End of Day One; Eric needs a chat

You ended up deciding that you all should walk back over towards your place - one of the reasons you’d been able to find the sublease with Mosche was because he lived about fifteen minutes from the main University campus, so you cut through there instead of ordering up a ride or grabbing a bus right as rush hour was about to start.

Many of the lawyers had made a fast escape, trying to avoid the same delays in getting wherever they were going, but you did see a few sticking around to talk to Judge Mathews. You were a little tempted to try and hobnob with him a little, maybe try to make a more personal impression, but decided that might not look good since he would be ruling on the mock trial - you’d keep that for after the ruling was made.

The four of you had made it outside, the summer sky clear and sunny, when you were stopped by Maeve appearing next to you and making you do a double take because it felt like she’d just apparated out of thin air. “Did you ask them?” she asked bluntly.

“Ask us what?” Eric asked.

Maeve thankfully ignored him. “I did,” you said. “We can make plans tomorrow.”

“Good,” she nodded, then turned to Gemma and Sabrina. “It’s nice to meet you.” Then she shifted her satchel strap on her shoulder and started walking down the sidewalk.

“What was that about?” Eric asked, obviously confused as he watched Maeve walk away. She might not have been as curvy and endowed as Amanda, but she was still attractive.

“Oh, she wants to change sides,” Gemma said, starting to smirk a little. “She thinks we’ll win, and she’s willing to trade sexual favours to join our team.”

“Wait, really?” Eric asked, then saw the look on Gemma’s face and rolled his eyes.

“Eric, don’t you have a girlfriend who would care about you accepting sexual favours?” you asked.

“I mean… Yeah, I guess,” Eric said. You had all started walking in the direction you needed to go. “But she did say I should have breakup sex with Lucy, so she might say go for it.”

“Here’s a question for you,” Sabrina said. “Does that go the same for her? If she was just getting out of a relationship, toxic or not, would you be OK with her banging it out for closure?”

“Well, no,” Eric said. “But that’s different.”

“Why’s it different?” Gemma asked, and you suppressed the urge to groan because you knew there was no way Eric was coming out on top of this one.

“Because sex is different for guys and girls,” Eric said. “It’s about partner bonding, right? Like, it’s easier for guys to have sex without getting emotionally attached, but for 90% of females sex creates partner bonding and hurts their ability to connect with future partners.”

“There is so much to unpack there,” Sabrina sighed, shaking her head.

“Are you telling me that I have a harder time ‘partner bonding’ with John because I was in a committed relationship before?” Gemma asked.

“Well, I mean, unless you’re in that 10%,” Eric said, his expression shifting slightly as he realised what he’d already stepped in. “It’s just evolutionary biology though, it’s not me saying it. It’s science.”

“And what about the fact that John and I developed emotional bonds even if we started out just hooking up?” Sabrina asked. “Or the fact that John’s emotionality is what made Gemma and I both fall in love with him, like, super fast?”

“I… don’t know,” Eric said. “I’m not the guy who came up with this stuff.”

“Eric,” you said. “Maybe you need to consider vetting the dating advice you’re getting from podcasts. Just because someone says it and it sounds good doesn’t mean it’s valid.”

“It’s real science,” Eric said. “Seriously, it’s like, there’s whole books on it. Written by academic professors.”

“Are they single?” Sabrina snorted. “Because that might explain some of these theories.”

“The real question is if the science is being appropriately quoted,” Gemma said. “People misquote statistics and studies all the time, let alone when the academics manipulate their own data. I’d bet that these guys you’re listening to are only partially quoting the actual science, or cherry-picking the findings, Eric. Have you actually read the books or studies of the actual academics?”

“I don’t have time for that,” Eric said. “I have a life to live.”

“How many hours of the podcasts have you listened to?” Sabrina asked.

“Well…” Eric hesitated.

“Check and mate,” Sabrina said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “Now are you going to listen to me and Gemma about dating, two attractive, smart women who know you and care about you enough to want to see you happy, or some dudes on the internet who make money off of guys’ desperation?”

Eric blew out a long breath. “Both?” he hedged.

“What?” Sabrina asked. “Why?”

“Well, you two did hook me up with Lucy,” Eric pointed out. “And the sex was pretty alright, but I mean, she was crazy.”

“That’s what you want to hear,” you muttered. “The sex was ‘pretty alright.’”

“I hate that you have a point there,” Gemma grunted, smirking a little as she glanced at you after your comment. “So maybe we got overzealous with you and Lucy. We knew she was looking for a boyfriend, and you were looking for at least a summer girlfriend, but we didn’t do enough homework on how you would actually interact. That’s our bad.”

“Hey, I’m not looking for an apology,” Eric said. “I did get a bunch of sex out of it.”

“Oh, Eric,” you sighed, clapping both your hands on his shoulders since you were walking behind him at the moment. “Relationships are about so much more than sex.”

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