She'll think about it

Elizabeth shakes her head.

"I just don't know. I mean, women are supposed to be--"

"You know what," you interrupt, "I don't give a shit what women are supposed to be. My ex was caught up in that same bullshit. Got to trap a male and make him provide for you. Don't look to anxious to have sex... a man won't buy the cow if he gets the cream for free. Maybe it makes her happy, I sure as hell don't know. But it doesn't make you happy. So, whether you want to date me or not, you're not going to be happy if you can't admit to yourself that you shouldn't bother trying to live up to someone else's Victorian ideals of what female sexuality is all about."

"Uh, wow."

"What?"

"That's kind of profound."

"Yeah, sorry. Maybe I got carried away."

Elizabeth laughs. "Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I think you're right. I mean, I know you're right. I'm a librarian. It's not like I haven't read half the self-help books on the shelves. But..."

"When people tell you you're a loser, after a while it sinks in. And even if you tell yourself it isn't true, there's still that nagging doubt." It's something you can identify with. You've certainly spent most of your life convinced you were a loser thanks to a parade of High School jocks, rejection by cute girls, and especially humiliation by Amber.

"So, anyway," Elizabeth says, "I did more research on MicroStuff."

"Yeah?"

"Well, I already told you that they're in bed with some prosperity doctrine church."

"Which doesn't make sense if they really are working on hacking the sim. Why would they want to share?" Especially as you know they don't want to share... and will resort to **** to keep anyone else from playing the game.

"Okay, but listen. I said I've learned more."

"Got it. Listening."

"On a couple of occasions, ex-members and politicians seemed intent on investigating and maybe exposing some of the church/company's secrets."

"Nothing I heard about."

"Right. Because each time, the whistle-blower died. Of natural causes, of course." She nods. "And they seem to have some sort of secret layers. Sort of like the Masons or something. You can be in the church forever and never know there are more advanced levels but there are."

"Interesting. Can you get a membership list? I'd love to see if Amber has made it to an advanced level."

"No, I can't. I tried to hack into the corporate database and got shut out so fast I decided to unplug my computer and replace my Ethernet card so they couldn't track me by my MAC address."

"Got it."

"Anyway, if you think it's safe, I'd be happy to go out on a date with you sometime. But I warn you, I might get carried away with sex again. So if you're not ready--"

"Believe me, I have no complaints at all."