"The Price of Friendship" - My First SciFi Short Story (opens in new tab)

$14.95. Change back on a 20. A reasonable fee for an hour of conversation. An hour should be all I need. There hasn't been a lot going on lately, but the apartment has felt a little lonely. After a long day of QCing 873 different variations of virtual toaster ovens (each one supposedly "smarter" than the last), a guy could use some real companionship. Things have been a little easier since DataHive released their latest version of the Neurogenic AI assistant last year. For the longest time pe...