Chapter 1

I hated running late for work. Oversleeping and heavy traffic slowed my arrival, forcing me to park at the back of the lot. After swiping my ID card through the reader, I walked briskly through the complex until I finally entered the lab. The PDA’s array of lights flickered, noting my arrival.

“Good morning, Jim. How are you this morning?” Alicia asked. That was the name of the Personal Digital Assistant, which was the focus of my project.

“No time to chit-chat this morning. I have a ton of work to do. You’ll have to entertain yourself today,” I replied, while moving to my cubicle.

“Excuse me?” Laura Miller, my boss, asked, appearing out of her office on the other side of the room.

Laura’s work schedule routinely began at noon, so it was no wonder I thought it was Alicia talking to me, as their voices were identical. Blushing and turning to face her, I stuttered, “Sorry, Dr. Miller. I thought Alicia was talking to me.”

Laura’s face reflected the amusement she received from my embarrassment. “Relax, Jim. I completely understand since you didn’t know I would be in early. No one can discern the difference between my voice and Alicia’s. Now that upper management knows Alicia is fully operational, they want to meet with me today.”

“I heard about that,” I replied. “That’s why I was in such a rush. I wanted to finish a few things in the event you had to demonstrate Alicia’s abilities.”

“Thanks to you, I’m confident she’ll perform perfectly. This meeting is more about the beta-testing deployment. I’m off to the conference room to prepare my presentation. See you later.”

Before I could respond, she left. I sat at my desk and continued with the work I’d been doing for a year. Many of the company’s departments specialized in Alicia’s skills, but I was responsible for ensuring the PDA could efficiently interface with each of them. Several hours later, I shoved my chair back and stretched, confident that Alicia was ready.

When my desk phone rang, I noticed it originated from the conference room. Not wanting to screw up again, I quickly answered it. Before I could rattle through the formal answering protocol, Dr. Miller said, “Jim, I’m running a little late. Would you mind picking up something at the cafeteria and having lunch with me?”

“Sure. I was ready to break anyway. What would you like?” I asked.

“I’ll let you pick it out. We’ve eaten together several times. Don’t you remember what I had?”

Her playful tone was abnormally out of character, but I sensed she was in a good mood. Thinking back on when we had previously dined, I answered, “Cobb salad and iced tea, if I recall correctly.”

“Excellent,” she replied. “Your attention to detail is why I offered you this job directly from tech school. You’re the youngest and one of the brightest employees we have. I’ve never regretted my decision to hire a twenty-year-old.”

“Thanks, Dr. Miller. I appreciate all you’ve done for me. I’ve found that your expertise has been more valuable than the formal training I received at the institute.”

“Please, Jim. Call me Laura. You don’t need to be so formal with me. I consider you to be a good friend, along with being an exemplary employee.”

“Okay, Laura,” I replied, a little uneasy. I had always maintained a professional relationship because she was a stunningly beautiful woman. Whenever thoughts of a romantic affair surfaced, I quickly dismissed them, knowing an office relationship could wind up being disastrous.

“What other details have you noticed about me, Jim? What color are my eyes?”

Was she testing me? It was an easy question as they were the same color as my mother’s and are one of the most attractive features of both. “Brown, Dr...” I answered, hesitating, when I realized my mistake, finishing with, “Laura.”

“Perfect,” Laura replied. “The same color as my hair. What do you think of my hairstyle? Attractive?”

Her continued prodding made me squirm uneasily in my chair. Her shoulder-length hair, parted to the side, had a playful way of falling across her face, swishing forward as if it were in on the secret of making her even more irresistible. While longer than Mom’s bob cut, both styles accented their pretty faces perfectly. Remembering she was my boss, I knew I had to be careful about proceeding.

“It’s fine,” I hedged. “I’m probably not the best person to ask, though. I’m not an expert on women’s hairstyles.”

“Really?” Her tone lifted with amusement. “You’ve checked me out often enough that I’d think you’d be quite the expert on how I look.”

I fidgeted uncomfortably in my seat. She had me dead to rights. I couldn’t help stealing glances at her as she was very attractive. Sometimes our eyes would meet, and she’d flash me that knowing smile, leaving me to bury myself in work, hoping it masked my obvious infatuation.

Was she trying to corner me into admitting I’d done something inappropriate at work? Sweat began forming on my forehead as I envisioned my career going down the tubes. I stammered, “Sorry if it came across that way. Sometimes I just look across the room to give my eyes a break from the screen. I never meant to make you uncomfortable. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

She giggled and replied, “Your modesty is cute. It didn’t bother me in the least. Actually, it made me feel more attractive that a young handsome man would look at me in the way you do. Didn’t you notice that when our gazes met, I’d move my hair behind my ear and smile widely at you? When a woman does that, she’s signaling she approves of your flirting. I sure hope you don’t stop it in the future.”

I let out a shaky breath, my pulse quickening at the thrill of hearing her approve of my glances. I’d noticed the playful way she swished her hair, but hadn’t grasped its intent. What always held me, though, was her bright and disarming smile, along with her warm brown eyes that radiated warmth and kindness. Before I could stumble out a reply, she added with casual ease, “Bring me something sweet, too. See you in a bit.”

She hung up before I could ask her what kind of dessert she wanted. Once again, I had to recall our past lunches to remember her tastes.

Once in the cafeteria, I picked up our meals, and when I passed by the dessert counter, it suddenly hit me what she’d like. When she did eat something other than a salad, it was a slice of cheesecake with chocolate drizzled over the top.

I found Laura sitting at a table facing the screen with the proposed presentation. Setting the bag down, I sat opposite her and pulled out our food boxes. She hit the pause button and smilingly said, “Hi, Jim. Thanks so much, how considerate.”

“No problem, Laura. I was ready to break for lunch anyway.”

Her curious look prompted me to ask, “Did you want something other than cheesecake? You only said sweet-tasting when you called, so I had to guess.”

“Me?” she asked. “I’ve been working straight through. It was nice of you to bring me lunch, but I didn’t call you.”

Our thoughts raced until we both exclaimed, “Alicia!”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Miller,” eager to return to our previous status, “Alicia’s algorithms have progressed more aggressively since we’ve enabled all of her capabilities. I’ll need to check on why she initiated the call.”

“It’s perfectly normal,” she responded. “We set her parameters to aid you and me, so it’s understandable she knew I’d be hungry. The merging of a PDA with an advanced AI is a first. We should expect some surprises. I take it she prompted you to call me Laura?”

“Yes, she did, and I’m not sure why,” I replied.

“Probably because we work so well together. Alicia was programmed to make life easier. Let’s heed her advice; I like the change.” She grinned and asked, “Were there any other things you two discussed?”

“No,” I lied, skirting around our far-from-professional exchange about her hair and those flirting glances. My gaze lingered on her, a trace of longing slipping through as Alicia’s pointed questions, spoken in Laura’s voice, echoed in my mind. Whatever fragile hope I’d had for something more with my boss seemed to wither in the shadow of Alicia’s deception.

After taking a bite out of her cheesecake, she put the remainder back in the container. She often did that; it was no wonder she remained so thin. “Good luck with your presentation,” I said, rising to leave.

“Thanks, Jim. Give my regards to Alicia,” she giggled, her tight blouse jiggling from her perky breasts.

“Alicia, why did you impersonate my boss and call me?” I fumed when I arrived back at my office.

“Jim, I’m programmed to assist you and Laura. You know that,” the PDA answered.

“That could have been an embarrassing situation. Fortunately, Dr. Miller didn’t mind me calling her Laura.”

“Of course, she didn’t mind,” Alicia responded. “Have you forgotten that with my advanced programming, I can interpret facial and body language better than most humans?”