From The Seduction of Emy and Other Stories

Copyright 2023 A. R. Gregory

 

The Seduction of Emy

Roger climbed out of the sleeping pod, careful not to wake Sarah. She would only want to cuddle before letting him out. Cuddle and nothing more. So why start his day frustrated?

He visited the hygiene chamber first, then quietly dressed. In the family room he grabbed a hasty autobreakfast, ate it standing, not sitting at the meal counter. Another busy day of asteroid lease trading ahead, and he loved raking it in on those whizzing chunks of space real estate. Asteroid mining was like the Wild West again, and he was a part of it, even though he did all his work in the fully-equipped office in his upcity living unit. His thinkbots handled all the calculations and projections, while he took care of all the human-to-human wheeling and dealing. They didn’t call him the Asteroid Wrangler for nothing.

As he headed for his office, Sarah walked out of the podroom. She was still in her nightshirt, still yawning and lazily stretching her arms. Roger stepped up his pace, but she spotted him and waved. “Wait, honey. I’ve been thinking…”

He slowed, gave her a tired sigh. “Thinking, huh. ‘Bout what?” Another donation he could make to one of her causes? A new excuse for her to spend even more time running around with her save-the-world girlfriends? Like she wasn’t spending enough time already working for Trish Maxum’s campaign to move up from District Council to a seat on the Regional Council.

Sarah’s hands leaped to her hips. Had she detected some dismissiveness in his tone? He inched closer to his office.

“Stop, Roger. Listen. I even dreamed about it. We need a new nannybot. Don’t we want the best for the girls...?”