“We made a deal. I’ll go camping if he reads Much Ado About Nothing.”

“And he agreed to that?” Suzanne asked skeptically. “I’d watch him, if I were you. He’ll haul your ass out into the woods and never pick up that play and read it. You get play payment up-front.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Imogen protested. “Would he?”

“I think it sounds kind of, I don’t know, romantic,” Tamara said. “Like he’s trying really hard to impress you and to find common ground with you.”

Suzanne’s opinion of that was clear from the height of her eyebrows. They had disappeared under her side-swept blond bangs.

But Imogen was inclined to agree with Tamara. At least that’s what the soft and foolish pounding mass in her chest wanted to believe. It was stupid, she knew that. She was, to be highly over-dramatic, which she never was but for once just needed to be, at risk for having Ty drive his race car over her heart and grind her into the asphalt.

The knowledge of that didn’t seem to be stopping her.

“Aside from all of that, which is confusing enough, I have thoroughly ruined my thesis,” Imogen said. “I was supposed to be following the Six Steps, or at least attempting the initial steps to see if I could secure interest from a driver.”

“I think you secured interest all right.”

That was true. “Yeah, but that wasn’t from following the rules. I think I’ve broken about every single one with Ty.”

“And the goal with Ty isn’t to marry him,” Tamara said.

True, but did she have to point it out so baldly?

“Of course not.”

“What are these stupid six steps anyway?” Suzanne asked. “I’ve been sweating my ass off at the gym with you and I haven’t even heard the rest of them. If they’re cracked, I’m not doing them.”

“Okay, well, Step One is getting date ready. Step Two is meeting him. Step Three is your first date. Four is getting in good with his friends and maintaining your own life. Five is adding intimacy and becoming exclusive. Six is letting him know he can’t live without you.”

Tamara and Suzanne both stared at her. “That’s it?” Suzanne asked. “That’s supposed to snag you a husband?”

“That sounds sort of like how every relationship goes to me,” Tamara added. “Those aren’t steps you can control either, I might add.”