Ryker didn't go home after leaving Emmie's place. As much as he'd tried to pass off the fact that spending most of the afternoon with her instead of at work was no big deal, this wasn't strictly true. He and Dan had a big presentation with German investors in a few days. Lucky for him, Dan was an easygoing guy. Still, Ryker struggled with a nagging guilt at having abandoned his friend in order to fulfill his own carnal agenda. What had he been thinking? He was the CEO of a corporation, not a horny high schooler. Yet despite his playing hooky and the unceremonious sendoff Emmie had given him, he couldn't quite regret the day. In fact, he didn't regret it one bit. How could you lament having the most mind-blowing sex of your life?

He texted Dan to let him know he was coming back to the office. He'd work late, he'd make up for his antics.

In typical Dan fashion, he texted back with an enthusiastic, "Yes, boss!!!!" That was Dan for you. Ryker had known him since the first day of middle school when Dan had defended him against two older boys. The bullies had thought they could make fun of Ryker's family in order to get a rise out of him, calling his mother a junkie (not untrue) and his father a dead-beat dad (only partly untrue). Their words had hit home. He'd lunged at them, a feeble attempt given their size difference, and they'd taken him right down to the ground. Then Dan had shown up, same grade as Ryker and almost as short, but with an uncanny ability to appear tough as bolts in the face of adversity. Dan may be easygoing, but when faced with injustice, he was willing to fight. And he was good at it. Dan had ended up in the principal's office and the older boys had gone home with bloodied noses.

He had been a true friend to Ryker ever since. Ryker couldn't have built MechaJames without him and he couldn't run it without his help either. Ryker's ideas may have spawned a company, but Dan's foresight had made that company a success. His friend never wanted to take credit for anything, preferring to stay behind the scenes while Ryker basked in the limelight, doing endless interviews and photoshoots and TED Talks. Ryker had been careful to reward Dan in other ways, making him project manager for UMA, for instance. Leaving him to fend for himself all afternoon, however, probably wasn't the best example of how he showed respect for his life-long friend. He hoped Dan would understand.

It was nearing seven o'clock by the time he walked into the office. If Dan resented his absence in any way, he didn't show it. Dan grunted his acknowledgment of Ryker's presence, then got right down to business.

"Mary Ellen, Zara, and I worked on the presentation most of the time you were gone. I'm not going to lie; it's amazing." He clicked on the projector and they spent the next twenty minutes going through the multimedia presentation his team had refined in his absence. His friend was right; the investors were in for a show. It opened with a few clips of UMA's prototypes, then gradually showed her progress from little more than a bunch of wires to a humanoid robot one could almost mistake as a real human being complete with laugh lines, beauty marks and freckles. It culminated in a three-minute video of her assisting and older woman by retrieving a box of cereal from a high shelf. After handing the woman the box, UMA, brown eyes smiling and a chin-length brunette bob swaying as she tilted her head, said, "Now, Alice, tell me about the time you spent in Paris. 1964 was it? I'd love to hear all about your adventures!"

The image of the two "women" conversing faded. At that point, they would unveil the real UMA, who would make some joke about the Eifel tower (in German, of course) to get the prospective investors to laugh. If UMA was going to fly, this is what he had to sell them on; not her ability to get things down from high places, but her humanness; her potential to provide social companionship while cleaning, cooking, and looking after that companion's needs. After viewing their presentation, Ryker was convinced that they had succeeded in this.

"Do you guys even need me at all?"

"Of course we do, Ryker. We need that head of yours."

"Well now, it took a whole team to get UMA to where she's at, but I suppose I am the one who created her."

"Oh, no, I meant your head—literally your head. What investor could resist those gorgeous, raven locks of yours?"

He ran his fingers through Ryker's hair.

"All right, all right." He batted away Dan's hand, his friend laughing at Ryker's embarrassment. "You know, people can be smart and good looking. The two aren't mutually exclusive."

"I'm glad you've finally figured that one out. Which reminds me, my intelligent, beautiful wife called me this afternoon wanting to know where you were, but she wouldn't say why she wanted to know. Is there a reason Trish is keeping tabs on you all of a sudden?"

Ryker raised an eyebrow. It had been nearly a decade since Trish and Dan had danced their way through Iola's living room, surprising everyone with the news that they had eloped over the weekend. No one had been more shocked than Ryker himself. His own sister and best friend had fallen in love right under his nose, and he'd been too consumed with his studies to notice. It still threw him for a loop whenever he thought about it, despite the years that had passed and the two children that had come since.

"Did you know Gena moved out of state?"

Dan nodded. "Sure. Sad, really. Her mother hasn't regained much mobility yet. She could use an UMA, come to think of it, but since our girl isn't quite ready for the general marketplace, it's a good thing Gena will be there for her. It's going to be a long recovery. You knew all of this, right?"

"Of course I did. Trish hired someone else, this woman named Emmie. She's ... well, she's..."

"Ah, I see." Dan nodded his head. "So that's what you were doing this afternoon."

Ryker held up a finger and waved it in front of him. "Do not say it like that in front of Trish. In fact, don't say anything at all in front of Trish about this. She'll have my hide if she finds out. Bro code, okay?"

"I promise to avoid the topic if possible, but Ryker, you do realize that marriage code trumps bro code, right?"

"Since when?"
"Since I said 'I do.' Besides, it's not like it's any big deal, right? She doesn't have a jealous husband who's going to find out and beat the crap out of you, does she?"

"I don't think so. She moved here all by herself. No ring."

"So she's a single, attractive woman whose only flaw is that she somehow finds you worthy of her time. Or at least twenty minutes of it. She's just another one of your no strings attached flings, right?"

Ryker tried not to cringe. What Dan had said was true, but for some reason, it sounded wrong coming out of someone else's mouth. "Sure. I suppose."

"Only..." Dan tapped a pen against his desk and put his feet up the way he always did when he was figuring out the solution to a difficult conundrum.

"Only what, Dan?"

"Only, you've never missed work before because of a woman. Even Carin never saw you except in your off hours. I can't remember you ever skipping out on work in the middle of the day to be with her even after you'd become engaged."

"Emmie is definitely not Carin."

Dan's feet hit the floor and he leaned in towards Ryker. "So you admit that you do like her then!"

"Oh, I like her. Enough to have taken the opportunity to be with her when the moment arose. I mean, you should see her, Dan." He paused for a second, reliving the moment when he'd grabbed her butt, hoisting her onto him. "But anyways, trust me, there's nothing but sex between us."

"Is that what she thinks?"

"Don't worry. We're in complete agreement: sex and sex only. Believe it or not, she was the one who brought it up; she was very clear on that point." The one night stand, the no entanglement deal—Emmie had instigated all of that, even though Dan didn't seem to believe it.

"Whatever dude." Dan shut down his work station and slipped his laptop into his briefcase. "I'm going home to my hot wife and adorable rug rats now. I'll leave you to wallow in your emotionally unavailable state."

"Trish made almost the exact same, totally incorrect comment about me today. Do you two talk about my love life behind my back?"

"All of the time." Grabbing his jacket, Dan stood up and began making his way towards the door. "Except... that's right... you don't have a love life. In reality, we talk about you for thirty seconds, forget about you completely, and then turn our minds to how we plan on pleasuring each other as soon as the kids are asleep."

"Ugh, what is wrong with you? Stop talking about pleasuring my sister."

Dan laughed as he swung the door open. "Later, Ryker."

"See you in the morning, Buddy."

#

https://youtu.be/W0_DPi0PmF0

Ryker spent the rest of the evening in the lab testing out UMA's facial expressions. She was designed to mimic human reactions and she did a fine job of it, as far as Ryker was concerned. It was the little details that sold it, like the wrinkles that formed at the sides of her nose to make her look perplexed, or the dimples on her cheeks when she laughed. UMA was pretty much ready for primetime, but Ryker still worried about how she would be received. She was his baby and he believed in her. Worry that she wouldn't be loved by others the same way he loved her kept him at work until the wee hours.

By the time he was satisfied with the way her forehead furled when she expressed displeasure (based largely on the way Trisha had glared at him most of the days of his life), it was nearly four in the morning and there was no sense in going home. Resigned to the fact that he'd get only a few hours of sleep, he crashed on the leather couch in his office, thoughts of the endless softness of Emmie's curves lulling him into unconsciousness.

He awoke to the lyrics of "Older Sister" by Carly Simon playing from where his mobile lay on the end table right above his head. He glanced at the time. Six-fifty-five. Why would Trish be calling him at this ungodly hour?

"Hmmm?" He tried and failed to form the word hello as he held the phone to his ear.

"Is Emmie with you?" Trisha sounded like she'd already downed a pot of coffee.

Ryker rubbed at his eyes and dragged himself upright. "Why the hell would she be with me?"

"Dan told me the two of you hooked up yesterday."

Dan. He should have known his friend's so-called marriage code would land him in trouble. "So what if we did? We're both adults. I didn't do anything she didn't want me to do, believe me."

"God, Ryker!"

"What do you want from me, Trish? It's not even light out, and I've been working all night."

"Did you sleep at the office again?"

"For a few beautiful hours. And I slept here alone, in case you were wondering. I haven't seen Emmie since I left her apartment yesterday."

"What time was that?"

"About six-thirty. Why?"

"Damn it. Now I'm getting worried."

That was interesting. Trish wasn't much of a worrier. A little over a year ago, she'd gotten a call that her son, Rhys, had fallen off of the monkey bars at his school and broken his arm. She'd barely batted an eye. "Kids fall. They break bones. It's not like it can't be fixed," she'd said to calm her frantic husband.

So why was she worried now? And what did it have to do with Emmie?

"What's going on, Trish?"

"I told Emmie yesterday that I'd pick her up on the way to work this morning because it was supposed to be rainy and cold and generally miserable. But she wasn't at her apartment."

"Well, is it rainy and cold and miserable?" He shifted over to the window and peeked out between the blinds. The screen was coated with a sheen of water, but it was still too dark to tell how bad it was out there. "Maybe she forgot and decided to walk."

"I checked on that, genius. I drove the route she'd take to work. No sign of her. And she's not at the diner either, which is where I am now. That's why I called you. I thought maybe..."

Ryker took a deep breath, trying to ignore his heartbeat as it sped in his chest. Sleep suddenly seemed far, far away. "I'm on my way."

Chances were, this was a false alarm. Still, he couldn't stick around here and pretend to work while Emmie went unaccounted for. His mind went back to the look of fear she'd had on her face when he'd accidentally surprised her in the park. What exactly was that woman hiding? He might not want a relationship with her, but he still wanted to know what secrets she was keeping. Grabbing his keys, he sent a quick text to Dan letting him know he might be in later than usual.

Looks like his friend would have to excuse Ryker's second Emmie-related absence in as many days.

He swallowed a lump in his throat as the words Emmie and absence merged together in his mind. There had to be a reason she'd gone missing that didn't include something ominous, but as fear took over, he couldn't think of a single one.

A/N: Okay, if you haven't yet watched the video I embedded featuring Sophia the robot, DOOOO IIIITTT!!!! And watch until the very end because there is a delightfully horrific twist waiting for you there. UMA was very much inspired by Sophia, but UMA promises never to say or even "think" what Sophia says at the video's conclusion. 

Thank you for your ongoing support. You rock! Today's votes will go towards preventing the robot apocalypse. Ryker assures me my fear of robots taking over the planet is unfounded. I couldn't help but notice, however, that he refused to make eye contact with me when he said that. Hmmm... 

I'm still dedicating chapters to Wattpadders who gave me Emmie casting suggestions. Today's dedication is for becky_louise7 whose choices of Emma Watson and Mila Kunis were both close contenders. Thanks Becky!