Page 96 of What's in a Kiss?

Fenny squints contemplatively. “I can see that.”

“In this life we’re happy together, but he’s got a better thing going in my Real Life than he has here.”

“You’re selling yourself short, Olivia.”

“But it’s true. I’m not enough. Not compared with that.”

“Which is why you pitched him so hard to Reisenbach on the yacht today?”

“Curveball, low and away.”

“I could have told you that would never work. Things here are different from your other life. For a reason.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because it’s such a good story. And stories create their own logic.” Fenny runs a french fry through ketchup. “And logic equals reasons.”

“But we don’t have an ending.”

“That’s because you’re still in the middle.”

“How should our protagonist proceed?”

“Hmm,” Fenny says, taking a swig of wine. “If this were a script, I’d ask myself, ‘What do the characters want and why?’ ” She hands me her list of pros and cons. “Why don’t you weigh these, on a scale of one to ten, according to importance?”

While I get to work, Fenny rests her cheek on her fist and looks toward the TV, where a woman in turquoise jewelry dumps a pot of posole onto the head of her dinner guest.

High Life:

Marriage to Jake 10

Successful Career 1

Financial Stability 1

Pentagasms 5

Real Life:

Relationship with Lorena 10

Relationship with Masha 10

Jake’s Success 10

“It’s seventeen to thirty,” I say. “Did I just make my decision?”

Fenny looks at my list, then at me. She nods. “The only question is how do you get home?”

“Multiple orgasms clearly don’t work.”

Fenny throws a piece of battered fish in her mouth and stands up. “Is there a man behind a curtain in this realm?”

I nod. “In my Real Life he was a celebrity yogi. But here he’s a rabbi-slash-car thief. He married Masha and Eli.”

“That weirdo from the wedding?” Now Fenny’s pacing. “Surely you can find him.”

“Nothing’s worked so far,” I sigh and look at the list again. “If I could shift any one of these factors, everything would add up differently.”

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