"Lisa, I don't follow you. What are you suggesting? That we date as we had just met each other in Starbucks?"

"Yes, essentially. You think of me as a woman you'd like to get to know and I'll think of you as a good-looking guy that I want to go out with."

"I already think of you as a woman. That's what started this discussion."

"But I've never looked at you that way."

He seemed a little amused. "Yeah, that's the problem, isn't it?"

He paused for a long moment, enough for me to hope, then despair, then hope again. "This sound like pulling the bandage off slowly. What are...