(Chapter 32)Helpful Advice

Ah," I said. And I looked across the table at Andromeda who was sincere and serious. And I felt bad. I had been unartfully dodging this question internally. "I think the arrow is pointing in that direction?"

"Mike, this isn't a user interface. What don't you know that's making it difficult to decide, when will that be resolved, and how will I know?"

"Well I'd really like to exit limerence before I decide to get married."

"Limerence?"

"Uh, it's the emotional state of infatuation. You know, the thing that makes your brain blurry about romance." I snapped my fingers, "The reason your mom told you to get a grip."

"So… if you're still in love with me we can't get married?"

"No! Sorry, uh," I felt very distinctly that being a super genius was not helping me as much as I felt like it should here. I took a breath and focused on remaining calm and thoughtful, "The state of limerence usually lasts about two years, and I'd say I fell into it with you around Christmas of 2009."

"Alright, Christmas 2009. So you'll know by January?"

"I think that's more than fair," I said. The real truth was I almost didn't know why I wasn't saying yes right now. Andromeda was a super villain now and keeping her on a leash was very important for my long term success. And I really did love her. Why was I fighting it? It wasn't like getting divorced would somehow be worse than even half the things I'd done.

On the bright side, I said as that thought occurred to me, if I needed to break free of Hydra, I could always sacrifice her for the soul stone.

On my bones, I wondered, what had happened to me?

--

"You blew it," Gert said, peaking her head around the door. She was a cute ten year old, with a round face and a bob of black hair.

"Sweetie," Stacey replied, looking at her seriously, "Mike is working through an important life decision. He shouldn't make up his mind at a dinner table because that's when Drama brought it up."

We were standing around in the cluttered Yorkes kitchen, which had lots of knickknacks and a heavy aroma to it. I had come over to try Dale and Stacey's new meat substitute, which was excellent. But I had been so visibly distracted that I had explained the whole thing to Dale and Stacey.

Look, they're the top of my social sphere in terms of sociableness and morality. Their marriage was good. Who else was I supposed to talk to about it?

"When a woman asks you if you want to marry her, you're supposed to say yes."

"I'm with Gert on this one," Dale said, raising a glass of juice in salute. "Women like to hear yes, you'll be paying for this one for a long time."

"Dale!" Stacey said

"Look, Chaucer figured this one out a long time ago is all I'm saying." Stacey glared at Dale for that one, but let it slide. Referencing the Green Knight is always a risky move, but it looks like Dale had skated through it.

"I appreciate the honesty," I told Gert, offering her a fist bump which she graciously accepted.

"Drama's cool and you like her, what's the problem? Are you guys not sexually compatible?"

I laughed as Dale blushed. "Gert, that's uh, that's not something that you ask people about their relationships."

"Mom says its really important."

Dale made several faces before settling into an acknowledgement. "Your Mom's right, of course it is, but it's also private. Why don't you come with me and we can get you started on your Spanish homework."

"He's being dumb," Gert said as Dale escorted her from the room.

"Maybe," I acknowledged. Yes, I thought privately, probably in many different ways.

Stacey leaned over after her husband had left the room, "Are you though? Sexually compatible, that is."

I covered my face with my hands, "Let's go back to talking about the meat substitute. Food meat substitutes. Food meat substitutes."

"She's not pregnant, is she?" Stacey asked, throwing in a helpful hand gesture as if I might otherwise be confused.

"No."

"Good. Not that it matters of course, don't marry a woman because she's pregnant. You're very well off, you can ensure your children are taken care of and you can live with whoever you choose."

"I'll keep that in mind. Now, the meat substitute, what's your price point right now?"

"Oh! So, right now we think we'll be close to breaking even with normal meat, maybe fifteen percent more. But once we get the supply chains up and running at an appropriate scale, we think within five years we'll be charging half the cost of a normal burger for a replication that tastes the same and has a better health profile."

"That's amazing Stacey. Any word on the miracle gloves?"

"Ugh," Stacey said, beginning to pace energetically. "We've been trying to piece it together, over and over again, and I think I can understand the process that it uses but we're not any closer to understanding how its produced. It's not enough to say how it functions, which is somewhat limited anyway, we need to figure out how to produce them."

"Well, let me know how the procedures go."

"So are you really going to run for office?"

I grinned at the question. "Tell me honestly, would you vote for me?"

"Sure! Why not? You got Jonah off our backs and you're helping all of us a lot more sincerely than he ever did. Catherine thinks you'd be good at being in charge. Are you going to run for Senate here?"

"I don't know, I might try for the Presidency if Ellis keeps running his mouth."

"Dale and I read your book," she said. "Do you really think those things could happen? Are Gert and Molly in danger?"

"Not any more here than anywhere else. I haven't told the public, but I think you know that every single one of those has come dangerously close to happening already. What you're doing should help. That's part of why I'm doing this - I don't want to leave any resources on the table in bringing us up to a competitive level."

"Yeah, but even if we get all this worked out, I don't know how what we're doing helps us in the short term."

"Well, I know I've got you in a holding pattern at the moment. But after I acquire some original samples, I'm hoping to have you working on the Super-Soldier Serum."