When Max looks at the screen he says, “But she does likeStar Trek.” Max looks indignant. “We watched it all the time.”
Ouch—I’m guessing Fay watched Max watchingStar Trekall the time.
Calmly, Chan says, “I think she’s telling you that she doesn’t likeStar Trekand you never really knew her.”
“Of course I knew her.”58
Uh oh…
“It gets worse,” Chan announces. “The next statement is: I like Fay for more than her Nobel Prize potential.”
Max shakes his head and shrugs it off. “Whatever.”
Chan takes a deep breath and I can feel something big coming. In a robotic voice, Chan reads, “The sex is great.” He looks up at Max for a reaction.
Max’s jaw drops. “What the fuck? She came every—” Max looks up and realizes he’s arguing with Chan about his sex life with Fay.
Chan holds up his hands defensively. “Dude, I’m sure she came. Girls never fake, right?”
I snicker. She totally didn’t come. It’s obvious. She probably should have mentioned that earlier, like during sex, rather than wrecking his PhD project a year later.
Roberta calls out over the grinder, “You just get to the sex comment?”
I nod and pause the video. “You might have to train Max up if Fay is right,” she hollers.
I laugh. “I’m willing to put in some work. I think Fay had communication issues. I don’t think she’s empowered enough to be in control of her own orgasm yet. Maybe after this stunt, though.”
“I’d make her a free coffee if I wasn’t already on Max’s side.”
“Sheisclever.” One half of the would-be power couple of the neuroscience community.
I hit play on the video. Chan says, “One more, dude. Hold tight.” Chan looks directly at Max, like he’s about to say something important. And he does. “I love you.”
Max looks mad at this point. “I did love Fay. How dare she say I didn’t?”
Chan just sits there. “I don’t know man. I’m not her.”
It’s so obvious that Max should have been having this argument with Fay, probably when they were still together.
“Seriously, what is this? Why did she do this?”
I know why—Fay is a jerk, but she’s also a genius. Max would never believe the lies in his own relationship without scientific proof. I guess this isn’t exactly scientific proof. She just used science to make fun of him. But wait. Fay plugged “I love you” in as an automatic false statement. That means when I told Max I loved him, I wasn’t necessarily lying!
Talk about an ex-girlfriend getting in the way. Fay takes the cake.
This isn’t to say that I love him. Now that I think about it, the idea seems crazy, but…feelings are crazy. I completely grant that I love him at least partially because of my recent brain injury and consequent dependency issues, but…I wasn’t necessarily lying. What is love anyway? Max is the only person I’ve been honest with, the only person I’ve been vulnerable with. I trust him.
After lying to JP, I think that’s a precondition to love. You can’t love someone if you don’t trust them enough to show them your true self.59That’s Love 101. Certainly someone has won the Nobel Prize in Romance for that, and I learned it from Lizzo. I’m not sure if you have to love yourself to love someone else, though.60Let’s get real. That’s way too high a bar. Just show them your unfiltered self and don’t tell them you’re a millionaire when you actually are in debt to a hot-air balloon company.
I text Max: I saw the vid.
It’s not that bad.
He responds:It is.
I don’t understand what happened.
I can feel the confusion coming through the text. Max has no clue what happened to him. I can totally see it from my vantage point, but he’s too close. That Y chromosome doesn’t help either.
