Robotics

"Hey," The soft feminine voice snapped me out of my reverie, and my eyes locked on to the petite and slightly grimy redhead with a pixie-cut that'd just exited the store. "You lookin' for a maid-bot or something?"

"Uuuh..." I was immediately flustered. She was hot, maybe twenty-five. Older than me. She popped a cigarette in her mouth and brought her hand up, a small flame emanating from her now clearly cybernetic hand to light it. It had looked so natural until she activated it.

She took a long drag and blew out smoke as I stumbled over my words. "N-no, not really. I just had to get out of the crowd to think about something."

She lips quirked into a smile as she took another drag. Oil-stains over her half-open blue synthweave overalls, a tool belt, a clearly high-grade omnitool around her wrist. Mechanic.

"You suuure?" She breathed out teasingly, "You looked like you were daydreaming a bit. We've got sexbots too, you know. Some of them can even multi-task."

"N-n-no! I wasn't-" I could feel my cheeks flush, gesturing defensively - and then she laughed.

It was a contagious, musical sound. "Don't worry, kid, I'm just messing with you."

I could take a joke. I laughed too. "Oh, thank god. I do not want to be giving off those vibes."

"No, no, you're good." She chuckled, "You just looked so flustered already, I couldn't help it. I'm Drew."

I raised my eyebrows a little at the pretty masculine name, but made no comment as I shook her hand. It was small and slender, but roughly calloused from manual work.

"Nice to meet you, Drew. Mason."

She took another long drag on the cigarette before pinching off the glow, and flicking the butt into a nearby trash can.

"You too. Thanks for brightening up my break, but I have to head back. See you around, huh?"

"See you."

I still felt sort of foggy as my eyes naturally gravitated to her ass when she turned towards the door. Definitely hot. Tight.

Maybe I was giving off those vibes, after all.

I'm sure I looked flustered again, because she threw a knowing smirk over her shoulder as she stepped inside.

The street was still bustling. It was getting darker slowly. The HUD told me it was 16:08.

Something that had started to sink in was that however I arrived here, some of the things around me were new. Foreign, but not completely unfamiliar.

My eyes scanned the mass drive cars zooming through the air lanes above street level, down back to the store front.

A black-and-white android maid showing off her dusting prowess on her tip-toes, as well as the soft swell of her behind. Her significantly larger than necessary breasts swayed with the movement.

Synth-flesh, a high quality maid bot.

I knew these things. I had memories of growing up with them, not that my family had ever purchased anything as advanced as this one. But they were also new to me.

I could feel a sort of thrill of discovery down my spine as I watched it.

It was... Very weird. But not unpleasant.

I shook my head ruefully, and set off north, for the subway.

No matter how I'd ended up here, it was time to go home.