Chapter 294: Pizza and a Shy Boyfriend

I saw Bill pull into the slightly wider spot in the alley which I used as a parking lot. It would hold two cars, while still leaving room in the alley for two cars to pass. The alley was never meant to be a parking lot or thorough fair. Every building had room for a couple of cars back there, if they were parked parallel that is.

There was plenty of room for the young man's Bicycle and my Woody. I should have left his bicycle out in the cold, but I took pity on it. When I opened the back door, I made him go back out for it. I didn't give the machine human traits, but I did feel bad that Bill would have to ride a very cold machine home. If not in the middle of the night, then early in the morning.

"So how do you feel about pizza?" I asked. Of course I had no desire for any food, but Bill would expect it since he was human and I was trying my ass off to pass for human.

"I love pizza," he said. "Everybody on a date loves pizza."

"This is not a date. I am too old to be dating a boy your age. This is just a prearranged chance encounter." I informed him.

"My god, you are so verbally anal," he said. "All those words to hide the fact that we are on a home date."

"Do you want the fucking Pizza or not?" I asked. "If so, what do you want on it."

"Hamburger and onions," he said with a playful grin. Even though it sounded serious, it had all been done with huge smiles all the way down the line.

"You know we could just walk two blocks and eat the pizza in Gino's," he suggested.

"Bill, Gino is Italian I'm sure. I'm sure he makes his pizza in the kitchen with his own hands. I would just rather the place look like a restaurant not an old finance company where someone put some booths inside. Not to mention the cash register by the door."

"Are you telling me, you don't like the atmosphere in Gino's?" Bill asked.

"I'm telling you that if you want to walk down there to pick it up, I can live with that. However I am not going to sit in a public place, on a fake wooden booth, on a fake leather cushion, and pretend I'm on a romantic date, with a kid half my age. Even I can't delude myself that much," I finally said aloud what I had been thinking. It was how I felt, but I didn't plan to send him home either.

"In that case place the order, and I'll walk down for the pizza," he suggested. "After a few more prearranged chance encounters, we might be able to go for a real date."

"Who knows?" I agreed. I also smiled broadly as I placed the order with Gino's Downtown Italian Restaurant. While we waited Bill and I discussed his school.

"So Bill, how is school going," I asked.

"You know that you ask me that every time you see me. And the each time you ask me, you seem just as surprised by the same details. I swear I don't think you remember at all, what my school is about."

"Sure I remember, you are taking courses in some kind of engineering. I just don't understand that kind of stuff honey," I lied. The truth was that I hadn't bothered to embed any of the details of his daily life into my permanent memory circuits. After a couple of days those short term memory circuits got reused. I mean I knew the name of his school and I had a general idea what his day was like, but his life really had very little impact on my own.

Well that is unless he happened to be with me at the time. At that particular moment his life had impact on me. In a few hours it wouldn't. I mean, he wasn't the type kid to need my help and he couldn't give the kind of help I was most likely to need. So he was surplus more or less.

Right about then I should have been wondering why he was hanging out with me. I know the guys at the farm were wondering. They were pretty much letting me run with it, in order to see what impact it would have on my ability to perform the tasks required of me.

In other words we all agreed that this was not the place for a confrontation. It was not time for the inevitable battle of the wills. It might or might not ever happen, but something like Bill, wouldn't be the issue that caused it. At least neither the farm not I had strong enough feelings to go to the mats for Bill at that time.

The time passed with Bill trying to explain some formula for figuring stress he was trying to understand. Do you want to understand what he is saying, came the thought in my head.

Not just no. but hell no, I answered without answering.

"Time to pick up the pizza, you want me to walk down with you?" I asked.

"No, it's only two blocks and it's cold as hell out there," he said.

I didn't tell him that the cold had no effect on me. Instead I nodded while I dug around in my jeans for cash. I handed him a twenty dollar bill. He tried to make a fuss but I wouldn't allow it.

"I said I was paying for the dinner tonight, and I am. You save your money or books or slide rules," I demanded.

'Very well," he replied. "Actually I rather like the feeling of being a kept man."

"You should," I replied with a grin. "The best is yet to come."

When Bill got back with the Pizza, he came through the front. Since I had promised to have the table set in the living room, the large coffee table was covered with a cloth and there were cokes as well as plates to hold the pizza slices all spread out on the low table.

If the kid needed a table, he would be sitting on the floor. If he could balance a plate while watching TV and holding a drink, then he could sit back on the sofa. TV that night was filled with sappy Holiday movies and even the TV Dramas all had holiday story lines. I found the least offensive of those to watch while we ate.