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(Part 2 of 2)  Visit the first vignette of this series here.

On our second date, we started talking about what our life would be like together. We talked about houses, careers, dreams, and our friends. Then we reluctantly talked about honesty, as if we weren’t really sure what it meant.

"Will you tell me if you’re attracted to someone else?" you said.

"I’m attracted to a lot of people," I said.

"But if you want to sleep with them?"

"I’ll tell you if that happens," I said without thinking.

You took a long drink of your beer and looked around the restaurant.

"What about you?" I said. "Don’t you find people attractive?"

"I do," you answered. "But there is always something wrong with them."

"What about us? There’s gotta be something wrong with us."

"We’re okay," you said. "We’re perfect somehow."

The waiter came to our table and asked us about dessert. He seemed insistent about it, as if he knew we were trying to cultivate a romance. We noticed he had bad breath but ordered a mousse anyway.

"If I ever have bad breath, will you please tell me?" I said after he walked away.

"Okay," you said. "You mean starting right now?"

"Yes," I said, starting to cover my mouth. "Even now."

"You have a little bit of a breath thing going on," you finally said.

"Thank you for being honest," I said.