"Son of a dinosaur!"
Butler John was taken aback when he caught sight of Shantal's state. He almost spilled the tea that he was carrying on the tray due to his shock
The other party almost looked no different from a panda, with the presence of heavy dark circles around her eyes. Perhaps due to her excitement, sleep eluded her last night. As a result, her eyes looked like they were sunken.
"I can't sleep."
She mumbled as she took the cup of green tea from Butler John.
"I could guess as much as that."
He seconded the girl right away and then added,
"Careful, it's hot---"
But his warning was a second late because Shantal already scalded the tip of her tongue.
"This is hot!"
Shantal squeaked as she put the cup down in a hurry. Some of its content spilled on the glass tabletop, but she could not care less.
"Just as how a tea should be."
Meanwhile, Butler John retorted as softly as he could. He deliberately spoke in a whisper as he did not wish for the other party to hear his response but Shantal was still able to hear him anyway.
When he turned his head at her direction, he saw that Shantal had her eyes narrowed while looking at him. ________ (- _-") __________
At the same time, she was also sticking her tongue and making a futile attempt to fan it with her bare hand.
Butler John knew that he was about to receive a verbal lashing from his young mistress so before Shantal could even give him an earful first thing in the morning, Butler John already made a wise move.
He knew well enough that anything about package arrival and order deliveries could do the trick of uplifting Shantal's mood, so he started with that.
"We received delivery early this morning. In the mea----"
Yet before Butler John could even finish what he was about to say, Shantal already cut him off in mid-sentence.
"Where are they? Bring them to me this instant."
Shantal ordered right away and judging from the change in her expression, it was apparent that the thought of her scolding Butler John was already pushed at the back of her mind.
Butler John, on the other hand, heaved a sigh of relief after his success of diverting Shantal's attention into something else; with that, he was able to avert the crisis for himself.
"Young mistress, the items that you are requesting are being sanitized as we speak. But I believed that they would arrive any minute from now."
Butler John declared and just as when he was done talking,
'Knock... knock...'
The sound of someone knocking against the wooden door behind them interrupted their conversation. As a result, both Butler John and Shantal ended up looking at the direction where the sound was coming.
Shantal who could not wait to see her order closed the distance between her and the door. She walked towards it with hurried steps.
But disappointment soon clouded her features when she found out that what lied behind the door was not exactly what she was anticipating.
"Hi, there cous! How have you been?"
And before Shantal could even give her an answer, the other party already pulled Shantal in close proximity and purposely let their cheeks touched.
Meanwhile, Shantal was left with no choice but to force a smile as she greeted her back.
"Good morning Jodi. It's nice to see you again."
Shantal tried to inject as much enthusiasm into her voice when she said that. All the while fighting the urge to roll her eyes.
If there was one person that she did not wish to see, it would be this cousin of hers.
She badly wanted to stay away from her as much as she could. But just like a common cold virus, the other party was simply hard to avoid.
Especially when her Aunt Mathilde, Jodi's mother, made it a point to always visit her once or twice a week.
Jodi was like that of a typical 'know-it-all' person, thanks to her above average IQ.
More often than not, Shantal would always end up being compared to her, as they used to attend the same school.
Shantal was not one of the smartest in her class, but at least she was known as one of the school belles. She was the beauty, and Jodi has the brain. They each have their own forte.
But growing up, the comparison between them also became increasingly competitive and it was for the same reason why Shantal grew less fond of Jodi as time passed by.
"You should have seen my Arvin. He is the complete embodiment of the word gentleman. He could definitely be a great guy, only if he was not a robot"
Jodi continued to blabber around, talking about the Android Partner that she purchased recently. But Shantal only watched the other party's lips moved. She could not hear a word from what she was saying, mostly because she was not paying her cousin any heed in the first place.
It was only when Shantal saw someone entering her room again, this time with a box in his hand, did she put an effort to make a reaction.
"Excuse me, Jodi. I just have to take this."
She told her cousin and without waiting for the other party's response, Shantal headed to the door to receive the package.
"What did you order this time?"Jodi asked as soon as Shantal was back in her seat."It's the limited edition Astro Sneaker that was recently released by Alpha Tech."Shantal answered back.Truth be told, Shantal did not exactly hate her cousin. It was just that she could hardly enjoy her company because of the constant comparison between them.After all, who would enjoy being compared to someone?She often gave Jodi the cold shoulder, but the other party did not seem to mind. She would always stick around regardless of how indifferent Shantal was towards her."You are really trying to live up with your name as the Shopaholic Queen, are you not?"Jodi could not help but leave a comment as she watched Shantal unboxed the item.Shantal, on the other hand only smiled back at her cousin and no longer say a word after that. She continued what she was doing and excitedly ripped the packaging apart as though a chi
"Come on, cous. What is there to be shy for?"The other party insinuated as she took the book from Shantal's hand."Fine, you're right."Shantal relented but not before letting out an exasperated sigh.Jodi was relatively more liberated than her when it came down to things like that. That was why it was no surprise to them when Jodi turned up to be one of those who gave in to the recent fad of buying robotic boyfriend online.She named it Arvin, and since then Jodi had been very open with her romantic affair of shacking it up with tin cans."For crying out loud, Shantal. We're adults now! This is the perfect time for us to explore new things. You love buying stuff anyway so might as well put it into good use."Jodi insisted as she deliberately browsed the catalogue beside Shantal."And when you said putting it into good use, do you mean buying an Android Partner? Nah... Not my thing."Shantal was quick to d
Due to her current preoccupation, Shantal failed to notice that her cousin was already eyeing her.Shantal was flipping through the booklet but always managed to end up landing on the same page, so Jodi decided to take a look as well.It turned out that Shantal's eyes were subconsciously drawn to one figure and one figure only. As such. Jodi thought that her cousin took a liking at that specific robot. Little did she knew that Shantal was only staring blankly at it, but not exactly looking.It was only when someone entered her room once again, did Shantal came back to present."Arvin, you're here."Jodi rose to her feet and walked towards Arvin. Arvin welcomed her with an open arm and Jodi happily snuggled next to him.With the way how Arvin used to stare at Jodi with those very convincing, affectionate eyes, Shantal almost forgot that Arvin was not as human as he seemed."Shantal, this is Arvin, and Arvin, meet my cousi
Shantal slowly unwrapped the box and when she noticed that Butler John was still hanging around with no intention of leaving, she deliberately told him to get out of the room."You can leave now. I want to be alone."She said without tearing her eyes away from the package.After spending the better part of two hours trying to get the box to open, the lid finally popped open with a loud gush of air.Shantal was caught off guard by this sudden movement and she fell back. She did not expect the lid to suddenly come alive on its own.The girl watched as a very tall man slowly stood up in a box. She stared at him with a dumbfounded expression and a mix of amusement.For a moment, Shantal thought that part of her brain frizzled and died because from her angle below, she was getting very intimately acquainted with her doll and that was not the purpose of it.Apparently, her face was placed directly across where the robot's groi
Right after rebooting her robot, Shantal left it and disappeared behind one of the doors. When she came back, she was already carrying a pair of jeans and a shirt."Change to this."She threw the clothes over the robot and instructed it to clothe itself because the thing was only wearing nothing but a boxer and a white tank top.The robot on the other hand did so easily. He took the clothes from Shantal while sporting a bright smile."By the way, my name is----""You have a name??!"Before Shantal could even stop herself, she already interrupted the robot from speaking and asked him back instead. However, her question sounded stupid even on her own ears."Of course,"The robot grin when it heard her asked that question."Don't you?"He added and smiled again but his eyes almost disappeared when he smiled widely."My name is---"Shantal was just about to introduce herself but all words t
Alex was just about to step out of his box when he suddenly tripped and lost his footing and seeing this unfold before her eyes, Shantal act according to her reflex.She was worried that the robot would end up injuring itself way before she could even have enough time to interact with it so she flailed her hands in an attempt to get a hold of Alex and prevent him from losing his footing.After that small mishap, Shantal let the robot seat on the sofa for a while.Regardless of how 'defective' it might be, there was no doubt that the thing still cost a fortune and she did not want anything bad to happen to it, or at least not until she signed robot insurance for it, if there was any of that sort, to begin with.At the same time, Shantal also could not help but notice that her Android Partner was relatively lighter compared to what she initially expected from a mass of walking metal that he was.Alex was simply so human-like that everything
"Please bear for it in the meantime. I will fix the robot as soon as I can and I'll notify you right away once it is done. We will issue a recall, and by then you'd be able to earn your share. The team will pay you nicely, rest assured.""You didn't tell me that I have to pretend as a robot when you asked me to be your character model before.""I know, Alex. That is why I am asking you a favor. Please, just this once. Okay?"The other party sounded static so it was hard to ascertain whether the owner of the voice was a man or a woman."How long do you think it will take before you could fix it?""A month at most but our target is within this week?"The other party replied but the tone used did not sound convincing at all and Alex heard that as well."Are you saying that I have to stay here with her for that long? You must be kidding me!"If it was not for his close friend asking for this favor, Alex would never agree to this ki
When he arrived at the place indicated in the email, someone fetched him and took him to a facility. Once inside, he saw the familiar face of Harold standing next to someone that looked exactly like him!"Remember when we paid you to be a character model to one of our robots?""Is that my robot version?"Rather than answering the other party, Alex only asked him back."Yeah. Meet 1096."Harold replied as nonchalant as he could, but he could hardly hide the proud smile breaking through his lips as he declared his very own robot that their team painstakingly created."Then what's wrong with him? Why is he not moving? And why are there so many wires connected to him.""Asked her that"Harold motioned to one direction with his lips and when Alex followed the direction where he was pointing, he saw the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen in his life.Her wavy brunette hair framed her small face and her button-like nose