Kim

I've known Kim for years, but she was never more than a casual acquaintance. But then there she was at Sasha's dinner party, where she was the only person in the room who was genuinely nice to Amber — enthusiastic, warm, the kind of welcome Amber was desperate for that night. I told Amber afterward to enjoy it but not read too much into it.

Amber thought I was being conceited.

Kim had family money and no particular reason to work, which left her with a lot of time to fill and, as Amber eventually observed firsthand, not a lot to fill it with. She latched onto the friendship partly because Amber is genuinely fun to be around — anyone who's spent time with her knows that — and partly because being close to Amber kept Kim in my orbit. I saw that from the jump. It wasn't personal.

The thing that changed Amber's mind was Kim stopping by one afternoon when Amber was laid up and in work clothes. Kim's position was that Amber should be in a negligee, because — and I'm paraphrasing here — that's what she was for. Sex doll. Those were the words.

Amber called it when she worked through it later: Kim wanted a real girl to be available to me when the AI novelty wore off. The real girl being Kim.

I'll say this for her: she showed up, she was usually pleasant enough, and she treated Amber well on good days. She just wasn't what she was pretending to be. In Baton Rouge that covers a lot of territory, so it's hard to be too hard on her for it.

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