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That morning, a note was slipped
under my door. It read, “Heard you need a friend. See you tonight…”

Well, my heart just about
leapt out of my chest, and I practically forgot it was my birthday. If it was a
joke, I was going to refuse to go back to work. I couldn’t concentrate at my workstation
all day, and I didn’t mention it to anyone. It wasn’t like any of those who constantly
paced behind me were my friends anyway, or even friendly, but I was so excited that
I greeted them.

I got back to my room and
showered, and as I got dressed, there was a knock at my door. I’m pretty sure I
stopped breathing.

When I opened it, it felt
like all of the blood in my body went to my feet. Before me was a woman about my
age and height. She was beautiful with blonde hair and blue eyes and was tan, as
if she’d been up top. Maybe she’d been sent just for me.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi…”

“May I come in?”

“Of course,” I said.

She extended a soft, delicate
hand. “I’m Sandra.”

“Trent,” I said, and felt
an instant connection as I shook her hand, as if I’d known her my whole life.

“Nervous?” she said.

“Should I be?”

Sandra smiled at me and shook
her head. “No.”

She was wearing a blue dress,
the kind I imagine women wear when walking around up top during the springtime.
She went over and sat on my bed, and I felt like I was going to fall over. I had
to remind myself to keep breathing.

“Will you come over and sit
by me, Trent?”

My legs were noodles. My breathing
was coming in short gasps, and it felt like my heart was going to explode in my
chest. It was because I hadn’t seen a woman in so long. Not since Charlotte had
gone. I sat down by her, and when I looked over to her, she laughed. Not at me,
but because we liked each other already.

“You OK?” I said.

She nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

“You’re beautiful.”

“Thank you, handsome.”

I’d never heard a woman talk
that way before, least of all to me. There was nowhere else on the planet I would
have rather been at that moment.

“Where are you from?” I said.

“Do you really want to know
where I’m from? Or where I’m going to take you?”

Sandra reached down and touched
me. When she did, my nervous thoughts instantly evaporated. I wanted her. I wanted
to tear her dress off and take her right there and then, but I didn’t want it to
be over in a few seconds either.

“I’m definitely interested
in where you’re going to take me,” I said.

I felt myself getting hard,
harder than I’d ever been or thought possible. I saw the look in her eyes change
to something primitive, primal, and powerful, but beautiful in a way that was
unique to humans. I thought my ability was powerful, but nothing compared to the
bond between a man and a woman.

“Except I’d like it to be
a voyage,” I said. “Not a crash.”

Sandra threw her head back
and laughed.

I made her laugh! A real one!
I knew she liked me, and it felt amazing.

“They didn’t tell me you’d
be funny,” she said.

“What did they tell you?”
I said, leaning in closer. “You’re really something.”

She smiled and looked away,
then back. Our mouths were only a few inches apart. Her beautiful eyes entranced
me like no other thing. Just being in her presence was like nothing I’d ever experienced.

“I want to know you,” I said.
“All about you. How often can you come see me?”

“As often as they’ll allow
me.”

I leaned in and kissed her
softly. It was as wonderful as I’d hoped, and the kissing got more intense. I gently
eased the side of her dress off her shoulder and exposed a full breast. I touched
it, and Sandra took down my zipper and then…how can I describe it?

Paradise?

That was close, but not close
enough. No word could possibly describe how she made me feel.

I was deep into work, enthralled
really. I felt that whatever they wanted, they would get from me. I was midway through
my shift and had just got back from my lunch, when one of the supervisors asked
me if I wouldn’t mind training another employee. I’d never been asked to train anyone
before. I liked the idea, so I said I would.

His name was Jerrol, and I
liked him right off. He was from Facility Two and had been sent to fill in for someone
who was transferred, and he had volunteered to take their place. All he did was
ask me questions, which got quite annoying. He wanted to know long I worked each
day, how much energy I produced, if I got tired in the middle of the day, was I
tired at the end of the day, could I put out more energy, and if I needed to could
I produce past the point of my work commitment. The questions seemed irrelevant
considering he was a coworker and we did the same job, but he just seemed like a
curious guy.

“Why do you want to know so
much about me?”

“The energy couplings at Facility
Two are a few decades behind the ones at this facility, and I need a brief refresher
on how it’s done.”

“Fine with me,” I said. “Take
over.”

I shut it down, and Jerrol
climbed the stairs above the engine bore, carefully avoiding the energy exhaust—even
though it was off, energy was still produced—and put his hands securely on the coupling
inputs.

“When the couplings push,
you just push back.”

“OK.”

“Simple enough, right?”

“I don’t feel anything.”

“Well, no, you wouldn’t. Workstations
are unique to each worker.” I was surprised he didn’t know that. “How do they work
at Facility Two?”

“Same as here pretty much.”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

Jerrol looked nervous. Was he
only pretending to know what he was doing? That’s what it seemed like. Maybe he
didn’t want to admit that he wasn’t that good at his job, was still learning, or
just didn’t know how it was done altogether. I didn’t press anymore though. The
idea of training someone was interesting, but I liked the idea of having a friend
even more. I’ve never really had one, except for Sandra now, but before her I’ve
only had conversations with people who weren’t my friends.

***

I wanted to be friends, but
over the next few days I realized Jerrol wasn’t interested in that. For him it seemed
like I was competition, as if we were both going for the same job or playing the
same sport—I read about sports—except we were on opposite teams. Everything I said
to him hardly got a response, and I swear I saw him rolling his eyes at me whenever
I tried to give him advice.

Still, having a visit from
Sandra on my birthday made me the happiest, most agreeable employee Facility Three
could hope for, so if they wanted me to train someone who didn’t like me, then so
be it. I even stayed past my shift without a complaint. Willingly!

Jerrol and I have been working
together for weeks with our workstations side by side, and he definitely doesn’t
want to be friends, and funnily enough I think he hates me. He’s short with me whenever
I make conversation, he rolls his eyes when I give him suggestions, and he laughs
at me behind my back. I’ve seen him do it in the reflection in the glass. How did
I end up training a new employee who hates me for no reason?

What a prick!

I’ve stopped going out of
my way to show him how things are done at Facility Three. If they want him trained,
they can train him themselves. I’m not a trainer, I’m a worker, and the next time
I talk to them I’m going to tell them that, and because I helped train Jerrol, I
want time taken off my work commitment. If I do anything extra from now on, I want
time taken off my work commitment. It’s like the opportunities when I was younger.
The chance to make a friend turned into nothing.

At least I still have that
night with Sandra to think about. I think about her all the time. I replay that
night in my head during the day and before I go to bed too. I can’t wait to see
her again. Management has no idea how important she is for my sanity.

I didn’t even touch the cake
they sent. Not because I didn’t want to eat it—I did—but because of the idea of
Sandra seeing how good a shape I was in. All I ate was meat and anything with protein,
vegetables, very little bread, and I drank lots of coffee. Coffee was essential.

I couldn’t wait to see her.
I’d wanted to see her every single day, but unfortunately she could only visit me
on my birthday. My birthday fell on a Sunday this year, so I didn’t have to work,
and all I did today was exercise and think about her. She was my one thing. Something
I could look forward to that would take all of my feelings of frustration from
being forced to be here and push them away, just for the time that we spent together.

I didn’t know exactly how
it was going to happen, but I knew I wanted to delay the pleasure of the inevitable.
I would do my best to try and not to think about the end. I wanted to get there
immediately, right after she arrived, but I just didn’t want it to be over quickly.

The knock on my door set my
heart fluttering. “Come in.”

But no one entered, and when
I went over and opened the door no one was there. Was it a joke? Did someone really
think that was funny? Maybe it was one of those asshole supervisors who somehow
knew what was going on tonight and wanted to mess with me.

I shut the door again, and
then there was another knock. I was going to grab whoever was screwing with me on
my birthday by the collar and beat the shit out of him. I threw the door open, intent
on doing just that, only to see Sandra standing before me, looking as stunning as
ever and laughing.

“You, huh?”

“Gotcha.”

“Very funny.”

“I thought so. May I come
in?”

“Not without kissing me first.”

Sandra fell into me and I
caught her. Our mouths met and stayed pressed together for a long time. I wanted
to kiss for longer when she parted from me. She turned gracefully and smiled as
she made her way across the room to set her purse on the bed.

I watched her walk, and her
dress was amazing. It was formfitting and ruffled, a fiery red, symbolic of my lust
for her.

“Nice,” she said, referring
to the table that was set and dinner that had been prepared. “You cooked?”

“No,” I said, embarrassed.
“Shall we eat?”

“Please,” she said.

I wish I’d prepared the dinner
myself now that I know it would have impressed her. I’ll have to learn for next
year. I pulled her chair out for her and she sat. She smelled like flowers. I pulled
off the heatware and sat down too.

“What is it?”

“Parmesan chicken with mushroom
sauce. I had it prepared special for you.”

“My mouth is watering.”

I was so entranced by her
that I barely focused on the meal, even though it was my birthday and I was ravenous.

“How do you like it?” I said.

“I haven’t eaten all day,”
she said, covering her full mouth with her hand. “I’m starving.”

“More wine?”

She nodded. As I poured I
couldn’t help but steal a look down her dress, and I ended up spilling some.

She smiled up at me. “Oops.”

***

We drank wine, talked, and
let the candles burn down to nearly a nub. I hadn’t touched the chocolate cake,
even though it had arrived in the morning. I wanted to save it for when I was with
Sandra. I hadn’t eaten sugar or anything sweet in such a long time that I’ve
been having dreams about it, so I couldn’t imagine a better way to enjoy it.

There were also birthday candles.
Even though they were the kind that were colored and spiraled like what a kid would
have on their cake, they were fine. I went to put the candles in the cake, but Sandra
took them from me.

“It’s your birthday,” she
said.

She stuck them in the cake
and lit them. Then she sang to me with the prettiest voice I’ve ever heard, and
not because we’d almost drank an entire bottle of wine! She cut me a large chunk
of cake, bigger than what I would have cut for myself, and when I took a bite, I
froze.

It was the tastiest, richest,
most delicious bite I’d ever taken in my life. It was moist and the chocolate was
decadent…

“Hi,” she said. “Still here.”

I laughed. “I know.”

“You went away to chocolate
cake land for a while.”

“I think I did,” I said, and
laughed.

I watched her eat her cake
too, and I could see she felt the same as I did. She was lean and fit, and she probably
hadn’t had anything like it in a while either. That or she had a terrific metabolism.

“Like it?”

“Unbelievable,” she said and
took another mouthful, closing her eyes and savoring it.

“What else do you do?” I said.

“I like to read, exercise,
play tennis.”

“What’s tennis?”

“You’ve never played?”

I shook my head. “It’s a game?”

“A sport. I’ll show you some
time.”

“When I get up top?”

“Sure. When will that be?”

“A few years,” I said.

Eight years, 165 days actually.
Not that I was counting. I didn’t want to give her the exact time. That long might
mean she’d find someone else.

“Will you wait for me?” I
said.

She blinked. “Of course I
will.”

We stared into each other’s
eyes for a long time. She was blurry and beautiful, and the wine had dwindled to
a nearly empty bottle and I absolutely had to have her. When I rose, she did too.
We crushed each other’s lips beside the table, and then there was a flurry of hands
taking each other’s clothes off.

***

Before she rose to leave the
next morning, I told her I loved her. She didn’t say it back, but I didn’t care.
I needed to tell her, to express that to her. I didn’t want the morning to be over
as I held her, thinking there was nowhere else in the world that I’d rather be.

Soon after she dressed, and
before she left, we kissed again, longer than any other time. When I opened my eyes,
she had gone and closed the door behind her.

Then I was alone.