“Happy birthday to you!”
“Thank you. All of you,” Rowan said, and promptly blew out the candle.
Milo set the cake aside to be sliced later, as he apparently had the entire evening planned with gifts, games, and general good times. He had used all he had learned about Rowan to create the perfect birthday.
The apartment was decorated minimally but still appropriately festive. Presents were all thoughtful or useful only, nothing unnecessary or extravagant. Ethel, for example, had knitted Rowan an infinity scarf in orange, purple, and marigold with a lovely ombre pattern, even if it wouldn’t technically beuseful for several months when it was no longer the middle of summer. One unnecessary thing Rowan actually found charming, which was revealed before they started the main game Milo had planned when he let Spot out of the bedroom who, along with her googly eyes, now sported a party hat.
As Milo directed everyone to places around the living room, Rowan couldn’t resist sidling over to him to plant a grateful kiss to his cheek.
Which prompted a soft, knowing smile from Ethel.
And an accusatory squint from Riley.
Shit. There was no way either of them would stay out of the loop after this, not if Milo planned this party, something no normal bot would nor could do as a surprise for their master. Rowan couldn’t even be bothered to be upset about that though. He was too touched, too… happy. And as long as no one let Andrew find out how wide the Milo-knowledge net had grown, it didn’treallymatter.
Before Riley could say something, which she was clearly gearing up to do, an exclamation from Raina drew everyone’s attention.
“Howdo you have cake?” she accused Ethel, who, after seating herself in Rowan’s plush recliner, with a dutiful Anabelle settling cross-legged at her feet, had a fork and plated slice of cake that absolutely looked like a middle piece.
“Old women do not have time to wait for others to cut their cake for them, dear,” Ethel said sweetly, before taking her first satisfied bite of buttercream.
Milo looked surprised as well, head swiveling back and forth between Ethel and where he had left the cake with the waiting plates and forks. The very center had a perfect square carved out of it, while the rest of the cake remained pristine.
“When?” Troy asked the other obvious inquiry.
Rowan had long since known better than to question the method to Ethel’s madness.
“If, um, others also want cake right away, you are welcome to it!” Milo recovered. He had motioned for Raina to sit on the L-portion of the sofa near Ethel, and for Rowan and the other two to sit on the sofa proper. “We will split into two teams, like so, and we will be playing…Family Feud!” Milo turned on the TV, which was already prepped with a virtual home version of the game.
Troy rather conspicuously took the seat nearest to Raina, while Riley pushed Rowan ahead of her for him to take the middle seat so she could have the end.
“It doesn’t even know you don’t like cake?” she muttered in mock whisper.
Rowan didn’tnotlike cake, it was just his least favorite type of baked good, as it rarely had as many nuances of flavor in his opinion, especially birthday and wedding cake. It was the thought that counted though, as it would be weird blowing out a candle atop a pie.
“Oh,heknows!” Raina said loudly to contrast Riley’s whisper, both for Milo’s benefit, and as if she knew something the others didn’t. “He just wants Rowan to save his sweet tooth for later.”
Riley glared at Raina, who grinned cheekily back.
“He?” Riley mouthed to Rowan.
Rowan shrugged. She could figure it out for herself.
Milo, at least, seemed unperturbed by the callout, too focused on getting the game going. “Everyone knows how this is played, yes? We will be asked questions and need to guess how we think most other people would answer. With this version of the game, a virtual host will be listening in for our answers, and Rowan and I will be the captains of our respective teams. We will start the first round with a Face Off question between us for whoever can answer first. If the first to speak gets the top answer, our teamautomatically gets to go for a full round. If it’s not the top, the other team gets the chance to answer to see if they can beat us.”
“Isn’t it cheating to let a bot play?” Riley asked.
Rowan wanted to elbow her for continuing to be a pain, but her tone wasn’t completely derisive.
“I will not look up any answers but will be using my… intuition,” Milo replied.
Riley side-eyed Rowan again, but he cleared his throat and kept his eyes forward.
The teams were actually fairly evenly matched. Milo proved to be as awful as Troy was at guessing correctly, while Riley and Ethel traded off guessing perfectly or giving the most crude or unhinged answers. Such as:
Name something you might find in a bathtub.
“Black market organs!”
