<em>Why is he saying all these over the top things about me?</em>Sarah was not one for false modesty—she knew she was very intelligent and hard working. But the best in her field at twenty-five? That was something she and almost anyone else would have bet heavily against. Something was obviously skewing his normally sound judgment.<br/><br/>Finally she was struck by a eureka moment, and was even more certain than she had been about her last theory. She was so excited she blurted it out—decrypting a casual conversation was much more rare to her than making a discovery in her field. “Oh, I see what’s happening here! You have a physical infatuation towards me that’s causing you to read too much into my existing body of work.” She then frowned slightly, embarrassed. She also noticed that the bartender was starring at her like she was crazy. “I’m sorry, I just realized I’m not supposed to say something like that out loud. But in all honesty, I don’t like all the deception that usually accompanies courtship rituals in our species.”<br/><br/>She hesitated briefly, a bit nervous once more. This was difficult for her to talk frankly about, but on the other hand she did not want to get into a bunch of secondary education-style drama by being ambiguous. “Just so you’re not at a disadvantage, I’ll mention that I’m attracted to you as well. It’s too bad about the timing—I’m so busy this week trying to get the mining drones through all the tougher stress tests they dropped on us at the last minute. But at least there’s a party tonight.” She managed a slight smile.<em>Now don’t scare him off, if you haven’t already.</em>