“Sorry?”
“For the thirty minutes.”
“Do weneeda timer?” Carrie asked.
“I don’t know. We’re supposed to be following those rules, right?”
“I meant that we could just use the cards and go for as long as we want. If we go over, we go over, right?”
“You want to gooverthe thirty?” Gage asked.
“No, but we could if we wanted to.”
“Right…” Gage said and sat down on the bed. “Go for it. What’s question one?”
Carrie sat down across from her and asked, “What is your deal?”
“Sorry?”
“Do you even want to be here?”
“With you?”
“In general. Do you want to be here in general? It really doesn’t seem like it.”
“I paid my money, didn’t I?”
“You’re not acting like it right now, or at all.”
“How am I supposed to be acting, exactly? At a singles’ week sex event, where I can’t talk about sex, love, or relationships unless I’m in a room with the womanNiatold me to be with?”
“It’s not a sex event,” Carrie corrected.
“It’s partly a sex event.”
“Yes, but the rules are that you want more than just sex. If you just wanted to sleep with women, I’m pretty sure you’d have options for that. Did you lie about why you wanted to come here?”
“No.”
“Because that’s messed up, Gage. The women here–”
“Hey, I want the love thing, too, okay? I just…”
“What?” she asked after Gage didn’t finish her sentence.
“I’m not good at it, okay? I’m not good at relationships. The best relationship I’ve got is a friends-with-benefits with my best friend, who has a girlfriend.”
“You’re cheating with your–”
“What? No. They’re in an open relationship. Her girlfriend sleeps with other women, too. I don’t cheat, Carrie. I just don’t do well in relationships. I thought this would be a good way to have some pressure-free sex, yeah, and if I met someone, cool, but we’d be right for each other because Nia knows what she’s doing, or so I’ve been told, and it would help me feel more confident about it.”
“Because she paired you up with someone she thought you could be with?”
“Yeah.”
“And she knows what she’s doing?”
“Yes. And don’t get me wrong, the first night was great, but we’re not meant to be. Then, last night was more annoying and frustrating, and I got scolded by Nia.”
