The Love Wager

Content Warning: This section includes sexual content and substance use.

Jack wakes Hallie up with an early morning text and suggests they coordinate their dates and meet at Taco Hut afterward if things go badly. Hallie doesn’t have a chance to tell Ruthie she wants to move out. Hallie lets Jack know she has a date with Stephen and is taken aback that Jack has met people, too. Olivia tells Jack she worries that he feels lonely. Hallie has the chance to move into her new apartment early, so she contacts Jack. He entertains her by describing how he already lost one potential date because he dislikes orangutans. Jack offers to help her move, and Hallie is convinced her spring has arrived.

In her new apartment, Jack and Hallie discuss their favorite moments from the film Pride & Prejudice. Hallie’s is the near-kiss in the rain. She teases Jack for being both romantic and complex, and they share a moment of eye contact where “something passed between them. It was almost as if the memory of their past—the existence of their night together—suddenly reared its hot head” (91). Hallie worries “that little second of weirdness was going to make things different for them,” which she doesn’t want, as she enjoys the friendship (91).