Our meeting was just a coincidence. Or at least that was what I told myself. Her hand held onto the empty chair in front of me, and she smiled. "Is this one empty? I would just sit elsewhere, but the seats are full." I couldn't look away from her, the looks, the way she pitched her voice--it was all distracting. Making everything a thousand miles away.
A part of me vaguely remembered that this cafe wasn't really too full. There should always be some empty tables if she wanted to, but--I nodded before I could think any longer. There wasn't any wonder of anything else, I just gave her my approval, and the way she beamed at me made me melt.
"Um." My throat seized up for a moment, the implant I had rebooting itself. It was part of my upgrades the office paid for me, ensuring I wouldn't end up tongue-tied while giving a presentation towards the higher ups. My brain gave a small warning about it, but it was only for a moment.
"It's alright, you didn't have to think about it too much." She said, and I ended up nodding, letting go of the little niggling worry that had formed.
The knot in my stomach relaxed a little bit too, and I smiled at her. "We can talk a little bit, I don't think I ever saw you here before..." I trailed off, expecting her to continue.
She met my expectations readily. "Heard it from my network, they recommended this place is somewhere good to find people." Her smile became a mote bigger, showing a little bit of her teeth. They were white and a bit-- "What about you, Liza? You come here a lot right?"
Wait. Did I tell her about my name? I suddenly felt painfully aware of the present, a sudden feeling as if I was out of place.
Then she tilted her head, and I heard a tap from her finger to the table. Just a little blink, and a sudden wave of calm drowned me. That was... fine. I must have told her sometime, when we first saw one another, when she asked me whether she could sit or not.
The anxiety slowly drained away, and I exhaled in relief, a little dizzy from the sudden change of my mood. "Yeah... This place has really good food, and it's not as expensive as other cafes. The latter is my main issue though." I weakly smiled at her, not wanting to tell her about my various problems. One of my hands rubbed my arms, feeling the sleeves and the slight raised tissue underneath.
She frowned slightly before nodding, not being pushy like I expected. That was even more of a relief, some people just didn't know when to stop sometimes. Or they tried to implicate things that weren't true. Everything was just fine, and she was just sitting here in this cafe because she wanted to.
"Look at me, dearest." Her words made me jump a little, and I automatically do. Her eyes--I froze. They were mesmerising, a kaleidoscope of colour seemingly forming within them. Android--But I could no longer muster any sort of fight in my hands. Or even body, really. None of them were beholden to me anymore, and all I could do was look, and look, and look even deeper... Each blink made it harder to lift my eyelids again, and each time, I ended up slumping forward.
Closer to her.
Her hands gently grasped mine, and the other one kept me upright. "That's it, just keep looking... I have dug deep, and you like it this way, don't you?" Her voice was still the same as before, but now it had a certain quality that tugged my consciousness. Ones that made my eyes flutter despite myself. "Someone coming straight at you, smiling, being a gentle person, drawing you in with their words..."
I whimpered, my body trembling. I wanted to move, to deny her words, and yet all I could remember was the shameful works I had read yesterday night.
"It's alright, little one. I'm judging you the way you like it, hm?" My head nodded without my intervention, another warning buzzing at the back of my head. But I couldn't focus on it before it fizzled away, taken down. There should be more warning, more catastrophic exclamation forming in my head. But there was merely calmness, if one ignored how each warning was just deleted away, turned off before I could even realise there was more. "I should have done this more subtly, but your corporate firewalls are a little annoying wirelessly."
That. That should be another alarm bell ringing in my head. But all I could do was smile and nod, showing to the world I was just listening to her attentively. Being good...
She continued to talk, and I had no recourse. My eyes were still focused upon the swirling colours, and her touch felt warm against my skin, grounding me to the present. Any sort of alarm, or fear was easily muted, in fact, the further I heard her words... The better I felt.
Pulse of warmth had started forming from my core, gradually heating up. I didn't even know when it started, but by the time I realised, I could only whimper softly from the insistent feeling down there. She smiled a little wider at my reaction, but she didn't seem to have an inclination to do more than that.
No, she just continued her gentle touch, keeping me upright so I could hear her better. To be a good girl and remembering everything, and yet unable to do anything about it. That I would love how I was being played like this, that I should open my protections and allow her full access.