What does he have to lose?

Matt wasn't sure calling Amy would do anything helpful. She'd basically told him to blow off that morning and he didn't want to be one of those stalking ex-boyfriends his mom's true-crime shows seemed to focus on. Still, following Karen's advice hadn't ever been wrong before.

Of course Amy's phone immediately rolled over to voicemail. She was blocking him.

Well, apologizing to voicemail was probably no more painful than apologizing to an actual person. "Hi Amy's voicemail, it's Matt. I realize I was thinking with my dick rather than my brain last night when I hurt your mom's feelings and I'm really sorry. I'm sorry I hurt your mom's feelings, of course, but I'm most story that I messed up our relationship. I'll understand if you don't think we can be friends anymore but I hope that you'll at least give me a chance to make it up to you. Uh, see you around."

He hung up, then looked over to Karen who nodded. "See, you don't need me to do the Cyrano de Bergerac thing."

"Yeah, you said that before. Is that an old movie or something?"

She sighed. "Yeah, among other things."

"Well, what now?"

"We might as well work on our trig."

They were getting into cosecants and cotangents when his phone chimed. It was Amy.

"Hi Amy."

"My mother isn't going to pay you or Karen."

"Yeah, I sort of figured."

"So, that's it, right? See you--"

"Wait a minute. What does your mom paying us have to do with anything."

"Come on, Matt. Get real. You need me as a girlfriend about as much as you need a shrunken head. You've got your sister who is better looking than me, that Vietnamese girl who is smarter than me, the cute redhead on the bus who... well, who is probably smarter than me in addition to being cuter and richer."

"But--"

"Is this about getting your feelings hurt? Because that's not a very good reason to mess with some girl's heart."

"Hang on."

Matt spent fifteen seconds reviewing his motivation. Why should he care that Amy had dumped him. She wasn't key to his streaming ambitions, he had plenty of cute girls lining up to fill the timeslots. Like she'd said, he had cuter alternatives for his sexual outlet. So, why did he need Amy. Could it be that he was just a stalking ex-boyfriend, unwilling to let go of a girl because he thought it made him a loser? Could it be that he didn't really think of girls as people but just as cunts with body parts attached.

"Okay, Amy, I've thought it over and you're right. I would be a total jerk if I just wanted you back to keep my feelings from being hurt."

"Right. So, I guess I'll--"

"But that's not what's going on. You're fun to be with. I miss you and Karen misses you as a friend."

"I... I'll think about it. My mom will kill me if she finds out I'm your friend."

"I'll try to find some way to make it up to your mom, too but this isn't about her... I mean, not really."

"I'll think about it. See you, Matt. Uh, tell Karen I miss her."

"You can tell her yourself." He handed his phone over to his sister.