[close] The problem with starting over in another state after losing your partner is that your new friends don't understand why you can't just get over it. They never saw how you were together, how much you loved her, how she was your life. They only see a number: three, as in, the number of years since she died. That's all the evidence they need to begin pressuring you to get back out there again. It doesn't matter that you've told them to back off. No, they feel it is their duty to butt into your life and ambush you with blind dates.

This wasn't a predicament Briony Gatewood anticipated when she relocated for tenure at a prestigious university. Yet after a year with her new friends, they've ceased being merely concerned and moved on to obnoxious. As if being fixed up wasn't bad enough, the dean at her college just volunteered her to teach a potentially career damaging class. Along for the experimental course is the socially challenged M Desiderius, a fellow professor who won't ever win a faculty popularity contest. But as they start working together, Briony begins to understand M's aloofness and is intrigued by the shy, brilliant, passionate woman. Enough so that she's starting to believe her friends when they say it's time to move on. And M, as complicated as her past has been and reticent as she seems now, may be the perfect person to help Briony finally heal and love again. [close]