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wasn’t warned. Love never lasts with you.”
    Love. He hadn’t mentioned love. Not once. He kept love strictly out of his vocabulary when he dated awoman. It was ingrained in him, a nonnegotiable rule. And he never broke a nonnegotiable rule.
    He said, “I’ve enjoyed the time we’ve spent together.”
    She sniffed, sobbed, swallowed. “Enjoyed. Past tense. Oh, Dax…”
    â€œYou’re young and so beautiful…”
    â€œIs that supposed to make everything all right? Well, it doesn’t, okay? It just doesn’t.”
    He tried to think of the next thing to say. He was usually reasonably glib when it got to this point. But he didn’t feel glib today. He only felt…sorry. Really, really sorry. “I’m sorry, Faye. Truly.”
    She dabbed at her mascara some more. “Sorry doesn’t do me any good.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œThey say that you end up friends with most of your ex-girlfriends.”
    â€œI like to think that’s true.”
    â€œWell, I don’t want to be friends, Dax. I really don’t.” She picked up her Cosmo and downed it in one long swallow. Then she set the stemmed glass down hard. “I guess that’s it. Goodbye, Dax.” She slid out of the booth and headed for the door.
    After Faye was gone, Dax stayed in the booth alone for a while, sipping his club soda, thinking about how he hated ending it with a woman. Endings were depressing. He liked beginnings a lot better.
    Too bad beginnings never lasted. Too bad the nature of a beginning was to move along toward another ending. And the only way to stop the endings was to stop enjoying the beginnings.
    Unless a man decided to settle down, to find someone he could share a lifetime of middles with, so theirstory had no end. But a lifetime of middles wasn’t on his horizon. He was never getting married again.
    For no particular reason, he thought of Zoe. Of her too-good-to-be-true fiancé who had yet to show his face around the office. Of what a great assistant she was. Of how he would never have to end it with her—well, except when she moved up the next rung of the editorial ladder, which was bound to happen, and probably sooner than later.
    That would be a pain in the ass, trying to find another assistant.
    But he would manage it somehow. There was going to be no holding Zoe back, he knew that.
    At least when he lost her there wouldn’t be any crying, no groping for the right words and coming up with only hollow clichés. She would be happy when he lost her. He would be resigned, would do his best to keep her at the magazine. If he couldn’t have her guarding his office door forever, at least Great Escapes could get the benefit of her talent and drive.
    And that was as good as it got.
    In the end, a guy had to be grateful for small favors.
    Â 
    â€œSo I have this idea…” Zoe said the following Tuesday, as they were winding down the morning huddle.
    He’d been expecting this. Of course, she had an idea. She’d been working for him for just four weeks and already organized his slush pile. She knew the plan for the next seven issues backward and forward, had a great instinct for what would work for the magazine and what wouldn’t. When she flagged a piece for him, he knew it was something he had to make time to take a look at.
    She was on her feet by then, clutching her laptop, the absurdly large diamond on her engagement ring twinkling at him. “It’s…for a Spotlight.” She actually sounded hesitant, which rather charmed him. Zoe rarely sounded nervous about anything. Even when she wasn’t sure what she was doing, she took care to project confidence. “I was thinking we could discuss it—I mean, when you’ve got a spare moment or two.”
    â€œI’m listening. Tell me about it now.”
    â€œWell, all right.” She dropped back into her chair again, set the laptop on her