"James Patrick Kelly - Chemistry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kelly James Patrick)

going to the fifth floor right now and find a quiet
place and tell each other our life stories. Maybe later
we can swim."
"I want an olive pizza," said Tomasz, "and a liter of
kava."
"Okay, kava and pizza." She nestled up to him. "What
else do you want?"
He had a laugh that could worry a cougar.
"So Marja," said Lily, "maybe we should set a time to
meet?"
"No, no, I'll get home on my own." She gave Lily a look
like a bedroom door closing. "Don't wait up. I'll see
you at Freddy's tomorrow."
"Freddy?" said Tomasz.
"He's nobody," she said as she steered her prize away.
Lily filled with doubts as she watched her friend go.
They had promised not to let each other do anything
stupid. Did falling for a lion tamer qualify? Now that
she'd been abandoned, she wished she were home studying.
Coming to the Hothouse made sense in the romantic
abstract, but the men here were all annoyingly specific.
She wasn't attracted to anyone and even if she were, how
could she trust her feelings? They'd pumped her so full
of hormones she could probably fall for a vacuum cleaner
if it smelled right. She decided she didn't much like
being enhanced, although she understood that there was
no difference between the brain chemistry of neuromance
and actually falling in love. Despite her B+ in
Wessinger's class, Lily was reluctant to accept a
mechanistic view of her inner life. She didn't like
being reminded that love, hope and joy were merely
outputs of her limbic system. What she ought to do was
march right down for a refund, go home and stare into
her spex until she had memorized the immunoglobulins.
The idea was oddly comforting: maybe the enhancement was
wearing off. Marja had warned her that thinking too much
about it might spoil the effect.
"You didn't dance."
She moaned. "Oh, shit." She couldn't help herself. Steve
had taken off the navy blue jacket; he was wearing a
white shirt and a red striped tie. "I'm sorry. Look,
this has nothing to do with you. You seem nice enough.
It's just ... I'm probably going to leave. Get my money
back."
"Why?"
"Because I don't like being programmed. I mean, I
realized that's what would happen when I walked in, but
I thought somehow it would fool me. Now I know better.
This just doesn't feel like love. It's a chemistry
experiment."