For years, Sara had gazed at him across the cafeteria with the faint idea of asking him out, but it had just never seemed scalable. Until today.

“Jared,” Sara began, with a quiver in her voice, “I just wanted to reach out and see if you had the capacity to connect with me over drinks tonight.”

Jared did not facilitate a response immediately, and, as she waited, Sara began to wonder whether she’d dropped the ball on this entirely. Should she have added value first, with small talk? Probably, but it was too late now.

“Unfortunately, I can’t,” Jared finally said.

Sara felt her heart break apart, like an animated pie chart in one of her slide decks. I should never have actioned this, she thought.

“But,” Jared pivoted, “I have bandwidth to do Thursday.”

Her heart circled back to a better space. He hadn’t rejected her; they had just hit a roadblock.

“Let me check my calendar,” she said, having learned that appearing to be cool in situations like these can be key.

“Actually, you know what?” Jared said. “Back to your initial proposal of connecting today. What were you thinking in terms of timelines?”

“6:30 P.M.?” she said.

“With some restructuring, I think I will be able to give you some face time then,” he said.

“That’s a good outcome,” Sara said, with a grin. “I’ll see you E.O.D.”

That afternoon, her workflow was significantly compromised. Going forward, there was simply no prospect as exciting as touching base with Jared. She spent the rest of the day overwhelmed by a raft of feelings that she could not unpack, which was strange, because unpacking issues was usually one of her core strengths.

As 6:30 P.M. rolled around, she felt sick in the pit of her stomach, like when she looked at a sentence that didn’t contain an acronym. I can’t believe this is actually about to tee off, she thought to herself.

When Jared arrived, his shirt was slightly unbuttoned and his tie was loosened, revealing robust chest hair—a real game-changer.

Unfortunately, the conversational touch points were not nearly as robust.

“I guess one of us should go up and order drinks,” Sara said, to break the cycle.

“Oh,” Jared said, fumbling for his wallet. “Let me spearhead that.”

After the first couple of margaritas, they began to find some shareable content. And, by the third, they found themselves on a deep dive, deeper than either of them had ever dived before during an initial one-on-one. Midway through the fifth drink, they were holding hands.

“You’re such a thought leader,” Jared whispered in Sara’s ear. The synergy was electric.

“We’re closing up,” the bartender boomed.

“Closing up?” Jared said. “But it feels like we only just started drilling down!” They laughed, and pursued an exit strategy.

“Well, this is me—where I do my life admin,” Sara said at her doorstep.

“It was great to synch up with you tonight,” Jared said.

They stood awkwardly for a few moments, unsure of whether this was an L.A.O (Lip-Alignment Opportunity).

“O.K. then, I’d better be off,” Jared said, reluctantly.

“Best,” Sara said.

“Best,” Jared said.

He had barely begun executing his walk home when he heard Sara call out.

“Wait!” she yelled. “I know this is a bit weird because we just met and all . . . and I’m just ideating here . . . but in terms of next steps, do you think there’s any chance I could . . .” She sighed, frustrated by her inability to communicate efficiently and effectively. “Do you think I could onboard you into a relationship?” she asked.

Jared lit up.

”I think,” he said, “that your offer will get a lot of pickup.”

They hit the ground running, toward each other. And there, in the moonlight, they aligned passionately, on the mouth.