Just then, a knock at the door. It's Gretchen: "I hope it's not too late." The Hussy comes in to say goodnight to Dawson, and he kisses her tenderly on the cheek, but before she goes upstairs, she warns Gretchen that she hopes they both agree Dawson "will never be number seven on any list." Reowrrrr…fffft. Gretchen looks afraid. The Hussy departs.

Dawson walks over to stand in front of the fire, and there's a shot of him with his hair foofed up on the sides; it looks like an ass, literally. Gretchen tells him hesitantly that, if it makes him feel any better, she got to Dex's, immediately felt bad, and had the cab take her to the Ranch instead. He says that it does make him feel better. Gretchen adds that she got "the uncensored new-guy evaluation," and Dawson did quite well. "The age thing didn't bother them?" Dawson asks, and Gretchen says that even if it did, she doesn't really care: "It doesn't bother me." "It bothers me," Dawson whines, adding that he wants to do stuff with her, like go to clubs and order wine at dinner, and he doesn't want "to be some guy who's holding you back from what you wanna do." Gretchen says she's doing exactly what she wants to do: "I'm with you." Barf. Dawson reminds her of the not-shredding-her-heart comment, and says it's true that he'd never hurt her, but she can't use Dawson to find safety after a bad relationship "because there's no risk involved." Nostril flare: "I need to know that I've made some sort of impression." "It's already done," she whispers, leaning in. Yeah, no kidding. "Really?" "Oh, yeah." Oh, barf. Kissing. Barfing. "So when do I get to see Lucky?" Dawson smarms. "We'll see," Gretchen says. Yes, I suppose we will. Unfortunately. Dawson leers at her some more.

Witterschloss. Here we go again. Joey recaps the end of Drue and Anna's date for Pacey. Pacey doesn't get why Anna would take Drue back after all that, since she seemed like "a perfectly reasonable girl." Joey rolls her eyes and snips, "Yeah, sleeping with somebody you just met is -- totally reasonable." Don't knock it till you've tried it, Virgin Prochnow. Pacey drops his head and says that maybe it's "a little rash," but if it's two people doing what they want to do and it's "natural," he wouldn't call that "crazy." Joey withdraws from his embrace slightly and baits him with, "Unlike what we're doing?" He doesn't know what she's talking about. The thing they never talk about, Joey says: "We have a problem." Pacey agrees, saying that it used to be a small problem, but they ignored it, so it got bigger and blah. I really don't see the big deal here, either -- do they only kiss and grind against each other fully-clothed? I mean, seriously, intercourse doesn't seem like that huge a concern if you've progressed past second base, but apparently they haven't even gotten that far. Anyway, Pacey winds up by saying that now the problem has gotten so big that "it's starting to obscure [his] view of" Joey. Joey seizes on this and asks angrily if he's saying that either they sleep together, or they break up and it's her fault. Pacey says no, of course not, but they do have to talk about it. Joey says, on the point of tears, that it isn't her fault; they talked about it, and "you were fine with waiting." Pacey was fine with it, he's been fine with it, and he didn't want to sleep with her "too soon" because he didn't want to "jeopardize" the relationship, but "this is eight months and counting" (word), and he needs her to know that it's not his "fault" either.