"No, I'm surprised that they would think that I'm a tease," she said, horrified at the idea. "I hate teases. You don't tease. If you flirt, you put out. How difficult is that to understand? An if I wanted exclusive, why would I be flirting in the first place? Merlin, people really should broaden their definitions of couples."
Marlene sighed. "There's more reasons to the lack of wife that our friendship." Maybe her death had made things worse, but there wasn't anything she could do about that. "I'm not sure being in love even begins to encompass what we are to each other. People are in love, they fall out of love, they find another love. I couldn't live without Alastor. I couldn't find someone to replace him, and I don't try."
She turned to Emm, smiling. "Have you ever read Plato's Symposium? Human beings had four arms and legs, one head with two faces, and Zeus split them because he was afraid of their power, and condemned them to spend their lives searching for the other half, their soulmate. I've found mine when I was eleven. So no, I don't think I'm in love with him. I think I'm with the person that completes me."