The dogs rushed ahead of Sarah and Erna as they all went down the winding hallway. They crammed into the tiny elevator, the dogs huffing and puffing with excitement, and descended to a floor Sarah had never seen.It was some kind of enormous living room. A long couch for at least twenty people lay sprawled out in the center like a giant. A ginormous television screen seemed to float in midair, possibly secured by an invisible wire. Directly under it, a fireplace ran the entire length of the wall. Tall palm trees, that were definitely not native to Connecticut, grew in designated sections of the floor. The trees gave the room almost a tropical feel. The dogs pranced ahead. They, like Erna, already knew where to go. Sarah wished she could explore. The house seemed to go on and on in every direction. She hadn’t realized it was so big. It had looked somewhat normal last night, but then again, it had been very dark. She walked over a small bridge with a pool under it and entered the grand foyer where the D.J. and partiers had been only hours before. The room, to Sarah’s intense surprise, was completely spotless. “Who cleaned all of this so fast?” she asked Erna. The android bobbed her head. “He is over there.” She pointed her silver hand to the right. Sarah saw what looked like a giant octopus. But it was some kind of machine. It was vacuuming up something off the floor. And then, it rolled away into a garage-door style opening in the wall and disappeared. “Mr. Prince refers to him as Cleaning Robot. You can call him C.R.”Sarah bit her tongue. Bent needed to expand his imagination for naming his androids. “Why does he call you Erna?” Sarah asked as they rounded the corner to the kitchen.But before Erna could respond, Sarah inhaled her breath. Bent stood shirtless at the stove. He was flipping pancakes onto a plate. “Right on time,” he said pleasantly. He wore loose black sweatpants, similar to Sarah’s. But she noticed he didn’t have to roll his five times to keep them from falling off. She stared at him. He was almost too painfully beautiful to look at. “So you’ve met Erna,” he said with a laugh. He turned his milk chocolate eyes to his dogs. “And the pups.” Sarah somehow managed to sit down in a chair at the glass table without falling. Bent placed her plate of pancakes in front of her. Then he handed her a glass of orange juice. “You don’t happen to drink coffee, do you?” he asked. Sarah shook her head. She was suddenly extremely nervous. The four dogs sat away from her with their heads on their paws. They all stared up at her with their icy blue eyes. Bent followed her gaze. “The one there, with the big ears. That’s Grumpy. Believe me, he’s a big butthead if he wants to be. Will chew off a man’s foot if I told him to.” Sarah took a bite of her pancake. She tried not to think of a man’s foot being chewed off. “The one next to Grumpy, the one with the twinkly eyes. Yeah, that’s Bashful. He’s shy. But don’t let that fool you. His teeth are nasty sharp.” Bent chuckled, taking a sip of his orange juice. “The third one with his tongue hanging out, that’s Happy. His tongue is always out. I always think he’s too hot or something. But nope. He’s just that way.” Sarah managed to keep the pancake on her fork without dropping it onto the ground. She hoped he couldn’t see how badly her hands were shaking.”And last but not least, I’m sure you can figure out his name.” Sarah looked where he pointed. The dog had his eyes closed and was resting with his snout on his paws. “Sleepy,” she said, giggling. Bent finished his pancake and set down his fork. “A for effort,” he said softly, giving her a small wink. She knew her brain would store that sexy as crap wink in her mind to come back to think about later. But for now, she tried to concentrate on imagining him as ugly and fat and full of spots. His glistening skin in a tiny pair of sweatpants that threatened to fall off his hips–She shook her head. Not willing herself to blush in front of him. If he could read her mind, she would probably die of embarrassment that she was thinking about his pants maybe accidentally falling off. “Oh, before I forget. Your friend Erin dropped these off.” Sarah hurriedly stuffed the rest of the pancake into her mouth while Bent’s back was turned. It would’ve taken her ten years to eat that one pancake. Her hands shook so badly. Bent returned to the table and set down the item before Sarah. When she saw what it was, she burst out laughing.