A weird and kind of dark conversation.

After taking a minute to recover, Jane shakily sat up. She was still panting and Ryan saw tears on her cheeks. As he rose to a sitting position next to her, she smiled at him.

"Has anyone ever told you that you laugh a lot during sex?" Ryan asked.

"Nope," she replied immediately. "That's because I don't. Or I didn't. I've never, ever come like that before. I don't have words for what that was like! It was... I don't know, but I wanna do it again. Soon."

"Next time why don't we try actual sex, not just hand stuff?"

She nodded. "I definitely want to. Although," she said with a pause, "would that technically be ****?"

He stiffened, the word ringing in his ear like an accusation. "What? Why would it be ****? You aren't just consenting, you're asking for it!"

She thought for a second. "I mean, the old me would have been horrified, but you're right. I love it and I want as much as I can get! So really, it's not ****. In a way, it's ****. You murdered the old Jane and replaced her with a much better one."

He was aghast. Somehow she'd made it worse. "I didn't **** anybody! I just gave you a ****! I made your life better in every way, and now you're accusing me of ****?"

She shrugged and grinned. "Just starting to think it through. I hadn't noticed till now, but I really do feel like a new woman. It's like... I don't know, like I can remember being Jane and I still sort of feel like Jane, but everything's different now. If it were temporary things would be different, but I know I'm never going back to that. The Jane that hated when people interrupted her, the Jane that would never have sex with a guy she just met, the Jane that despises her boss - that Jane's gone and she's never coming back. I don't miss her, of course. I can't! None of this bothers me at all."

Ryan felt the beginnings of an anxiety attack. What had he done? "I don't like to think of it in those terms. You're still Jane, just a little different."

She slid next to him and took his hand in hers. "I know I'm still Jane. I don't want to make you feel bad. I think I'm just searching for an identity now that I'm so fundamentally different. Would it bother you if I wanted to go by a new name?"

He coughed, surprised by the request. "A new name? Like what?"

She laughed. "I don't know! I keep thinking of new names and they all sound great to me. How about Sophia? That means wisdom, which probably isn't the most appropriate, but I like the sound of it. Sophia?"

"Sure, we can call you Sophia. But what about your job? Are you gonna make them call you Sophia too?"

She thought about it. "I don't know. Probably? It just feels right. Besides, I'm gonna have a whole new personality to go with it. I know I can act like Jane, but my patients are all sick and elderly. I'd rather inject a little positivity into their lives than try to fly under the radar."

"So you're going to work acting completely different and asking to be called by a new name? Jesus, people are going to think they're in some kind of body snatchers story."

She laughed. "If this is a story, it's pretty poorly written."