Andrea sat manneredly across from her boss, Juliet, a rather tall and attractive blond with glasses. She wore a white blouse and a black skirt with black stockings. Typical female boss attire. Andrea was nervous that maybe her methods of weeding out the weak dolls were inhumane or “wasteful to the company”. It was true that technically the dolls were engineered human mimicries that weren't worth enough for respect, but it was still possible out it was a needless waste of Arafa Corp.’s funds.

“Do you have an idea of why I've called you to my office?”

“To be honest, not really,” Andrea answered, tensing a little.

“Oh Andrea, don't be nervous. You're not here to punish you, you're here so I can reward you!” she said, crossing her legs.

“Reward me?”

“Well, you've had the highest percentage of compliant dolls consistently for the past month! That's cause for some promotion.”

Andrea was pleasantly surprised. “Oh, thank you! Am I getting a raise?”

“It's really more of a promotion than anything else.”

Then she paused and said, “It’s come to my attention the rather unorthodox methods you use to select the dolls we package for consumer consumption.”

“Well, yes,” Andrea replied, not knowing what to expect.

“Well, has anyone told you what we do with the rejects?”

Andrea never cared what happened to the rejects because she dealt with them her own way. “Well, no.”

At this, Juliet reached down beneath her desk. After a few seconds, she finally pulled it out and placed it on the desk.

Or rather, him, on the desk.

“This is yours. For your exemplary work, you are now being awarded the ability to select any amount from our pile of rejects!”

“You can't treat me like this, I'm a human being!” the doll said.

Juliet looked at Andrea and said, “Well, there's a reason they're rejects. You know why we can't sell these, right?”

Andrea nodded. The consumer dolls were deposed supposed to be toys at the whims of the owners, responding at their beck and call. Anybody rebellious or defiant was labeled a reject and stuffed in a back room or something.

“Well, go on. Take it!” Juliet urged.

Andrea looked at the small doll and hesitated. It's one thing to toy with them for work, but for pleasure? Andrea wondered about the moral implications, then remembered they weren't human.

Gladly, she grabbed the doll person and held him clenched in her fist.

“Very well,” Juliet said. “In that case, you're free to go. But you're always welcome to help yourself to a doll from the back storage.”

“Thanks,” Andrea said, standing up. She stuffed the protesting doll in her pocket, already thinking of things to do to it when she got home. She left the office, left the building, then got into her car, the doll still squeezed by the pants against her thigh. Andrea was finally in possession of the freedom of doing whatever she wanted to a doll without worrying about a quota.

This was going to be fun.