"So, where is everybody?" Shane and I are sitting in a cafeteria that could easily accommodate a hundred people, maybe more, yet we’re the only ones here. Every hall we've walked down has been empty too.

He looks at me for a moment and then answers, "It's just us here, Honey."

"On the whole station?"

He shakes his head. "There's Jared over in the bio-storage bay. Helen and Jason oversee maintenance of the station itself. They stay on the other side of the station, it takes hours to get there. We've got two new people on their way here, but I don't know what their jobs are yet. Probably helping Jared in bio-storage. Anyway, we all pretty much stick to our own areas. When I got you all out of bio-storage, that was the first time I'd met Jared. I've never seen Helen and Jason."

"So you've been here by yourself this whole time? Every day?" He nods, "This is a lot of space for so few people."

"It'll start filling up over the next few years. Now that we're moving into phase 3 of the terraform, things are picking up. By the time I finish this next tour, this place will be bustling."

I silently mull over his explanation as we continue to eat.

In one way I feel a lot better. Having showered and dressed in my own clothes, I feel refreshed and comfortable. And yet I also feel guilty. I feel like I've cheated on Rick. Which is ridiculous. Shane is my husband; I love him. We've been together for years. He's the one who brought Rick into my life and he's the one who saved me and Rick from SynDeCorp. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me being sexually intimate with my own husband.

Rick is completely devoted to me though. I am his whole entire world, and he didn't have any say in that. Being synced to me takes away his choices. I can't help but feel like Rick deserves better. He deserves for me to be completely devoted to him too.

Really, I'm just torturing myself for no reason. Borrowing trouble. Rick is still shut down, lying peacefully in that room. He's unaware and not worried about anything.

Even when I'm done eating and my teacup is empty, I stay seated trying to come up with more conversational topics. I'm procrastinating, putting off waking up Rick.

"So, what did you say about the sync working up here? I don't feel like my implant is online."

"Oh," he sits up straight, "I meant to talk with you about that before we wake up Rick."

"Okay."

"First, we can hook your implant up right now," he takes a portable screen out of his pocket, unfolds it, and then starts tapping, "Ok, are you ready for the code?"

I close my eyes, "Ready."

"Polar Bear. Beach. Umbrella. Spider Monkey."

As he says each word, I picture it in my mind. It's a visual-sequence code. It can be tricky. When I first got my implant, I had to try four different codes before I got it to work.

"Good. Got it; you're hooked up now.," he lets me know.

"But I still don't feel it," I dispute.

"What do you usually feel?"

I think for a second, "It's like a warm hum. A faint buzz. I'm not feeling it at all right now."

"Well I'm guessing it's because there aren't any devices for you to interface with here. At home, your implant was hooked up to the car, all of our appliances, and all of the screens."

That makes sense.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you know how the sync really works. The ads made it seem like it's one way, that he syncs to you and then he's your perfect match." I nod my head in agreement. "But that’s not all there is to it. You sync to him too." He looks at me expectantly, but he must see that I don't understand what he's getting at because he explains further, "You're his perfect match too. You care for him so much and are so in tune with him because the sync makes that happen. The same way he wants to take care of you, you want to take care of him. That's how SynDeCorp guaranteed that people would love their Perfect Match, they make you love them. I'm not saying these aren't real feelings, they are very real. I'm telling you they are facilitated by the sync, that it works on you the same way it works on him."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

That makes sense; I did fall for Rick very quickly. And I was willing to leave my job, house, and whole life behind for him when I thought we were going to live off the grid. I never even considered, not once, that I should go with Shane when he took this job. I think back to how I told off that fake cop, and when I thought Rick had been killed–that bone-deep, soul-shattering sorrow. I felt like the whole world was ending. How weird. I wonder in what other ways the implant has influenced me.

I'm not upset about it either. There is a cloudy emotional dissonance. I know this isn't right. The idea of my mind and emotions being messed with like this by SynDeCorp should be rage inducing and I can almost feel that rage. Almost, but no–I just feel a calm complacence. Like, it's already happened. There's no point in getting worked up.

"How do you know all this?" I ask.

"I'm sure lots of people know by now. It was in the documentary evidence in the Match Emancipation Hearing. After the ruling, all the sealed evidence was leaked almost immediately." He can't hide his grin. He really hates SynDeCorp, I bet he was giddy about all the leaked dirt on them.

Shane reaches across the table and grabs my hand where it's resting by my empty teacup. Linking his fingers in mine, he lightly scratches the edge of his thumb over my palm, sending a shiver of awareness through me.

"We don't have to wake him up." He tells me quietly, "He'll survive pretty much indefinitely the way he is. Longer if we put him in cryo-storage."

It's tempting. If we don't wake up Rick, I can just be with Shane. We are so good together. I really lucked out when we found each other. The few relationships I had before I met Shane were disasters. Normal guys who just didn't give me the intensity that I needed. The sex was boring–even if I came, it was a bore. Even when I would tell them ‘pull my hair’, ’I like it really rough’ or ’tell me what to do’, they might listen, but they would just do the bare minimum and only because I asked. I felt unseen.

The first time I met Shane was when he came into Harmony House to visit an elderly relative who lived there. It was my fourth day at work, and he approached me. He didn't play any games, just introduced himself and asked me out. On a real date. I decided I much preferred that approach to the texting, movie-and-chill, never make any real plans treatment I'd gotten from other guys.

On our second date, he took me to play golf at the local club. I suck at golf. He stood behind me and wrapped his long arms around me to grasp the club, correcting my posture and my swing and when I hit the ball, he said, ‘Good girl,’ and my whole body lit up.

And when we finally fucked, it was like Christmas. It was everything I had been missing. He took charge, and every time he would order me to do something–’on your knees’, ’hold your legs like this’--and I immediately complied, he would give me these heated, satisfied looks. With other men, my submission was confusing and annoying, but with Shane I could tell that it was exactly what he wanted. And he would be so pleased and vocal with it. Compliments like ’you look really hot like that’, ’this feels so good’, ’You're perfect, you know that?’ and I would just soak it up.

It went beyond sex. Being loved and appreciated for something that I had always felt bad about, it was transformative. I was more confident, secure, and just plain happy than I had ever been in my life.

Shane was the one that pushed our relationship along. He immediately started introducing me as his girl or girlfriend. He proposed to me after two months. We were married by the end of the year. He told me later that other women in his life had accused him of being arrogant, autocratic, and abrasive. That in those early days he felt like I would just wake up one morning and be tired of it. To me, it was like a fairy tale. Like I had just wished this perfect man into existence. I had always heard about how hard relationships are. That you need to work and compromise and stick to it if you want a strong marriage that lasts. Things were always easy with us though, we just fit. We were perfect.

And if I just leave Rick turned off, Shane and I could have that again, couldn't we?

"Is that what you want?" I ask Shane, studying his face and gauging his response.

He rubs a hand along his jaw, "It's not about what I want. He's your match. You two are synced together. It's not like we can wake him up then send him away. When I synced him up to you to start with, I was wrong to do that. I'm so used to taking care of you and doing what I think is best, I didn't stop to consider that it was a step too far. And it's messed up your whole life now and I—" He clears his throat, looks away and then looks back at me. "I'm sorry Honey. I really fucked this up and I'm trying to make it right. If you want to leave him shut off, I'll support that decision. If you want him rebooted and you want him in your life, in our lives, I'll support that too."

An angry knot of emotion that had been tightening around my heart this whole time loosens and I reach toward him, resting my hand on the table. He takes my hand, laces our fingers together, then strokes his thumb across my palm. I really am here with him. I’ve missed him so much and I’ve wasted these past few hours being angry with him. And for what? He did exactly what he needed to and kept me safe.

“But aren't you jealous at all?" I push, giving his fingers a squeeze.

"Yeah, a little bit. But your happiness is what's important to me. If you want him, I want to give him to you.”

I study him, not completely believing him. I remember the way he watched Rick and me that first time via video chat. How he talked in the shower just last night about watching me with Rick. He was excited about it. My happiness might be important, and he may experience some jealousy, but there is more to this.

"Alright, I want to wake him up." The words are out before I realize I've decided.

"Right now?"

I nod and stand up, pulling him with me.

"Let’s go."