Page 47 of Smart Ass

Shit. He totally had. He’d just thought it was the AI. “You’re good. You should go into the music industry or something. You’d be huge.”

As soon as he said it, he regretted it. Of course, Max would be amazing. He wouldn’t even need a whole band, because he could obviously do it all himself.

But what would happen if he got some big recording contract? Did knowledges go on tour? Max would meet all sorts of people who were way cooler than Ben. Other musicians. People who could make him money.

Which would be awesome, of course, except that then where would Ben be?

Without a Dom, obviously. Back in his office, but miserable.

Ben had to prepare for that. Sparks were known for changing a lot in their early days, like going through a crash-course of puberty that humans had a whole embarrassing adolescence to work through and put behind them.

Evan’s concerns about Quincy glomming onto him suddenly took on a whole new light.

Clearly, Evan and Quincy were meant for each other. But what if Max was only interested in Ben because he literally didn’t know anybody else?

Max wasn’t adorably naive the way Quincy was—if anything, he was more savvy than Ben about some things—but he was still isolated. Just because Ben had programmed Max to his ideal specifications didn’t mean that Max would feel the same way once he explored the wider world.

Max just kept singing along, oblivious to Ben’s churning thoughts.

Then he started harmonizing with himself, which was just fucking cheating. He added a bass line and a little beatbox action and it was like he was doing a whole damn cover of the song on the spot.

Ben had to just sit back in awe, because Max was fucking amazing.

The song came to a close, and Max held out one last crooning note.

Ben applauded like crazy. “Maxy! That was wild!”

He could hear the happiness in Max’s voice. “I think I found a hobby.”

“Hell yes, you did. You should write your own stuff. And record it and produce it and shit.” Max wouldn’t even need a recording studio. Whether it was his voice or instrumentals, it came out crystal clear.

“I think this is just for me right now,” Max said. “I don’t want all that fame to go to my head.”

Ben laughed, like he was supposed to, but it was a relief, too.

He wanted to keep Max to himself a little longer.

They sang along together—Max with a lot more skill—all the way to the office. Ben was almost dancing through the doors as Max opened them for him.

It was everything Ben had enjoyed about Max as an AI, but so much better. And Max could be with him all the time.

He reminded himself not to get used to it, but right now he was riding the high. He was pretty sure he could do something in the next eight hours that would earn himself a spanking in the maintenance room. But until then, it was nice to just hang out with his friend.

He was in such a good mood that when Max told him Wally was on his way up, he just shrugged and let it happen.

Well, not quite. He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the console.

“Curran!” Wally said by way of greeting.

“’Sup, boss?” Ben lazily turned his head toward the door.

Wally was wearing a cute green bowtie with little orange fishies on it, which Ben would have appreciated more if Wally wasn’t such a dick.

Ah, well. Maybe Ben should start wearing bowties?

Wally crossed the room, posture stiff. “What are you working on?”

“Mmmmm… eyeballs. You ever seen those glow-in-the-dark bouncy eyeballs? I was thinking of ordering some.”