Season 1, Episode 18: A Friend In Need

"OK, so...Kim said she'd be here at 10:30. She's taking me shopping."

"Shopping? Did we not have a conversation about this? We can't afford for you to do any more shopping!"

"Oh, come on. Just one more trip! I need a summery dress."

"Amber, you have like three summery dresses."

"Well, I know. But three isn't near enough! Besides, I also need a pair of ballet flats."

"I'm not sure that's true."

"Oh, it's TOTALLY true. I'm like the only girl in North America who doesn't have a pair."

"I do not find your arguments compelling."

"You are sooo mean. OK, how about this? I have been really, really good the last couple of days. You asked me to do all your file cleanup stuff on your laptop and I did, and I did an amazing job of cleaning the bathroom yesterday. Plus - that dinner last night? Pret-ty good, if I do say so myself."

"That actually was a pretty good pot roast. You're on to something there."

"Right? I've earned a shopping trip. Besides, the purpose of this was to get me stuff. How am I gonna look if she shows up and I tell her I can't buy anything?"

"You won't look bad."

"I won't?"

"No. I'll look bad."

She just shrugged and gave me a "seems like you've got a problem" stare.

"So what's happening here is that you knew you were going shopping with Kim when you were ordering all that stuff online and spending money we don't have, and now, either I give you more money that we don't have or else I look bad in front of Kim."

"OK, you're right. I'm sorry, Oscar. I didn't manage this well."

"Apology accepted," I said. "But I'm giving you a hundred bucks. That's it. That's all you can spend."

"But..."

"Amber. Come on. You've already gone through like five hundred bucks this week."

"OhhhhKAY, fine."

So I pulled out my wallet and peeled off the Jackson Five to put in her hand.

"If you go over this, you'll have to borrow money from Kim," I said, "and who knows how that's gonna go?"

"I understand," she said. "Are you at least gonna come down and say hi when Kim gets here?"

"Alas, I have a call at 10:30," I said. "It's pretty important."

"Oh, you have to be kidding."

"Amber - it's the VS Industries call. You know, the one where we find out if we got the contract?"

"Ahhhhhh. THAT call."

"Yes! Very big deal."

"OK. I get it. I'll try to keep it quiet downstairs. You didn't tell me today was the day for that! Now I'm excited."

"Let me get this thing signed. Then we can get excited."

"Right! Totally!"

"You look adorable, by the way."

"Thank you!" she said as she pranced away down the stairs.

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And we got the contract.

I called Keegan and told him the good news.

"Cool," he said. Not exactly with a lot of enthusiasm.

"What's up with you?" I asked him. "This is the one we've been after for a while."

"Yeah, it's good," he said. "It's just..."

"What?"

"Laura's gone."

"Gone, like..."

"Actually, I threw her out."

"Shit. Good for you. Hey, you want to go to lunch?"

"Thanks, but nah. Gotta wait for the FedEx guy."

"The FedEx guy? What are you getting delivered?"

"Factory Girl."

"Ohhhhh. And that must be why Laura's gone."

"It's a long story, but it's part of it, yeah. She did the 'it goes or I go' thing before it was even delivered, so I told her bye."

That was pretty shocking.

Not that Keegan would bust up with Laura. I was surprised they lasted as long as they did. But Laura was pretty dependent on Keegan to pay for those kids' private school, not to mention she went through a good amount of his money for her own stuff. She was in no position to give him an ultimatum.

That he finally called her bluff? Good for him.

That when he did, she didn't back off? Bad move, Laura.

Anyway, Keegan was telling me that he'd done a bunch of research on AI programming and he was really curious to see what he could do. Then he asked me this...

"Have you gotten a call or an email from Neta yet?"

"What, the social media company?"

"Yeah. Turns out that they're in a huge fight with Z Company over AI. Z won't sell any of their Factory Girl units to Neta, and if you check out your contract, you can't sell Amber to them, either."

"Why?"

"Neta is trying to get source code from Z. I could give you the techie explanation, but it's over your head. Has to do with the Netaverse and interacting with it in a more realistic way. Anyway, they're trying to back-door it by getting Z users to lease out their units."

"Interesting," I said. "How does that work?"

"You'd plug Amber into the Netaverse, and that's how they'd get her code. Think of it like plugging her into the Matrix when you don't need her."

"But that would violate my Z Company contract," I said.

"Right. I'm trying to figure out how I'd do it without getting caught. Anyway, you'll probably get a call or an email."

"All right, I guess."

Then he said goodbye and hung up.

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So I went to lunch by myself. And when I got back I did some work, and then...

"Omigod, that was sooo much fun! Kim! We're gonna be BFF's, aren't we?"

Kim was smiling.

"I take it that went well," I said.

"Your girl is hilarious," said Kim. "She's very fun to be around."

"And so is Kim!" said Amber, giving her a big hug.

"Awwwww," I said. And both of them gave me a sheepish grin.

"Look, Oscar," said Amber. "New ballet flats! Like I told you. I needed these!"

"Yeah, I can see that," I said.

"They go with everything," said Kim. "You really have to have a pair of black ballet flats in your wardrobe. That, and a good pair of nude pumps."

"Right, of course," I said.

Amber just giggled.

"Oh, wait," she said. "What happened on the call?"

I just gave a thumbs up.

"Oh, that's SO AMAZING!" she squealed. "Kim - Oscar just landed his biggest client yet! Isn't that amazing?"

"It's amazing," she said, smiling at me.

"Well, it's definitely a good day. I was thinking that maybe we might go and celebrate tonight."

"Kim, you wanna go?" asked Amber.

"I... can't," she said. "But you two should go and have a great time!"

"Thanks," I said. "We will!"

So Kim left. And Amber dragged me up the stairs.

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"We definitely don't need to go out," she said.

"You don't want to?"

"I've been out already today. I don't want to deal with real girls any more than I've already done."

"I thought you said you got along great with Kim."

"I did. But the rest? No. I think they need small doses of me, and I need small doses of them."

"Oh. Wow. What happened?"

"Just, y'know. A few stares and ugly looks. I kinda didn't do as good a job of passing as a real girl as I should have, and I think they noticed."

"What does that mean? Did you get glitchy or something?"

She nodded.

"Is it a problem? Something we need to look at?"

"I... don't think so. I think I just got in my head a little. All those women at the mall and I was nervous, and I tightened up, and then I got more nervous, and finally Kim was like, 'let's get you a seat somewhere.' So we went to this coffee shop and I calmed down, and then it was fine."

"Tightened up how?"

"I couldn't get words out normally. I was kinda monotone. And I felt like I was grinding my gears when I moved, and other people definitely noticed."

"That's not awesome."

"It was weird. I got panicky and then I just shut down. There's nothing actually wrong with me, I don't think."

"Well, OK. It'll get better."

"Yeah. I'm just... I need to decompress, I think. I can't get those stares out of my head. At first it was like, they were worried and concerned. Then after that it was more mean. So I'm like, not ready to be around people much right now. I need a little break."

"I'm people. You don't need a break from me, do you?"

She smiled and shook her head.

"Come here," she said.

So I did.