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I’ve had a few girlfriends along the way.”
    “But not one that you felt that way about.”
    “No,” he said, and looked at her curiously. “Why? Is that so strange?”
    Something about that made Kate feel a little uncomfortable, but she wasn’t certain why. “Maybe you’re too busy partying,” she said.
    “What?” Joe laughed. “Where did that come from?”
    “Because this morning, you smelled slightly of alcohol. And you looked really hungover.”
    Joe’s eyes widened with surprise.
    “Dark circles, your hair messed up—”
    “Okay, okay,” he said, and laughed. “So maybe I had a few too many last night. But it’s not what you think, kiddo. I happened to be the person of honor at a going-away party.”
    “Really?” she said, doubly curious now. “Why? Where are you going?”
    “Seattle, remember?” He grinned at her. “I’m on my way to a new job. The kind of job that comes around once in a lifetime.”
    “Congratulations!” she said, and ignored the tiny niggle of disappointment she felt.
    “Thanks.” He smiled happily. “So what about you?”
    “I’m from Seattle. But now I live in New York.”
    “No, I mean the marriage thing. Have you ever gotten close?”
    “Umm… no,” she admitted. “Never.”
    “Okay. That’s surprising, too.”
    Kate could feel herself blushing. “Not really.”
    “Yes it is. You’re very pretty,” he said, and Kate felt the heat began to creep into her cheeks. “And you’re smart. And, bonus points, you’re a trouper.”
    “I am?” she asked, absurdly pleased by that compliment.
    “So far,” he said laughingly. “So why hasn’t someone snatched you up?”
    “Oh, come on—”
    “No, really,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many women I meet who can’t hang. Or maybe they can hang, but they can’t talk .” He shook his head. “It’s disappointing, you know? You take a woman out to dinner, and she’s hot, and then you discover she can’t carry on an intelligent conversation.”
    “Are you kidding?” Kate asked. “What about being on the other side of the table? How many guys have I gone out with and then found out they are unread and uninterested in anything but sports scores?” She realized she’d just described what she knew of him and looked at him in horror.
    But Joe laughed. “Touché, madam, touché. But you haven’t answered the question. Why haven’t you settled down?”
    Kate smiled wryly. “I guess because I never felt that way about anyone, either. But unlike you, I didn’t have a string of boyfriends to choose from.”
    “Now that’s just too hard to believe,” Joe said. “I’d think there’d be a line around the block, your poor navigation skills notwithstanding.”
    Kate laughed softly, but her cheeks were burning with self-consciousness. And pleasure. “At least I’m not an armrest hog,” she said.
    “Oh no, you’re not going to pin that on me,” Joe laughed. “ You are horrible with the armrest.”
    “Everyone knows the middle seat gets the armrest!”
    “I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life,” he scoffed. “You’ve got some wacky ideas floating behind those pretty green eyes, Kate.”
    She couldn’t help it—she laughed.
    “So how do you become an assistant editor?” he asked.
    “You read a lot. And majoring in English helped. How do you become an IT guy?”
    “You start by taking computers apart to see if you can put them back together.”
    Kate could picture a mop-top boy doing just that. “What is it about boys, always wanting to take things apart?”
    “Sexist,” he playfully accused her. “My sister is the one who showed me how. Why do girls always read a lot?”
    “It’s in our DNA. It so happens that there are more women book lovers than men.”
    “Include more sports scores and more men would read,” he offered, smiling at Kate’s laughter. “But the real question is, how do we get more women to deconstruct computers?”
    “Good question,” Kate