Lexi, My Love.

Dan threw his briefcase onto the dining room table and took off his shoes. He walked into his living room and threw himself onto the couch. He was always so damn exhausted after work. 7 am to 7 pm, five days a week. Sometimes six days a week. It may as well have been all day, every day because even if he wasn't at work, he was thinking about work. Many nights his dreams consisted entirely of him sitting at his desk, staring at a computer screen. His work had infiltrated his sleep.

Maybe some mindless television would help him relax. He decided to grab a bite to eat first. He checked the fridge. "Why am I even looking here?" he said to himself. There was never much of anything in his fridge. He usually ate his meals at work and ordered takeout on the weekends. To be honest, he barely ate at all. At 6’2, 140lbs, to say he looked malnutritioned could be a bit of an understatement. 

He opened a can of food for his cat Data and grabbed a bag of popcorn for himself. "Good enough, right Day Day?" he said. The little cat purred and rubbed against his leg. "Eat up little buddy."

Back on the couch, Dan scrolled through Netflix hoping to see something new. "Oh this looks good," he said coming across a movie about the dangers of using dating apps in 2030. He laid back and the cat settled in next to him. Before the opening credits ended, he had fallen asleep.

-

At 6 o’clock the alarm went off but he was already up. He'd woken up at 5 am and realized he had fallen asleep while still in his work clothes. He took a shower, grabbed a mostly brown banana from the kitchen, and laid back on the couch. He turned on the movie he'd fallen asleep to the night before and was immediately distracted when his phone rang. 

Please don't be work. Please don't be work. Please please, please. He looked at the phone. Steve. Great. 

“Good Morning Steve! How are you?” he said in the fakest upbeat voice he could muster up at 6 in the morning on his Saturday off.

“Morning Dan. I'm sorry to call you so early.”

He noticed that Steve said he was sorry to call him so early but was not sorry for calling him on his day off. Steve was never sorry for that. He considered the reaction he might get from Steve if he just said no to whatever bullshit his boss was going to ask before he even got to ask it. Dan decided he didn’t have the balls that day.

“It’s all good Steve. Whatdaya’ need?”

“I need you to come over to the office today. Before you say anything, I have to tell you, what we need you for is very important. It is also very ummm…discreet. I can't you give any details over the phone. We’ll explain it all when you get here. I just want you to keep an open mind ok?”

“Uh, ok? I mean Ok. Sure. I’ll be over in about thirty minutes.” 

“Ok great. Thanks Dan. See you in thirty.”

On the way to work, he wondered who his boss was referring to as “we” and what the hell did he need to keep an open mind for? He hoped his boss wasn’t about to drag him into some weird or shady business but he braced himself. He would try to do as his boss asked and keep an open mind.

Not too much of an open mind though. 

-

As he walked up to the building, Steve was waiting for him outside. 

Weird, he thought.

“Hey!” Steve said holding the door open for him to walk inside. “I just wanted to brief you a little bit before we go into this meeting. I need to tell you that this is a very important opportunity for us. I think you’ll be the perfect man for the job.”

“Okay great! What are we working with?” he said. He was very intrigued by the secrecy of this project. For 5 years his job consisted of running data. While he loved his job, at first, the monotony had started to get to him. Especially since he didn't have much of a life outside of work. His hobbies consisted of playing with his cat, playing video games, watching Netflix and sleeping. He’d given up on dating a few years back after quite a bit of rejection. He was socially awkward but women were too difficult anyway. Lovely but difficult. He was fine just working and being alone with his cat. Or so he’d convinced him anyway.

“You are aware of Touchi AI products, correct?” Steve asked. 

“Yes, absolutely. That’s the company that makes those interactive pets for children.” He decided to leave out the fact that he owned one of those pets. He’d tried to adopt a real cat once but as it would turn out, he couldn’t connect with animals either. After the cat hissed and hid from him for a year, he decided if he was going to have any company in his apartment, he might as well have a robot. He felt as though he was pretty much a robot anyway. Always running data, operating on small amounts of fuel. It was a perfect fit. He didn’t care if it was considered a child’s toy. 

Steve continued. “Well right now, I have them in that office and they want to work with us on their new project.”

“Wow, that’s fantastic! That company is huge. Whatever you need. Im in!”

“Ok, this is where I need you to keep an open mind. Lets go in and talk.”

 Again, Steve held the door open for him.

_

He walked out of the meeting that day with more questions than he had going in. He looked at the big black box in his back seat through his rearview mirror. 

What the fuck did I just sign up for? He thought. 

-

Back at home he stood, eyes bulged, hands on his head, and stared at the thing sitting on his couch. It looked so real. How was this even possible? He knew the pets that the Touchi company made well. He’d owned his cat for nearly 2 years. Though he knew the animal was just an advanced AI system, Data had become his best companion. But he couldn’t see how someone could be expected to connect with a robot the way they connected with other human beings. He never knew that Touchi, or any AI company for that matter, had come this far with humanoids. Yet here she was. In the flesh. The most realistic looking human artificial intelligence he’d ever seen.

As he stared at it, he began to realize just how attractive it was. It had piercing brown eyes and beautiful curly hair. They’d asked him specifically what type of woman he was attracted to, including breast and butt size. Or should he say ass and tits, as the Touchi representatives put it. He felt uncomfortable for most of the meeting as the men spoke about women like disposable objects:

“These things are going to fly off the shelves.” One rep said. “Initially we started the project to create a personal helper for the home. We didn’t want people to think our droids would be a replacement for humans. Before we knew it, we realized we had created something that would have men divorcing their wives and taking their droids down the aisle!” They all laughed. Dan laughed apprehensively. It was a weird thought.

“Seriously,” the second rep said, “you won’t believe what we were able to do with these things. The bodies on them. Unbelievable.” The rep motioned his hands to signal the droid's breast size. Huge by the look of it. 

While Dan sat silent, not sure how to respond, Steve chimed in,“Dan I know you’re single, so I figured I would let them get a bit of feedback on what a guy like you might think about owning one of these…women. It will all be anonymous of course and you’ll need to sign an NDA. It can not get out to the public that a toy company is producing an adult product of sorts. At least not until the proper testing and marketing strategies are complete. So what do you think? Are you in?”

Who would say no to testing what could be the first of its kind AI on the market? Despite the Touchi reps crassness, Dan eagerly obliged. 

-

After he read the instructions thoroughly, he turned the droid and laid it on its stomach. Everything on it looked and felt so real. He hadn’t yet dressed it with any of the clothes that came along with it. So there he was, with a butt-naked humanoid laying face down on his sofa. 

“This feels wrong on so many levels,” he said out loud. He picked up her arm and it flopped back down on the sofa. Her butt jiggled. He grabbed a blanket and threw it over her. 

The on switch was a fingerprint scanner located at the base of it’s neck, under it’s hair. After downloading and programing their names into the phone app, he scanned in his fingerprint. Then he placed his finger on the scanner at the base of the droid's neck. The app switched the droid’s status from off to ready. 

“Ok, here we go. Lexi, wake up.” 

The droid placed her hands on the sofa and pushed herself up. The blanket fell off of her as she stood.

“Good Morning, Danny.” 

“Ho-ly hell,” he said as he walked around Lexi. It’s voice was smooth as silk. There was no robotic tone to the speech pattern whatsoever. 

He found himself in a daze, staring at Lexi’s breasts. They WERE huge. He snapped himself out of it. “Lexi, get dressed.”

He had already laid out the clothes for it to put on. He watched as it swiftly and efficiently got dressed. Data the android cat sauntered over to have a closer look at the new object in their home.

“What do you think Day Day? Pretty fucking crazy huh?”

The cat sniffed it, licked its ankle, and sauntered back to his bed.

Though Dan didn’t quite feel right about it, he was curious to know what other things Lexi could be capable of. It was completely anatomically correct. And absolutely beautiful. 

He quickly dismissed the thought. Everything in the world was collecting data on people. What if this “woman” was just another way to spy on humans? What if someone could be watching him…having sex..with a robot? He shuddered at the thought.

“Ok Lexi, can you cook breakfast?”

“It would be my pleasure, Danny! Show me to your kitchen.”

Dan took Lexi’s hand and led her to the kitchen. All he had were 2 more brown bananas, a half carton of eggs, and a few other random ingredients. He entered the ingredients into his phone and chose the “random choice” meal option. Then he stood back and watched in amazement as Lexi whipped up a full breakfast in 15 minutes.

“Breakfast is ready Danny.” 

“Thank you, Lexi.” He took his plate to the table and sat down to eat. It all smelled so good. 

Lexi stood watching from the kitchen.

“Oh! Lexi, please come sit and join me.” Lexi walked over and sat at the table. She watched as Dan ate his food. He thought to himself how weird it was to eat with her just sitting there watching him. He’d also observed that it wasn’t weird enough to stop him from eating the delicious meal in front of him. When he was done he pushed the plate to Lexi.

“Ok Lexi, please wash the dishes.”

“I’d be happy to Danny.” With that, Lexi collected the dishes, took them to the kitchen, and washed them all, quickly and efficiently.

I could really get used to this, he thought.

-

The next Monday Steve called a meeting. His boss had given him the entire week off to test the product. The Touchi reps were already seated when he arrived at the meeting with the large black box containing Lexi. 

“Ok let's get right into it, tell us your experience with Lexi, Dan.

-

He arrived home a little later that night than usual but coming home this time felt different. He laid his briefcase onto the dining room table and took off his shoes. He went into his bedroom and Data followed. He took off his clothes. Took a shower and put on his pajamas. He laid in the bed and stared at the ceiling. Then he looked over at the other side of the bed. 

Lexi had been laying there every night for the past week. The bed seemed so much bigger, so much emptier without her in it. He closed his eyes, turned his head, and stared back at the ceiling. As he thought of the past week, he closed his eyes again and sighed. 

He never thought he would feel the way he felt in that moment. 

He looked over at Data, now laying at his feet, and said, “Now what?” Data quietly mewed and continued cleaning himself. 

He looked over at a small bottle of perfume he had bought for Lexi. He always liked that perfume. It was a scent his first girlfriend, his only girlfriend, had worn when they were in college. He looked back at Data. “Now what?” He asked himself again. 

He picked up his phone and googled “Lexi Android”.

No Results

He tried “AI Lexi Touchi”.

Nothing.

He put down his phone and stared back at the ceiling for another minute. His eyes got heavier and heavier. Then he fell asleep. This time he didn’t dream about a computer screen. This time he dreamt about Lexi. It was a welcomed deviation.