“We were in love. When I say we, I don’t mean her and I. I mean me and my clone were in love with her. But she didn’t even know I existed, just as I didn’t know my clone existed. I still don’t know he exists.”

“No, lady, you didn’t have sex with me, you had sex with my clone. I’m sorry, but I don’t know you.”

“Kate, I’ve loved you for years. I mean, I know twelve-year-olds don’t know what love is, so I guess I should say I’ve really liked you for years. But when I saw you this year, I knew. I knew we should be together. I just didn’t know how hard you were going to make me work to get you to even like me. So, yeah, of course I want you to love me back.”

“I don’t know. She was a sweet girl. As sweet as they come. I don’t know why I didn’t love her. It’s something you can’t really control.”

“He … loves her. Well, he’s crushing on her anyway.”I didn’t know the term but I understood its meaning well enough. I sighed. “I thought she’d be smarter.”He raised his eyebrows. “She’s plenty smart.” He looked thoughtful. “You don’t believe in love then?”“No.” I wanted to look away, couldn’t. “I don’t know.”

“…I didn’t even mean to. I was half asleep and just flipping over in bed,” Rachel is saying, poking pensively at the broccoli on her plate with her fork. “And my hand accidentally brushed…over there. He just freaked out! He flung it away like—like…I don’t know. Like it was a rat or a spider. And he called me a pervert!”