Ty, a shift manager with an alcoholic wife, creates a female replicant in a dystopia veering toward full mechanization. For Ty, the surreal drudgery of working in a retail environment is interrupted when robotic interfaces are installed at his job...
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Jennifer slipped into bed at 2:30 am, smelling of cigarettes and liquor. Initially, Ty wanted to literally kick her out of the bed, and then she went and cupped his balls. Things progressed from there, until he kissed her, fully tasting the vile things she had put into her body.
"No." Ty pushed her away gently.
"Oh, come on." She moved to kiss him again.
"No." He stiffened his tone. To end her skillful caresses, he turned his back to her.
"What's the matter?"
"You taste like a damn bar."
Jennifer further degraded herself by saying, "I could just blow you."
He wrestled with his conscience, struggling to ignore his hard-on. Giving in to her body was the norm in their relationship. Tonight, he didn't want to give in. The fight with Damon had strengthened his resolve.
"Just go to sleep. Talk to me when you're sober."
His words held little weight, as he had said them to Jennifer before, but rarely in tandem with a sexual rejection. Jennifer turned over, and he could hear her sniffling. Good, he thought. Her vices and inability to rein them in had depressed him plenty of times. Hell, he might've even cried about it, not that he could recall a specific instance of crying...not for a few years at least.
The never ending sniffles nearly broke him. He wanted to reach over and stroke his wife's back, tell her he loved her, that he didn't need a blow job, that it was all okay.
But it wasn't, and he didn't.
She should be apologizing, wedging heavy promises in with it. However, Jennifer kept crying and Ty eroded into a troubled sleep.
He woke up when he heard a crash in the living room. The time on his interface read 3:45am. Ty imagined Helia up and out of bed, wandering around, breaking glass items and hurting herself on them.
Jesus, go look and stop worrying.
Ty shook Jennifer. "Get up, I heard something in the living room."
"What?" Miraculously, his words inspired a response. "Someone in there?"
"I don't know." Ty jumped out of bed and into a pair of sweat pants.
A loud thud from the living room prompted Jennifer to act. She reached in the nightstand, and pulled out a dark object Ty had hoped never to see inside of his home, let alone in his wife's hands.
"Where the hell did you get a gun?"
She checked the chamber of the small handgun, ignoring him completely.
The model of the murder weapon eluded Ty, and his own inadequacy when it came to guns to didn't bother him in the slightest. What bothered him was the confident way his wife handled a dangerous weapon as if it were a cooking tool.
He followed her out into the living room, no longer asking questions about the gun. Several other sounds drifted from the kitchen, like someone rifling through the drawers. When they rounded the corner, they saw a hooded figure bent over an open drawer, chucking out whatever they deemed invaluable. Papers and cooking goods were strewn all over the floor.
"Hey!" Without warning, Jennifer pointed the gun at the thief.
The person stopped moving, and slowly put their hands in the air. "I'm unarmed."
From the gruff voice, Ty didn't know if it was a woman or a man. He wanted them gone, but he didn't want them dead.
"Put the gun down, they said they're unarmed," he whispered to his wife.
Unwavering, she held the gun steadily, aimed at the intruder's chest. "You broke into my home. I don't give a shit if you're unarmed or not."
The intruder backed out from behind the kitchen counter, making their way to the front door. "You could just let me leave. You don't have to shoot. I didn't want to hurt anyone."
"Then you shouldn't have come inside my home."
Jennifer pulled the trigger, but the intruder ducked, and the shot hit the wall behind them.
~*~
A/N: Dedicated to SallyMason1, one of my favorite WP writers. She dallies in all the genres, but call me biased, I think her sci-fi stories really shine.
Click on over to her profile to find out for yourself, and start by reading all the one-shots she's contributed to sci-fi Smackdowns:
