He frowned; he wasn’t getting his point across. “Like ‘last day of middle school, favorite song on the radio with the sun shining and the windows open’ kind of happy, like anything could happen and I would be fine with it.” He dropped her hands and ran his hands through his hair in a familiar way. “Which is another thing about you. I never have any idea what you’re going to say, you’re like a different person every day but at the same time you’re always yourself.”

There was a silence as Polly digested this. It was a lot to digest.

He wasn’t done. “And that’s why I want to go out with you. I want to go everywhere with you and see what happens.” He looked at her for a long time. “I know you said no before, but I really needed to ask you again.”

Polly looked away, clearly trying to make a decision. “Look, your mother is one of my favorite people, so I’m going to take a chance that the apple is at least in the same orchard as the tree.”

Asher nodded.

She took a deep breath. “The answer is still no.”

Asher stared at her. “It is?”

“Yes, but I’m going to tell you why. I can’t go out with you because I’m an alcoholic in my first year of sobriety, and you’re not supposed to date anyone until you’ve got at least a year.” She shrugged. “It’s not a rule or anything, it’s a strong recommendation.”

There was a long silence. Asher’s mouth dropped open a little. “But . . . you don’t drink.”

Polly stared at him for a full thirty seconds.

“Oh,” he said eventually. “You used to.”

She nodded slowly. “Yes. I drank all the time, I drank too much, and I couldn’t stop on my own. Now I’ve got nearly ten months of sobriety and things are so much better I cannot even tell you, but that’s because I’ve been taking all the suggestions I’ve been given by my friends in the program, and my sponsor, and I’m not going to buck the trend by going out with you even though I really want to.”

It was Asher’s turn to stare. “You do want to?”