“Hey, you’d better watch out for us mental midgets, my friend,” Jimmy warned him. “Trust me, God likes ignoramuses like me. That’s why he makes so many of us. We got you egghead guys way outnumbered. Don’t ever forget that.”

“Now there’s a sobering thought.”

“So tell me, Mr. Superior,” Jimmy went on. “What are you gonna do now with all that college knowledge you’ve got stored up in that brain of yours? You got a job on Wall Street lined up yet?”

“Not exactly,” replied Carter, “but I’m expecting the offers to start pouring in any minute now.”

“So what are you planning to do in the meantime?”

“Not much,” said Carter. “For the time being, I start working a construction job on Monday.”

Jimmy shot him a look.

“Construction? Are you crazy? You’ve got a college degree. Where’s swinging a hammer gonna get you?”

“Just as far as Italy,” said Carter. “That’s all I’m worried about right now.”

Jimmy slapped his hand to his forehead. “Oh no,” he groaned. “Don’t tell me you’re still all hung up on that Italian broad you were going on and on about the other day after you got home. I figured that whole thing was just some daydream of yours.”

“Figured wrong, Butch.”

“Carter, be serious.You’re not going to Italy.”

“I am being serious,” he said. “And I am going to Italy.”

Carter stared at the television set for a moment, but without really seeing the action, for his mind was somewhere else.

“Listen, I don’t know how to explain it,” he finally said, turning back to his friend, “but I have to do this. It’s like I don’t have a choice. You don’t know what’s it’s been like for me this past month. I can’t get her out of my head. It’s like nothing else in the world matters to me anymore. But what’s really weird is that ever since I met her, I want to be better.”

“What do you mean ‘better’?”

“I mean better. Better at everything. A better person. Stronger. Smarter. Nicer. I don’t know, just better. Anyway, I can’t think straight about anything but getting there to see her again. All joking aside, that’s half the reason I’ve been banging the weights around like I’ve been lately. It’s the only thing that clears my head.”

“Well, it hasn’t cleared your head enough, if you ask me. So tell me, what are you gonna do? Fly all the way across the ocean and start traipsing around trying to find this chick? You don’t know anything about Italy, and you don’t speak a word of Italian.”

“I’m working on that,” said Carter, raising his finger.

“Oh, really? What have you been doing? Watching Lidia cook?”