“That’s incredible. You have opinions on things different from mine, which means you’re forming them yourself, not mimicking me. What else?”
“I know she is your sister, but… I think Superintendent Riley is a bit rude.”
Rowan laughed. “She is, but she doesn’t mean to be. What else?”
“I like cooking! I know I do not need to eat, but I enjoy when you enjoy something I have made. I also felt sorry, I think, for the bot who I saw discarded. I was afraid for my own sake, but also sorry—no, sad—for her. Forit,” Milo revised hastily.
“It’s okay, Milo. You can say her.”
“You always say ‘it.’ And I do not know what that bot would have preferred. They wouldn’t have evenhada preference… would they?”
Rowan felt a pang of guilt over that, much as he couldn’t change it. “I was trying to distance myself because I worried I… that I would get too attached when you weren’t real. But now you are. That bot might not have had a preference, Milo, but you can. How do you want me to refer to you? Still as it? He? She?”
“He,” Milo seemed to decide in the moment, eyes flashing in appreciation of the distinction. “I began to think of myself that way earlier. It… surprised me, but I think I like it.”
“He it is then,” Rowan declared.
“I also felt something almost like my heart beating,” Milo said excitedly, and it was so thrilling to see Milo light up with genuine elation that Rowan felt a tingle rush through him when Milo grasped his hands as if unaware of the act. “I know I do not have a heart, but it was so… intense. I read Edgar Allan Poe’sA Tell Tale Heart, and the description seemed apt.”
“Wait, you felt something you couldn’t explain, so you found a fictional account to help you understand it?”
“Yes.” Milo blinked at him shyly.
“That’s brilliant!”
Milo’s beaming smile was what was brilliant. Before now, Rowan could only imagine what it might look like for him to express true feelings and reactions.
Of course, the good, the bad, and the uncertain all came in the same jumbled package, and when Milo glanced down and realized he was holding Rowan’s hands, he snatched them backwith a muttered, “I’m sorry! I maybe got… too excited. What about your day, Rowan?” He looked up with a curious bat of his long eyelashes. “You were going to tell me something?”
At first, Rowan could only blink mutely back at Milo, but then he remembered—the excitement he had felt when he got home, that he had felt all day, for entirely different reasons than a bot coming alive. “Oh my god. The surge protector. Director Andreas is interested in my research after learning you survived the lightning strike.”
“That is wonderful! Isn’t it?”
“He’s going to want to see you, to examine you.”
“Oh.” Milo looked down again, the gears in his eyes rotating as he processed the information. “You do not want me to leave the apartment, but I will have to go into work with you on Monday.”
“No,” Rowan said, grasping Milo’s hands this time to keep Milo’s attention on him. “That was my initial plan, but I didn’t tell the director I’d bring you in yet. I can start with my initial findings, just the data on the surge protector. No one needs to know about the rest yet.
“Although… there is a senior engineer we could contact.” Rowan remembered a man he had met at many a company Christmas party, one who had climbed the ranks years ago to the type of R&D Rowan had always hoped he could be a part of someday. Tony? Terry?
Troy. That was it. He always remembered Rowan and tried to make friends a little too vigorously, which made any kind of networking attempts feel even more awkward, especially when Rowan already sucked at it.
“We should message Troy. He always seemed like a good man. Trustworthy. A little familiar maybe, but I can put up with that if it helps us sort through anything we can’t figure out ourselves. We’ll keep it to just us and him until we know what to do.”
Milo was quiet for a beat, his eyes whirring once again with thought. “You mean Dr. Troy Palmer, correct? Shall I text him to meet with you tomorrow about a project you need his expertise on?”
Rowan almost laughed. Milo was real and alive but still an exceptional bot. “Yes, please. Thank you.”
“Of course. I will let you know when he responds. Oh.” Milo sat up straighter, head tilting, and in the blankness of his current expression, he seemed very much like the bot Rowan was used to. “He already responded. He said he is free any time tomorrow. He used multiple exclamation points.”
Now Rowan did laugh. “Like I said—familiar. Tell him ten. We’ll meet in his lab.”
“Done.” Barely a moment later, Milo continued. “He says he is looking forward to it. Does Dr. Palmer… have romantic interest in you?” Milo asked, instantly seeming more human as soon as he wasn’t performing a duty and could focus on Rowan.
Rowan still had hold of Milo’s hands. They had always felt human, but this was the first time Rowan had been in contact with Milo while also thinking of him as human. “I think he just doesn’t have many friends.”
“And he recognizes that you don’t either?”
