Roman is slumped against Gerri's bathroom door when he hears her call, "Are you okay in there?"

"Uh, yeah." He straightens up, going to wash his hands. He's stalling as he looks in the mirror. So much easier when you can just hang up.

When he opens the door and comes out, Gerri is standing with her hands in her silk pyjama pockets, looking just as awkward as him.

"That was… nice," he says. It's not the right word but he never claimed to be Shakespeare. If Shakespeare ever wrote about this type of situation.

"Uh huh." She looks at the floor. "You should get back to Tabitha."

He should feel more guilty, really, for cheating on Tabitha. Does phone sex without the phone count as cheating? He consoles himself with the thought that she's probably cheating on him too. She even seriously suggested a threesome with Naomi earlier. He had hemmed and hawed before saying, "She's not really my type". What kind of guy turns down a threesome?

"So, what are we actually doing here?" he asks.

"What do you mean?"

"Come on. You've barely looked at me since our little phone adventure, then you get me here for the live version…"

"You invited yourself in, actually."

"You could have kicked me out. I know why I'm here, I just don't know why you're letting me be here."

"You really have very low self-esteem, don't you?" He must look confused, because she adds, "Maybe I like you. Maybe I'm flattered by you paying me attention."

"Yeah, sure, but… what's the real reason?"

"Roman…" She laughs. "The truth is, no one has really needed me since Baird. My daughters are all grown up. Even your dad doesn't really need me, I'm just a stopgap until he decides which of you kids gets the poisoned chalice."

"Okay." That makes more sense. "So is that it? You like me needing you? That's what gets you going?"

"Well…" She hesitates. "I suppose there's also the fact that it's a bit… wrong."

He stares at her, then bursts out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I just realised that we're probably soulmates."

"Be serious for once."

"Okay. Tonight I failed to have sex with my girlfriend even though she was pretending to be a corpse for me."

"Well, there's a lot to unpack there."

"I just don't get it." He slumps down on her bed, although she looks like she might object. "I don't get why it's so easy with you when it's so hard with anyone else."

"I'm not your therapist, Roman."

"Then what are you?" He reaches for her hand. "Gerri…"

She pulls away. "The truth is, this is safe for you because nothing can really come of it. If I was 20 years younger, or you were like, 30 years older mentally…"

"Why can nothing come of it? Cuz I will break up with Tabitha right now if you tell me to."

"Go on then."

"What?"

"Go and tell her that you're leaving her for an older woman. Your sister's godmother. Then tomorrow over breakfast, we can tell Shiv and Ken and all the others that we're now an item. I'll tell your dad to shove his interim CEO position up his ass, and you can tell him that you're no longer interested in running the company because you're running away with me instead. Go on, hop to it." She points at the door to the hall.

He gets up slowly. The truth is, he would do everything she just said, if he thought for a second she wasn't bluffing.

She opens the door. "Goodnight, Roman."