Real Love

The Delivery (Wayo)

Me. I'm the one he wants.

I look up at Peter and he's smiling ear to ear.

"You're gonna go right?" He asks

"What? What do you mean?"

"Are you crazy? You're gonna go and be his companion aren't you?" The excitement is clearly there.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I say.

He grabs my chair and pulls it so that we're face to face,

"The love of your life just asked us to make a carbon copy of you because he loves you too. How are you not going to go to him? He's begging you to." He says to.

"No.  He's asking for a copy of me." I correct.

"Only because he can't find the real you." He defends.

"Tell me Yo, how are you going to feel knowing that he's making love to something you made with your own hands meant to look and act like you, meant to be you, but isn't you? You could be the one he's loving but you would rather send him an AI." He states.

Is that what I'm going to do? Is that what I want? No I want him. Why should I send a copy when I can give him the real thing?

"I'll do it!" I exclaim.

"YES!" Peter shouts.

"Let's get things sorted out." He says and we start planning.

My first step is to my boss. I brought the packet and I went to her. Peter is hot on my heels. I guess he thought I might back out. I took a strengthening breath and lifted my fist ready to knock. When that didn't work I took another. Ten breaths later and Peter knocks on the door. Dammit, I would have gotten to it eventually.

"Enter." My boss calls out.

Peter and I walk in and look at the woman we've been working for over the last five years. She started this company and has made it into a huge success. She herself has a companion modeled after her late husband.

"Mrs. Sheraton um, I. Well you see. So I have this...."

"Oh for the love of god Yo." Peter says as he snatches the packet out of my hand and gives it to her.

"The man that Yo loves wants a companion modeled after Yo." He tells her.

Her eyes grow wide and she snatches the packet. She furiously flips through the pages muttering to herself. She grabs her intercom and pages her secretary who comes in after being summoned.

"We have lots to do. First we're going to need to refund this young man. We can't charge him for a product he won't be getting. Also we'll need a reasonable excuse for why the Yo we sent doesn't look like the one he ordered. We need to figure out work logistics. I mean there really is no reason why you can't work from home."

I let out a nervous laugh as I sit back and watch as they plan out how I am going to go pretend to be a companion for Pha.

"He even wants it named Wayo. He made this so easy for us." She says somewhere in the rest of her ramblings.

It took time, a lot of time, to sort things out. I tried to resign from my position but they wouldn't let me. In the end we decided to charge Pha for my plane fare and moving expenses, still considerably less than what he originally paid. I can't believe this is happening. What's even more unbelievable is that almost the entire facility became involved. Know how many decisions I got to make? Zero.

I'll be working from home from now on. Pha's home. We all assume that I won't be with him 24/7, he's a doctor for heaven's sake. There will be time for me to accomplish my duties while he's at work. Plus our technology is above par so it will be easy for me to continue working.