Marlo has picked the very best person to be in love with. 

"Good planning," he says, only half aware of how much he's smiling. 

"I'm glad you thought so! I was really scared of how it would go."

"She wasn't going to not like you, I've seen how she gets around you." 

He bounces a little bit.

"It's weird that people like me!"

"Not to me it isn't," he says before he can think better of it. 

(Too much, that's too much, be less intense —)

Lev looks at Marlo like he's the most wonderful person in the world. "Do you really think so?"

"Of course I do. You're brilliant and passionate and sweet — the thing you said you liked about Jan's clothes was how comfortable she looked in them — and you're a great teacher and you are very, very likable." 

He really wants to punctuate that sentence by kissing him. He does not do that. 

Lev is bouncing very enthusiastically.

"I like when you say nice things about me. You're so sweet."

Possibly the way that Marlo saying that makes him feel is not very heterosexual. Also the way he keeps glancing at Marlo's lips and his arms and the way Marlo's shirt is riding up a bit to show a bit of his hip. (Maybe Marlo's not going to notice.)

He notices. He is not going to do anything about it. 

...okay, maybe he's going to hug Lev. 

Maybe Lev is going to rest his head on Marlo's chest in the hug in a way that makes Marlo put his face in Lev's hair.

(He shouldn't-- he was just on a date with a girl and it went really well-- he's supposed to be better, he's supposed to be fixed, why does he want this--)

He shouldn't, Lev was just on a date with a girl(?) and he's so, so happy and Lev has made his choice — 

And Marlo puts his face in Lev's hair and closes his eyes and relaxes around him and loves him, loves him. 

"I love you," he whispers to Marlo's shirt.

"I love you," he whispers to Lev's hair, and holds him closer. 

It would be so easy to lift up his head and kiss Marlo and tell him Lev made a mistake, the date was nice but being with Marlo is so much better than nice and it would be worth it to give up everything and be with him--

"People who are sexually broken one way," Christine says in his head, "are more likely to be sexually broken in other ways too."

He curls up on Marlo's chest and doesn't say anything at all.

"More than light," he whispers into Lev's hair, and adjusts the way he's holding him so Lev will be more comfortable. "I've got you." 

Two days later, Christine calls Marlo in for his one-on-one.

"I don't know what you want to do in this session," she says. "I can bring you a book, if you like."

"I have books. Mostly I wanted to say thank you for helping me help Ghost." 

"You're welcome. I told Serena that Harriet shouldn't participate in this step, but she overruled me."

"...not that I'm not sympathetic to having to wrangle Harriet, but that sounds like a very obviously bad decision. — that being the overrule." 

"Yes. I agree. But Serena has the final say on the girls, as I do on the boys." 

He has some doubts about whether Serena should have final say on anything, if she thought having Harriet date people was a good plan. 

"...speaking of Serena, does anyone actually date like that, because if so I'm very concerned about straight girls." 

"I believe the intention is less to give you the infallible rules of dating and more to give you a set of rules that work well enough for inexperienced people."

"...'remember that a feminine woman says yes to almost all dates'?" 

"Most of the time, the worst case scenario is an awkward and boring night, and it's not at all uncommon for women to discover they like the man once they have a chance to get to know him."