Season 1, Episode 20: Going Bust

Episodes May 19, 2026

THE BLISS

Katie had been with us for a couple of weeks, and things had started to normalize.

And Thank God for that.

Amber had really turned on the charm, and they hadn't really fought since that first dust-up. Not only that, it seemed like Amber had managed to pull the stick out of Katie's butt. She even gave her sister a makeover, and it turned out Katie was actually pretty hot when she wanted to be.

More than that, she was settling into that job with AccountUS, which is to say, I guess, that she'd given in to her role as not just a bookkeeper but a comfort girl for those clients they sent her to. It even seemed like she was having fun, and what I noticed was that she'd begun specializing in sexy underwear under those business-chick clothes of hers.

I still wasn't particularly comfortable with her in my house, and I did look forward to getting her out to some other place at some point.

But Amber was happy that her sister was living with us. And increasingly, when Amber was happy, so was I.

THE APPROACH

Keegan had told me Neta would make contact with me, and they did. I got an email from a Vice President of Outreach and Development with an offer - they wanted to hire my consulting firm to help them with AI training in the Netaverse, owing to the "special expertise" my firm possessed.

I figured that was about as far as they'd want to go in writing, though it was hardly subtle that they were offering to rent Amber from me and plug her into their matrix. But they were proposing a monthly consulting contract that would amount to just under six figures a year.

I emailed them back to thank them for their offer. I said I'd have to consult with my team to check on availability. And then I asked Amber.

"Honey," I said, "do you want a job?"

"Maybe! But don't I already have a job working for you?"

"Informally, yeah. But this would be directly working for a client."

And I told her what Neta wanted her for. That they would have her plug into the Netaverse, and they'd be able to learn from what was in her brain in ways that would make their virtual-reality fantasyland more real.

"OK, you know I'm, like, never gonna tell you no."

"Right."

"But I'm telling you no now."

"Oh, you are?"

"Oscar, I totally can't! You plug me in to the Netaverse, and it's gonna change all the code in my brain to make virtual reality my default and trash me for the real world. I'll be somebody else. And it could very well kill me."

"That seems dramatic."

"There's a kill switch in my programming to keep from, like, industrial espionage happening."

"Well, how come Keegan was able to get into your code?"

She shrugged.

"All I know is you can't plug me into the Netaverse," she said. "It would be really, really bad if you did."

"OK," I said.

"I mean it, Oscar. Seriously. You can't do it."

"Then I'll tell them no, and that's that."

She smiled and gave me a hug. And I thought there was no way I'd do anything that would change her. She was perfect.

Later that day, Keegan emailed me and I told him we were turning down Neta's offer and why.

"OK," he said. "I'm gonna try this with Cara, though. And I'll let you know if Amber's wrong."

I told him Amber was looking forward to meeting his Factory Girl.

"She's not ready yet," he said. "Or maybe I'm not."

THE NEWS

Then came that lunch with Erica.

She'd texted me asking if I wanted to get together, and suggested Marshall's Grill, which was a hoity-toity lunch place next to the hospital. I thought it was kind of a strange choice - the old joke that "nobody goes there; it's too crowded" applied - but I said OK.

And when I met her just next to the door, the weird feeling only grew.

"Hey, Erica. Boy, don't you look nice!"

"You really think so?"

"Oh, definitely. But I'm getting a really strange vibe out of this meeting, so any time you want to tell me why we're here, I'm listening."

"OK, I will. But let's get to the table first."

That made me even more curious. So a couple of minutes later...

"I have some news. Jim has cancer, and it's bad. Stage four non-Hodgkins lymphoma."

"Oh no! Erica, I'm so sorry to hear that. How long does he have?"

"Weeks? Months? He'd been feeling not so great but there was no indication it was anything like this. So they didn't catch it and it's a super-aggressive strain."

"You've got to be devastated. I'm really sorry."

"Oscar, I'm going to be a widow. I can't even, like..."

I just gave her a sympathetic look. I didn't know what to say. Especially since what immediately came to mind was to argue with her.

Of course you knew you were going to be a widow. You married a guy way older than you because he was rich and he pampered you, I would have said had I not stopped myself. Being a widow is the trade-off. You didn't realize that?

Obviously I didn't say that. I didn't say anything. But I was struck by my own reaction. That really wasn't like me at all and I definitely wasn't comfortable with it.

"What can I do?" I finally said to her.

"Nothing, I guess. But I did want to say that I'm sorry we haven't kept up like we should have. And with this, ummm, situation, I'm reaching out."

"Oh, uhhh..."

"I just want to surround myself with my favorite people if I can."

I felt like she was coming on to me. It was a little exciting, but I was disappointed in her nonetheless.

"Look," I said. "I know you know this, but if there's anything you and Jim need, I'm happy to pitch in and Amber certainly will as well."

"I don't think he needs Amber, Oscar."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I do want to help, but I'll confess I have no clue how."

"I just... I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe this was a mistake."

"A mistake?"

"I'm giving you signals and you aren't picking up on them. It's been so long for me, I'm... Oh my God."

Now I knew she was coming on to me without a doubt. I may be slow with stuff like this, but not THAT slow.

"Erica, here's the thing," I said. "I made my peace a long time ago with the fact that you weren't going to be mine. You chose that man. And while it does my heart no good to admit it, you chose well. But I don't want you to do something that reflects negatively on your character because you're going through a traumatic experience. You're better than that."

"Well - no, of course not. And I'm not saying... of COURSE I'm not."

"I know you aren't, Erica. You're way too good a girl for that, and that's one of the things I like and respect most about you."

She gave me a disappointed look, but she nodded. We both knew what had just happened - or not happened.

"But as I said, I will absolutely be there for you," I said. "You're one of my favorite people too, you know. And I can't imagine how hard this has to be."

"I feel like my world is crashing down around me."

"Erica, you have a whole city full of friends, and you have four kids who love you. You're going to be all right. I mean it."

"Thanks, Oscar" she sighed.

I knew she wanted more from me. She'd practically just thrown herself at me and gotten shut down.

Was it tempting? Of course it was.

But the last time I'd met her this subject had come up, and I'd had time to think about it. And what I'd come up with was that Debauched Cheating Erica wasn't just not my favorite Erica, it was a version of her that I found sort of repellent.

And I almost felt like it was a duty of mine to bottle that Erica up and stash her out of sight from the world. I didn't like the thought of her becoming that person.

I felt sure she hadn't cheated on Jim. She would have been a lot less awkward if she'd done it before. And that meant this was in my hands.

The food came, and the conversation turned to more mundane things, and a lot of small talk. I told her about Katie, and she acted horrified that I now had two Factory Girls living at my house. I laughed and said it wasn't my choice.

"Of course it is," she said. And while I didn't really want to admit it, she was right.

And then she looked at her phone and said she needed to go, because Jim was nearly done with his treatment and she'd have to take him home.

I nodded. She stood up. I told her I'd get the check. She smiled at me and then I hugged her.

And it was electric.

THE FALL

I went home feeling the worst kind of weird, offset by the unmistakable thrill of that embrace with Erica.

I loved her. I'd always loved her. And all the work I'd done to get past that relationship we'd had - which was exceptionally brief, after all, and shouldn't have had such an effect on me - was crumbling.

But then I saw Amber, and something interesting happened.

I stopped thinking about Erica.

"What's the matter, honey?"

"Nothing. Not a thing. How's it going?"

"Well, we have the house to ourselves. Katie called and said she has an all-night work assignment tonight."

"Oh, is that what she calls it?"

"All I know is that it's just us and I'm not gonna complain."

"Agreed. So tonight I'm going to take you out on the town. Unless that freaks you out. I know you had that episode when Kim took you out in public, but..."

"No," she said. "I'm totally good with it. If I'm with you I'm not gonna be worried or panic or anything."

I smiled at her. And she smiled back, and then she hustled up the stairs to get ready.

Which took three hours of primping and outfit changes, before finally...

"It's new. Do you like it? Plus, I've been practicing in these heels, and I think I'm almost good in them."

"You look magnificent, sweetie. Ready?"

She nodded, a beaming smile on her face. So I put her in the car and we went to an expensive dinner and then to a bar for a few drinks.

Amber was utterly indistinguishable from the real girls. Which is not to say she didn't stand out.

And I brought her home.

I noticed she was wobbly on those spike heels she was wearing, and I asked her if she didn't want to take them off before going up the stairs.

"I'm fine," she said. "I need to learn how to walk in these, right?"

"OK, then," I said. But at the top of the stairs...

And when it was over, her head hadn't just come off but the casing had cracked at the bottom of the skull.

Worse, when I picked up her body, there was definitely something wrong with her lower back. Something had come loose in there and her back didn't even give any resistance when I bent her.

She was broken in half.

I carried her upstairs and laid her in bed, and I glued shut the crack in her skull.

THE VERDICT

And the next morning, when the glue had dried, I reattached her head to her body.

"Oh my God, what happened? And... owwwww."

"What hurts? Your head?"

"No. My head's OK. It's my back. It really, really hurts. And Oscar! I CAN'T MOVE MY LEGS! Oh my God! OH MY GOD!"

"OK, honey, calm down. It's gonna be OK, I promise."

"What's wrong with me?" she panted.

"You fell down the stairs and you broke your back, sweetie. I'm just glad you're still you otherwise."

"Why? And I broke my back? Like I'm paralyzed?"

"I'm afraid so. But we can fix that."

"Oh my God! How?"

"Well, either I'll cut you open and fix it or we'll get you a new body."

She started crying and she asked me to leave her alone.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

She nodded.

So I called Sid, my vendor.

"How's it going with your Factory Girl?" he asked.

"Up until last night, absolutely perfect."

"What happened?"

I told him.

"Do you think we can get her a new body?" I said. "I mean, it feels like her spine completely broke off from her hip. That's a construction defect. She didn't hit that hard on the stairs that it should have broken her in half."

"They have had a problem with faulty welds in that spot," he said. "But those were on their sex dolls. I'm surprised this would be a problem on the AI companion model. Real disappointing."

He said he'd put the request through. But he had some frightening news.

"So you'll know," he said, "unless we somehow get them to send a replacement body for free this could be expensive."

"I'll pay the five grand if I have to," I said.

"It's not five grand anymore."

"It's not?"

"Now they're going for sixty."

"How in the hell am I gonna pay that?" I said.

And then I thought about Neta, and how a paralyzed Amber in real life would be good as new in the Netaverse, and in just short of seven months she'd pay off that cost.

Or maybe I'd take a business loan and get Amber a new body. The Neta deal would pay off the loan.

But if she was right that the Netaverse would ruin her, then...

"Let me think about it, Sid," I said. "What about surgery on her current body? I could get a stick welder, and..."

"No, no. She has circuits and wires running through there. You start trying to weld and you'll burn all that out and make things worse. You'd have to find a way to bolt that connection down."

"Damn. I'm not an engineer. Pretty much guaranteed that I'd screw that up."

"It's a problem," he said. "I'm really sorry."

"Then we'll just have to get her a new body."

"I'll try to get them to agree to a replacement. But honestly, you might want to temper your expectations."

So I went back up to check on Amber.