"So you gotta keep your foot on the brake to start the car," Beth says, then grins teasingly. "The brake is the one on the left. Then you just turn the key and you've started it."

The rest of what he says makes her smile soften. These are the sorts of things she really ever expected to be talking about with Chuck, but the way he says it, like it's all something bigger than anything else he's done before, it makes her happy for him. And happy to listen, too, because while she knows she's far from an expert when it comes to relationships, she also thinks she has some experiences Chuck doesn't. Which is probably not something either of them would have ever expected.

"Is she easy to be around?" she asks. That's always a good first sign, she thinks.