Wedding Day

Jeremy adjusted his tie as he looked at himself in the mirror. He stood there, observing his slicked-back hair, bright eyes, clean face, and his expensive tuxedo with a rose delicately placed on the right side of his chest.

He sighed and tapped his finger against the table impatiently. They should’ve been here by now he thought. He put his hands in his face and groaned. Everything had to go right today and now LifeLike is holding out on him. Suddenly, the door creaked open, Jeremy turned his head and saw Gracie. Gracie’s chocolate eyes pierced his soul as her hair was pulled back in a bun held by silver flower jewelry. She smiled, showing her beautiful smile with the small but noticeable gap between her front teeth. Her skin seemed to shine where the sun that dripped through the window touched it. That is because it did shine.
Gracie was an old LifeLike Incorporated Model. A LL-J20 to be specific, was first released almost ten years ago, and Gracie was bought not long after. LifeLike perfected the AI, making her seem so real but their old synthetic skin could have been better. He found it beautiful, how smooth and almost rubbery it was, and how it emphasized how fake she truly was. However, he had to keep it in his pants because today she had to appear real for both of their sakes. His family and even she did not know her nature and if his mother found out he hooked up with a robot, she’d be livid.
Gracie saw Jeremy’s mind racing at 120 miles per hour so she gave a soft giggle, returning his focus to her face sprinkled with freckles. She spoke in a soft western accent, “Hey, hun. You alright? You’re sweating…”
“I’m alright dear,” He said, finally wiping his brow. “Just…anxious about your family getting here.”
“Oh shush! My ma and pop would not miss this for the world! They’ll be here.”
“Yeah, yeah they will…but the wedding is only in a few hours…we have to have everything in order.”
She sighed and put a hand on his shoulder, “Honey…today is our day. If they don’t come, it’s fine…I mean I’d be sad about it but it will be alright. Because today is about us!”
Jeremy smiled as he looked at his wife bot. Her soft pink cheeks complimented her fair skin as she gave a smile with her red lips. Her hand drifted to his cheek and held it. His phone began to ring in his pocket, his eyes widened and he pulled back.
“I need to take this…besides you need to get ready.” He said with a sigh of relief as he saw that LifeLike was calling him. Gracie left and closed the door. Right then he turned to the back door and stepped outside, there was a large LifeLike truck parked behind the venue. He saw a delivery man step out of the truck with a grizzly beard and a beer belly. He took out a tablet and began to speak.
“Jeremy Witz?” he said.
“That’s me.”
“We got a rental order for you, twelve hours with four androids. Each programmed to believe they are family with…your soon-to-be wedded wife…Gracie, yes?”
“That’s right, I already downloaded all the files into her…she’ll recognize them.”
“Alright…Gracie is an LL-J20, right? Specifically, Unit J20-000102?”
“That’s right!”
“Sheesh, the 102nd J20…I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that…most of those units have been traded in or thrown out…I thought it would be a 100000 something.”
“Enough with the small talk, show me the bots! You are already an hour late!”
The man sighed and opened the truck revealing four bots all dressed up for the occasion. The man then gave the tablet to Jeremy.
“This tablet is connected to all of them, we got Pacifica the mom, Danny the dad, and finally Beth and Bethany, the twin sisters.”
Jeremy stepped into the truck and observed the units. Pacifica was blonde whose face was completely smothered in makeup. Her eyelids were a deep purple that sparkled like the night sky. Her lips were a lighter shade of purple and she also had purplish blush. The violet dress she wore completed the look. Danny had black hair similar to Jeremy's and thick cheekbones. He wore a tuxedo that was obviously cheaper than Jeremy’s but was still appropriate. The twins looked almost identical, but Beth had brown hair and Bethany had blonde hair. They both wore blue dresses. Jeremy sighed, obviously the twins were of the same model. He supposed that the nearby LifeLike building was having a lot of rentals, leading to him getting duplicates. Jeremy felt the arm of Beth and it felt soft, softer than human skin but not as artificial as Gracie’s. Ironically, Gracie is older than her parents as her parents were likely the most recent model.
He held the tablet and pressed the on button, simultaneously all of their heads raised and their eyes clicked open. They stood there for a while as their AIs initialized. Then their eyes fluttered and they walked out of the truck.
Pacifica smiled as she saw Jeremy and walked up to him. “Jeremy! Look at you! You better treat my little Gracie well!” “Yeah, yeah I will,” Jeremy said nonchalantly.
He led both of them into the venue, the venue was a local resort, they managed to get a whole dining hall to themselves. He showed the four androids to Gracie and they all froze for a moment. Jeremy stood there as they synced their systems. Gracie gave a bright smile and hugged her mother and father. “Ma, Pa!” she exclaimed.
“There’s our little sunshine!” Danny said proudly as he ruffled her hair.
Pacifica kissed Gracie all over her face but then Gracie noticed her twin sisters. She jumped with excitement and ran over to her sisters and hugged them both, squeezing them tightly. Jeremy almost heard Gracie whirring, her joints were needing replacing soon so they were a bit loud but not enough for the common man to notice. He loved Gracie’s sweetness and she showed all of that off when interacting with her family. It was an artificial happiness, she was always joyous and peppy but it was perfect for him. He couldn’t help but laugh as he saw Gracie kiss the cheeks of her sister and then squeeze her parents again.

Only two hours later, Jeremy stood in front of the priest and turned to the end of the hall. Gracie walked out, followed by Beth and Charlie, Jeremy’s sister. Gracie wore a beautiful white dress, which was long and dragged against the floor. Her dress was covered in small pearls, which also covered her face in a veil. She stepped up to the front and Jeremy slowly raised her veil behind her head. She smiled and looked into his eyes. It was hard to focus on anything else as he spoke, “I do.” Gracie replied in kind and they kissed as their families clapped excitedly.
The rest of the night was the after-party, a full-course buffet and a dance floor. Jeremy watched Gracie’s family stack their plates whilst Gracie was much more conservative with her meal, only eating a few pieces of chicken. He knew why this was the case, the older LifeLike models had smaller and less stretchy stomach tanks so they were programmed to limit their eating. The new units had a much more advanced stomach system that not only was larger and stretchy but it also dispensed an acidic fluid that would break down the food, allowing much more to be stored and it was easier to remove.
Pacifica and Danny sat next to each other and came face-to-face with Jeremy’s parents. The two sat in front of the robotic couple, Theresa, Jeremy’s mother, smiled and spoke in a sweet tone. “Ah, hello Pacifica and Danny wasn’t it?”
“Yes ma’am, that’s us!” Danny said.
“Oh please, call me Theresa.”
“Alright, then Theresa.”
Theresa looked at them, the two sat still, much too still. It was kinda eerie, the two were like statues. They stared ahead like a dog looking at a wall for no discernable reason.
“Ahem, soooo where have you all been all this time! I mean, we’ve known Gracie for almost a decade now and we never heard or seen her family.” Theresa says.
Pacifica’s eyes flutter as she speaks in a peppy voice. “Oh yes. Well, she is not particularly excited about her farmer origins.”
“Really? You own a farm? Family-owned farms are near extinct, but they still produce the best produce. How have I not heard of you?”
“Ahhh well we are across the coast, we don’t ship out here.”
“I see, I see.”
That answer seemed to satisfy Theresa as they all continued eating. Meanwhile, on the dance floor, Beth and Bethany were dancing to the soft music next to their sister Gracie.
“It’s been so long Gracie! You should visit again!” Beth said enthusiastically. Her hips swayed somewhat sensually, it was not appropriate for the occasion. Gracie noticed this and grabbed her sister’s arm.
“Hey, hey…this is my wedding, not a…you know…can you be a bit more…decent please?” Gracie pleaded.
“Oh of course, of course! Sorry, I do not know what came over me.” Beth said laughing it off.
Bethany brought her two sisters into a group hug, her body clicking slightly as she did so. “It’s so nice to be with both of my sisters again!” Bethany proclaimed as she kissed the foreheads of Beth and then Gracie. “Now, let’s make this night, a night we won’t forget!”

At the end of the party, the guests left to their hotels aside from Gracie’s family. They stood in a line at the center of the dining hall with Gracie as Jeremy eyed them from a seat.
“You all are so beautiful,” Jeremy said.
“Oh, well thank you, my new son-in-law!” Pacifica piped up.
“No thank you! It all went swimmingly and…” Suddenly, his phone began to ring. He picked it up, completely ignoring his new mother, father, and sisters-in-law. It was LifeLike, they said that they were there and Jeremy smiled. He put the phone away and then turned to the family standing there. All are perfectly in line, standing completely still. Not a fidget, blink, or even breathe from any of them. They all must’ve got low power and entered their low power mode, which disables the non-essential functions that serve to make them look alive. In this state, they were all just machines with only the tiniest bit of a human facade. Jeremy took out the tablet and pressed the power button. At once, Pacifica, Danny, Beth, and Bethany’s chins fell to their chests as their eyes clicked close. Gracie stared at them confused.
“Beth, Bethany? Ma, Pa?” Gracie spoke in slight concern. “Are y’all okay?”
“They’re okay, sweetheart. I just need you to go to sleep now.” Jeremy said calmly as he walked up to her.
“But, we haven’t, ya know, gotten to spend some time in bed.”
“Oh don’t worry,” Jeremy caressed her face as he brought his fingers behind her ears. “We will have plenty of time for that~”
He pressed the two buttons behind her ears. “Alll riiiiigggghhhhhhttttttttttt”.
Her voice droned on as it lowered in speed and pitch until her head fell down and her eyes closed. Jeremy chuckled, he felt his member stretch through his expensive black pants. Her adorable shutdown sequence never failed to make him excited. From the back doors, some LifeLike employees came in and began gathering the extended family members. They loaded them onto dollies and lifted them away. Jeremy followed as he was interested in seeing the retrieval process.
The employees brought them back in the truck and then took the tablet from Jeremy. The delivery man who brought the units held the tablet and began typing in it. “So, where do they go now?” Jeremy asked inquisitively.
“Back to the store.” The delivery guy casually said. “I am wiping their memories right now and then they will be rented out again later. Then eventually someone will buy them and we will do a deep clean and refurbishment and then send them out to their new home.”
“Very nice, I’ll be sure to make it so Gracie does not clearly remember their faces just in case we run into them again.” “Hahaha, good idea...anyway, I gotta go now, I got a few other places to collect androids from.”
The delivery guy and the employees return to the front of the van after closing up the back and drive off leaving Jeremy at the venue. Jeremy smiled to himself and walked back into the hall to get his wife bot. Today was not only the best day of his life but the beginning of a new chapter with his LifeLike unit.