“Wait, 2.0? Who was 1.0?”
“Well, that’s what I’m trying to explain,” she said, feeling foolish. “See, 1.0 is the romantic. The one who wants the big white wedding and that damned Tiffany ring. It’s 1.0 who wants the bridal shower, the baby shower, and she really wants the actual babies …”
“And 2.0?”
“Thinks that men are shits,” she summarized. “She’s actually the one that made me volunteer to do this whole joint article in the first place. She was on a mission to prove that men can’t be trusted. Warn the women of America and all that. Sort of a female superhero.”
“I don’t think I like 2.0,” he muttered.
“Understandable.” She patted his hand. “Don’t feel bad about it, because she hates you.”
“And you?” he asked, turning to face her. “Do you hate me?”
She hedged at his shift in pronouns. Talking in the third person was so much easier.
“Of course I don’t hate you.”
He moved a half step closer, crossing his arms over his chest as though to keep from touching her until she’d said the right thing.
“Why’d you say no to Greg?”
“Because he cheated on me.”
“Why else?”
Grace resisted the urge to take a step back. “The ring was too big. Gaudy, really.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “One more try.”
Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit.
And then, oddly enough, it was 2.0 who was loudest in her head, taking control. You’ve got this.
“There’s this other guy …” she said, her voice raspy.
His arms twitched as though he was going to reach for her, but he held still. “Yeah?”
“Uh-huh,” she said, growing a little bolder. “And he’s not really a one-woman kind of guy, but the thing is … I can’t stop thinking about him.”
“Have you asked him?”
“Asked him what?” she asked, confused.
“If he wants to be a one-woman kind of guy?”
Grace felt her stomach flip. “Not directly. But I did come all the way uptown in a subway in the middle of a downpour.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “You rode the subway?”
“Couldn’t get a cab in this weather.”
“How was it?”
“Awful.”
“And was it worth it?”
She hesitated. “That depends.”