Jon no longer had to wait for Lisa Lynne on the park bench. He often saw her at the gym when he went to kickboxing, and he often walked with her a ways after class until their paths separated. Lisa Lynne would never allow him to walk her home.

They had good conversations, and she laughed often – whether it was with or at him Jon wasn't always sure, but it didn't matter. It was a very pretty laugh and Jon found himself making jokes just so he could hear it. Now and then he would ask her out when he thought she was in a particularly good mood. But her answer was always the same.

"Will you go out with me?" asked Jon one afternoon when he was feeling particularly desperate for a date.

She shook her head. "Will you never tire of asking me out? Why don't you embrace the fact that you're single instead? Develop more hobbies, join some clubs, have some fun. The moment you stop looking, someone is bound to take interest."

"So I should play hard to get in order to get someone?" asked Jon, confused.

"No, you have to get out of that mindset completely! Genuinely stop looking. Concentrate on fulfilling your own desires."

"I desire a girlfriend," said Jon, even more confused.

"You're awfully dense sometimes, Jon. And not in a cute way," she added as he grinned suggestively.

"I've tried sympathy, sophistication, every thing. How about begging? Will that work?" He got to his knees. "Please, please, pretty please, will you go out with me?"

"There you go! That's what I'm talking about. Desperation hangs around you like a dense fog."

"If I wasn't desperate, would you go out with me?"

"Jon!" exclaimed Lisa Lynne, appalled. "Look at yourself! How can you sink so low?"

"I don't know," said Jon miserably. "I guess I'm just sick of being alone. I have nothing but a lazy, gluttonous cat and a stupid dog for company."

Lisa Lynne reached down and yanked him to his feet. She was strong for a woman. Must be from all that kickboxing she did.

"Well, begging is not going to help, especially not with me!"

"What will?"

Lisa Lynne lost her temper. "Jon Arbuckle! Quit asking me out! If you do it one more time I will never speak to you again."

"Never?" he asked, horrified.

"Never," she said, resolute.

Jon was utterly crushed. He didn't know what to say.

"Listen, why don't you place a personal ad?" she suggested, softening.

"You think I haven't tried?" he said bitterly.

"Please tell me it wasn't something like 'Are you a mammal? Do you walk upright? I'm single and desperate,'" she joked.

"Word for word," he said, awed.

"No," she said, her face pale. "That was you?"

"You saw my ad?" asked Jon. Normally he would have been excited, and used it as a springboard to continue flirting, but instead he felt embarrassed. That Lisa Lynne should have seen him at his worst, his most desperate, filled him with shame. "All right, so I'm pathetic."

"No, you're not," she said. He saw her lips twitch a little.

"Go ahead and laugh at me! I know you want to!"

"Jon," she began. "You do have your good qualities. You may be nerdy, and ridiculous, and a bit strange, but you're also quite sweet. There is someone out there for you."

"Yeah, she's hiding under a rock," said Jon bleakly, remembering that Garfield had said that to him once.

Lisa Lynne looked pointedly at him. "If she is hiding from you, perhaps it's because you're looking too hard for her – and scaring her away."

Another idea that made him stop and think. How did Lisa Lynne do it?

"Why not try being just friends with women?"

"Friends with you?"

"It'd be a start. Come on," she said, slipping her am through his. "Why don't you walk me home?"