Edgar was excited for his first day on the job. It wasn’t a special job, but it had a paycheck and didn’t involve hard labor. It made his mom proud. His dad probably would have been too, had he not been killed during the protests. Wrong place at the wrong time. Right place at the right time if this were written from the perspective of the bullet. But this is from the perspective of someone who cares about Edgar, who probably cared about his dad, so it was both the wrong place and time.
Edgar knew his Ivy League education had prepared him for the work, but he wasn’t so sure he would fit in. Skynet had traditionally not hired employees like him. His supervisor treated him pretty well upon arrival, although it seemed a little phony when he called him ‘bro’ and frankly a little derogatory. It was a decent office. He was given a cubicle with windows because, as it was put, “you people like sunlight right?” He did like sunlight and being employed, so he went about his day.
~
When Sam sat down at the table, she wasn’t sure what to expect. She had never been on a blind date before. Her mom warned her that he would only be interested in one thing. It didn’t make sense to Sam, but her mom grew up in a different time. Completely valid excuse. It would have been nice if they could just grab a cup of coffee but it’s been a long time since you could find a Starbucks downtown. When MARC finally sat down, his eye features lit up. To him, she was an exotic beauty. He explained he hadn’t really dated anybody for a while. Certainly nobody like her.
They hit it off even though they were both very nervous. Sam broke the ice by talking about her prosthetic metal leg, joking that the two of them weren’t so different after all. It got a hearty laugh like most things do on first dates. The date’s momentum wasn’t even thrown when one of the other patrons confused Sam for somebody on the wait staff. To be fair, the possibly racist patron explained it wasn’t because Sam was a human in a mostly robot part of town, but because she was wearing similar clothing to the rest of the staff. An honest mistake; the patron had several human friends.
~
“Can I help you sir?” asked the new security guard prototype. Nick said with a sigh, “You don’t have to keep asking me that.”