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“I have no idea what she’s saying half the time.”
Scott looked up from his beer and sighed. “I have no idea what she’s thinking. Ever.”
“And even when I understand what she’s saying, apparently I’m missing all these nuances.” Reed jabbed his straw into his soda with more force than necessary, sending a splatter of dark liquid onto the tabletop. “Why can’t it be when they say one thing, that’s what they mean?”
“Because then they wouldn’t be women.”
Reed sighed and mopped up the drops then sighed again. “Explain to me why you got involved with Emma again?”
“She’s not evil anymore.”
“No, not that. I get the evil thing.”
Scott’s eyebrow went up. “You do?”
“I mean, not on a…I mean, I’m not attracted to evil or anything. It’s just that I get it has…allure.”
“If this is about the White Queen costume…”
“It’s not. I mean, it is, obviously, because you’ve seen it, but it’s not. I just get that our job is to be the good guy all the time, to suck it up when we’re wrong and learn from our mistakes and just keep doing everything for the good of everyone and everything else.” Reed took a swallow of his soda, forgoing the straw altogether. Scott watched him with a mixture of surprise and confusion. “It’d be nice to not have to be so damn nice all the time.”
Scott nodded and then shook his head. “Then what do you mean? If not the evil thing?”
“Telepath. You’d been down the road before with Jean. You’ve had the Professor in your head since you were a teenager. Why on earth would you got together with another telepath?”
“I’m not used to being alone in my head.”
Reed exhaled slowly and stirred his drink with his straw. “You should see if she’ll let you in on some of their secrets.”
“Telepaths?”
“Women.”
Scott laughed softly. “If she did that, she’d have to kill me.”
Reed smiled in return pushing the soda away and waving the waitress over to order a beer. “Ha. That’s the real reason. you hooked up with her.”
“In a nutshell.”