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Toby now began to pace the bedroom. “He’s met me. He knew you were married. We’d been out to dinner with him and his wife.”

“Yeah, well that’s how scumbags operate, Toby.”

“Did you remind him that he knew me?”

“I’m sorry, Toby, no, I didn’t, I really didn’t realize this was about you at …

He was learning from Rachel, too. They went skiing—he had never been skiing before, but she’d learned because her school had a ski trip every year and finally, when she was a senior, her grandmother handed over the $250 and let her go. She was helping him negotiate the strange, surprising, suddenly…

When he woke up in the morning after the three hours of postdawn sleep they’d decided to allow each other, he watched her for a few minutes. She was still so pretty in the daylight, even with smudged mascara and caked saliva in the corner of her mouth. He went out to get breakfast. He stood in line…

They had sex that night, which was for the best, since he didn’t think his ego could handle an extended period of time in which he wondered if she thought of him as a friend or an actual romantic contender. He kept thinking, “She’s a real girl.” Not in a sexist way. No, in a Pinocchio way. She was …

“All right,” he said. Her eyes were a fishhook. “Negotiate with me.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’d like four for the price of two.”

“I’m sorry, you have to pay for all four.”

“I’ll only be paying for two.”

He made his body into a stubborn stance, crossing his arms over his chest and turning hi…