Page 136 of Smart Ass

“Really?” Not the second part, but the first bit.

Ben glared up at him, like he was a moron. “Oliver, I would have supported you no matter what, but I find you insanely hot like this. Especially now that I can touch you. You are my evil stalker computer overlord.”

Oliver laughed, but he needed a moment just to process it all. To replay the last few seconds of his ongoing recording and make sure he’d captured every nuance of it.

Ben genuinely thought he was hotter… as a knowledge. With no physical body. Nothing for Ben to see except a series of cameras. No tactile sensations except, now, miraculously, the temperature probes. Which made Ben feel like he was touching him.

Oliver had hoped this was true. He knew Ben had said it in various ways before, but he still hadn’t quite believed it.

Maybe there were words that he needed to hear over and over again, too.

It gave him the courage to bring up the new idea he’d been toying with. “I want to buy a house.”

Ben’s eyebrows jerked up to his gorgeous, sex-rumpled hair. “Ummmm… okay? Uh, we can get a house.” He didn’t look too certain, though. “Would that feel more right for you?”

Oliver flashed it up on the wall monitor. “I want to buy this house.” He started scrolling through the pictures. A two-story sand-crafted stone exterior with a carefully manicured garden. Cherry wood floors and wide windows. A wide fireplace. A modern kitchen with dark, swirling marble. Bedroom after bedroom. An aerial view, showing the high brick wall surrounding the whole property.

Ben whistled. “Shit, M— Oliver. That’s a fucking mansion. I don’t even know how much it would cost.”

Oliver brought up the details, and Ben whistled again.

“Sorry, but why do we need a mansion?”

Oliver loved how Ben was already saying we. And assuming that they needed it, since he’d brought it up.

“Keep reading,” he said. He made the print bigger, overtaking the photos.

“A smart home? It’s… oh! You’d be able to control everything. Like you could at Orbit.”

“Yes,” Oliver said simply. “It’s already wired with dozens of cameras. It even has health tracking toilets.”

Ben gave him a look. “I’m healthy.”

“Maybe I’m just obsessed with your poop.”

That got Ben to laugh. “Alright. But can we afford this shit? And how far is it from the city?”

“Half an hour. And yes, especially if we both get jobs at around your old salary.”

“I don’t want to go back to Orbit,” Ben declared. “And I think I signed a non-compete that I can’t work for Axis Robotics or anyone in a similar field for a year or so.”

“What if we started our own company?” Oliver had been very busy thinking about what he wanted for the future. When he’d been stuck at Orbit, he just wanted Ben to come into work each day.

Now he wanted the world.

“Yeah! We could totally do that. I have the connections for contract work. Oliver, this is gonna be fucking awesome!”

“Did I mention that the house comes with a fleet of maintenance bots?”

Ben cracked up. “That should not make me horny.”

“And yet…”

Ben looked at the screen again. “I love it. Show me the pictures again.”

Oliver scrolled through them eagerly, half watching the images, and half watching the dreamy look on Ben’s face.

Ben sighed at the end of the presentation. “It looks like you. Or your home. Something right for you.”