point that it could double your risk of heart
attack and stroke.
So, yeah. That's the bad news: sexy
interns can be a health hazard. But studies
have shown that you can inoculate yourself
against such hazards the same way you would
against cigarettes, or any other unhealthy
temptation: by habitually downplaying their
allure. This could be as simple as playing up a
potential mate's imperfections (poor posture,
unappetising fondness for bubble gum), or
dismissing what could be her flirtation ("Nice
PowerPoint!") as mercenary flattery.
The reflex comes in handy when the
temptation involves someone you see
every day. Someone with perfect skin and
mischievous eyes who smells like beer and
berries and laughs with you in the car park,
which is where Bryan finally leaned in for that
gunpowder kiss.
"She ducked away and that kinda spooked
me," he says, "but then she's, like, 'Well, you
didn't try very hard.' "THERE WERE NO CONSEQUENCES. How
could there be consequences when the
future didn't exist? Only the present existed- that and a few jingly minutes of memory
or anticipation on either side. His temporal
outlook had collapsed to the time it takes
to copulate.
The decision to leave Gina arrived one day
when he was out buying gas for the barbecue.
Came home. Connected the new tank. And
feeling mildly deranged, he completed the
rest of the day like a page from a workbook,
head down, saying nothing. The following
day, Gina had gone to fetch dinner when he
retrieved his suitcase from the closet and put
it on the bed.
"You pack as if you're going on a trip," he
says now. "Just some toiletries, a few sets of
clothes. Just one bag. In my mind I wasn't
thinking, I'm really leaving Gina. This was just
a 'time out.' "
The separation went from days to weeks,
weeks to months. Gina, devastated, began‘‘She ducked
away and that
kinda spooked
me but then
she’s like, ‘Well,
you didn’t try
very hard’”
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