Loretta recounted as much of the meal as she could. She’d always had a fantastic memory, but for some reason, she was having trouble focusing. Still, Harriet knew how to get the details out of her, and poked and prodded her mercilessly until she told the full story.

“To summarize, you’ve got the hots for a guy you’ve met exactly once, and you think it might be because your atoms are haunted by the ghost of a dead woman. Am I hearing that correctly?”

“I mean, that’s the long and the short of it,” Loretta said. “I can’t think of any other reason why I’m so…different.”

Harriet sighed again and threw her arm over Loretta’s shoulders. Loretta snuggled into the familiar softness and closed her eyes, letting the warmth wash over her. 

“Dammit. I was afraid it was something like that,” Harriet said. “I just didn’t want to sound like a crazy person, saying it out loud.”

“Oh, it definitely sounds crazy, alright,” Loretta said. “And I can’t believe that’s the only thing I can think of. Might as well tell the Nobel committee to take back my prizes and while they’re at it, shop around for padded cells.”

“It’s not as crazy as you might think,” Harriet said. “Truth be told, the soul faction hypothesized that something like this might happen when you woke up.”

“Fucking hell, Harriet, how much did I miss while I was gone?” Loretta asked, alarmed. 

“Shush, you. You know the temporal psyche folks are a strange lot,” Harriet said. “Some of them think that the process only works because the soul itself exists outside of causality. Not that they’d write that up in any official papers; they’re weird, not stupid. At any rate, I had a chat with a few of them, and they said that if their theory held water, you wouldn’t be exactly the same as you were at the end of loop 3.”

“Score one for the weirdos, I guess,” Loretta said. 

“Well, a single data point does not a theory make,” Harriet said. “But you have to admit, it is a rather compelling data point.”

“Can I just bury my head under a pillow for a few years? Surely that would fix things.”

“Hah!” Harriet snorted. “You should have thought of that before you encrypted your data.”

“I can’t believe you never thought to use your birthday as a key,” Loretta said. “That would have unlocked all my files.”

“As a matter of fact, I did think of that,” Harriet replied. 

“So why not try it?”

“Because, you insufferable ass, the Project would have left you behind in loop 3 if I had,” Harriet said. “Seriously, woman, you burned a lot of bridges. I had to lobby hard to get you back for loop 5.”

“Aw, you do care,” Loretta teased. 

“Sweetie, I never stopped caring, not even when you were at your worst,” Harriet said. “Why do you think I gave you a second chance? There was a chance you’d be different, and I decided to bet on it. I’m glad the weirdos were right. I like this version of you much better.”

“Thanks, I guess. Still doesn’t get me any closer to figuring out what to do about Greg,” Loretta said. 

“If I didn’t need him to keep you alive, I’d say find a flight of stairs and give him a push,” Harriet said. “Man’s a serious threat to my plans to win you back. Christ, I can’t even rely on my cooking.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Loretta said, wincing. “I may or may not have promised to have dinner over there more often.”

“Please tell me he didn’t do the thing with the herb butter,” Harriet moaned. 

“He did the thing with the herb butter.”

“Goddammit. That man’s a menace. Maybe we’ll get lucky and that twink will take him off the market,” Harriet said, hopeful. 

“You mean Archie?” Loretta asked. 

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Harriet said. “He’s due to start his transition counseling next week, but it’ll be a little while before they can start the treatments. Docs still have to sign off on it. With any luck, Greg’s hormones will take over and he’ll figure out he’s pan after all.”

“Archie did sound like he wanted to make a play for Greg’s affection,” Loretta said. “I gave him my blessing to screw around, since I’m not sure when or if I’ll be ready for that sort of thing. Doesn’t matter how old his brain is, you can’t expect an 18-year-old to stay celibate for long unless he’s a serious ace. Still, I can’t say I like the idea.”

“At some point, you need to shit or get off the pot,” Harriet said. “For all of our sakes. I don’t want to rush you into a decision you’ll regret, but this could get messy, fast. That wouldn’t be good for any of us, least of all him.”

“I know, I know,” Loretta said. “And I promise I’m not going to drag this out for long. I just…I need to get my head sorted before I make any kind of decision.”

“That’s fair, I guess,” Harriet said. “You know, there might be a third option.”

“Oh?”

“Well, I’m poly, and you’re poly. Maybe he’d be down to share. That’d simplify things a bit,” Harriet said. 

Loretta bit her lip, using the sudden pain to focus her thoughts. 

Harriet did have a point in that regard. Even when they were married, they weren’t exclusive. Loretta still liked men, after all, and Harriet liked novelty. Sharing her wife didn’t bother her, so long as she didn’t feel like she had to compete for Loretta’s affection, and she rather liked cleaning up after the fact. Loretta could never quite wrap her brain around that one, but otherwise, it was an easy win/win, at least for them. 

But for some reason, when she thought of sharing Greg with Archie, well, the idea made her blood boil. Granted, that could be because she didn’t like Archie all that much. He hadn’t gone out of his way to make a good first impression. That could change, but the little bastard would have an uphill battle on his hands if he wanted to win her over.

Would she mind sharing Greg with, say, Harriet?

God, that was too hard to imagine. Harriet had about as much use for men as she had for an extra hole in her head. It didn’t matter how good a cook Greg was. Harriet wouldn’t give him the time of day. 

How about Thomas? He seemed like a respectable sort. But then again, Loretta couldn’t exactly say her judgment was clear in that direction, either. The idea gave her a little thrill, but for all the wrong reasons. Guy on guy was hot, period. She might be open to a tryst, so long as she could watch, but she couldn’t make heads or tails out of her feelings on a potential relationship. 

There was always a chance that Greg might be okay with being exclusive to her, even if she wasn’t exclusive to him, but that was hardly fair. 

“Somehow, trying to think about it just made me more confused,” she said. 

“Yeah, figures,” Harriet replied. “Well, it was worth a shot. What do you say we put on Casablanca and forget about this whole thing for a couple of hours? I’ll make us some French 75s.”

“I think that’s the best idea you’ve had all day.”