Page 114 of Smart Ass

Ben

Ben pressed the gray arrow on his new phone. “Tell Ben I love him, and that he made me very happy.” The deep smoky voice rang in his ears, surrounding him like a blanket.

His thumb pressed down again. “Tell Ben I love him, and that he made me very happy.”

Something poked his shoulder.

“Tell Ben I love him, and that he made me very happy.”

The something wrapped around his back.

It was Evan, curled around him on the couch. He pried the phone from Ben’s slack fingers. “You can’t listen to this all day.”

Ben wasn’t sure why not. He was wearing his earpiece, so it wasn’t like Evan could even hear it.

“He could still be fine,” Evan said. “Rashid told us it could take a few weeks.”

Ben tried to nod, but he didn’t have the energy.

It had already been a week. He was still banned from Orbit as far as he knew. To be honest, he hadn’t been checking his emails or anything else. He’d asked Kira to go into his office every night and ask for Max.

She’d gone above and beyond, not only asking around for Max in every way she could conceive of, but also smuggling out the inert sexbot and having it delivered to Evan’s apartment, where it hopefully wouldn’t be connected to Ben.

So now they were all complicit in Ben’s illicit activities.

And there had been no sign of Maxamillion anywhere.

Not a word or flutter of an eyelash. The sexbot couldn’t even boot up. Ben would owe Orbit a shit ton of money if anyone ever realized that he had it, but he couldn’t be bothered to care.

“You don’t have to babysit me,” Ben said. “Go home to Quincy.”

Evan squeezed him closer. “I’ll be here as long as you need me.”

Ben allowed himself a moment to bury his face in Evan’s chest. “Thanks. But I don’t. I’ll be fine. I’ll… start applying for jobs or something.”

That was a flat-out lie. He couldn’t imagine having the energy to do anything more complex than eat when Evan or Quincy shoved food in front of him and shower when one of them led him to the bathroom.

They’d been taking turns staying with him, going to work, and hanging around the sexbot in case it happened to move.

Quincy was a bubbly presence, distracting Ben with stories about his new co-workers and excited chatter about his online following.

Evan was calmer, sitting close to Ben like he was now and comforting him with his mere presence.

Some distant part of Ben’s mind appreciated them being there for him. He knew how special they were. But every time they saw each other in passing, they looked at each other with such adoration that Ben wanted to flee.

Quincy would make a meal and Evan would look at him with stars in his eyes as he took his first bite. Evan would choose a movie, and Quincy would pull him onto his lap and nuzzle his neck while applauding his choices.

Ben would flee to his room, shutting the door tight.

He couldn’t stand another night of that. He pulled away from Evan’s embrace. “Really, Evan. Go home to loverboy. Have a nice night out. I’ve got this.”

Evan looked him over. Ben must have looked convincing, because Evan nodded. “Just call me if you need anything.”

Ben gave a two-fingered salute.

Evan handed Ben his phone, gave him a final squeeze, and saw himself out.

Ben rubbed his thumb over the smooth screen, waking it up.