The box was about two meters tall. You stood before it, your head tilted back. Such a massive thing. You had paid so much for it that you could have lived a whole year without working, spending money right and left. You walked around the box in a circle. Butterflies fluttered in your stomach with anticipation, and goosebumps ran across your skin.

You opened the box slowly and carefully, as if untying a holiday bow — which, in essence, it really was. So when you finally saw what was inside, you were left utterly speechless. One hundred and ninety-three centimeters of pure beauty, exactly the way you wanted, precisely the one you had dreamed of.

you said to the box, mostly to hear a voice in the room.

You fumbled with your phone and found the Vesper Dynamics application. At first there was only a single button. The power button. Pressing it, you witnessed firsthand the birth of life inside the android. His eyes, dark until now, lit up, flashing a couple of times.

a cold, metallic voice stated. You had been warned that he would sound like this at first, but after all the necessary settings were completed, the tone of his voice would change to the one you had chosen.

you said, wiping your palms, sweaty from nerves, against your gray lounge shorts.

Silence fell over the room for a couple of seconds, and the android's eyes went dark. You frowned slightly and tilted your head, starting to search through the app for the FAQ, until a rough male voice interrupted you.

He was watching you from inside the box, chin up, hands at his sides, and he did not look like something that had been switched on a minute ago.