Love in 2065

Brian packed up his presentation materials and then made the round of the table shaking hands again. When he came to Jesse, she grinned.

"The way you talked last night, I thought this would probably be good. It was better than I imagined it would be."

Brian smiled back.

"Then maybe you'd have dinner with me again tonight? No talk about today, just dinner?"

Jesse smiled.

"I'd like that. About six in the lobby again?"

As they sat at the table finishing a last cup of coffee, Jesse smiled.

"I've been wanting to ask you a question since last night. I hope you'll give me a truthful answer. Why didn't you try anything after dinner?"

"I'm not sure what you mean. I said we'd just have dinner and talk."

"I know you said that, but most men would still have tried. They always do."

"Well, Jesse, those men aren't real men. They're only interested in making themselves feel good just like they did before they transferred to a new body. A lot of them get some pleasure out of doing the same for the woman I suppose, but most are just out for the thrill of bedding a woman, or what passes for a woman anyway. A real man wants more with a woman than just good sex. I couldn't do that with a real woman, and I think you are."

"I take it you've been with one of those...women."

"Yes, I have."

"You didn't like it?"

"The sex was fantastic. The rest was disappointing."

Jesse raised her eyebrows.

"Oh...how so?"

"Well, there wasn't any sort of bond between us. It was just her wanting me and me sort of using her, not using in a bad way, but using her to make myself feel good. I didn't feel anything for her before or after and she didn't feel anything for me. That's what was disappointing, the lack of feelings."

"And you think a real woman would cause those feelings between the two of you?"

"If she was the right woman, she would."

Jesse chuckled.

"A lot of people would call you an old-fashioned romantic."

"Yes, they would, but it's how I really feel. I think humanity lost a lot of its humanity when we started creating android bodies. By taking away the limit on human lifespan, we also took away the need for commitment between two people.

"If you don't find one you like today, there'll be another one tomorrow. If you get tired of sleeping with a blonde, you can find a brunette. If you're not satisfied with the size of a man, there will be another out there bigger or smaller. It's just not what life is supposed to be. There should be caring about what each feels, caring about them enough to stay with them no matter what, and not just how they are in bed."

Jesse smiled.

"That used to be called 'love'. Do you think it still exists?"

Brian sipped his coffee and then put down the cup.

"I think it can between two real people. I don't know if it can between androids or not. What do you think?"

Jesse pursed her lips and her brow wrinkled a little.

"I'm not sure either. I suppose it could. They do have the minds of actual people and actual people used to fall in love. I've never met one who was into the commitment thing, but I suppose they do exist somewhere. I could never love an android though. It would be like falling in love with my toaster."

Brian laughed.

"I never thought of it that way, but you're right. I guess we'll both keep being disappointed until that special someone comes along. I wish they're hurry a little though."

Jesse smiled.

"Maybe that special person is closer than you think."

Brian looked at Jesse. She was still smiling and he noticed she was fiddling with her hair. She'd never done that before.

"Jesse, are you saying we should find out?"

"Maybe, unless you don't like me enough."

He kissed her in the elevator to her room and the kiss left him tingling all over. Androids did kiss, but it didn't feel the same. It would have been hard for him to describe the difference, but it was there. Maybe it was the way she gently stroked his hair or the way her mouth moved against his. Maybe it was the way she pressed her body into him.

Jesse opened the door to her room and Brian followed her through the doorway. Jesse closed the door, locked it and flipped the security lock into place, then smiled.

"I don't ever do this. I hope you'll take it for what it is. I like you Brian. I like you a lot."

Brian didn't say anything. He just took Jesse in his arms and kissed her again. Jesse wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed her breasts into his chest and gave herself up to his lips and to the hands that caressed the small of her back and her hips.

When she gently pushed away, Jesse smiled.

"Undress me, Brian."

His hands were steady as he unbuttoned Jesse's blouse, but his mind was reeling. Had he found her, the real woman he'd looked for so long? He was further convinced he had when he eased the blouse from her soft shoulders and laid it on the chair against the wall. Jesse's breasts weren't perfectly matched. Her right breast swelled provocatively from the cup of her bra. The left on didn't swell quite as much.

Jesse unzipped her skirt and then whispered, "It can come off now, up, over my head. My butt is too big for it to come off over my hips."

Brian lifted the skirt by the hem and then teased himself as he slowly lifted it. Jesse's slender thighs were exposed first, then the black of her lace panties and then her smooth, flat tummy. Brian pulled the skirt up the rest of the way and then laid it on top of Jesse's blouse.

Jesse began unbuttoning his shirt when Brian released the hooks of her bra. She pulled his shirt open at the same time her breasts slipped from the bra cups, and then pushed her breasts into his chest. Brian felt her nipples touch him before the softness flattened against him. He didn't have to look to see those nipples were stiff.

Jesse fumbled with his belt, so Brian unbuckled it, then unsnapped and unzipped his pants. When he turned loose of the waistband, Jesse pulled them down to his ankles and then let her hands stroke up his legs until they were on the waistband of his undershorts. She looked up at him, grinned, and then pulled the undershorts down over his rigid cock.

She stood again as Brian kicked off his shoes and stepped out of his clothes, then grinned again as her fingers circled his cock.

"We should be in bed, I think."

Jesse turned and walked to the bed, then pulled the blanket and sheet down to the foot and laid down on her back. Brian was smiling when she looked up at him.

"Brian, you're smiling. I'm not that great."

"Yes, you are. You're not perfect. You're a real woman."

"Then come show me how a real man treats a real woman."

She lifted her hips when Brian rolled the black lace panties down her hips, and then held up her legs so he could slip them off. She shivered when Brian stroked each leg from her ankles to her thighs, and then opened them as he stroked higher.

Brian thought about his UV flashlight and then decided there was no need for it. Jesse's breasts were visibly different in size and her nipple beds were as well. Her ass was wide, just as she'd whispered, and her inner thighs weren't as slender and muscular as the androids he'd been with. When he looked at her soft lips through the red hair that covered them, he couldn't see her inner lips. There were just her outer lips, slender and tightly closed together. Jesse was real, and she was making him want her more than he'd ever thought possible.

Brian stretched out beside Jesse and kissed her again. She moaned into his mouth when his hand found her left breast and he felt her hand stroking down his belly. She touched his cock at the same time he circled her taut nipple with his fingertip. They both caught their breath then, Jesse because he'd just lightly pinched her nipple and Brian because Jesse had just wrapped her fingers around his cock.

Jesse held the back of his head when Brian moved his mouth from her lips to her right nipple and sucked gently. She moaned when he lightly pinched that nipple between his lips, and he felt her hand begin slowly stroking his cock. He kissed, then pinched her left nipple, and Jesse moaned again.

When Brian let his hand trail down her smooth tummy, Jesse stroked his cock a little faster and then gasped when he cupped her mound with his hand. She gasped again when he slipped a fingertip between her soft lips and stroked up.

She was wet between those lips, and as Brian massaged the small inner lips hiding inside Jesse's outer lips, she got wetter and slipperier. It was different than the android women. They were wet and slippery too, but the feeling was more like the artificial lube it was. Jesse's wet lips seemed to wrap around his finger and she was a little sticky as well as slippery. When he slipped his finger inside her entrance, he knew she was different. He could feel her outer lips catch on his finger and then slip away as it went deeper.

Brian stroked that finger in and out until he felt little resistance, then added a second. Jesse caught her breath when it went in and then pressed his face into her left breast again. When Brian sucked that nipple into his mouth and then pinched gently with his teeth, Jesse moaned and her tummy rolled under his arm. He felt her pulling on his cock and then heard her whisper, "Brian, I want you now."

Brian didn't comply right away. He found Jesse's clit hood and stroked beside it. Jesse began to lift her hips with each stroke of his fingers then, and her breathing became faster. After a few more strokes, he rolled the hood back from her small clit and brushed his thumb over the little rounded tip. Jesse groaned.

"Oh, God. Now...I want you inside me now."

He entered her slowly, letting her adjust her body position to allow his cock to slide inside her without much resistance. Jesse panted a few breaths when he eased his cock past the tight spot just inside her entrance, and then moaned when he sank into her wet, clasping depths. He felt her hands on his back and then on his ass as she pulled him down.

She felt different on the inside too. The android women were tight and stayed that way. Brian couldn't last long unless he kept his strokes slow. Jesse opened a little as he stroked his cock in and out. The sensations of her rippled passage were enough to keep his cock rigid and to slowly increase the tension he felt building, but not so tight he couldn't control himself.

Jesse wasn't talking to him either like android women always did. She had her face turned to the side, her mouth was open, and she was starting to breathe faster. From time to time, she'd moan and he'd feel her hands on his ass pulling his cock in tight or on his back and pulling his chest down onto her breasts. He could feel the tension building in her body as well.

Jesse began rocking her hips up and into his strokes and he felt little contractions gripping his cock when he kissed her. She moaned into his mouth again and he felt her nails dig gently into his back. Jesse pulled her mouth away from his, gasped, and then murmured, "Don't stop, Brian...I'm so close...so...Oh God...so close."

A few strokes later, Jesse dug her heels into the mattress and began arching her body. She caught her breath, then panted, then arched higher. A tiny cry burst from her mouth and her hips began rocking up and down. Brian let himself go and gasped as spurt after spurt raced through his cock and splashed inside Jesse.

Jesse slowly eased back down on the mattress and pulled Brian down on top of her as she did. She wrapped her arms around his back and held him tight as little contractions continued to massage his cock. She giggled when he finally slipped from the velvet embrace of her passage.

"I thought it would be good with a real man. I just didn't know how good."

Brian kissed her on the forehead.

"You're more woman than I ever expected too."

Jesse hugged him a little tighter.

"I don't think I want to stop doing this with you."

Brian chuckled.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

Brian stayed in Chicago for four more days. It took that long for Brunning, Marks, and Associates to sign the contract specifying his company as the supplier for all the door and window hardware for the new Nippo-Seikishiba building. He was surprised by an addition they insisted become part of the contract. They would specify his company on one condition and that was he would relocate to the Atlanta site immediately and live there until the building received a certificate of occupancy. He'd called his boss before signing the contract and told Jack about the added clause. Jack had just laughed and said he'd pay for an apartment and Brian's other expenses if that's what it took.

He asked Jesse about the contract addition that night at dinner. She smiled and looked down at her plate. "I just thought if you were there, things might go smoother, that's all. Well, that's not all. I think I...remember what you said that night about people caring for each other?"

"Yes. You said it was called love."

"I think that's how I feel about you."

Brian reached across the table and put his hand on Jesse's.

"I don't know what love feels like, but I know I don't want to give you up."

Like the concept of love, the concept of marriage seemed old-fashioned and romantic to a lot of Brian's co-workers, but he married Jesse anyway, six months later. They found a bigger apartment in Atlanta, and after a honeymoon to Florida, they set up housekeeping. The building for Nippo-Seikishiba was built according to schedule, and Brian got two more surprises when the codes inspector issued the Certificate of Occupancy. The first surprise was a ten percent bonus for his efforts. The second was his appointment as the manager for a new office in Atlanta. There were new buildings going up all over the South and his boss wanted Brian closer to them than New York.

Jesse also had a surprise for Brian, but it was a surprise she'd keep to herself for a long, long time yet. She was more than just the project manager for the new building. She was the prototype for a process Nippo-Seikishiba had been working on in secret for almost forty years.

Artificial body parts generated by the 3-D printing process had been on the market since the late 2020's, but were always made from plastics or metal. The secret process Nippo-Seikishiba had finally perfected was printing not just body parts, but an entire body, and it wasn't plastic or metal. The body was printed using living tissue of the appropriate structures laid down layer by layer. The body became "alive" when the medulla portion of the brain was programmed to regulate heart rate and breathing. The remainder of the brain was there and awaiting the installation of human memories and learned controls from an actual person. The resulting body was just as real as if it had grown from the normal process of cell division because it was made of exactly the same materials.

Jesse was thirty and was named Julie Dixon when she was diagnosed with terminal leukemia. When she told her supervisor at Nippo-Seikishiba she had about six weeks left, he just nodded and said he was very sorry. A week later, she received an invitation to a meeting in a part of the building she didn't even know existed. The invitation was signed by the president of Nippo-Seikishiba.

She had asked her supervisor about the invitation, but he just shrugged.

"I don't know Julie, but if the president of the company wants you there, you should go."

The meeting was surprisingly short given the subject.

The president of the company, a man she'd seen pictures of but never seen in person, smiled and asked how she was feeling. She had replied she felt as good as the doctors said she could expect to feel. He then asked her a question she'd had to think about for a while.

"Miss Dixon, if it were possible for us to make you healthy again, would you be able to keep that information from everyone else, even if it meant you would lose your life if you did not reveal it?"

After several minutes, she'd looked up at the man.

"I don't want to die. If you can cure me, yes, I could. The option is to die anyway."

She didn't pretend to understand everything that followed. She just knew she was placed in some sort of machine and then went to sleep. When she woke up, she didn't feel any different than before. She asked the older man checking her pulse what had happened. He smiled.

"You're a very lucky young woman. We've been looking for quite some time for a woman like you."

"What did you do to me? Am I cured?"

The man had patted her hand.

"No, Miss Dixon, you haven't been cured. You will die in approximately five weeks, that is to say, your body will die. Your mind will not because a copy of your engrams has been made and now resides on four separate storage systems here in our research facility and four more in Japan. When your body does cease to function, we will place those engrams into the brain of another body. You will continue to live a normal life."

"I don't want to be an android, so you can forget it. I'll just die."

The man had patted her hand.

"We know how you feel about androids because we inferred those feelings from your personality analysis. That is one of the reasons we chose you. You will not become an android. That is the reason you must never tell anyone. You will become another living body, just as if you had never died. Would you like to see such a body?"

Jesse had been taken into a room accessed through four separate locked doors each requiring the swipe of the man's ID badge and then a different password. Once inside, she saw a man and a woman lying on padded tables. Their bodies twitched from time to time.

"Are they alive?"

"Yes, very much so, although all they can do at the present time is maintain heart rate and breathing. They are fed intravenously. The twitching you see is from electrical impulses used to maintain muscle tone until they are animated."

Jesse looked at the man.

"This is what I'm going to be? They don't look real."

"Why would you say such a thing? They are as perfect as we can make them based upon some rather extensive studies of human preferences."

Jesse frowned.

"That's the problem. Real people aren't perfect. If I'm going to wear a different body around, I want it to not be perfect."

The man smiled.

"We can accommodate your wishes by making some changes to the process. What would you want to look like?"

"Can't you make it look like me?"

He shook his head.

"No, no, Miss Dixon. If you were to suddenly appear to be in good health again, that would generate many, many questions, questions we are not yet prepared to answer. You may look like anything you desire other than your current appearance. Along those lines, you must also change your name. We have prepared a list of possibilities for which we have arranged the proper documentation, though you may take any name of your choosing. The documentation is relatively simple to acquire."

She picked Jesse because it sounded strong yet feminine, and Downes because it was her grandmother's maiden name. She also picked those names because the first letter of each was the same as her real name. She often abbreviated her name to just initials, and with Jesse Downes, she wouldn't have to change that.

She had given a lot of thought to her new body, and finally listed her preferences and gave them to the man. He smiled.

"It will take about two weeks before you can review the results."

She didn't remember dying. All she remembered was slowly drifting away while her mother wept. Then, everything was a blank until she woke up and saw the lights above her. The same man leaned over her, flashed a little light in her eyes, and then smiled.

"Good morning, Jesse. How are you feeling?"

Jesse had lain there and tried to feel how she felt. She raised her arm and saw fingers approaching her face. She couldn't stop them before they slapped against her nose.