“Interesting.” Harlan was silent for a beat. “Hypothetically speaking, if you and I had met under other circumstances and I had invited you out on a date, do you think you might have said yes?”

“Hypothetically speaking, when was the last time you went out on a real date?”

“It’s been a while,” he admitted. “I’ve been a little busy lately. You didn’t answer my hypothetical.”

“Yes,” she said. “I would go out on a date with you.”

“Why?”

“Because you gave me the right answer when I asked you if you would walk into hell to search for me. I know you had ulterior motives, but you did come up with the correct answer, so yes, I would have risked a date on those grounds. In fact, some would say we’ve already had our first date.”

“Dinner at that restaurant last night counts?”

“Don’t forget the sleepover.”

“Are you flirting with me?” Harlan asked. “Just checking. I have poor social skills, so I want to make sure I’m interpreting the signals correctly.”

“Yes, I do believe I’m flirting. It is an exceedingly reckless thing to do under the circumstances and I’m sure I will regret it, but you and I went through a lot together today and we saved each other. That seems to have created a certain resonance between our auras. Probably one of those two-people-in-the-same-foxhole things.”

“Probably.”

“Or maybe just the influence of all that paranormal fog outside.”

“Maybe.”

“We should also factor in the natural biochemical effects generated by a near-death experience. They say it can act like an aphrodisiac.”

“I’ve heard that,” Harlan said.

“Something about the adrenaline overload eliciting the urge to affirm life in the most elemental way possible. In other circumstances we would probably get drunk and go to bed together. But we forgot the booze and I’m not sure the back of my SUV qualifies as a real bed.”

“We could improvise.”

“We could do that, yes.”

“Do you always talk this much at times like this?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve never spent a night with a man I barely know after going through a near-death experience with said man. You could say I never saw this coming. Yet more proof that I am not a true oracle talent.”

He unfolded his arm, reached up and caught her face between his palms. “Got news for you. I saw this coming before I sat down at your table at the speed date event.”

“Really? Including the part where we nearly got killed by a bunch of mirrors?”

“No, not the boring part. This. Me wanting you and hoping you might want me, too.”