It was my turn to nod. “I’m brand new to Chicago—I just moved here on Thursday, actually—and prior to that, I spent the last five years in New York, though I’m originally from a small town in Ohio. I attended college in Pennsylvania on an athletic scholarship and my undergraduate degree is in finance, which was a field chosen not because I was highly passionate about it, but rather I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was nineteen other than make money and understand how to make it grow. And now I’m here.”

“I can understand that. Did you enjoy New York?”

“I loved New York for the first few years I was there, and then it began to wear on me. I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent news; there’s quite a lot going on there now. Living there got very tiring toward the end.”

“So I’ve heard,” she said with a nod. “And now you’re giving Chicago a try. If you don’t mind my asking, what brings you here?”

“An old friend I grew up with, mostly. Plus I had always heard great things about the city.”

“It is a great city,” she agreed. “So, now that you’re here, what do you want to do with yourself?”

“I want to edit MDI directories,” I said with a smile.

She laughed. “Let’s be candid. I’m not so naive as to believe that MDI is a career path, though for some I suppose it is. We’re a small company, family owned, and we pride ourselves on choosing people who fit well into the culture here, even if only for a short amount of time,” she said, then looked from me to my résumé. “So tell me, how does a man—and excuse me if I’m being repetitive—with an undergraduate degree in finance, a sixteen-month stint at a brokerage house called Horne, Barnes, and Mueller, a year working for a wine importer, and who spent the past year up until May as a driver for a beverage distributor come to want to be an editor at a small company in Evanston, Illinois? And that’s not to mention the several gaps in employment I’ve noticed.”