LovesTruck

episode 2 Lovestruck

The next day seemed to drag by. With the weight of time, Mondo began to feel unsure. He started thinking that the whole robot thing was fake. The beautiful woman he'd seen looked so real, and the guy was a smooth talker. He knew that Mondo was lonely and he knew how to hook him with it. They were probably scamming him, trying to get his bank info, and he had been so desperate he fell for it. All of the money he'd been saving, while living in this cheap, crappy apartment all these years, gone. Just like that.

What an i***t.

He went to his bank app and tried to halt the payment, but it had already gone through. He was sure there would be nothing to show for all that cash. If, in the small chance there was anything, he'd get a poster of all the parts he'd chosen. He would call the bank and explain the whole embarrassing situation when he got off work.

When Mondo returned back to his apartment that evening, climbing the stairs to his hallway while deciding what to say on his bank call, he was surprised to see such a large package next to his door. In the flickering light of his run-down apartment complex, he read the words Lovebot3000 on the return address label. His heart leapt, but he also felt a sense of anxiety. What were they thinking, leaving such a valuable package in the hallway like this? He slammed the key into the lock, giving the little jiggle twist that would let him inside, and slid the box across the threshold.

He started to tear right into the cardboard, but realized that this was a serious thing, Inside this box was his perfect woman, made entirely by him. His dream girl. The love of his life. Here he stood in cloudy glasses, full fingerprints left from pushing them up all day, a polo with sweaty pits, pants stained with something he'd accidentally sat in on the subway, and onion breath from lunch.

Showers go much faster when you know all your dreams are about to come true. Mondo rushed through the task in his small stand-up shower. He pulled a clean black tee on, paired it with dark stonewashed jeans, and mentally prepared to meet his true love.

The package was as flimsy as any package and gave easily at the sharpness of his blade as it slid along the tape. He gave some pressure as he pulled back and it popped open, revealing packing peanuts galore. The white fluffy substance gave way, and beneath lay his beautiful love bot. Insanely beautiful. She was perfect from her eyelashes to her toenails. She wore only a flesh colored bikini. Timidly. he reached out a hand and stroked her cheek. It felt so real.

Her eyes blinked open. Pale green. Mondo startled.

"Hello," she said. "Raymond?"

"Uh, yes," he sputtered, "What's your name?"

"I don't have a name," she said. She was still laying among the remaining packing peanuts. "You have to give me one."

"Oh, uhm.." This was more responsibility than Mondo had expected. Picking something to call her for the rest of her existence on the spot like this startled him. She glared at him with complete trust and he felt the full weight of her expectation. Deep breath. "Ah..." Deep breath.

"Are you okay?" she asked, sitting up. Her hand went to his chest and it actually felt warm. He focused on it, letting it draw away the weight that

That's right, he recalled, because of Mrs. Kitt. During the section where he chose traits, he'd chosen healing hands, like Mrs. Kitt, the nurse at the grade school he'd attended as a child. He fell down a lot on the playground, but Mrs. Leah had always been there to bandage him up. She dressed in tame earth tones, but always wore pumps and lipliner like the girls in his dad's magazines. He imagined the lipliner on....but what could he call her?

"Kitt," he said. "Kitty. Can I call you Kitty?"

She gave it some thought. "Kitty. I like it."

She was perfect for him. Small framed, her eyes the color of golden honey. Her hair was a dark shade of copper, like an old penny rather than a newer one. It was the exact color of his own. He could hardly believe she was real.

"Can you help me out of this box?" she asked.

The request brought him back to reality. The box. The website. She wasn't actually real. Was she?