Rowan's nose woke him up early the next morning. Smelling something delicious, he opened his eyes and looked to where Carmen usually slept but only found the rippled silk of the bedsheets. He got up, rubbed his eyes and put on a robe.
Rowan cracked open his bedroom door to hear sizzling coming from the kitchen. The aroma filling the apartment brought memories of home, family, and earth flooding into his mind like a series of family photographs stitched into a flip book. He shuffled to the kitchen wearing his cheap slippers he found in a storage bay, taking small steps.
When he caught sight of the cook at work, his eyes went wide. Carmen was cooking while humming a happy melody. She pulled back the pink hair of her bob cut past her ear and looked towards him smiling. That didn't cause him alarm. What jolted him was her outfit. The cyborg was wearing an apron covered in red hearts, and nothing else. The stiff fabric covered her chest, torso, and hips. Thin straps held up the garment. When she moved, parts of her body would reveal themselves to him for a moment before ducking back inside the apron. It was this combination of sexuality and cuteness that caused the hair on his forearms to stand on end.
She giggled, "Aren't you going to say good morning to your woman?"
He took a seat at the breakfast counter and folded his hands underneath his chin and rested his elbows on the countertop. "Good morning Carmen. This is the first time you've cooked me breakfast. Usually I'm the one who has to drag you out of bed."
"I wanted you to have something special to fill you up this morning. It's your first day helping Paige do repairs on equipment. Most of the time we get to have late mornings together."
Rowan hummed and nodded in agreement. "I have to admit, that's definitely a highlight of my day. I like your outfit."
"Oh, this little old thing? I thought you might like me to cosplay as your wifey." She giggled and stuck her rump out to him. "How do I look?"
"Good enough to eat."
Carmen blushed and said "Stop it Rowan. Here's your breakfast, bacon and eggs with a side of sauteed spinach. I talked with medbay and they said you need vegetables in every meal." She slid two plates of eggs, two slices of soy bacon, and a lightly buttered mound of cooked greens, one to him and one to the place setting next to him. Carmen turned around and walked to the coffee maker. Her backside was completely exposed and Rowan bit his fist, staring at her healthy ass.
Carmen came around the counter and sat on the stool, handing him his cup of coffee. She got close to him and said, "Kiss me good morning."
He obeyed and kissed her, putting his hand around the nape of her neck to lengthen it. When he pulled away he said, "I adore it when you tempt me. It's like watching a virtuoso play a piano, you're such an expert."
"Me? What did I do?" she whispered, still close.
"Fine, I'll play your game." He reached out and put his hand on her knee.
She squirmed and gently moved his hand away. Rowan first thought he was doing something wrong, but her smile told him he was doing all the right things. "Honey, you know you don't have time for this. Be a good boy and eat up, your eggs will get cold."
Rowan groaned but sat up smiling. He tucked in a napkin into his pajama shirt and ate his breakfast. When the soft scrambled eggs hit his tongue he nodded in approval, saying, "These are delicious Carmen, since when did you learn how to cook?"
"Oh, I'm reading up on it in my spare time. I'll have you know I'm a very capable woman. Did you want to discuss work? Today we have a couple of slimes that are looking to have a foursome and…"
"Yeah, I studied my lines last night. No need to worry."
Carmen raised her eyebrow and frowned, "Rowan, you know we have to prepare if you're going to get decent tips." She cupped his face. "You know I want you to reach your goal quickly. I can also see you enjoying yourself more when you've practiced and prepared."
Rowan finished his plate and set down his knife and fork. "It's getting harder, Carmen. You've been nothing but sweet and kind to me and I can feel you working your way inside here." He pointed to his heart. "How can I not fall for a girl like you."
Carmen's face was as blushed, and her cheeks were like a pink rose. She smiled triumphantly and said, "That's exactly what I want Rowan." She bent in and whispered in his ear. "I want to be in your thoughts every hour of the day and in your dreams as well. Exploring a real relationship with you is opening up parts of myself I never knew existed. Just so you know, it's getting a little hard for me too, but it's so exciting." She pulled away and got the dishes and walked over to the washing machine.
While she was rinsing the plates over the sink, Rowan walked up behind her and started kissing the back of her bare shoulder and said, "I love the way you smell Carmen, being next to you is like walking through a spring garden."
She giggled and hummed in approval, but when Rowan placed his hand on her posterior, she gasped and spun around. "Oh no Rowan, we couldn't possibly do anything like that."
Rowan furrowed his eyebrows, "Why not?"
"Look at your watch Darling, you said you'd spend two hours in the repair lab with your Paige helping her. There's simply not enough time." She made a pouting expression.
"But."
"Now if you were to find the work unbearable and give it up." She placed a hand on his crotch giving it a sensual rub. "I wouldn't be able to hold myself back."
"Damn girl. You're unfair."
She pulled away. "It hurts me, you know. My man won't be the first one to have me in the morning. Now it will be some random customer who doesn't care for me." She put her hand to her forehead and tilted her head back.
Rowan grimaced and hunched over. "You're brutal, you know. Rather than yell at me about Paige, you do this. I have to respect your game Carmen. You're wasted on this station, you should be a politician. A very sexy politician."
He looked in her eyes, but she averted her gaze and a slight pout showed at the corner of her mouth, Rowan suspected that underneath that teasing exterior she was upset about hurting him.
The barrel chested man backed off and looked at his comlink. "Okay, I suppose I have to start the day. Carmen would you be a dear and fix me a thermos of instant coffee? I bet the vending machine coffee went bad decades ago. Dicia, could you please set up a navigation path to the station's maintenance bay? Dicia? Girl are you there?"
Carmen handed him the thermos and said, "What's wrong, snookums?"
Rowan grinned at the pet name and replied, "Dicia usually responds instantly to me, but I'm getting timeouts. She's not responding. Dicia!"
The couple heard a loud thud coming from the guest bedroom and a sound of a muffled curse word or two.
Rowan and Carmen looked up from the comlink. Rowan walked to the door and knocked, asking "Paige are you alright? I heard a loud bang."
"I said I'd get you the directions in a minute!"
"What? I didn't ask you Paige, I asked Dicia."
Rowan backed up when he heard her run to the door and open it. Paige's hair looked like a pile of tangled fishing nets and she had dark circles under her eyes, but she looked panicked. "Yeah of course you did! I just thought you asked me. Sorry. I must have been waking up. Hey, is someone making breakfast?"
Carmen poked her head from the master bedroom and called out, "Kitchen's closed honey, make yourself some toast."
….
Rowan and Paige stood over a seven foot tall humanoid robot laid out on a repair bench in the main repair facility of Pax Orbis. The air was stale and smelled like the cabin of a powerboat that hadn't been aired out for months. The pair worked smoothly, replacing a main circuit board in the android's chest and fault testing the robot's main supercapacitor.
Paige looked up from the organized chaos of the robot's chest and said, "Hey Rowan, if it's not too much trouble, would you not ask Dicia any more questions? You can go ahead and just ask me."
The man lifted his magnifying glasses and replied, "Why is that? Why should I bother you with every little question? Dicia gets lonely too, you know."
"Oh Rowan, she's fine. Everything you ask her gets relayed to me anyway. And I like having every chance to talk with you if I can. With my implant, I'm on the comlink network anyways. Just ask me instead of Dicia over the comlink, or ask me in person."
"I'm up at odd hours Paige."
"I know. I don't care."
"But.."
"No buts Rowan, she won't answer you anymore."
"Jeez, fine! I liked talking with her though, she always helped me."
"I know, but I can be that for you too. Aren't I better than a voice on your comlink?"
"Paige, you and Dicia can't be compared and you know that. It's just that I feel bad about abandoning her. She'll get lonely."
Paige put her hand on his and said, "You're the sweetest boy I know Rowan. Trust me when I say she'll be fine. She wants you and I to get closer."
"She said that?"
"Mmm hmm."
"Well, I'll keep her on my contact list. She can always contact me right away if she goes stir crazy. Dicia saved my butt on more than one occasion. Hey we're almost finished with this, just have to connect up the twelve volt system."
Rowan plugged in a two prong plug into the robot's supercapacitor. Relays clicked in rapid succession and then the robot closed its chest cavity and made a pleasant boot up sound. It sat up and vent fans in its torso started to whirr.
"Good morning, awaiting the first prompt." It said in an irish accent. Rowan always felt the Irish accent was the friendliest option available.
Paige coughed before speaking. "Alpha-one, you have been taken out of mothball and are back in service. Please recognize Paige and Rowan as administrators. Your first mission is to pull all remaining maintenance androids out of mothball and get them ready for work. Our first task after this is to install and repair cameras and security cannons throughout the station where I'm blind."
"You're blind?" Rowan asked, frowning.
Paige put her hand to her mouth before glaring at him, responding, "Of course Rowan, I'm running the station down here, and these cameras are my eyes and ears. I'll be able to see who's committing vandalism and respond with security drones and androids. The autocannons will help too."
"Right, sorry. This is your work, managing the station. I get it now."
He could see her visibly relax when he said he understood, still Rowan felt something was off about Paige this morning.
Alpha one stood up and bowed, "It's a pleasure to serve, once I get a couple of other repair androids working, progress will scale geometrically, any help is appreciated."
"It's like he's our son." Paige whispered, Rowan heard it but didn't want to respond after she seemed a little irritated.
"We should get one more repair android working and then unfortunately I have to get to work."
Paige folded her arms and pouted, "Aww, and we were making such good progress."
"I promised you two hours Paige, and I'm giving you two hours. I'm going to be beat by the end of the day. I have to make sure that Carmen doesn't have any reason to dislike me helping you more than she already does."
"I'd swap places with her in an instant…I'd get to be close to you for eight hours instead of just two."
Rowan balled his hands into fists but held his tongue. If you had to endure what she does every day you'd go crazy. "Shall we get Alpha two out of mothball?"
Paige tilted her head and smiled brightly. "Mmm hmm!"