[he has to laugh at that guesstimate of 60 percent, as if it boiled down to a mere numbers game. not at her so much as at himself; it sounded like something he would say.

for once, he doesn't mind her getting close. overall, he wasn't a huge fan of proximity, but he can tell that she's taken his advice: she's being herself, for better or for worse. and he can't help but feel proud of that, because he knows it came about because of him. because of that brutal honesty which forced this side to the surface. forced the truth.

he peers back at her and he relaxes a bit, his expression the slightest bit softer. monika was a nightmare, figuratively and otherwise, but she was almost appealing here.]

Nah. I think it's a little more complicated that.

[sighing, he looks away for a second or two. maybe she wasn't the only one who wasn't sure.]

Look. I don't hate you. I never did. But you can't treat people like prizes. And I know that sounds ironic coming from me, but we're more than just commodities. The world is full of human beings, and it might be easy to write them off as zeroes and ones, but it doesn't work that way.

[was he really giving her a pep talk? oh well, he thinks. stranger things have happened.]

I don't really know anything about love. But I do know it's not a matter of winning or losing. It's a matter of being human.