He chuckled and gave me a nudge. “So, do you want to know your real question? It’s my stop soon.” He peered up the front of the bus.

“I do, yes. Ask away.” Then I put my hand on his arm. “Wait!” I relaxed my shoulders a little and let out a breath. “Okay, now I’m ready.”

He smiled at me. “If you could live with one family on TV, which would it be?”

I stared at him, then blinked twice. “What kind of motherfucking question is that?”

He burst out laughing. “Come on, hurry up. This is my stop.”

We rounded the corner and the bus was slowing down to pull in at the kerb. “Um, well, it’s a no brainer, really. There is only one family where I would fit in, where I could be myself and be truly appreciated.”

“And that is?”

“The Golden Girls.”

His grin widened, pressing a dimple into his cheek I hadn’t noticed before. It was hidden in his scruff. “That’s actually a perfect answer.”

I sighed with relief. “Oh my God, I survived the first one.”

He picked his bag up from his lap and stood up, squeezing past me to stand in the aisle, just as the bus came to a stop. “Did you have a question for me?”

“Um, shit! Uh, oh God. Yes, of course!” So what did my brain do? It leapt merrily back into familiar territory, with my stupid mouth written all over it. “‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’”

Hennessy did a double take, opened his mouth, but quickly shut it again.

I cringed. “I panicked.”

He laughed and hopped off the bus, still smiling as we pulled away and he put his headphones back on.

“I’m such an idiot,” I said to myself. The lady sitting across the aisle was looking at me like she very much agreed with me. “I panicked,” I told her.

She smirked and nodded, which was great. Even the general public thought I was an idiot. I took out my phone and hit Merry’s number.

“Jordan,” she answered. “Tell me, did he ask you a life-altering question?”

“Probably not life-altering, but it was cute and gave him an insight to who I saw myself identifying with, without really asking. So yes, clever and insightful.”

“And? What was it?”

“That I’m the fifth fucking Golden Girl, which, mind you, was a brilliant answer. But then I had to go ruin it by asking him one back. I had one question to get right, to show him I can be just as smart and funny and as insightful as him.”

“Oh dear.”

I nodded. “I not only asked him a rhetorical question, but I quoted ‘Ode to the West Wind.’”

“You quoted Shelley?”

“I panicked!”

“Jesus, Jordan.”

“I. Panicked.”

She laughed. “Well, I guess he now knows what he’s getting himself into.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”