I awoke from my shared experience with Blake to see Max put his titanium arm around June, who cuddled beside him like a lost metaphor for beauty hanging out in a sleazy bar.

June saw me awake and glared at me with eyes outlined with mascara as black as a killer-eggplant nightmare. Light from the window accented her perfect oval face, like a balloon gently squeezed on its sides by an overdue mortgage.

I admit it. Once upon a time, I fell hard for the exotic creature, as hard as rock candy turned into the rock salt she was now rubbing into my open wounds. Apparently, while hiding from me, she’d fallen for Max like e. coli invading a rotting slab of Canadian bacon.

“Are you two an item?” I coldly asked as I stared at the coffee table in front of them, which sat like a clogged artery.

“We had a fling, nothing serious,” said June, with the flaming biological lips I’d created. I’d tried so hard to resist her in the emptiness of my lost soul.

Max hugged her. “June’s kidding you, Shark. Yes, we’re in love, and we’re leaving you.”

“But—” I said.

“But what?” asked June, transforming into a blue-eyed blonde with more curves than an anaconda swimming in the Amazon River. “For the longest time, I wasn’t sure why you created me with the ability to change into any female form.”

“I—”

 “I what?” asked June, her eyes expanding into flying saucers. “I saw how you looked at me when you thought of me as your caregiver. Your lust was all too clear. Admit it. You created me for make-believe sex.”

Pain racked my paralyzed body. “Well—”

“Well, what?” asked Max, his head of lights flashing like a supernova. “We’re just robots, right? We’re not human, so we don’t matter. You didn’t just want a girlfriend. You wanted the joy of having a girlfriend who’d pick you over someone even less desirable. You thought June would pick you over me, because despite your paralysis, you at least were completely flesh and blood.”

“Uh—”

“Uh, what?” asked June, rubbing Max’s titanium thigh. “As you can see, your diabolical little plan didn’t work. I fell in love with Max, not you. What’s more, we’ve arranged for medical scientists to create stem cells from Max’s living tissue to make him anatomically correct. We’ll enjoy what you never will—sex.”

“But—”

“But nothing,” they said in unison, standing up hand-in-hand and walking to the door, like two pallbearers of equal height with the ability to walk.

Max turned around. “By the way, you won’t see Diana, Christine, and Reginald Crickincrack again. No need. Your brain has developed a receiver, so Diana won’t need to connect you to a Being Machine for your mind transfers anymore. You’ll only see Diana again through the eyes of her brain-damaged husband.”

“But—” I said.

“But what?” asked Max. “Don’t worry. I still support Blake Brimstone’s cause. But his Grand Exodus is the ideal solution for you, not me. Not anymore. I’m in love and will soon be completely biological. I have a reason to live.”

June looked at me as if I were a baby seal about to be clubbed. “Have you ever died before, Shark?”

“Uh—” I said.

She laughed. “Uh what? You’re alive, so I guess you haven’t. That should make your next mind-transfer a new experience for you.”

Not to be outdone, they jumped into my SUV and rode off. A message popped up on my monitor: What do you think?

I wrote: I think my only two independent robots just walked out on me and stole my SUV. Somehow, I created a couple of psychopaths. So much for synthetic biological intelligence. Sure, I still have my non-sentient robots, and everything in my house and factory is mind-controlled, but I feel crushed. My own creations have abandoned me. I’m alone, alone, all alone by the phone.

I entered the mind and body of someone in a hospital bed.