Now my face was REDDER than the pizza sauce. At least, that’s what it felt like.

“Um,” I said. “Okay.” Because what else COULD I say to that????

Besides, it wasn’t like I was displeased. I WANT Michael to want me.

It’s just, you know, for him to SAY it like that was actually kind of…I don’t know.

Hot.

“So long as that’s clear,” Michael said.

“Crystal,” I said, after I’d choked for a while.

Then, he said as far as Doing It went, I was off the hook for the time being, but he expected periodic re-evaluation of our stances on that issue.

I asked how often he thought we should re-evaluate our stances, and he said about once a month, and I said I thought six-month evaluations might be better, and then he said two, and I said three, and then he said, “Deal.”

Then, he got up and went to offer Lars another slice and got sucked into a conversation Lars is having with the guy behind the counter about the Yankees’ chances in the World Series this year, even though to my knowledge, Michael has never watched a baseball game in his life.

He did, however, design a computer model in which you can input all the statistics concerning a team, and it will then tell you what their chances are of beating another team to within a two-point spread.

The fact is, I love him. He’s the boy I want. And one day, he WILL be mine.

And now he wants to know if I want to go get a gelato.

I said:

“I most certainly do.”