“Your loss.”

“I’m sure I’ll regret it for weeks. Bye.” She hung up. “Sorry. I’m officially turning off my phone. We won’t be interrupted again.”

Matt sat across from her. “Not your boyfriend?”

“Are you asking or telling?”

“The guy from before was Zeke. This one is Andrew.”

“You’re observant. An excellent quality. And no, neither one is my boyfriend. I don’t get serious like that.” What was the point? She’d never really found someone she wanted to keep seeing more than a few times.

“Interesting. Why is that?”

She stared into his dark eyes. “Don’t for a second think you can make me forget why we’re here by asking me about myself.”

He shrugged. “It was worth a try.”

“Uh-huh. Moving on. We have a lot of stuff to get through today.” She paused for effect. “I’ve come up with a plan.”

Matt sipped his drink and blinked at her.

She refused to let his lack of support slow her down. “First, I have a few questions. What do you do for a living? Something with computers?”

He nodded. “Programming. I work on games a lot. At Microsoft.”

“I figured. Do you have any hobbies?”

He thought for a second. “Computers and games.”

“Nothing else?”

“Movies, maybe.”

Which meant no, but he’d had to come up with something quick. “Have you seen How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days? It opened last week.”

He shook his head.

“Go see it,” she told him, then tapped the table in front of him. “You should be taking notes. You’re going to have homework.”

“What?”

“You have a lot to learn. It’s going to take effort on your part. Are you in or out?”

He hesitated for a moment. “In,” he said, although he didn’t sound very excited about the prospect.

She passed him a couple of pieces of paper. He dutifully wrote down the movie title.

“We’ll deal with your apartment later. Today I want to talk about cultural references and your wardrobe.”

“I don’t have an apartment.”

She blinked at him. “Excuse me?”

“I live at home. With my mom.” He pushed up his glasses. “Before you say anything, it’s a really nice house. A lot of guys live at home. It’s convenient.”

Oh, my. The situation was worse than she thought. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-four.”

“It’s probably time to fly free. What’s the point in getting the girl if you don’t have anywhere to take her?” She made a note. “Like I said, that’s for the advanced half of the class.”

“Where do you live?”

Jesse stared at him, then started to laugh. “With my sister.”

He looked smug. “See?”

“I’m not a guy.”

“So?”

“Point taken. But you have to move out first.” She dug into her backpack and pulled out a stack of magazines. “People is weekly. Subscribe. Cosmo and Car and Driver are monthly. So is In Style. Read them. There will be a quiz.”

He grimaced. “These are girl magazines, except for the car one and I’m not into cars.”

“These are cultural textbooks. In Style has a great section on guys who dress well. There are also lots of pictures of pretty women. You’ll like that. People will keep you up to date on celebrity news, which you may not care about but at least you’ll recognize a few of the names people are talking about. The car magazine is to make you well-rounded and Cosmo is every twenty-something woman’s companion. Think of it as the enemy’s playbook.” She pushed the magazines toward him.

“Next,” she continued. “Television.”

“I don’t watch much.”

“You’re going to start watching American Idol and Gilmore Girls. You can find old episodes of Gilmore Girls on the Family Channel every day. Record them to watch when you’re free. That’s going to teach you how to talk to a woman, or at least how women fantasize that men will talk to them. It’s fast, it’s funny, it has lots of insight. American Idol is the most popular show on television. Get involved. Discuss it with coworkers.”

“You can’t learn how to talk to women by watching television,” Matt told her.

“How do you know? Have you tried?”

“No.”

“Okay, then.” She scanned her list. “Next. We’re going out to dinner. I want you to call and ask me out on a date, over and over again. Sometimes I’ll say yes and sometimes I’ll say no. We’re going to do that every day for a couple of weeks, until you’re comfortable with the process. Next up, shopping. You have got to get some new clothes.”

He glanced down at himself. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“How much time do you have? Don’t worry. It’s all fixable. I’m actually more concerned about the glasses.”

He scowled. “I can’t wear contacts.”

“Have you thought about LASIK surgery?”

“No.”

“Check it out online. You have great eyes. It would be nice if we could see them. So what do you think about the Mariners’ chances this season?”

He looked blank. “That’s baseball, right?”

She groaned. “Yes. Follow the team this season. Add it to your homework assignment.”

He pushed back his chair and stood. “This is stupid. I don’t know why you’re bothering. Just forget it.”

She rose and grabbed his arm. He was much taller than her and had plenty of muscle. That was good. “Matt, don’t. I know it seems like a lot, but once we get the big things out of the way, it won’t be so bad. You may like it. Don’t you want to find someone special?”

“Maybe not this badly.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Why are you doing this?” he asked. “What do you get out of it?”

“I’m having fun,” she admitted. “I like thinking about you. It’s easier than thinking about me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m stuck right now.” She didn’t have a career or anything close to direction or a goal. She changed guys as often as most women changed panties, which wasn’t anything she was proud of.

He looked surprised. “You’re the one who’s big on change.”

“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

He studied her for a second. “You’re evasive.”

“Sometimes.”

“Why?”

Interesting question. “Because I don’t always like who I am,” she admitted. “Because I don’t know how to change, but I can see exactly how to change you. It makes me feel better to make a difference.”

“That was honest.”

“I know. It surprised me, too.” She waited until he sat down. “Give me a month. Do what I say for a month. If you hate the changes, you can go back to your old life and it will be like it never happened.”

“Not if I have LASIK surgery.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Maybe not.”

“You have to trust me,” she told him. “I want this to work for you.” Because somehow, if it worked for him, maybe it would work for her, too. At least that was the theory.

TEN DAYS LATER, Jesse nearly fell off the bench at the Kirkland Olive Garden. She stood and pointed.

“Who are you?” she asked.

Matt grinned as he stopped in front of her. “You told me which clothes to buy. They shouldn’t be a surprise.”

“They look better on than I remember,” she murmured, motioning for him to turn slowly.

It was amazing what a little time and a couple of grand on a credit card could do. He’d been transformed from top to bottom. An eighty-dollar haircut at an upscale Bellevue salon had only been the beginning. Gone were the too-short jeans, the tennis shoes and the geeky shirt with the pocket protector. Instead, Matt wore a pale blue dress shirt, tailored slacks that showed off his slim hips and surprisingly sexy butt. She’d teased him into buying leather loafers that cost nearly four hundred dollars but had been worth every penny.

But the real change was how he looked without glasses.

His face had masculine lines and a chiseled chin she’d never noticed before. His eyes were even better than she’d imagined, and his mouth…had it always been that sexy, with a slightly crooked smile?

“You’re gorgeous,” she told him, actually feeling a slight tingle inside. “Really sexy. Wow.”

He flushed slightly. “You look good, too.”

Jesse dismissed his compliment with a flick of her fingers. Her appearance didn’t matter. This was about him.

The hostess returned and offered to seat them. Jesse noticed her checking Matt out as they were led to a table.

“Did you see that?” she asked in a low voice when they’d slid into their booth. “She was totally into you.”

Matt flushed. “You’re just saying that.”

“I don’t think so. If I were to get up right now and go to the restroom, she would be all over you.”

He looked more nervous than excited. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

She laughed. “Maybe next time. You’ll have to get used to the attention first, then you can start to enjoy it.” She ignored the menu and leaned toward him. “So, tell me. What’s new at work?”

“We’re brainstorming a new game. The theory behind it is really advanced, but there’s a-” He paused as she dropped her head to the table and groaned. “What?”

“Do I look like I care about game theory?”

“No, but you asked.”

“I asked what was new at work. That means with the people.”

“Oh.” He reached toward his face, as if he was going to push up his glasses, then dropped his hand to his lap. “It’s different.”

She straightened. “How?”

“People are talking to me.”

She smiled, knowing he was already getting results. “Women, right? You mean women.”

Matt grinned. “Yeah. A lot of the secretaries are saying hi to me now. And this woman in Finance asked me to help her carry some stuff to her car, only it wasn’t that much and she could have done it herself.”

“Did you ask her out?”

“What? No.” He looked shocked. “I couldn’t do that. She was, you know, older.”

Jesse raised her eyebrows. “How much older?”