Everyone in the living room turned towards Ty's greeting except for Samantha. Then, as if remembering she was now a lady, she too turned. Jennifer and Helia kissed Ty hello, and afterwards, he asked Samantha how she was.

"I'm okay." She paused. "I'm going out later."

"Where?"

"To the movie theater."

"She has a date." Jennifer was in the kitchen, but still joining in the conversation.

"With whom?" Ty asked, quite alarmed, but trying not to show it.

Samantha interacting romantically with another human being (a real human) helped to cement her status as a person. Ty didn't like it.

"Wallace." Samantha's tone implied she knew how Ty would take the answer.

"You...can't," he sputtered.

Jennifer emerged from the kitchen to kick around a hornets nest she didn't understand.

"Wallace is your friend, Samantha's your cousin. I can see how this'd be weird, but it's happening anyway."

Samantha nodded. "She's got a point, Ty."

"Mama!" Helia cried. "Mama, come!"

Jennifer joined her daughter, leaving Ty to speak candidly with Samantha.

"Going on a date is weird, unnatural," he told her.

"I'm a girl, he's a guy. Nothing unnatural about it."

In the normal world, but things were different. He needed to make Samantha understand. "You said you were me, with my memories, and--,"

"Before you tell me how 'gay' it'd be to get with Wallace, I'm gonna cut through the bullshit here." She tapped on her temple. "I remember the errant thoughts about other men, and the revulsion and fear that followed. Fear you might be gay."

Ty shook his head emphatically. "I'm not gay."

"I never said you were." Samantha put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "But in this new body, I've had those same thoughts. I've also had thoughts about other women." She glanced at Jennifer, who was bent over picking up a toy. "She may legally be your wife, but she looks like the love of my life. Other times," she leaned in and lowered her voice, "I imagine what a dick would feel like inside of me, something you imagined at one point, and then shook off."

A car horn sounded from the driveway.

"Speaking of new things, Wallace is here." She patted him on the knee. "See ya!"

Ty spent the next couple of hours imagining the straightest porn images he could. Gay thoughts? Ugh, yeah right. Men disgusted him, while tits made the world better. He cringed. What was he really upset about?

Ty had envisioned (once, and for the span of a few seconds) being naked with another man. The thought had scared him, and he had repressed it, shoving it into the "do not revisit: EVER" box in his mind. Samantha had unpacked that box, and had gone screaming about the evidence.

He hated how she held up his dark secrets in themirror. Ty didn't want her to show him any other truths in the days to come.