Whack! Janey’s hip caught the edge of the entryway table. Her pale grey skin split like a ripe plum and lemon yellow gel glistened in the cut. Looking over her shoulder, she had been hurrying into the house. A creeping fear stoked her steps. Janey applied pressure to seal the wound.

Jarred, a delft print bowl wobbled over spilling potpourri on the tabletop and floor. The bowl smacked a ceramic figurine of a rabbit, a gift from ChiChi from their trip to Big Hurricane, which toppled to its side cracking one ear. Barking at the excitement, Griffin their new puppy ran into the hall followed by ChiChi.

“Goddamn it Chi. You promised to stop moving things around,” Janey said, rubbing her now mostly healed thigh.

“Is it my fault you have wide ass hips? You okay, babe,” ChiChi said reaching for her.

Janey slapped her spouse’s hands away. Snuffling the fragrant rose petals, Griffin pounced on a dried orange. Tail held low, the puppy carried his prize in offering to the clear plastic screen door.

“No, Griffin, no. Drop it, drop it. Good boy. It’s not funny Chi. Every week you are rearranging the furniture. This table has been in four different places alone. I’m sick of tripping over stuff because you won’t let shit be. This is bananas.”

“Hold the phone! this can’t be about the table in the entranceway. What’s going on, babe? You’re the one who said you wanted a place to park your keys and put down packages. The old setup with the grandfather clock wasn’t meeting our needs, anyways.“ ChiChi said as they stooped to collect the fallen items. "You wanted me to help out more around the house, okay.”

Withher flat hqnd, Janey slapped the small table. Looking away from a small fluttering object in the distant fields, Griffin turned to his owners and raised a confused ear.

“First you are not helping me like it’s my job to do all the household chores while you farm. You’re not doing me any favors by washing your own dirty dishes. Second, this moving fuiniture shit is not remotely cleaning up. I don’t want you getting a hair up your butt and youstart moving my stuff upstairs and then downstairs and then back upstairs again. Can you just stop moving shit. Is that too much to ask? Stop. Moving. Stuff. Shit, I have worries enough,” Janey said.

Whimpering, Griffin backed out of the foyer to hid in his crate. Janey looked over her shoulder again staring through the solar door. The view was clear but Janey couldn’t shake the eerie feeling of being watched. In the fields, on the way to visit friends, buying supplies, even in her botany lab, unseen eyes tracked her movements. Again and again, it had been happening. Tingling up her back, the knowing slow burn of eyes on her back. Tears smarted her eyes, Janey remembered how it felt after they were liberated from the brothel after the Civil War those early days when she lived in fear each moment she was sure they would be recaptured. ChiChi stood up and flung the bowl onto the table.

“Damn, chill,” ChiChi said under her breathe earning a quick scowl from Janey. “So it’s happening again.. Your mysterious stalker is back.”

Arms folded, ChiChi with a wry smile leaned against the door frame. She made air quotes around the word “happening.” Janey slammed the figurine on the table.

“I’m serious. I feel eyes on me. I feel them, Chi. It is not like last time. Something’s not right.”

“Well that’s why we have our new big guard dog. No one is going to mess with our big handsome boy,” ChiChi said puncuating each word with head pats and belly rubs for Griifin.

Janey stepped closer to the clear door. There had to be a word for it when you know you are be surritiously surveyed. Janey wanted to say she shouldn’t have to justify herself to her feelings to her own partner. Janey believed there was a an invisible string that connected all living things. That for her entire bike ride home from Ryan’s place she had feel the weight of unwelcomed eyes, eyes with bad intentions. Janey just wanted to be believed. But ChiChi didn’t believe in human intuition especially for Androids like them. But they were made of skin grown from flower petals. Their nerves and muscles had been grown from donor human tissue. Creatures evolved to detect predators, to look for clues, to read gazes and body positions. As sex workers their brains were developed to be attuned to humans. Every gesture was a form of communication.

Janey pressed her forehead to the smooth plastic solar door. Why wS RHIA HAPPENING TO HER.It was warm. ChiChi came up behind her enveloping her in a bear hug. Taller and leaner, ChiChi rested her chin on Janey’s shoulder. The softness of her cheek gazed Janey’s own. Janey closed her eyes and leaned back in ChiChi’s embrace.

“Maybe we can take a few days off. Let Lena watch Griffin and we go to the Jovian Circus or just lay in a hotel bed until obscenely late in the morning. No orchids, no research, just you and me,” ChicChi said.

The puppy bounded back to the front door and whacked his excited tail against ther legs. His ears twitched to a sound only he could hear. He lowered his ears and growled.

"Come away love and I’ll show you how I messed up the kitchen,” ChiChi said unfolding herself from Janey’s body.

Janey turned and let herself be drawn away from the door and its worries. Capturing video, the microdrone buzzed closer. The dog launched into a volley of shrill barks.

“No, Griffin, no barking. C’mon here, boy.. Let’s see Chi’s hot mess.”