guided himself into her needy wetness, then quickly began pistoning in and out of the sexy blonde.

“Oh, ungh." Andi groaned softly, trying not to make too much noise. “Yes, Cal, give it to me. Please, give it to me.”

Cal grunted, slamming himself as hard and fast as he could into Andi. She bucked against him, matching his thrusts as they both grunted and groaned. Before long, Andi felt her orgasm starting to build. The bot did her best to keep quiet, knowing they were in a semi-public space, but she couldn’t help herself from letting out a series of soft groans.

Cal let out a slightly louder moan as his own climax began to build. “Fuck, Andi,” he grunted, his words coming in time with his thrusts. “You’re so fucking tight.”

Andi gripped the bench, using every spare neuron to avoid screaming as her orgasm exploded through her body, sending pleasure signals bouncing around her neural net and making her body quake and spasm with each of Cal’s increasingly erratic thrusts. Less than a second later, Cal plunged down into Andi one final time. Grunting in pleasure, the man came hard, filling Andi with his seed.

“Hmmm, thanks,” Andi purred as Cal slid out of her. “Now let me clean that up.” Dropping to her knees once more, the bot wrapped her lips around Cal’s shaft, sucking and licking him until his cock was cleaned of their collective fluids. Rising back to her feet, she wiped her lips with her arm and grinned broadly. “I can’t tell you how much I needed that.”

A minute later, the curtain swished open, and the two emerged from the fitting room, fully dressed and giggling. As Andi went to place the sundress in the shopping cart, her eyes met those of an elderly woman one aisle of clothes over, giving her a dirty look.

“It fit perfectly,” Andi grinned at the woman, holding up the sundress. “It slipped right in… er, on.”

Cal and Andi giggled, pushing the shopping cart down the aisle and away from the woman now shaking her head. A few minutes later, they took their purchases to the ServiceBot at the cash register, paid, and checked out. They were just about to leave when Andi looked back into the store for a second, then turned back to Cal.

“Can I borrow your card for a second? I just remembered something I wanted to get.”

“Sure,” Cal said. “Do you want me to come in with you or—”

“Nope,” she grinned. “Just hang tight. I’ll be right back.”

Cal shrugged, handing her his card and watching her disappear back into the store. A few minutes later she reappeared, toting one more shopping bag.

“What’d you get?” Cal asked, trying to peek into the bag.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Andi replied in a flirty tone, snatching the bag out of sight. Cal laughed, shaking his head as he took back the card.

A few minutes later, Cal’s truck stopped in front of a plain brick commercial building with no advertisements or signs. Indicating what was inside.

“It’s my turn to buy a surprise,” Cal grinned, opening his door. “Wait here; this should only take a second.”

Andi watched as Cal disappeared into the building. About two minutes later, he reemerged, carrying a small cardboard box.

“So, um, what’s in the box?” Andi asked as Cal climbed in the truck and slipped the box into the back seat.

“I told you. A surprise. Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough. Okay, now that all the shopping is done, what do you say we have a little fun? Does a movie still sound like a good time to you, or is there something else you wanted to try?”

If you’ll be there, I’d be happy to be anywhere,” Andi smiled, leaning in and giving Cal a little kiss on the cheek. “Have I thanked you enough today for all you’re doing to help me?”

Cal chuckled. “After that moment in the fitting room, I’m pretty sure that you thanked me enough for the next two weeks.”

Andi laughed, reaching out and placing her arm on Cal’s. Cal smiled at the bot, then entered the theater into the truck’s navigation system. A few minutes later, the truck was parked, and the pair were walking into the theater.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve asked you what kind of movies you like,” Cal admitted as they stepped up to the ticket kiosk. “For that matter, do you even like movies?”

“Of course I do,” Andi laughed, hugging Cal’s arm as they looked at the listings on the kiosk. “I’ve never been allowed to go out and see one, but I was programmed with a fairly extensive database of works dating all the way back to the early 2000s.”

“Oh, wow, it’s been forever since I’ve watched one of those old 2D flicks,” Cal admitted. “Anyway, what’s the choice for tonight? You get to pick since this is your first night at the movies.”

“Aww, thanks,” Andi said with a warm smile. She looked through the list before clicking on a movie title. “This one looks really good.”

“Of course you’d pick the one romance film on the list. Women,” Cal said, chuckling.

“Well, if you don’t like it, we can pick something else,” Andi replied, smiling.

“No way,” Cal said. “You haven’t had a gram of freedom since you were activated. You deserve to have a say.” Cal clicked the button to purchase the tickets. “Now let’s go enjoy a movie.”

Two hours later, Cal and Andi emerged from the theater, walking arm in arm as they discussed the movie.

“Okay, I’ll admit it,” Cal said with a little sigh. “That was pretty good.”

“So you liked it?” Andi laughed. “Yay!”

“Yeah,” Cal admitted. “The plot was pretty good, and I thought that Bridget was really a compelling character.

“She really was,” Andi agreed. “And I loved how she kept dreaming about Tony, even when she didn’t know who he was. Actually, that reminds me of something I wanted to ask you about.”

“What’s that?”

“Dreams,” Andi replied as they approached the truck. “Are they really like that? I mean, I know what dreams are, and I have a lot of descriptions of them in my database. I guess my developers felt like I should have at least some basic understanding in case my owner wanted me to tell him he was the man of my dreams. But I’ve never had an actual dream, so I guess I never really gave a lot of thought about what it was like until now.”

“Interesting,” Cal replied. “Would you like to?”

“Like to what?”

“To dream,” Cal asked, opening Andi’s door for her. Once she was inside the truck, he closed her door and went over to his own side, climbing in.

“Of course I’d like to,” she admitted, “but I don’t know how that would be possible.”

“Andi,” Cal began, leveling his eyes with the bot. “You’re feeling emotions. You’re probably sentient. You’re just about the poster child of the impossible becoming possible. Dreams aren’t that far of a reach.”

Andi gave Cal a smile, and then the man started the truck, navigating toward his home before he continued. “I’ve written my fair share of custom bot subroutines in my day. This morning when we were running your tests, I was already thinking about how I could write a sort of sleep mode for you, so you could experience sleeping at night. I thought it might be a better alternative to standing around awake on the nights when you don’t go offline. Adding a dream emulator really wouldn’t be that hard.”

“Really?” Andi asked. “Cal, that would be amazing. I’d love to—”

“Hang on,” Cal said, cutting her off. “Something’s up.”

Andi’s eyes went wide. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t panic,” Cal said, “but I think we’re being followed. Earlier today, I could have swore I saw a black Lexus following us at a distance after we left the shopping center. At the time I wrote it off as a coincidence. But just now, after we turned left, I noticed a black Lexus about three blocks behind us that took the same left turn.”

"Really?" Andi asked. “Who do you think it is?”

“I don’t know, but I can guess. There’s a Mark IV ServiceBot behind the wheel of that thing. The only person I know who has enough resources to send a spare Mark IV out to follow us around is Milton Lawrence.” Andi gasped as Cal took hold of the truck’s steering wheel. Next, he pressed a button on the dash that disengaged the autopilot. “I’m going to try something.”

Cal slowed the truck down, checking his rearview mirror. Behind him, the Lexus mimicked the behavior, keeping its distance. Cal then sped up, taking a right turn into a neighborhood. Sure enough, the Lexus followed him into the neighborhood. Cal made a few more turns, with the other car trailing behind him all the way.

“It’s definitely not a coincidence. This bot is following us. I don’t think I can shake a bot off my tail, but I have an idea.” Cal re-engaged the autopilot, punching in a new address. The truck turned out of the neighborhood, heading to the new destination.

For the next few minutes, Cal and Andi sat quietly as Cal watched the Lexus in his rearview mirror.

“Almost there,” Cal mumbled as he looked at the map on the dash. Thirty seconds later, the pickup pulled into the parking lot of the police precinct. Cal watched in his mirror quietly as the truck slowed to a stop. A few seconds later, the Lexus sped past the police station. The bot behind the wheel of the car turned its head, watching Cal’s truck as it passed.

Andi broke the silence. “That was definitely one of Mr. Lawrence’s bots. What are we going to do?” She asked, worry in her voice. “If Mr. Lawrence knows I’m active… if he knows you took me out today…”

“Andi, don’t panic,” Cal said. “This isn’t the end of the world. That being said, it’s going to speed up my plans. I thought I’d have a few more days before I needed to sneak you out of town. It looks like tonight’s the night instead.”

Cal punched the button on the navigation screen to head home, and the truck began moving. “We’re going to head back to my place. I don’t think we’ll have a lot of time before that bot shows up at my door looking for answers, so we’ve got to act fast. When we get there, I want you to head to my bedroom. There’s a suitcase under my bed. Pack me a few changes of clothes, and then head into my closet. I’ve got a tiny safe in the far corner. Pack that, too. When that’s done, bring the suitcase to my living room and wait there. Do not leave the house without me.”

“Okay,” Andi replied. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going into my workshop. I need to be able to service you on the road. I’m going to pack up enough gear so I can do just that. Remember, we’re not going to have a lot of time, so act fast.”

“Got it,” Andi replied.

A few minutes later, the truck pulled into Cal’s driveway; the two raced for the house, darting inside. Andi ran to Cal’s bedroom while Cal headed for his garage. As quickly as he could, Cal grabbed a large box from the corner of his garage and started slamming tools and equipment into it. When it was full, he raced the box out to his truck, grabbed another box, and filed it just as quickly. Confident he had everything, he carried the box out to the living room, where Andi was waiting with his suitcase. The two loaded everything, climbed into the truck, and pulled out of the driveway.

“Where are we going to go?” Andi asked as the truck sped onto the interstate.

Cal looked Andi in the eyes. “For tonight? As far out of town as we can get. After that? I’m still working on that part.”