As did Jake: “That’s definitely asking for a heartache.”

“That’s on my heartache playlist!”

“You have a heartache playlist?”

“You don’t?”

“I do.” He looked intently at her. “It’s one of the reasons I love music. If I want to motivate myself or cheer myself up, I just play certain music.”

“Me too.” She reverted to their initial topic. “I would love to go, but my Wonder Woman costume was damaged in my last rescue mission—can I go incognito as a normal human?”

“Much preferred. See you outside in fifteen?”

She nodded.

Fifteen minutes later, she wheeled her bike out front. She snapped on her helmet.

“What’s in the backpack?” Jake asked.

“Suntan lotion, picnic blanket, water and a bare minimum of food supplies in case we get hungry.” And no work phone. There was no way her job was going to interfere this time, and she didn’t trust herself not to check her phone if she brought it.

“And there’s no vendor within sight?”

“What can I say? I get grumpy when hungry. I like to be prepared.”

“Spoken like a true scout.” He asked, “Any chance you’ve got some of your homemade chocolate chip cookies in there?”

“I gave all the homemade ones to you except for those I sampled to make sure they were edible. But I have some apples and some power bars.”

“Wine?”

“I thought we were going for a bike trip.”

“I’m not the one who brought an emergency food supply.” He biked towards Columbus Avenue. “Let’s pick up cookies at Levain Bakery.”

“Now you’re thinking.”

They biked over to Levain Bakery, and she held the bikes and his helmet while he went inside.

“This completely defeats the purpose of the bike ride,” she said as he handed her the bag of heavy cookies and she added them to her knapsack.

“Depends on the purpose. I’m thinking of a fun afternoon enjoying the view of the Hudson River and the park.” He biked ahead. Audrey kicked herself mentally, thinking that maybe the online dating algorithm understood her better than she did herself, and Dan really was her right match—why, oh, why had she said that the purpose of a bike ride was exercise? She was doomed to a life of fly-fishing lectures. She raced to catch up to Jake and pulled next to him at the red light.

“Okay, up or down along the river?” she asked.

“We’re heading up. I have the afternoon planned, including dinner.”