"Well, which is it then?" A bead of sweat coagulated on my brow. He knew it, I knew it, the heart-rate monitor on my smartwatch knew it: I was losing control. "You think you're so morally fucking superior now. What about when we were fucking on my couch? I was honest with you. Do you even want her? Or are you just punishing me?"
"This isn't about Maria, it's about you--it's about us." Framed by overcast winter sky and the grey sheen of the limestone facades of central London townhouses, peacoat and long, sandy hair trembling in the gale, Richard made the postcard picture of an aristocratic whore. In his bones he was petit-bourgeois, but every part of himself which he had been able to fabricate (his arched posture, face turned down, sandy frond hanging limply over his icy blue eyes; white linen shirt, black cloth buttons, form-fitting black suede trousers and matching blazer; russet mouth with the pout of a Byron leaving Claire Clairmont at the nunnery) made up a kind of tapestry of a gentleman with noble pretensions and few scruples. Peering down at the bulging suede lining his crotch, I could tell he was pleased with the scene he had recruited me to play out for himself.
"What about us? You knew about my interests, my politics, my career goals. You knew before we got together and it's only become a problem for you now. You keep trying to make me the dickhead, but what's actually changed?" My phone was buzzing in my pocket again. I pulled it out and switched it to airplane mode. When I turned back to look at him, Richard had shifted his gaze from my brogues to my tits.
"This is really hard for me, Jeff. I'm sorry." He wouldn't return my eye contact.
"This is exactly what you wanted. The only thing that's hard for you right now is your cock, shithead."
Always the same story with these chasers. Richard had wormed his way in with all my now-former friends and turned me into his other woman. No presents on Valentines Day or my birthday, except the one I had bought for myself on his card (and what a gift it was). When he had bent me over and fucked my ass in the studio apartment his mother was renting for him in Finchley, he had forgotten to cover the mirror facing the bed despite my repeated requests. Everything about him turned my stomach. I glanced again at his lean thighs and quivering crotch.
"A lot has changed, actually, and it's been hard for me. Your new friends are... well, creepy. I'm finding your choice of career morally dubious. And your weird thing for that Joel guy? He doesn't even like you, and I think we both know why."
Joel had playfully referred to me as 'our degenerate' at a Free Speech Society after party. He considers my body to be tainted by woke ideology, but I often find men like Joel and Rich saying one thing with their mouths and another with their eyes. Insults and lies are part of their charm. I would have enjoyed Rich's unconstrained invective against me if I couldn't tell it was all part of his dull new self-image. Why was my phone buzzing again, wasn't it in airplane mode? The buzzing was coming on stronger now, stronger than I thought my phone was capable of, coming up in mounting waves only an inch from my cunt. "Maybe you should take that call," he sneered.
"Fuck's sake. Wait here." I took a few steps back and reached into my pocket: the bottom corner was faintly damp. Some kind of warm sensation was moving up from the base of my spine. My screen was consumed with notifications from Robocock. The top one read, ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT? I looked back at Richard, dramatically sweeping his idiotic fringe from his eyes as he rolled a cigarette. I thought to myself, Here's a guy who has never faced a single consequence of his actions. Tonight, that's going to change. I walked back over to him and took the now-lit rollie from his hands. "Look, I'm freezing out here. Can we continue this conversation somewhere inside?" I took a long drag from his cigarette and puffed the smoke back in his face as he calculated a reply.
"There's that Pret right nearby; I could buy you a sandwich?" He pointed down Baker Street, his gaze following his finger, then darting back to some point just over my left shoulder. I cocked my hip and put my hand on my waist, gently pulling back my leather jacket. Robocock had picked out a frilly blouse for me from the amorphous pile of pre-transition clothes congealing under my bed. I could feel his eyes following the trim of the white chiffon up from my chest to my shoulders and back to my neck.
"I'm not hungry. A little thirsty though. Joel bought me a bottle of Blue Label to celebrate my BAE internship. I don't think he'd mind you having a glass."
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Standing by the horrendous art-deco drinks trolley I had inherited from my mother, glancing into the mirror and watching Richard survey my student bedroom, I noticed the mirror had been cleaned. Everything in the room glinted in the artificial candlelight as if freshly polished. I had learned the smoke alarms were dreadfully sensitive in my halls the week I moved in. I remembered buying some electric "candles" while hungover in a lecture a few months back, but I hadn't seen them since. That is until Richard and I had arrived back in my room to find them turned on and arranged along my shelves and on my dresser. I hadn't cleaned the place in weeks. Richard dangled his legs over the side of my bed talking as if to himself about what some 19th century philosopher might think of Bitcoin. His head cocked back, pale throat exposed, Adam's apple bobbing with activity, one arm raised in a gesture of profound locution: his image was most seductive when he was engaged in some pointless activity. Looking at him, he gave the impression of something willowy and ethereal, but his body in motion rigidified, betraying a secret, lean musculature. My shoulder ached with the memory of him bending my arm back and pushing me against the very wall I was standing in front of. His body reminded me of those skeletons in that 60s Jason and the Argonauts movie.
"What do you think, then? Does it even count as real intelligence?" He was looking directly at me expecting an answer. I shot him a condescending gaze as I approached with the drinks. "Artificial intelligence, I mean. I'd be interested to hear what someone more science-oriented has to say."
As my eyes ran along his calves, hard musculature revealed by his posture through the suede, I noticed Robocock's red light blinking from under the bed. My vulva gave an involuntary twinge. Which of my suitors had caused it? I put the tumbler to my mouth and leaned my head back, letting the burning fluid run along my tongue and down my throat. An electric pulse seemed to run from my lips to the base of my spine.
"I think you're supposed to sip this stuff..." Wrapping my long, bony fingers around his small, sinewy hand, I raised his glass to his lips. I had been very careful not to confuse the glasses, doing everything just as Robocock had instructed. With my other hand, I placed my index finger and thumb on his chin and gently tipped him back, grazing his throat against the back of my hand.
"Don't be silly, darling. It's all just computer programmes. A machine only knows how to do what it's told. Now unbutton your shirt and take off your trousers." I took his glass and walked back to the drinks trolley, watching him undress in the mirror. "I'd like to try something different this time, if you don't mind."