“Do I?”

“Well, I’m not wearing a ring.”

“Plenty of married men don’t wear wedding bands.”

“Fine. But I’m not married.”

“Have you ever been married?”

“Um…”

“Luke?”

“Yes. I have.”

“I see. And how did that end?”

“She died.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s… it’s fine. It was a long time ago.”

“Do you want to talk about—”

“No, I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s move on, okay?”

“Fair enough. But I just think—”

“This was a bad idea. Shut the tape recorder off.”

“I disagree. We have a lot to explore here.”

“Really.”

“Yes. You’re a very complex and interesting person, Luke Strauss.”

“Am I?”

“Don’t laugh. You just gave up your entire evening to do a favor for a woman you hardly even know. And you expected nothing from this woman in return.”

“I had to do it. She lives in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her.”

“That’s considerate.”

“I’m a nice guy, I guess. Or a sucker.”

“You’d only be a sucker if you did it expecting something from her that she didn’t intend to deliver.”

“I don’t… I mean, I’m not expecting anything. Hoping, I guess.”

“Hoping for what?”

“Nothing. Never mind.”

“No, tell me.”

“So this woman I helped tonight… you called me complex and interesting, and I don’t know if you’re right, but this woman, she’s all those things. And more. Really smart—like you wouldn’t believe. Also, she comes to this low-income clinic on her own free time and she really cares about the patients there. She acts like it’s no big deal, but what she does for them is amazing. They love her.”

“So you wanted to help her because she helps others?”

“Yes… I mean, that’s part of it, but…”

“But?”

“She’s interesting and complex and caring and intelligent. But she’s also…”

“What?”

“She’s beautiful.”

“You think so, do you?”

“I do. I really do.”

“I see. So what you’re saying is that you have romantic intentions towards this woman?”

“Uh…”

“Are you aware that your face is bright red right now?”

“Ha ha, very amusing. Okay, I… look, what do you want me to say? Yes. Yes, I like her.”

“And how does she feel about you?”

“Until today, I would have said she doesn’t like me much. But now I’m not so sure. She’s very hard to read.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve been at her house for two hours, then she gets me on her sofa and does this crazy pretend interview, asking me all these questions. And the whole time, I keep thinking, what if I just got up off the sofa and kissed her? How would she react?”

“Why don’t you do it then?”