“I can’t believe what you wanted to do with all of those women!” Lin glares at me from the desk. Her tablet is in her hand and her vitals are spiking with anger. What happened? Just a second ago she was happily letting me doze off. No. Wait, that was two hours ago.

“What are you talking about?”

She turns the tablet in my direction and I rouse myself enough to glance over at which part of my memories she’s reading. Oh. Yeah. The fantasies I had about the cafeteria girls early on in my time at the Butler Institute. Maybe I shouldn’t have written those down, but I’d just gotten my implant running and I was really trying to capture everything that went through my mind as a training exercise. It seemed harmless at the time. It’s not like I ever did anything with any of them beyond a smile and a thanks for the mashed potatoes.

“Do we have to fight right now? I’m so tired.”

“If you didn’t want to fight, you should have had more respect for your future girlfriend!”

“What are you talking about? That’s not even remotely fair! As far as I knew at the time, I was never going to have a future girlfriend. I was half convinced that I was going to have to die to get revenge for Mom.” I force myself to sit up in bed, even though I was in that perfect comfortable position. “Besides, I was a teenage boy dropped in here with minimal supervision and a ton of emotional issues and literally almost every woman that worked here was a smoking hot twenty-something! What was I supposed to want?”

“And you’re so much more mature now, just a couple of years later?”

“I am! And I have a girlfriend now! And I love her, even if she’s acting crazy when I need to sleep.”

Her face twists. Dammit. That was the very wrong thing to say.

“Crazy! You think I’m crazy!?”

“No. No! Sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m just so tired. I started at four in the morning today. That gold deposit solved a lot of problems for us, but it made a whole bunch of new work for me that I didn’t think I would have to do until next month. Can we please talk about this in the morning? Please?”

“So you can dream about them tonight? Those other girls? The ones that gave you food and pretty smiles and made you think those thoughts that should have been reserved for me?”

“No!” I can’t even remember who they are until the index helpfully triggers on context clues and brings up some of their profiles. “And I repeat, I didn’t know you then! Had never even heard your name. And they don’t even work here anymore. They all quit when their wages went down to market rates and they couldn’t hit the jackpot by getting pregnant with a Butler baby. Look through the logs! Have I ever even thought about one of them since?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Lin eyes me suspiciously for a moment, then starts scrolling back through my memories. She’s so cute, even when she’s inexplicably angry. Finally she seems satisfied and flicks the tablet screen to scroll back to the current live feed.

“Fine,” she says. “You’re right.”

“I know!”

She looks at the screen a little longer and her pulse calms down to its normal levels. She lowers the tablet and comes over to the bed with it, dragging the cable connecting it to my satchel behind her. I scooch over to make room for her and she lies down next to me.

“I’m sorry. I think I’m just in a bad mood.” She lays the tablet down on the bed by her feet and puts one hand on my chest while she plays with my hair with the other. It feels nice. “I had a big fight with Yang Song today.”

“Over me?”

“As always.”

“Still doesn’t think I’m good enough for you.”

“As always.” She snuggles closer. “I defended you though. Described in intricate detail how wonderful you are. And how happy you make me. And how you never even look at other women.”

“I don’t. Not like that, anyway.”

“And then I was reading back through your memories, and there were those thoughts you wrote down. Those things you wanted to do. With those other girls.” She brings her face close, her forehead almost touching mine. “I’m sorry. Maybe I was acting crazy. I knew that reading your whole life would have to have some things like this. I know it’s not fair. I’m sorry.”

“Well, I’m acting crazy. That’s for sure.”

“Oh?”

“Crazy in love. With you.”

She throws her arms around me and I feel her body shaking. I feel drops of liquid starting to flow down my chest.

“It’s OK, Lin,” I tell her. “It’s all OK.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t feel this jealousy. You deserve better than this.”

I yawn. “But this is all I want. You and me. But maybe a little less jealousy wouldn’t hurt.”

“I’ll try.”

She wipes her tears, then reaches down and grabs the tablet, then settles in next to me. I put an arm around her as she taps the screen. She’s so comfortable. And comforting. And beautiful. I would love to drift off like this.

You can, my love.

That’s nice.

I’m staying over.

What about Yang Song?

Yang Song can live with it. After the unkind things she said about you, she deserves that.

Then I wish I were less tired. I finally have you overnight and I’m too exhausted to move anymore. I can’t even make my eyes open.

Perhaps it is better that you are too fatigued to tempt me. The code is very close, but it’s not quite done yet. Perhaps tomorrow.