"God," Michelle breathed, "how I envy you that live-for-today attitude. But I can't."

Cassandra grabbed her by the hand and hauled her through the crowd, over to the man.

She tapped him on the shoulder.

Startled, he turned around.

His eyes widened as he looked up at Cassandra. At six feet one, she was used to being a freak of nature. To his credit, the guy didn't appear offended by the fact that she was a good two inches taller than him.

He looked down at Michelle, who was a normal five feet four.

"Hi," Cassandra said, drawing his gaze back to her. "I'm taking a quick survey. Are you married?"

He frowned. "No."

"Seeing someone?"

He passed a puzzled look to his friend. "No."

"Gay?"

His jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"

"Cassandra!" Michelle snapped.

She ignored both of them and held tight to Michelle's hand as her friend tried to run away. "You like women, yes?"

"Yes," he said, sounding offended.

"Good, because my friend Michelle here thinks you're exceptionally cute and she'd like to meet you." She pulled Michelle between them. "Michelle, this is…"

He smiled as he met Michelle's stunned gaze. "Tom Cody."

"Tom Cody," Cassandra repeated. "Tom, this is Michelle."

"Hi," he said, extending his hand to her.

From Michelle's expression, Cassandra could tell her friend wasn't sure if she should strangle her or thank her.

"Hi," Michelle said, shaking his hand.

Assured that they were semicompatible and that he didn't bite on the first date, Cassandra left them and headed back to Brenda and Kat, both of whom had their mouths hanging wide open as they stared at her in disbelief.

"I can't believe you just did that to her," Kat said as soon as Cassandra rejoined them. "She's going to kill you later."