Pat nodded and sat back, facing forward, like a scolded schoolgirl.

“Oh, I want to kiss you,” said Danny. “You’re the only woman I’ve actually felt this way about, though I didn’t realize it until just now. I really do trust you and respect you and you’re my true friend, which is what you came to say and you said it and you’re right and I believe you. But here’s the thing. I’m not as good as you. I use people. I can count on you, but can you count on me?”

She gave a little shrug. “I can’t control that,” she said. “I can only control what I do.”

“Well, I can control what I do,” said Danny. “My body wants you right now. Tonight. You understand me? And if I hadn’t stopped kissing you just now, you would have let me sleep with you, am I right?”

She bent forward and hid her face in her hands again. “I’m a terrible Christian,” she said.

“But I don’t want to be that guy,” said Danny.

“What guy?”

“The guy who sleeps with a woman because he can. Like most of the guys in our Family history. Those gods who got women pregnant all over mythology. I’m not as good as you are, Pat, but I’m better than they are. Loving me is going to do nothing but make you miserable.”

Pat got up from the couch.

“Please,” said Danny.

“I have to get home to bed,” said Pat. “My folks will worry. They’re worriers.”

“But you would have stayed the night with me.”

“Because then you would be my family. But you’re not. They are. I have to go.”

“I didn’t lie to you,” said Danny. “I could have.”

She stood at the partly open door. “I know that,” she said. “You’ve been straight with me. You’re even better than I thought you were. I love you more than I thought I did. You love me more than either of us thought you could. We’re never going to sleep together, I’m not going to be the woman in your life, and yet right now I’m as happy as I’ve ever been in my whole life. Go figure.” Then she went through the door and closed it behind her.

I am the stupidest guy in the whole world, thought Danny. I let her go out that door without saying a single word more.