"Lin needs a boyfriend," you declare.
"I hear she's getting plenty of cock without one," Chen chortles softly.
"What I mean is, she needs a highly inappropriate one," you continue. "The way I have a highly inappropriate one." Chen freezes. "That'll show the bitch."
Carefully, Chen lays down his chopsticks and puts his head under the table. His back shakes. Only when he breaks out in a long, low howl, only partly muffled by the table cloth, do you realize he is laughing.
"Oh, fuck," he gasps when he raises back up again. His face is red and his eyes streaming. "That's great. Like who?"
"Justin Roth?"
"Justin?" Chen makes a face. "I thought he and Lin were already fucking each other blind."
"Only occasionally. If I made Lin my second face and Justin my third—"
"Whoa, you're talking about putting them together that way?" he asks. You nod. "But if they're already doing it now, why make it a Do-It-Yourself project?"
"To make sure they really are together! I don't see what's so hard to understand about what I'm saying."
"It's not hard to understand," he protests. "I just don't see that— No, hang on." He clutches the sides of his head.
"No, I get what you do," he says when he resumes. "You make your Lin your second, like you say. But you make some other guy your third. Put him and Lin together."
"Why? What's wrong with Justin as my third, putting him with Lin?"
"You still put him together with Lin. Like, make Lin and this other guy, your third, a couple. But then you send Lin out on the side to bang Justin anyway!"
Your jaw falls open.
"Yeah," Chen chortles as he picks up another bit of sweet-and-sour. "If you're gonna make it inappropriate for Lin, make it really inappropriate for her."
You cinch your jaw back into place. "Well, I was thinking that, if not Justin, then maybe your— Uh, Gary's friend David Kirkham."
You expect that to provoke another howl of laughter, but instead Chen gets very sober and grave.
"You mean putting Lin and Kirkham together, and Lin cucks him with Justin on the side? Wouldn't work. Totally unbelievable. No one would buy that my man Kirkham was letting Lin cuck him that way. I'm pretty sure Roth wouldn't take a chance on it."
"So who would work as a—?" You don't ever use the word, so you stumble over it. "Cuck."
"Someone who's also inappropriate?" Chen has to take, chew, and swallow on several bites of food before he has an answer. "Okay," he finally says. "How about—? Or—?"
They're both interesting and unintuitive suggestions. After thinking it over, you decide to take Lin as a second face, and for a third face ...