Three Years Later

“Here I come!” David uncovers his eyes and grins at me.

“Don’t look at me,” I say to him, shaking my head. “You know I have a very strict hide and seek policy.”

He frowns a little. “C’mon, Emma. Just this once. Bend the rules!”

“That way lies ruin,” I say to him. “I’m the ethical one, remember.”

He laughs and turns back toward the house. “Here I come!” he shouts, and stomps off through the living room.

I smile to myself and finish cooking as the squeals of delight and laughter from Julie fill the house. I can hear David stomping around and roaring as Julie runs away from him, and eventually the pair of them come spilling back into the living room.

“Enough of that,” I scold them, smiling. “Dinnertime.” I put the last dish on the table.

“Aw, mom,” David says, pouting. “Can’t we just play some more?”

“One kid’s enough,” I say to David, and he laughs.

Julie grins and comes scampering over. I give her a little hug then guide her over toward the dinner table. She sits in her spot as David and I join her.

We have family dinner every single night, without exceptions. No phones, no TV, no tablets, no work talk. We just sit at the table and enjoy each other’s company. Mostly that means Julie and David make jokes and faces at each other while I sigh and roll my eyes at them, trying not to laugh.

Tonight’s no different. When we’re done, Julie asks if she can have some TV time, and I say that’s okay. She makes a beeline for the living room TV while David and I clear the table.

“What do you think?” he asks me as he washes the dishes. I do the drying and put everything away.

“About what?”

“You saw the memo this morning, right?”

I sigh. I was hoping he wouldn’t bring this up. “I saw it.”

“What do you think?”

I can tell he’s delighted, so I guess I have to burst his bubble. “I’m turning it down.”

He gapes at me. “What?”

“I’m turning to down,” I repeat. “Look, we’re busy enough at work. If you make me a division head, how am I going to spend any time with Julie at all?”

He just shakes his head. “We’ll figure it out. Come on, Emma. You’ve always wanted this.”

I look away from him. He’s not wrong. I’ve been wanting a division head position for years now. I like working under Sven with the other crew, but we’ve been slowly moving away from ethical robotics and into some weird propulsion stuff that I’m just not interested in. I’m not done with ethical algorithms, and I need my own division to pursue it fully.

The original ethical algo helped change things with the Mark 2. Accidents went down, which was expected, but something else happened, too. People complained less when the accidents happened. People saw that the choices the cars were making were designed to do as little damage and harm as possible, and slowly the narrative began to change. It went from self-driving cars acting on their own will to self-driving cars doing the bidding of humans.

Sales went up, and so did the proportion of self-driving cars on the road. Deaths caused by auto accidents have plummeted in the last couple years. There are a few competitors to Envoy in the market, which is a good thing. It’s forcing us to compete and innovate, and it means more people are driving self-driving cars.

“I just can’t do it,” I say to him. “Family comes first.”

He sighs. “I knew you’d say that. It’s why I went ahead and processed the promotion anyway.”

I stop cleaning and whirl on him. “You did what?”

“Listen, hear me out.”

“David, you asshole.” I glare at him and he glances toward Julie.

“Don’t let her hear,” he says softly.

I take a breath and let it out. “You can’t just do things like that, David.”

“Listen to me,” he says. “You won’t have a team.”

I hesitate. “What?”

“I’m processing you as a division head, but you’ll be a division of one. Which means you can make your own hours and even work from home if you want.”

I stand there, stunned. Envoy doesn’t work like that. It’s built up of discrete divisions, each working toward a greater goal. Division heads are the highest you can rise in the company, aside from upper-level management, but I’m not interested in David’s job. Divisions are always built up of clumps of people, and a big part of being a division head is managing your people. It mean long hours, lots of in-person time, that sort of thing.

“What do you think?” he asks, grinning. “A division of one means you’re free to—”

I throw my arms around him and kiss him hard. He pulls me close and returns the kiss. That old familiar tingle down my spine returns, although it’s never really left. I get it every night, and sometimes in the morning, too.

“Ew,” Julie calls out from the living room. “Stop.”

I pull back from David and grin.

“Quiet, daughter,” he calls.

“Yes, Dad,” she replies, rolling her eyes.

I kiss him one more time. “You’re amazing.”

“You’re being wasted on Sven,” he says, shrugging. “Anyway, it won’t be easy, working alone. We can assign you a remote team, if you want, but we’ll take it one day at a time.”

“Why do you spoil me?” I ask him.

“I’m not,” he says. “I want the Mark 5 to be the best car in the world, and I need my best people doing their best work.”

“No pressure, then?” I grin at him, feeling giddy.

“None at all.” He kisses me one last time, and we return to work cleaning up the dishes.

This is our life now. Our work is intertwined in everything we do, and that’s because we love it. We love being around each other and we love building these cars. We’ve seen a change in the world just from the Mark 2, and over the last three years, so many lives have been saved. Still, we have a long way to go, and the auto industry lobby is fighting back against us. A lot of people don’t want to give up their cars, even though we’ve proved again and again that self-driving cars save lives, and people can’t be trusted.

We’ll get there soon enough. David is the best at what he does.

But mostly, he’s the best at being a father. He and Julie are so close now, it almost amazes me. I can’t imagine what life was like before him. She’s so outgoing and happy, and I think a lot of it is because David is such a good Dad.

And I have to admit, I find that a little sexy.

We finish the dishes and we join Julie for her screen time. She snuggles up against me and David grins at me from the other side of her. I smile back at him and I feel so happy, so content, that I don’t want to do anything else.

We’re saving the world. But we’re also making a family, and falling in love every day in a new way. That’s better than anything else. This man, my love, makes me better. And our miracle baby brings us even closer together, every day.