Build-A-Partner: Experimental Tech, Part 9

PART 9

“Look Flo…” Nick started with an exasperated sigh.

He sounded more annoyed than upset at what should have been an employment-ending incident; but rather than calling the corporate offices and reporting her employee-turned-boss, Florence laughed it off like it was a common occurrence. Sabrina kept quiet while the other two talked, observing the new relationship and power structure that existed between them.

“If you can’t keep that thing in a cage for an entire eight hour shift, that’s your problem,” Flo said with a stifled giggle while pointing at Nick’s cock-print with a well-manicured finger. “All I’m saying is that it would take, like, one call to the regional manager, Nick.”

“Look, Flo,” Nick repeated with a bit more force. “Just… Go out onto the floor and take care of the line, okay? I’ll cover your shift tomorrow.”

“Okey doke! I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone. Don’t make too much of a mess, Sabs!” Flo bounced slightly on the balls of her feet, clearly satisfied with his answer but unable to help herself from leaving one last teasing comment before she left.

“Do you think she’d really go over your head and get you in trouble?” Sabrina finally asked once they were alone again.

“What? No,” Nick replied with a quiet laugh. “She did the exact same thing when she caught me and Yvonne in the bathroom last month, remember? Flo’s just a brat, and this is her first job. As long as she does the work and doesn’t go running to corporate about what, uhhh, goes on during our ‘down time’…”

Sabrina blinked. Who was Yvonne? She scanned the wall behind Nick where a kitschy company-mandated collage lived, the colorful construction paper letters spelling out ‘OUR TEAM!’ just above pictures of all of the Bean Roaster’s employees. Sure enough, there was a picture of a brunette girl that Sabrina had never met before, ‘YVONNE’ printed out on the bottom of the Polaroid that was thumb-tacked to the wall. In fact, Sabrina didn’t recognize most of the faces pinned up there, all of which belonged to pretty young women. It made sense once she thought about it; Nick was the hiring authority for their location and he apparently had a few biases when it came to employee preferences. Was he trying to build a harem or something?

Poor Nick let his dick do a lot of the thinking for him, but despite the way it was still needily throbbing in his pants he knew that he had more pressing matters to take care of… even if he wanted to press that cock right up against Sabrina again.

“We need to talk about that card… thing,” he said with a nod towards Sabrina’s closed hand.

She audibly gulped and brought the P.A.D. up towards her chest, clutching it possessively and biting down on her bottom lip - a nervous tic that Nick had to admit was very cute.

“Uhm… what about it?” She feigned ignorance as best she could.

“What about it? Sabs, look at what it did to your face!”

“My f- Wait, you changed my face?” Sabrina balked.

“You mean you can’t tell? Sabrina you-” Nick stopped himself and collected his thoughts. “What is that thing, Sabs?”

Sabrina was too caught up looking at herself in the front-facing camera on her phone, scrutinizing her image on the screen to try and glean any changes that Nick might have made. Everything looked normal to her, and she even ran her tongue across her lips just to make sure they felt the same, causing a small shiver to run through her body.

“Sabs! Focus!” Nick had to raise his voice a little to snap her out of it.

“God, I don’t know, okay?” She shot back defensively. “It just showed up in the mail yesterday and it can, I dunno, do stuff. Change people. But it’s weird and sometimes just goes off without me trying to use it.”

“So you have used it before?” Nick continued to probe.

“A couple of times on a friend just to test it out and-” Sabrina’s eyes subconsciously drifted down to Nick’s crotch for a moment. “-that’s all.”

“Sabrina, that thing is dangerous. Maybe you should-” He didn’t get a chance to finish before she cut him off.

“I should what? Give it to you so you can do something else to my face?” Sabrina bit back.

Nick winced. It was a good thing he didn’t mention her new oral fixation, but it was becoming clear that Sabrina was unsure about the specifics of the change. He figured that she wouldn’t have even known anything was different if he didn’t let it slip, which made him worry in turn that she had done something to him without his knowledge. She was pouting in anger, but with her new plush lips it just made Nick want to kiss her.

“Fine, look, I’ll… I’ll turn it off, okay?” She offered while holding it out, her thumb and forefinger pressing in on the device’s sides.

“Does it have an ‘off’ button?” Nick asked. “It felt totally smooth when I held it.”

“Yeah, see? It’s off.”

Sabrina was lying. Partially because she didn’t want Nick to worry about her doing something behind his back, and partially because she was annoyed that he would have the audacity to use it on her… even though she had used it on him. But that was different because it was an accident. Besides, the device had been mailed to her, so in some way it was like she was supposed to have it. Right?

She could still see the mistrust in his eyes and knew that it would be impossible to get the cat back in the bag. Sabrina liked Nick, but unfortunately she didn’t like him enough to let him go about unchecked with knowledge of the P.A.D.’s existence. Nick didn’t know about the quirk regarding the device’s display, and so had no idea that Sabrina was staring at his holo-likeness even while she assured him that she had disabled the thing. He had his suspicions that something was up when he noticed her nibbling on her bottom lip, brows knitted in apparent concentration while she navigated the device’s UI and brought up ‘ATTITUDE TOWARDS USER’ once more.

“Is everything-” He began, but he didn’t get far before Sabrina found what she was looking for.

‘DOTING DEFERENCE’ seemed appropriate. It would be tough for him to act against her interests if he was more concerned about her wellbeing than his own, right? ‘INPUT SELECTED’ flashed, and the change in Nick’s demeanor was immediately apparent. The look of concern he wore on his face immediately softened, his eyes wide and trusting and the tension in his shoulders melting away as he leaned in closer towards the focus of his devotion and affection. Sabrina hadn’t considered how his newfound reverence for her would interact with the existing attraction and romantic feelings she had implanted earlier, but she wasn’t expecting him to tenderly cup her chin and move in for a quick kiss.

Her eyelids fluttered at the buzz of pleasure she felt on her lips; it was soft and sweet, still carrying some of the urgency that came with Nick’s pent-up desire but clearly meant more as a nice gesture rather than a sexual one. He pulled away and smiled, the hand on her face drifting down to her shoulder as he looked at her with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“Sabs, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what that thing was or how it worked, it just sort of… went off. I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize what we have, you know that.” His tone was apologetic and sincere, and immediately Sabrina felt bad about chastising him just moments before.

It also raised the question; what did they have? She knew that this was a spur-of-the-moment fling, she had never been physical with Nick before today, but he was being incredibly familiar with her, talking to her like they were lovers and not just a couple of coworkers blowing off some steam. Were they an item in this new reality that she had spun? Sabrina never considered herself a one-man kind of girl, and from the way Nick acted she didn’t think he was a one-girl kind of man, but she felt an amorous spark that hadn’t been there before the P.A.D. warped his mind.

“You should hold onto it,” He continued, “It’s safer in your hands, but…”

Nick stepped in a little closer so that their bodies were almost touching, close enough that Sabrina could feel the heat coming from his barely-concealed dick as it continued to throb in his trousers. His voice dropped to a low, conspiratorial tone with a hint of playful flirtiness that made Sabrina shiver with excitement.

“...Maybe a little supervised use could be fun?”