Riley helped me get back home. Thankfully I didn’t bring much with me the night before as we all wandered aimlessly from Anna’s house to Jim’s studio, but we were still a sight, a completely armless girl and a legless girl, both trying to get home, a glorified amputee walk of shame!

“I’m really sorry about last night. I don't remember much but if I heard you say you wanted more removed, I probably would have encouraged you to do it. I'm a little...crazy like that...” Riley said with a tone of shame that was completely foreign to her usual bright and bubbly nature.

“Oh, Riley—it’s okay...this is really a challenge, and it was too early,” I looked down and tried to bring arms into view that I no longer had. Instead, both empty shoulders shrugged. I wondered how on Earth I was going to continue going to work, let alone take care of my basic needs, “I don’t know what I’m going to do...I don’t have arms anymore and I can’t even get myself dressed!” I started to cry and had to use my shoulder to wipe the tear away.

“Megan, oh my gosh, let me stay with you and help you figure this out. After all, it’s the least I could do after last night.” Riley stopped her chair in the middle of the sidewalk. I stopped and turned to face her. Riley looked up at me and raised a hand to caress my hip sweetly. I was fully aware I would never be able to touch that part of my body with living hands ever again. “There are plenty of options. We can get you back to work in no time!” She stopped her hand and rested it on the slope of my hip and gave it a little squeeze.

I must have turned bright red. I liked Riley and the burning crush I had for her couldn’t be hidden any longer—not that I was doing a good job at hiding it so far. I pushed my hip into her hand and coyly swung my hip back and forth flirtatiously as if to wrap my hair around a finger, “That sounds like a good plan.”

When we got to my door and a delivery truck had just pulled up. “Are you Megan James?” asked the deliveryman.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Package for you.” The package in his arms was in a thick cardboard tube. He held it out as if to hand it to me and I instinctively held out my arms to accept it—nothing happened.

“Oh...oh, I'm sorry miss...” the deliveryman said embarrassed.

“You can set it right here!” Riley interrupted and patted the seat right in front of her leg stumps. The deliveryman cautiously set the package down in front of Riley. She had to look around the package to see where she was going. The package wasn’t very large, but it was almost the same height as Riley.

“What is this? What a hefty package!” Riley asked.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t order any...oh shit!” I almost tripped over myself as I realized what was in the package. “Follow me!” I raced to the door to get inside and took out my keys to unlock it...oh, right. “Dammit!” I yelled as I realized even the simplest tasks weren’t possible—but not for long.

Riley wheeled up behind me and reached her hand into my back pocket, pulling out my keys.

“It’s the silver one..yeah that one.” Riley unlocked the door and I raced into the kitchen.

Riley took a while longer as she closed the front door behind her, parked her wheelchair, and jumped out, hand-walking to the kitchen, pushing the package in front of her mostly empty hips.

“OK, I give up. What the heck is this?” Riley said.

“I can’t do anything with it—can you open it up?” Riley removed the tape sealing the package shut. As she pulled on the lid, it popped off with a hiss as atmospheric pressure equalized. Packaging popcorn flew everywhere. She jumped at what she saw, “Oh shit!”

“What??” I asked, startled. Maybe it wasn’t what I thought it was.

“It’s a hand!” Riley reached in and grabbed the hand, pulling it out of the tube. An entire arm came with it. For all intents and purposes, it was an arm. In some ways, it was even better than conventional arms: they are removable for one.

“This is my replacement right arm that I was given after I decided to remove my right arm. My insurance covers one replacement limb. I really thought I needed it, but after a few weeks I kind of got used to one arm and forgot about it.”

“Well, now I guess you can continue to forget about it again because you still only have one arm!” Riley and I both laughed at the irony of the situation.

Riley read a small e-paper display near the inner elbow that looked like a tattoo, “It looks like it has half a charge. Want to try it on?”

“Oh, sure, I guess we should.” I removed my shirt and Riley waited patiently.

After realizing she was staring, Riley looked away, “Oh, sorry.”

“It’s okay, you can look. You might still need to help me with a few things even with this new arm. I have a lot to get used to...I haven’t had a right arm in a few weeks.”

Riley gingerly helped me strap the arm over my bra. With some minor adjustment of straps and some minor frustration with getting everything straight, we got my new arm reattached.

“According to these instructions, all we need to do is press this button for a few seconds...” She pressed and held a small circle next to the display in my new elbow. The arm suddenly twitched to life, as if it had been electrocuted. Riley and I jumped.

For the first few seconds, my new fingers and other joints twitched uncontrollably. My sensory nerve endings were also out of control, like my entire arm had just woken up from sleeping on it for too long. As the super-intelligent machine learning algorithm got used to the arrangement of nerves still left in my shoulder, it quickly aligned its cyber-neurological pathways to my body. I gained dexterity by the second and in about a minute I was able to snap my fingers, tap my fingers on the table impatiently, and even picked up a nearby pen and pretended to write with it.

“That’s amazing...” Riley commented. “It’s like you have your arm back. I had no idea these things were so good these days.”

“You mean you don’t have any legs? I thought everyone was entitled to one of these.”

“I chose not to. I had my legs removed for a reason, and to have replacements would be no different to me than real ones...and I never wanted real ones. I never wanted to be able to walk, and I never wanted a lap. All I wanted was to be who I was meant to be and that’s this,” she gestured broadly to space where her legs no longer were.

“Oh, that makes sense I guess. Maybe someday I'll feel confident to be permanently without arms. Maybe I could learn to use my feet...”

Riley climbed up to a chair at the table, “If you like, I would be more than happy to help you learn.” She rested her hand gently on my new robotic hand.

“Wow...I can feel that...” I said in amazement.

“Can you feel...this?” Riley ran the tops of her nails across the minuscule synthetic peach fuzz that covered her new arm.

“Ooooh....wow, that’s almost...overwhelming.”

Riley continued to caress my arm, up and down different parts, allowing me to get used to the full sensory range.

“Take it off,” I commanded Riley.

“What? Your arm?”

“Yeah, take my arm off. I don’t want it on...at least right now. I don’t go to work for another day, and you said you would help me until then, right?”

“I suppose I did, didn’t I?”

Riley helped me remove my arm so that both shoulders were again devoid of limbs. I stretched, shrugging my shoulders, relieved from the weight of the new robotic limb.

At that moment I just knew it was the right thing to do: I bent over and kissed Riley sweetly. I began to pull away, nervous I had made a mistake, but Riley reached out and grabbed my face, pulling me close in a romantic kiss.

Still making out, Riley moved her hands down my body, feeling the curves of her breasts, and waist, then grabbing hold, pulling me into a strong hug. I was pulled toward Riley and she met me in the middle. I was supporting Riley’s full weight as stood up straight, Riley hanging from my body, still kissing. I really wished I could have returned the hug. I was completely turned on by the image of us, an armless, and a legless woman making out in the middle of my apartment.

Riley pulled away, “Take me to your bed before I lose my grip!” We continued to make out, one of my eyes open as I made my way to my bedroom. Riley peeked behind her. Realizing she was hovering above my bed, let go of her grip on my waist and fell with a gentle thud onto my mattress. She bounced once and landed in the middle of the bed. She patted the bed next to her, beckoning me.

I think I am going to need Riley around for more than just help...