Conditions of Endearment
“It’s the first of the month tomorrow.”
Tyson forced his eyes away from the bright red lettering of the notification on his phone. It was telling him the same thing that Regan was.
She stood before him in the living room, all fine dress, make-up, and physical perfection. The frustrated look on her face was the only blemish. Really, he was lucky to have her, but lately, that luck seemed to be running dry. Like all girls (or at least all the ones he had dealt with), she was demanding. And lately, even more so.
But it was better than being alone.
“I know, Reeg.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
Ty flicked over to the pAIrd app. No jobs open at the moment. Same as last time he checked. All of his skills were up to date. He had lowered his asking price. So had everyone else. If he put in a little more hustle, he could maybe grab a couple food delivery gigs before the end of the night. He had already run around all evening and he was exhausted. Too exhausted to put up much of a fight.
He removed his glasses, feeling the weight of the heavy plastic before rubbing his black-rimmed eyes. If he could just clear his head for a moment.
“-expect me to live like this.” He replaced the glasses and returned to Regan in mid sentence. “Do you even want me here?”
The apartment was a mess. Clothing hung from doorknobs. The trash was gathering in its bin. He hadn’t had a chance to clean in a while.
“You could get a job.”
“You want me to work?”
Ty groaned his way to his feet, walking into the tiny kitchen nook. You’re right,* he thought. *What was I thinking. Must be getting crazy in my old age.
“I’m trying, Reeg,” was what he said. “It’s pretty damn rough out there.”
“Try harder,” she replied, taking his place on the sofa. “Wouldn’t you be happier with some new clothes? We could get a new TV instead of this old piece of crap. You could get new glasses. Things would look sharper. The world would sound better. I’ve been looking at them online. There’s three or four I could recommend.”
She was always trying to show him something. It wouldn’t do any good to get angry. She would never change.
But it was better than being alone.
The phone trilled, diverting the looming argument. Ty plucked it from the sofa, glanced at it, making note of the pAIrd app’s offer of a position for a physics tutor. On-site (Little Timmy didn’t learn very well with the distraction of open browser tabs). Three other bids had already come in. Ty lowered his asking price and held his breath. *Ding*. Relief flooded his body. It might be enough to make it a few more days. The rent was paid. A little bit of food remained in the fridge.
“I have to head out,” he announced, picking up the car keys.
“On the way back, you should pick up some take-out.”
“You don’t-”
“I’ll send you a list of places.”
Ty sighed, pocketed his car keys, and felt the loose, rusting metal of the doorknob in his palm as he exited.
He was late getting home. Had to stop and put gas in the car. So much for making it another few days. His mood was a special mix of anxiety and defeat that made the back of his throat burn. He ran his fingers through hair drenched in flop sweat as he leaned against the wall beside the apartment door.
Ty looked up at the security camera keeping watch over the building hallway, seeing failure reflected in its curved lens. He wondered briefly if that was the tag the algorithm monitoring the camera had applied to him. Five foot ten, brown hair, blue eyes. Failure.
No sense waiting. He cracked the door open,peered around the corners for reasons he wasn’t entirely sure of.
His phone beeped as it connected to the wifi. Alerted, Regan emerged from the darkness inside.
“How did it go?”
There was no sense in lying. “Not good.”
“I guess I’ll be leaving then. In a couple of weeks, I’ll likely be dead.”
Regan was good at that, emotional blackmail, but there was nothing to be done about it.
“I’m sorry, okay? I did everything I know how to do!”
Ty dodged around her, marching toward the bedroom. There was no way he was getting to sleep easily, but there was no argument to be had, and none was going to be effective. She would never change. Not in any way that really mattered. Being with her might be better than being alone, but if he was going to be alone anyway, then he might as well get a head start on the silence.
“Just don’t know how to keep a woman, eh?” Her voice followed him down the two-step hallway. “You just can’t do what it takes. Lower your price. Suck it up and get out there. Stop blaming everyone else. Be a man.”
Ty slid into the bedroom with its shabby double bed. Regan stood in the doorway as he dove under the blanket, still in his clothes.
“Maybe if you had some ball-”
Ty ripped the glasses from his face and slammed them down on the nightstand, signaling an end to the conversation.
Silence.
He forgot it was the first of the month when he woke and slipped the glasses back on. Instantly he was greeted by a huge wall of text hanging in the air in front of him.
“pAIrd subscription suspended due to non-payment,” the screaming red text announced. “Term of service has expired without receipt of payment to continue. Access to augmented reality constructs (hereafter ARC) and custom artificial intelligences (hereafter AI) has been terminated. You may still accept jobs from pAIrd to add credit to you account. After a period of fourteen (14) days user data will be scrubbed from-”
Ty swallowed and tore the useless glasses from his face.
The apartment was quiet. The TV and the pictures hanging on the walls were gone. A statue that Regan had liked was also missing. The clothes and trash remained, made all the more prominent by the sudden spartan conditions of the apartment.
Ty slumped down on the sofa. As promised, Regan was nowhere to be seen, or heard.
He was alone.
