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 cousin. Her name is Shantal."
"Hi, Shantal. I'm pleased to meet you."
Arvin greeted Shantal with a kind smile before he extended a hand and offered it to Shantal. Shantal thought that the robot wanted a handshake so she gave him her hand. But she was surprised when Arvin raised it to his lips and kissed the back of her hand.
She did not expect the robot to sound too human, let alone act like a complete gentleman.
"I told you."
Jodi mouthed with a wink when she saw her cousin's candid reaction.
Arvin was tall and had a broad stature. He was the kind of robot that one would think had the power to take over the world one day.
Shantal was a little intimidated by him but this feeling had nothing to do with either of the other party's stature nor commanding voice.
Arvin was pretty life-like for a robot and possessed enough human intelligence that he could easily be mistaken for a human if it were not for the eerie, artificial light shining in his eyes.
"Got to go, cous."
Jodi said as she excused herself. But just as when she was about to completely exit the room, she turned on her heels again and look at Shantal, straight to her eyes.
"Please consider what I told you."
"I'll think about it."
Shantal replied flatly, and with that Jodi left leaving Shantal on her own again.
Weeks passed without them even noticing it, until one day a gigantic box arrived in front of Shantal's door.
The box was almost bigger than the door itself and Shantal stared with a dumbfounded expression at the giant sparkly sticker that read as 'Alpa Technology Inc.'
She did not recall buying something as huge as that, so she thought that it was a delivery mistake.
"I don't think this one is mine."
She told the courier but the other party only gave her a confused face.
"But Ma'am, your name was written on it and we already received its payment prior to the delivery."
"Is that so? Weird."
That was all that Shantal managed to say before she signed the papers as a proof that she already received the item.
Then she instructed her servants to take the package inside. Once inside, she thought about making a personal call to Alpha Tech Inc to inquire who was the mysterious sender.
However, just as when she was about to dial their customer service, she received a call from Jodi.
"I was notified that you already received the item. Thank me later."
And before Shantal could even give her a response, Jodi already hung up.
Butler John also came in to see what was with the huge package and when Shantal saw him, she gestured for him to lay the box on the floor.
Butler John did just what he was told and carefully lay it down in the room, then he stepped back afterward.
"It's a gift from Jodi."
She told Butler John as she understood that the other party was probably just as curious as she was to know who was its sender.
Shantal walked closer to the box and took the owner's manual that came with it. On the manual, it was written as,
Android Partner Model 1096. One hundred and eighty-two centimeters (Tall); brown, curled hair (cute) and has the ability to fall in love.
"What the hell does that mean?"
Shantal said with a scoff when she read the last part.
"It's just a life-size toy with a computer installed in it. What does it know of love?"
She thought out loud as she could hardly fight back to urge to roll her eyes. But against her better judgment, Shantal found herself drawn to the sweet face shown on the manual.
She got an Android Partner of her own now.
"This is absurd."
She muttered under her breath when she realized that she found the robot's face to be attractive.
"Do you want me to take it out of your sight, young mistress?"
Butler John offered but Shantal shook her head.
"No, I'll keep it and try to play with it for a little while. Jodi gave it to me, she would not like it once she learned that I discarded her gift without even using it once."
She told Butler John with a blank expression.
If truth be told, Shantal also would like to experience what the big deal was about. The advertisement claimed that the experience of having an Android Partner was life-changing.
So she would like to judge for herself just as how 'life changing' having a robotic boyfriend/ roommate was.
Besides, if ever things turned out too badly, she reckoned that she could always blame Jodi for it. Since Jodi was the one who gave him the robot, to begin with.
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
Alex made it a point to wake up before Shantal did so that he would no longer have to explain himself once she caught him dozing off.After all, it would really be weird to see a robot that snored in his sleep.When morning came and the first sunlight broke into the horizon, Alex sat next to Shantal's bed. He watched her sleep soundly like a baby.They hold that position for who knew how long; and it was only when the sun rays penetrated the blinds of the window did Alex made an attempt to move and change his position.Shantal on the other hand stirred on her bed, but still did not wake up. When Alex checked on her, he saw her sleeping like an angel. Her fair skin looked supple under the sunlight.Likewise, Alex moved closer to her and made use of his hand to shield Shantal's eyes from the light.Meanwhile, the longer he stared at Shantal Alex felt more drawn to her face. For some unknown reason, he felt compelled to look at her closely and
Shantal freshened up inside the restroom. She expected that once she emerged out of her restroom, she would see her robot waiting for her right outside the door.However, to her dismay, when she opened the door again Alex was no longer there and instead, she saw him looking out to the window.Alex had his back on her and he stood with his hands behind him.His silhouette alone looked serene and the natural lighting from the morning sun added more aesthetic to his overall feature that from afar, he almost look like someone that came straight out from a painting.Curious, Shantal walked towards the window as well so she could also take a look at whatever the other party was looking at.She crossed her room with her face still dripping with water."What are you looking at?"She inquired at Alex as soon as she got near him.However, instead of answering her question right away, Alex only looked at her and then walked
Shantal did not want to entertain those kinds of thoughts so to stop herself from having silly thoughts about her robot, she deliberately changed the topic."Don't you need to 'sleep' as well?"Even as a robot, Shantal reckoned that a device like Alex was bound to get drained at some point.After all, even mobile phones needed to go to sleep whenever they were unused, so as to save as much energy as possible. So she wondered if her Android Partner happened to work the same way."Um... I don't need 'sleep', I just need to recharge my batteries and that is every three days."Of course, Alex made up that lie on the spot. At the same time, he saw that as an opportunity to give some leeway to himself.He banked on the possibility that Shantal would opt to send him back to the facility in the meantime since she most likely did not have a charger of her own yet; and just like he expected, Shantal was flustered when she heard about his char