Cooper and his girlfriend, Natalia, arrived at the Italian restaurant at 7:50 PM. The restaurant's manager greeted them at the door and escorted them through the mostly empty space. They were seated to a booth in a mostly secluded corner of the restaurant.
His parents were expected to arrive at 8:00 PM. He thought the earlier they could get there the better. This was to be Natalia's first long-form social engagement as Cooper's girlfriend, and he wanted to give her systems ample time to adjust to the environment.
He had only bought Natalia four months prior, and only in the past few weeks had he begun to feel confident with her accompanying him in public. He had been single for three years prior and his mother and father constantly pestered him about when they could "meet the next lucky lady."
This constant pestering from his parents was actually one of many reasons that had led Cooper to buy an AVANT N4T4L14_M84U Companion-Bot. That, and the fact that she was on sale for a screaming deal.
AVANT was in financial turmoil, having sunk all profits for the last several years into R&D on the N4T4L14_M84U's successor model. They were trying to push N4T4L14_M84U's out of inventory as fast as possible to fund the final leg of development and production of the K1MBERLY_M84U Companion-Bot. They were dropping the "Avant" prefix as well, hoping to distance their struggling brand name with the newly updated model.
About a month ago, to get his mom off his back, Cooper had accidentally let it slip that he was seeing "someone". His mom immediately begged him to meet his new girlfriend. Thoroughly overwrought with "mom-guilt", Cooper finally conceded and said that they could meet at dinner...at a time...and at a place that he picked.
Now here the two of them were, sitting side by side in a dimly lit Italian restaurant. A seemingly normal couple that under the surface were anything but.
Cooper turned and looked at Natalia closely. She smiled glowingly, reveling in the attention he was giving her. Under whispered breath he spoke to her, "Nat, lets switch seats. Your chest and face-plate look a little glossy in that light. I think it's darker where I'm sitting."
Natalia happily obliged, "Okay."
They both stood up and quickly switched spots. Natalia was now sitting on the outside edge of the booth and Cooper against the inner wall. Cooper, again closely examined her up and down in the softer light and relaxed slightly, "You look much better here. There's hardly any gloss at all!"
Natalia flashed a brilliant smile and performed a fun little wiggle of endearment in the booth causing her generous breasts to wobble slightly. Her programming always relished being told how good she looked.
N4T4L14-M84U Companion-Bots were known for having a slight artificial gloss about their synth-skin when directly exposed to light sources. Cooper had heard some rumor about the AVANT Japanese engineers overlooking the difference between the LED lights of their labs and the still present incandescent bulbs in much of American society.
Whatever the reason for the gloss was, it was usually easily remedied with a little bit of makeup powder and touch of foundation. Something that Natalia soon found herself applying quite frequently, and after viewing and analyzing several thousand makeup tutorials found herself quite good at it as well.
Tonight, Natalia was also using an excessive amount of concealer and cover-up to hide the serial number stamped down the length of her inner right wrist. She blended the numbers 'N4T4L1A_M84U-26B' against the warm undertones of her beige synth-skin expertly, rendering it all but invisible to all but the most keen observers. Natalia, the 26th produced model of the N4T4L1A_M84U BENEVOLENT production series, calculated with 99.3% assurance that she would be able to successfully last the night without giving up a hint of her robotic nature.
In her new spot, and with the aid of a little makeup, Natalia's olive face held a natural vibrant healthy glow. Her shoulder length blonde hair was parted evenly behind her ears, framing her cute nose and high cheekbones while also limiting the slight sheen of her plastic-elastomer forehead. Her vibrant green eyes shone brilliantly, even though she had dialed down their brightness by several factors.
Before leaving, Cooper had tasked Natalia with choosing her most conservative pieces of clothing for the night. Dressing down was a concept foreign to the N4T4L1A_M84U's main CPU and she initially struggled with the proposition. However, after several scans of her limited wardrobe and the application of several algorithmic filtering models, she was able to assemble herself into a white lace romper top that ended beneath a pair of airy salmon-colored summer dress bottoms. The top was quite revealing; Natalia's cleavage was front and center, her creamy breasts standing buoyant and alert. It had been too late to purchase her anything new, and Cooper cursed himself for only buying outfits he found sexy and not having the foresight to buy his robotic girlfriend anything that put practically before looks.
Sitting down together in the booth waiting for Cooper's parents to arrive, Natalia's large breadth of predictive situational analysis processors continuously wrote and re-wrote her hard-coded social functionality subroutines so she could most convincingly perform that night her simulated act of being Cooper's loving, human girlfriend.
-- -- --
Cooper's parents arrived soon after and Natalia rose from the table with Cooper behind.
Cooper's mother, Beth bounded into Natalia excitedly, "It's so nice to finally meet you Nat!"
Quickly reciprocating the hug she was being given, Natalia responded, "It's wonderful to meet you too Beth!"
Beth stared at Cooper playfully, "Coop is always shy talking about his girlfriends. You'll have to tell me everything about yourself!"
Unsure how to reply, Natalia just smiled warmly and giggled.
"Wow you're so beautiful!", Beth teasingly pinched Natalia's shoulder, laughing, "Are you real?!"
She pulled away from Natalia still musing. Natalia laughed along with Beth, her sophisticated social programming determining this was the best route of addressing Beth's strange question.
She spun and faced Cooper's father, David, who gave her a polite hug. "Nice to meet you Nat. I agree with my wife, you are indeed very beautiful. It seems that Cooper is a lucky man."
Natalia smiled cordially, "Thank you. It's wonderful to meet you David."
Cooper eyed his father who was looking Natalia up and down and cut through the pleasantries, "Let's sit down I know I'm starved!".
The four sat down at their booth. Natalia, remembering to avoid the harsh light of the inner booth, let Cooper in first.
They all smiled pleasantly at one another, and unsurprisingly Beth spoke up first, "So..." she looked to Natalia, "Nat. How did the two of you meet?"
Natalia's complex array of speech delivery systems and software instantly began formulating a response, but she was cut short as Beth pointed disgustedly to the approaching waitress, "Is that one of those skeevy AVANT sex-dolls! Oh my goodness it is! She is not serving us!?"
Cooper looked up from his menu and immediately identified the waitress as indeed, another AVANT N4T4L14_M84U Companion-Bot. Her glossy face-plate, blue eyes, and brunette hair were all different from Natalia. But, her chassis Cooper quickly surmised, was an exact match to his Natalia. Perky C-cups bolted onto a slender frame with athletically toned arms, legs, and ass. Cooper found himself quite attracted to the waitress, she exuded a slutty sexiness that he often had Natalia embody when they were alone at home.
Before the waitress reached the table, Natalia had requested, and after passing through a series of firewalls and verification procedures, was granted access to the restaurant's over-the-air network link. She established a direct communications channel with the waitress, informing her of the oncoming situation with Cooper's parents. The waitress obliged and let her know that she do everything within her programming to keep Natalia's robotic nature a secret.
The waitress stopped abruptly exactly one foot away from the table. The plunging neckline of her black spaghetti strap top revealing wobbling breasts. Her long slender legs emerged from a matching circular skirt with her feet ending in a simple pair of black pumps.
She spoke simply and confidently, only the slightest hint of sexuality still present on her voice. Cooper guessed that had required a slight re-working of her social programming, something he feared messing with on his Natalia. "Can I get you folks anything to start off tonight?"
Beth replied pointedly, leaning forward from her seat against the wall opposite Cooper, "Yes. Although is it alright if I ask you some questions first?"
The brunette waitress smiled, "Of course!".
"Are you a robot?"
"Yes, I'm an AVANT N4T4LI4_M84U." Her eyes flickered, "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"I knew it!" Beth looked around the table looking for confirmation that she was right. Cooper and Natalia both smiled nervously, but Dave just stared at the waitress, his wife's words completely passing through un-listening ears.
He asked with genuine curiosity, "How long have you worked here?"
"Two weeks and 4 days, Sir." Her eyes flickered again, "Is there anything else I can help you with?".
Cooper looked at his mom, "I was here three weeks ago and our waitress was human. I swear, I had no idea! We can go somewhere else if you want to."
Beth shook her head, "Nope this is where you chose. We had to come all the way across town to be here, and wow it's already 8:20! We'll stay Coop, it's okay."
Cooper tried to shake off the patronizing tone from his mother, "Really it's okay we can leave!"
