Free The Experiment by Elliot Mabeuse Page B

done last time.
    Strangely, tonight was the only session in which the Doctor sat in shadow, so obviously he was trying to conceal his identity from Zoe. Since Amy saw him often, there was no point in hiding from her.
    She received no money for these performances. She assumed they were part of her job, though the Doctor had never made that plain. In any case, that’s how Amy understood them and she had no intention of complaining. She was extremely grateful to the Doctor and she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize their relationship.
    “And now there’s something I have to ask you,” Amy said when Zoe had run out of questions. “He wanted me to ask you, I mean. I’m asking for him, for the experiment.”
    Zoe sat up straight, as if in class. “Go ahead.”
    “He wants to pay your rent, the rent on your apartment. But in return you have to do something for him. I know it sounds strange…”
    “What? Tell me.”
    “You have to put cameras in your apartment. Little tiny ones, just for him. For the experiment.”
    “What? That’s insane!”
    “He’ll pay your entire rent if you’ll put cameras in your living room and bedroom. Like web cams. He’ll have them installed and no one will know. No one will see the pictures but him. He needs to observe you outside the experiment room. He wants to devote more work to you.”
    “Devote more work to me? Amy, that’s crazy! Don’t you think it’s crazy?”
    The girl shrugged. “I don’t know. I have them and they don’t bother me. In some ways, it’s good to know he’s watching, don’t you think? It’s good to know someone cares.”
    * * * * *
    They parted outside the restaurant, an uncertain moment made awkward by the intimacy they’d shared during the experiment and by Zoe’s shock and confusion about the cameras, certainly the strangest twist yet. The experiment was spilling out of the darkened room and into the world where she lived her life and Zoe didn’t know what to make of it.
    She decided to walk home. Walking helped her think and it was only a mile or so from the coffee shop to her own neighborhood. The autumn night was cool and crisp, the streets well-lit and there were people around.
    Could she even do it? Could she live her life knowing she was being observed? And if she took money for it, what did that make her? What did he hope to see? Once again she had to wonder at the legitimacy of the experiment. Once again she had to wonder why she was still involved.
    She thought of Amy, how she’d held her and kissed her, the way she’d trembled so helplessly, like a child. She remembered how her heart had gone out to her when Amy was in such need, and how Zoe had known instinctively that what Amy had needed was the feel of a person holding her. She remembered too the feeling of Amy’s lips, the sweet hunger of that kiss and her own sympathetic orgasm when Amy had climaxed. It had been the first shared sexual experience Zoe had had since her breakup.
    Amy had been such an imposing person when Zoe had first met her. How different she’d been in the throes of sexual need, how vulnerable. Had Zoe herself trembled like that when Jack had brought her to orgasm? Had she looked so terribly needy?
    What an amazing thing sex was to do such things to a human being, she thought. What a terrible and wonderful thing.

* * * * *
    There was a message waiting for her on her machine when she walked into her apartment, an event so rare these days that Zoe looked at the flashing light suspiciously for a moment, then put her things away and fed the cat before she hit the play button.
    It was Ben Abernathy, a fringe member of Jack’s circle. He was in the neighborhood and wondered whether he could stop by and say hi. He left his cell number. The call was only an hour old.
    Ben had been something of a joke with Jack’s crowd, strictly C-list, never quite accepted, never quite cool enough, teased for his infamous “look”—an affectation he used, a special way he