“Knock knock!”

“Um… Who’s there?”

  

Yeah. That was me, on my last date. Before you feel sorry for me

you should know that I was the one telling the jokes. 

Jokes as in

plural, because I didn’t stop with just one. Of course not.

  

 Hi, I’m Chloe Scott. The most awkward single girl in the city. 

But I’m going to get it together.

I am.

 

I’m going to learn how to date like a grown up. 

I’m going to have an orgasm not given to myself.

I’m going to fall in love and live happily ever after.

  

Right after I get out of this interrogation room.

 

I need to remember to be careful with this girl. She’s so… unsure of herself. She seems self-reliant, yet there’s this undercurrent of doubt that I don’t yet understand.

She walks across the studio and pulls a denim jacket from a small closet and shrugs into it, then picks up her bag and slings it over her shoulder. “Are you ready?” 

 I nod and follow her out, watching as she locks the door then tugs on it to make sure it’s locked. We take the elevator down in silence then hit the sidewalk outside before she asks if we’re walking or driving.

“Driving,” I tell her, nodding to the parking spot I got in front of her building. I unlock the car and open the passenger door for her before walking around and getting behind the wheel. 

“This is nice,” she says, glancing around the interior of my Range Rover. “This is more James Bond than FBI though,” she says, with a little wrinkle of her nose, her forehead creasing in concern.

“Are you disappointed?”

She shrugs. “It is a nice car,” she says as she buckles herself in and crosses her legs, resting her hands on her knees. 

“But I don’t think it’s government-issued.”

I laugh. “It’s not. Does that disappoint you?” I ask, starting the car and merging into traffic.

“I guess it’s okay.” Another shrug.

I take a right onto the Schuylkill and ask if she’s learned any new knock-knock jokes since I last saw her.

She turns her head and gives me a look. “Funny.”

“I’m genuinely curious,” I say. “You were killing it the other night.”

“No. But speaking of killing, did you know that at any given time, there are between twenty and fifty serial killers in the United States? Did you know that?” 

She turns in her seat to look at me, her eyes wide with interest.

“That’s quite the transition, from knock-knock jokes to serial killers,” I comment while turning on the ramp to the I-676.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” She shakes her head. “I just thought it would be fewer.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Like ten. I thought it would be ten. Maybe fifteen.”

“One would think.” I nod. Not really. Who thinks about this shit?