The back of Robbie’s neck turns red and he pulls his hand from mine. My heart sinks. Is he embarrassed of me? I use that hand to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, hoping the stinging tears in my eyes aren’t visible.

I can barely focus through the first few presentations. I keep glancing at Braden, hoping to see him studying slides or flipping through notecards like everyone else in the auditorium seems to be doing. But he just watches the other speakers, as calmly as if he were watching a TV show and not about to go up there himself.

As the third presentation ends, I lean forward to see Professor Thomas’s reaction. His face remains blank and his arms stay folded across his chest, just as he was at the end of the other presentations. We are royally screwed.

Eventually, our names are called and Braden saunters up to the front of the room. He takes his time setting up, fiddling with the adapter as he plugs his computer into the projector. He has no note cards.

“There are seven billion people on Earth,” Braden begins. I hold my breath. He clicks a remote and a slide appears—a picture of the globe. “More than half of those people are women. You would think, with odds like that, I wouldn’t be single, and yet...” He opens his arms. “Believe it or not, ladies, I am.”

Heat rises in my chest. What the hell is he doing? But to my surprise, a number of people laugh. I sit a little taller. And something magical happens. In this auditorium of upperclassmen and business school students, Braden’s smug, annoying demeanor comes off as confidence.

Braden grins. “But seriously, our world is faced with a disconnect. As populations grow and more and more of us live in large cities, we somehow become less connected, lost in the crowd. In a world of seven billion, you can’t know everyone, and without direction, it’s hard to know who you should be getting to know—who is worth your time.

“Take this example. You’re a young woman, and your friends invite you to a bar after class. You’re wearing a nice outfit, and you hope you might meet someone. Maybe you end up chatting with a few people at the bar, and one of them is an absolute dud, and another is not bad, just okay.”