Page 28 of Garbage

Exit: yes.

He cut off all his calculations and spiraling research. He needed to… Evan would know what to do. “But I don’t have any money! How will I make money? Do I have to work there for twenty-three more years and one month and fourteen…?”

“Shhhh… we’re going to take care of it. They have loans, and sometimes grants. Plus, there’s depreciation. It’s not your full purchase price divided evenly by year—it’ll probably be something like a quarter of it. It’ll be your resale value.” He shook his head. “Man, that’s weird to say. You can’t be bought and sold, Quincy. You understand that, right? But you’d owe the city the resale value of a non-sentient model that’s equivalent to yours.”

Quincy slowly nodded. It was still a lot of money, when he didn’t have a single credit to his name.

“I need a job.”

“You have a job. You can even get paid to do it. I checked, and it’s part of the state anti-discrimination policy that they have to offer you your current job at the same rate they’d pay a human with the same years of experience. And I know there aren’t human sanitation workers here, but there’s still a salary schedule for your employment class. So you’ve got options.”

Quincy turned on his fans, forcing everything else to slow down. He had options. He could do this, and Evan would help him.

“I won’t be able to pay for my registration though.”

“I’ve got it,” Evan answered immediately. “I already told you. Just let me know if you need anything and it’s yours.”

“But you have school debts, too!”

Even raised one eyebrow—a cool trick that Quincy had been delighted to find in his own programming—and looked him over. “How do you know that I have school debts?”

“I saw the records in your Personal Finances folder. Uh… Is that wrong?”

Evan squeezed his shoulder. Quincy just couldn’t get enough of all these touches. “It’s fine, I guess. Usually stuff like that is private. Like, if I was fixing someone’s computer or saw someone’s bank statement on their table, I would intentionally not look. It’s not a bad secret, just something that people should get to choose if they want to share.”

“Oh.” He’d messed up again. Was he ever going to get any of this right?

“Hey, it’s alright. And I would have shown you if you asked. In fact, it’s probably a good way for you to learn. As long as you don’t change anything, go ahead and look. Or maybe we can look together.”

“I would like that. Thank you, Evan.”

“No problem. Let’s go inside.”

Somehow, the car had parked itself outside Evan’s apartment, and he hadn’t even realized it.

Quincy started to calm down as they started their normal evening routine. Evan went to the kitchen and started opening and slicing things for dinner, while Quincy took a second shower. His towel stayed on his hook now, and he washed it in the machine every other day with Evan’s clothes and his pajamas.

He loved that towel so much. Even the little hole at the top where little patches had worn through. Those were the best, because the little pattern of holes let him know which towel was his.

He could smell dinner cooking when he stepped out of the bathroom. He was getting better at having names for all the delectable scents, and he thought this one was cooked tomatoes. Definitely the sweet-savory richness of sautéed onions. And maybe… chicken? He couldn’t wait to enjoy the aromas when it was all done.

He grabbed a pair of pajamas from Evan’s drawer and struggled into them. This one said “Save the chubby unicorns” but it had a picture of a rhinoceros with a rainbow behind it. Because everything Evan owned was funny and amazing.

He wandered into the kitchen, still marveling that this was his life. Or his… existence, he supposed? The security guard had been scary, but with Evan around, everything was better.

“Hey,” Evan greeted him, eyes lighting up. “I just looked at the spark interviews, and it looks like they’re booking appointments about three weeks out. We’ll get you set up after dinner. You wanna help me chop up some salad?”

Quincy froze. “Can I… is it alright if I touch your food?”

Evan gave him that look, like he’d just said something that didn’t make sense. “Of course you can touch my food. Our food. It’s for both of us.”

That was really nice of Evan to say. Especially since Quincy obviously didn’t eat anything. Still, he wanted to make sure. “You don’t think I’m too… dirty, though?”

Evan sighed and walked over to him. His hands landed warm on Quincy’s shoulders, and his dark eyes felt like they were trapping him. “Quincy, you’re not dirty. Hell, I barely washed my hands before I got started and you just took a shower with a sanitation cycle. Remember how you were telling me about the steam pressure? You’re probably cleaner than I am.”

Quincy took a minute to let that sink in. Evan really didn’t think he was dirty. “So I can… I can touch the food that you’re going to eat? And cook it, too? After the sanitation cycle.”

Evan’s hands massaged his shoulders, and Quincy wanted to melt into a little puddle of happiness. “Nothing about you is dirty. You can cook any time. I would be delighted if you wanted to make me a meal. I can help you, or you can look up recipes and tutorials online. I would be honored to eat food that you prepared.”