Everything Is Negotiable

Day two hundred and forty-six, Georgia. Love can move mountains and breaks like glass, at least the sort between a man and a woman.

„Everything is negotiable,“ says Jacobina. I meet her at a games evening in Tskaltubo.

Negotiable? Love?

Up to now my ideas about it have been naive, and I have the experience to show for it. I played games I could not win, and some of them I didn't know I was playing. You may know the feeling: something is wrong and you cannot say what.

Thanks to Jacobina I can now say what.

What she means by negotiating is talking to each other openly. Beforehand. Both of you put on the table what you expect and what you have to offer. Then both of you know where you stand and can decide accordingly, and nobody is surprised later.

Jacobina is married and lives in an open relationship, which is an arrangement I neither understand nor want any part of.

What I can use is the way she plays with her cards face up. That part I am going to steal.