For the first hour, they sat in the sunroom. He didn’t flirt. He didn’t try to touch her hand. Instead, he asked about the watercolor paintings on her wall—her own work, done decades ago. He asked about the books on her shelf. He asked about the rain, and whether she preferred the sound of it on glass or on leaves.

Julian listened. Then he said, “I drove a taxi for forty-two years. For forty-two years, people got in my back seat and told me their secrets. Divorces, deaths, affairs, bankruptcies. And then they’d get out at the airport and I’d never see them again. Do you know what I learned?”

She went back to her study. She opened her laptop. And she deleted her search history.