"Coming back for this?" Ryker waved Dan' phone in front of him. He'd noticed it sitting on his desk after Dan had left for the night and wasn't surprised that his friend had returned to retrieve it.

"Thank God. I had so much stuff with me-- my laptop, briefcase, lunch bag – I thought maybe I'd left it on the roof of my car and driven off with it there. Figured it was smashed to pieces somewhere on the main drag."

"I texted Trish and let her know it was here."

"Yeah, but Trisha's at her artsy women's drinking thingy."

"Right." He sighed grumpily. The "women's drinking thingy" was Trisha's weekly ladies' night. She'd invited Emmie to it, which meant an Emmie-free and therefore sex-free night for him. "I know."

"Why are you here so late? I've gotten used to you cutting out early the past week. I'd even grown to suspect that you might have gotten yourself a life outside of work."

"I have a life! I've always had a life. And what's wrong with work being a big part of that life? I happen to like what I do."

Dan slipped his phone into his back pocket. "Nothing, nothing. Hey, don't get me wrong, boss man. I like my job too. But everyone needs balance, even the mighty Ryker T. James."

Ryker recalled last night's session with Emmie. He'd perched on the narrow rim of her bathtub so that she could pleasure him while they both stood. He was quite proud that he'd managed not to fall and crack his head open, despite the precarious position they were in. "I have excellent balance, thank you very much."

Dan sat on the corner of Ryker's desk. "Then why do you look like Cookie Monster would if he just got told he has a gluten allergy? I know you said that your... whatever you want to call it with Emmie was no big deal, but aren't you at all upset about that Sam guy?"

Sam. Slick black suit; condescending smile; possessive demeanor when it came to Emmie. "What does he have to do with anything?"

"Trisha says that Emmie's been seeing him. Thinks she really likes him. I thought you knew."

"Nope." Swallowing, Ryker swiveled his chair so that he was facing his computer monitor and attempted to make sense of the document he'd been reading prior to Dan's arrival. The words on the screen immediately blurred together.

This new development didn't matter, of course. They certainly had never agreed to be exclusive. Emmie was free to see whomever she wished, even if it was that clown, Sam. "Look, Dan, it doesn't matter to me, okay? Emmie and I aren't a couple. We aren't anything and that's how I want it to be. She can date an entire football team for all I care. I'm working late because I have a lot to do. End of story."

"All right!" Dan acquiesced, hands in the air. "I won't say another word about it. Don't stay too late. We've got that meeting with the PR team at eight am. I need you here, shaved and caffeinated, by seven-thirty."

"Yes, boss."

With Dan gone, Ryker was left alone to contemplate his own feelings, and what he saw there, he didn't particularly care for. He'd known Emmie for a little over a week and there wasn't supposed to be anything romantic between them; yet, the thought of Sam with Emmie turned his stomach. If he was being totally honest with himself, the seeds of jealousy had been planted as soon as he'd first laid eyes on him. He hadn't liked the look of him, or how he had placed himself between Ryker and Emmie. Sure, he'd made it seem nonchalant, but Sam wasn't fooling him. He knew the game, knew how a man like Sam thought. He hadn't wanted to go inside the diner and leave Ryker alone with Emmie, even when Emmie told him to. But he had gone in, and Emmie had let Ryker move in for a kiss, even though Sam could have seen what they were up to. It was all very strange.

Something didn't quite add up, but damned if Ryker could figure out what the missing piece of the equation was. He was normally good with equations, but Emmie had him doubting himself. He knew who wouldn't doubt him, though. Grabbing his tablet, he headed from his office into the adjacent lab, flipped on the lights and walked over to the silent wavy-haired woman standing in the corner of the room. UMA.

He entered the code that took Uma out of sleep mode. His design team had been working on ways to simplify Uma's controls to make it as easy as possible for elderly and disabled people to give her instructions. She would respond to voice prompts as well as to a set of commands programed into a tablet. They were also working on a way to operate her using a neuro transmitter for people who had neither speech nor motor skills. That one was still a year away from implementation though, at the very least.

UMA blinked her eyes and turned to Ryker. She scanned his face for recognition. "Hello, Dr. James. How are you doing?"

"I'm not sure to be honest. It's been an interesting week."

"That's nice. Is there something I can do to assist you?"

"Maybe. Can you help me figure out why relationships are so challenging? I mean, we're all just people trying to navigate through life, right? The world can be a cruel place and we're all going to end up dead in the end. Why do we make it so difficult on ourselves? Why do we fight each other instead of fighting together to make life more tolerable? Even better than tolerable. Pleasant. Happy. Satisfying. Why is that, UMA?"

UMA swiveled around, the whir of her nut and bolt components almost imperceptible—something he had worked at for a long time. "Do you need me to get you something from a high cabinet? I am also capable of light housekeeping. Is the dishwasher ready for me to unload?"

Ryker frowned. "No, that's okay. I'm interested in your conversation mode tonight, UMA."

"I see, Dr. James. There are many subject in which I am quite knowledgeable. Would you like to talk about old television shows? If so, which decade? How about reminiscing? Do you have a memory you'd like to share about your parents? How about your wife? When did you meet her?"

"Uh... not sure that I have, actually. Not really wanting to talk about my parents either. They weren't exactly... well, they weren't really parents, which was kind of a problem for me when I was a kid."

"Children benefit from structure and positive role models."

"Yes, they do."

"In 1951, the average cost of a pound of bacon was sixty-three cents."

"That's an obscure fact."

"Facts are not obscure. They are details made clear through empirical evidence. I am very knowledgeable on an array of subjects."

"You are, but what I meant was..." He slapped his hand to his forehead and sighed. "Never mind, I'm too tired for this."

"Would you like me to make sure your bed is made? I can also assist you with flossing your teeth."

Ryker straightened his back, unhunched his shoulders. "Maybe next time. Have a good night, UMA. Time to rest."

"Good night, Dr. James." She blinked and tilted her head to the side slightly. Then, responding to his voice command, her system went back into sleep mode.

Ryker left the lab and then gathered his things together to head home for the evening. Why he'd thought UMA would have some deep-seated wisdom was beyond him. She hadn't been designed to philosophize. Her purpose was more pragmatic than that. However, her conversational programing would need ongoing upgrades. You couldn't predict completely what customers would want to talk about with her. Right now, they'd do best to steer away from matters of the heart because a heart was something that UMA would never possess.

It was nearly eleven by the time Ryker stepped out of MechaJames and walked to his car. Emmie would be asleep by now, most likely. Trisha's ladies' nights were known to get rambunctious, but they were all working moms who valued sleep over just about anything. Their soirée would have ended a half an hour ago.

Climbing into his car, he placed his phone on the passenger's seat, then picked it up. During his conversation with UMA, he'd missed a text from his sister. She'd sent him a picture, along with the caption, "Emmie is my new BFF!"

Emmie smiled up at him from Trish's picture, dark, silky locks tinged with red framing her glowing face. Behind her was an easel holding a small canvas. Brilliant blues, greens, and yellows shone from its surface. She'd managed to make a boring still life luminescent. In the middle of the arrangement of fruit was the largest banana he'd ever seen, its phallic potential undisguised as it rose up amongst the rest of the fruit.

Still thinking about me, huh? Ryker smiled at the thought, but his glee soon soured. Maybe she wasn't thinking about him at all. Maybe it was Sam she wanted to peel that banana for. He closed the text and tossed his phone down. He couldn't begin to guess when she even had time for that guy. He'd been with her every night for the past week. It seemed impossible that she was seeing Sam as much as she was seeing Ryker. But Dan said that Trish seemed so sure...

Maybe he had no claim to Emmie's affections, but there was no denying that the arrangement they'd forged was going well. The sex was fantastic. Emmie couldn't refute that. He certainly didn't want that to end because another man wanted to be exclusive.

In the dark of the car, he made his decision. She could sleep with this Sam guy too if she wanted, but Ryker was going to make sure that if Sam pressed her to choose between the two of them, she wouldn't want to give up what Ryker had to offer her.

For that to happen, he was going to have to step up his game.

A/N: Deep thoughts with UMA and Ryker... What did you think of their exchange? Are you an UMA fan?

Thanks for sticking with this story. I'm a bit behind on responding to comments and pretty much every other aspect of my life as well. Tis the season to have too much going on! Votes for this chapter will go towards the purchase of a time-freezing machine that will give me extra time to do everything I need to do. I will mainly use it to sleep.

Today's dedication is for lovely reader, writer, and ambassador, johannahefer. She is a big Wattpad supporter and a wonderful person to know on this site. So go on, read her profile, read her stories. You'll soon agree with me!