“I call them like I see them,” Schneider said, still grooming. “And right now what I see is a humongous, out of control sex toy that never should have been let out of its box in the first place.”
Pierce took a deep breath and Leita saw his large hands squeeze into fists. For a moment, she was actually afraid. Then he smiled, with what looked like an obvious effort and the tense muscles in his big body relaxed.
“I’m not here to take your place, little guy,” he told Schneider. “You’re still Leita’s friend and I respect that. But she seems like a pretty big-hearted lady so maybe there’s room in her heart for both of us. You think?”
“No, I don’t.” With an offended sniff, Schneider leaped off the counter and sauntered to the door, tail held high. “If you want me, I’ll be in another part of the pod, Leita,” he said over his shoulder. “Any part that’s away from this overpriced thing you ordered to service you.” And with that parting shot, he left the kitchen unit.
“I’m so sorry,” Leita said, knowing it was ridiculous to apologize to a cyborg but unable to help herself. “Schneider can be a little…possessive at times.” She reached up and grabbed some plates for the eggs that she had been cooking the whole time. She’d made enough for three, one of them being Schneider, but now it looked like her best friend wouldn’t be joining them after all. She put his portion in a small stay-hot bowl and brought the full plates to the table.
“You don’t say,” Pierce said dryly, taking the plates from her and setting them on the table. “Well, he’ll come around once he sees I’m not tryin’ to steal you away. Did I, uh, really cost that much?”
Leita felt funny discussing how much she’d paid for him with Pierce but it wasn’t like it would hurt his feelings or make him feel obligated to her. He was just a machine, she reminded herself for what felt like the hundredth time that evening. She mentioned a figure and Pierce raised his eyebrows and whistled appreciatively.
“Damn, that’s as much as…I mean, it’s almost like having a bounty on your head.”
It seemed like a strange comparison to Leita. “Not really,” she said, taking a forkful of eggs. “Actually, a model like you would have cost me more than four thousand more. What I ordered was a small blond guy, about my size. That’s why I was kind of surprised when I got you instead. Not that I’m not really happy to have you,” she added quickly, realizing that it sounded like an insult. If you could insult a machine, that was.
“Oh.” Pierce looked thoughtful. “So you’re, uh, satisfied with the, uh, service I provided?”
Leita felt herself blushing. “More than satisfied,” she admitted, still picking at her eggs. “You know—it’s kind of funny. You were actually the exact model I wanted, I just couldn’t afford you.”
“Well then.” Pierce smiled at her and speared a forkful of fluffy eggs. “I guess it works out for everyone, huh?”
Leita sighed. “Everybody but Schneider. I’m afraid that once he decides not to like someone, that’s pretty much it. He may go on being an ass for a while.”
“Let him.” Pierce smiled at her, a warm flash of white teeth in his tanned face that made her insides feel almost as gooey as the abandoned nutrient paste. “I don’t give a damn what he says as long as I’m here with you.”
“Oh, Pierce.” She made a shooing gesture at him, wishing she could believe the compliment. No doubt he was programmed to say such things to whoever owned him. Still, it was nice to hear that he liked her company, even if he had no choice in the matter. Or did that even make sense? Maybe she was thinking crazy because it was so late—Pierce’s box had arrived in what was basically the middle of the night on the small moon she inhabited and she’d had some fairly stressful activity since he got here. Stressful in a good way, that was, but tiring nonetheless.
Leita covered her mouth just in time to catch a yawn. Now that her stomach was full of eggs and her sexual tension was relieved, she was beginning to feel exhausted. She’d spent the entire day fixing a downed droid ship and she still wasn’t done with it. The loss of one ship’s cargo of ore wouldn’t jeopardize her bottom line, but she needed to get it working again quickly to minimize the loss. Spending so much on a Companion was really going to take a bite out of her disposable income for a while.
“You tired?” Pierce asked, catching her yawn.
Leita nodded and yawned again. “Sorry, yeah, I am. You sort of came in the middle of our night here and I, um, couldn’t wait ‘til morning to unpack you.” She smiled at him shyly and he returned her smile with one of his own. “I know you’re probably not sleepy yourself, since you were sedated and basically sleeping the whole way here…”