Chapter 3: A surprise encounter
The sun was shining on the new dawning day in Utopia. Bright and early Daphne had woken up and was now on her way to the library. She was in a fairly good mood. She felt alive, even though she wasn't. Not completely anyway. For the first time in decades she had no idea what the future would bring, and that was just about as fun as it was scary.
On the way to the town centre she walked passed the police station, where she ran into Steve on his way to work, handsome as ever in his uniform.
"Hey," he greeted her with a broad smile. "How are you?"
"I'm good," she said, smiling as she leant to give him a kiss on the cheek.
He gave her a kiss and slowly moved back, as if he didn't want to separate himself from her. Daphne didn't understand what his strange look was for, and as she tried to think of what else to say, an awkward silence fell over them.
"Do you miss me?" he suddenly asked. It almost sounded hopeful. Almost as if her artificial ex boyfriend had the capability to wish to get back together. Daphne figured that was possible. She didn't delete the setup that made him like her.
"It's a little bit lonely sometimes," she confessed, looking at his dashingly handsome face. Even though it had only been two days since she kicked him out, it had been nice to have someone around in the house. She had made him look so perfect to the detail, from the colour of his eyes to the shape of his finger nails.
"You could come to my place tonight," Steve tried. "I'll make dinner. I'll keep you company..."
Daphne felt a little suspicious about how desperate that sounded. Was there a piece of programming that would make him attempt to get her back, or did he make the offer out of genuine kindness?
"No, I'm ok." Daphne gently refused. Steve was hot, but oh so boring. She would meet Jared tonight at the club. Even though he was a jerk she had to admit he was all she wanted. Nothing in this world was more exciting than Jared.
Steve looked a bit disappointed, but kind and understanding as ever.
"I should go to work," she tried to end the conversation.
"Yea, me too," he smiled helplessly, slinking off to the police station. "I'll see you..."
"Yes," Daphne said, "I'll see you."
Daphne continued her walk to the library, pondering. She figured it was possible she would someday want a guy like Steve again. She had liked parts of him. He could be so sweet. Sweet was something she wasn't going to get with Jared. In time maybe she could take Steve back or some other cutie and take Jared on the side. Although it was quite possible Jared wouldn't want that. She could imagine him walking into her house and take her on the kitchen table while Steve was watching. Steve probably wouldn't mind either, he'd hardly look up from doing the dishes. She always erased jealousy from all characters ever since she got caught cheating a few decades back and had to deal with upset virtual boyfriends. Jared however... he was truly unpredictable.
Daphne let go of her wandering thoughts when she arrived at the library. It was pretty pointless to speculate anyway. She had no control over the situation.
She said hello to Gwen, the middle aged head librarian, and started to clean up a few books, putting them back on the shelves. When she was done she sat down at her desk. There was nothing to do. Nothing to look up, nothing to order. No reason to be here whatsoever. Daphne leaned back in her chair.
Back in the times there were other people living in Utopia she actually had a job here, looking things up, helping people find all kinds of information. Now she just sat here, wasting her time by lack of anything better to do. She had tried a few other jobs over the years, but they had all been just as boring. The most interesting thing to do was designing new objects, buildings and especially parks and forests. She built quite a few. But in the end it was just sad that nobody except her would ever see it, and eventually she just started going back to the library, just to read or to browse the scientific database.
She picked up one of her favourite novels she was reading for the seventh time, and leaned back in her desk chair in the empty reading room. She couldn't wait for this day to end, so she could meet Jared again, and at least something would happen, good or bad.
To her own surprise she didn't need to wait all day. Somewhere in the afternoon he entered the reading room, walking straight up to her desk. When she noticed him she put down her book.
"Jared!" She brought out, pleasantly surprised. She realised too late she sounded way too eager, near desperate actually. So much for playing hard to get... again.
"Don't I get a kiss?" he asked as he sat down on her desk.
Daphne resisted the urge to jump up and kiss him. Instead she leant back further in her chair, giving him a defiant glare. "I can't. I'm working."
"No, you're not," he noticed. He looked at her calmly. Calculating.
"Don't you have a job?" she asked, rolling her chair back, slowly getting away. She realised she didn't assign him one, but he probably had a random job chosen by the character generator.
"Of course I have a job." He stood up, approaching her. "But I don't have to work today."
"What do you do?" Daphne asked curiously, trying to think of another way to get away from him. The idea of being chased and captured turned her on so much she was already getting wet.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Jared gave her a smug smile, suddenly leaning over her, grabbing the arm supports of her desk chair. "I'm a doctor."
"No way..." She stared into his eyes for a moment, then dived under his arm and slipped away.
He turned around and looked at her. "Why would I lie about my job?"
Perhaps it could be true, but Daphne found it strange. There was a small hospital in Utopia, but she always had wondered why, since diseases were inexistent and physical wounds were fixed overnight. She stepped back when he approached her.
"You're so eager to play aren't you? You desperate slut!" his sudden dark sinister laughter gave her cold shivers. "You have no idea...."
"No idea of what?" Daphne asked, a little worried.
The moment she let her guard down Jared grabbed her and pushed against the book shelves by the wall. "... no idea of what I'm planning to do to you." He pinned her hard.
"What are you going to do with me?" she asked a little softer now, partly scared of his rough attitude, partly dazed by overwhelming arousal.
He did not answer, but she felt his knees force a way between her legs.
A doctor? She looked into his eyes. "You're not some crazy gynaecologist or something are you?"
"What a sick and perverted mind you have, Daphne," his face showed signs of disgust when he looked back at her. "You should be ashamed." He leaned in even closer, his nose almost touching hers. "I'm a neurologist, if you must know. But enough with the small talk."
He kissed her hard, and Daphne surrendered. She loved his masterful tongue play. Yet somehow she couldn't prevent her brain from working. Why would he be a neurologist? It was so specific, too specific to be randomly selected by the character generator. She had a strange feeling, as if she should remember something but couldn't. She couldn't think of it any further, not while Jared was smothering her. Oh, it just felt too damn good.
"So, do we do it here or is there a broom closet around where we can fuck?" Jared proposed.
Daphne blinked at his bluntness. "W... we can't do 'it' here..." She wanted to suggest going to his place, but was overwhelmed when he forcefully turned her and twisted her arm behind her back. He pushed her against the nearest table and forced her head down making her bend until she felt the wood against her face.
"Who will stop me? Huh?"
Daphne couldn't believe how easily he managed to keep her down with one hand. She tried to think of how to reason with him. "I'll tell people you harassed me. You could lose your job!"
She heard his delighted laughter. "Why you evil vixen!" he joked as he slapped her ass.
She didn't really want it, but she got turned on anyway. There was something so arousing about being at his mercy. She didn't want it to happen here, but she did want him to ravish her. She moaned helplessly when she felt her skirt being lifted.
"I can't wait until tonight," he concluded, "I want you now..."
The sound of high heels echoing through the hall startled the both of them. Jared let her go, and Daphne could just in time fix her skirt before Gwen walked into the reading room.
"Daphne?" the other woman sounded worried. "Is everything ok?"
"Yes." Daphne answered, still aware of how close she and Jared were standing together. At this point Gwen probably realised more or less what was going on, but Daphne wanted to avoid having her see anything. "Just... helping a customer."
Gwen gave them a brief disapproving look, but then went back on her way, leaving them.
"Yea," Jared whispered in Daphne's ear. "Go on and help you customer."
She resisted as she felt his possessive hands on her again. "I'll take you to the storage room."
"Lead the way," he smiled deviously.
She quickly took him across the hall, looking around to make sure Gwen didn't notice them enter the empty maintenance corridor. Daphne opened the first door on the left. It lead to a dark room with a few boxes on the floor and some empty shelves.
"This is the..."
Jared did not give her time to finish her sentence. He threw her against the wall and pressed his body against hers, speaking in his deep, horny voice, "Let's get it on!" Without leaving room for discussion he grabbed her blouse and ripped it open, making all the buttons fly off through the empty room, making soft ticking sounds as they hit the stone floor.
