Flirting with Forever

Mary Trace agrees to a blind date with John Modesto-Whitford, the son of a good friend, but she walks out soon after he makes a rude comment about her age. Mary isn’t sensitive about her age—she’s only 37—but she’s also not willing to waste time on an unsuccessful date, even if her mother keeps sending her articles about aging and fertility. When John’s mother marches him into Mary’s successful home goods store to apologize, Mary discovers that John is much chagrined and actually a quite nice person. As a tentative friendship develops between them, and John agrees to help Mary weed out “bad” dates, they secretly begin to long for each other. Narrator Susannah Jones does an exceptional job bringing John and Mary to life and making the listener feel the slow-burning emotions behind the couple’s pining.