My last attempt at dating had ended several months earlier, not disastrously, but with enough embarrassment to make my ordinary routines feel preferable. I had spent three dinners trying to seem relaxed while arranging everything so carefully that the woman eventually told me she felt like a guest at an event I was managing. She was right. I had wanted things to go well so badly that I had left very little room for another person.
Now I was building a woman I had spoken to for minutes into a
