Everything you’ve ever said
is brilliant
Anything you wanna do
Is fine with me
This is much better than love, babe
This is a crush story...
-Too Much Joy, "Crush Story"
Taryn boarded the elevator at the Idol Talk offices and rode up to the 11th floor, where her office was located. She walked down the hallway and stood in front of her new office, and looked at the 
nameplate on the heavy wooden door.
Taryn Mathews, Senior Reporter. Cameron was prompt; she had to give him that.
Taryn entered the office tentatively, flipping on the light.
Pretty standard, she thought: eggshell-colored walls, newly painted, and soft beige carpet. The desk was mahogany, the swivel chair deep brown. It looked amazingly like the office she had had a few short years ago at Today’s News, another Rutner publication. She had traveled everywhere then, to Europe, to South America, even to the Arctic Circle once. She had written hard-hitting stories of national appeal.
Now look at me, she thought. One bad choice and my whole world is different.
Taryn sighed and sat down behind the desk. She turned on the computer, and after a moment of thought signed on to the Internet.
She typed “Isaac Hanson” in the search engine and waited. In a matter of seconds, the search returned over 10,000 matches.
Taryn clicked on the first one, which turned out to be a 16-year-old gushing about her love 
for Isaac. Intrigued, she kept reading. She clicked on several more sites, largely the same, and gazed at some of the pictures of the brothers Hanson. The more she thought about it, the more she thought they really were some nice looking boys.
Taryn spent several hours searching the web, looking at biographies, stories and articles. She couldn’t believe the hoopla surrounding these little boys from Tulsa. Although she had bought all the CDs for Iris, she had never listened to them herself.
Gregor poking his head in the door startled Taryn.
“Burning the midnight oil?” he asked.
Cameron popped up behind him.
“It’s after 10,” he said. “Give yourself a break. It’s your first assignment.”
Taryn quickly switched off her computer so her friends wouldn’t see what she had been up to.
“I was just leaving,” she said.
“Great! We were just going to go up to Crazy Jake’s and grab a drinky,” Gregor said. “You can come with.”
Taryn thought about it, and decided to go. “Okay,” she said. “But my mom has Iris and I can’t be out all night.”
Taryn collected her things, flipped off the light and followed her friends to the elevator. As
she stood with them on the way to the lobby, she marveled at how much they had all changed over the years. They were all five years out of college.
Gregor DuBois had started college at Yale, but when he came out he decided to pursue makeup art and cosmetology instead of the mathematics program his parents had insisted on. He had dropped out of Yale after two years, earning a degree at a nearby cosmetology school. He had never been happier. Gregor had never had a serious relationship; he was still like a kid in a candy store. Taryn was glad that he was safe about his non-monogamy.
Cameron Erikson had gone to Yale to study corporate business administration. He was now the CEO of Rutner, but had worked his way up the ranks over the years. His long hours and fierce dedication to the company had left little time for relationships, and Cameron was still single at 28. He dated quite a lot, and even had some women he saw on a regular basis, but there was no one special. Cam had come close to being engaged once or twice, but the truth was, he was married to Rutner Publications.
Then there was Taryn. The wayward wild child of their circle, she had been the one to take the college life for all it was worth. Away from her home in New York for the very first time, Taryn had sampled it all: drugs, drinking, one night stands.
It hadn’t lasted long, though. She was pregnant by January of her freshman year at college, and Iris had been born the following September.
Taryn never regretted having Iris. In fact, she thought, if it hadn’t been for her child she might never have finished school. She may well have been dead of alcohol poisoning, an overdose, or left in an alley by one of the strange men she was not afraid to take rides from.
Iris had stayed with her grandparents in upstate New York while Taryn finished college. Taryn’s father had died shortly after her graduation, and Taryn, Iris and her mom, Camilla, had taken an apartment together in the city.
They had lived there until Riley, until he decided that they should move to California. So Taryn and Iris had packed up and moved west, a decision that ended up culminating in the wedding that wasn’t. Taryn had come home with her tail between her legs and she and Iris had moved back in with her mother.
So here they were in 1998, getting off the elevator and stepping into the shiny marble lobby of one of the largest publishing houses in the country, where they all worked. Three responsible adults.
They walked out the door, which clicked shut behind them. Cam put in a security code, and they headed to the parking structure, discussing whose car they should take.
All of a sudden, a voice echoed behind them.
“Taryn?”
They all turned around to see Isaac Hanson walking quickly toward them. Gregor raised his eyebrows; Cam looked confused.
“Hi, Isaac,” she said slowly.
“Um, I thought of a couple of things you might find useful for the article,” Isaac said, his eyes dancing.
Taryn caught on.
“Oh, great. Hey, guys, maybe I’ll take a rain check on that drink,” she said.
“Unless he wants to come with us,” Gregor teased.
Taryn squashed him with a look.
“Oh, right,” said Gregor, feigning realization. “Not 21 yet.”
Gregor and Cam disappeared, leaving Isaac and Taryn looking at each other.
“Maybe we could go somewhere and talk about my ideas,” Isaac suggested.
“What did you have in mind?” Taryn asked.
