Chloe learned a lot about sports than she wanted being friends with Charlie. ("Yes, friends. Having lunch with a guy every day is hardly a date. Shut up, Pete.") She learned less than she wanted about Charlie, though. Somewhere in the jumble of hockey, football, and NASCAR she managed to pick up that he'd been born in Texas but considered himself a New Yorker through and through; that he didn't like horror movies but had read every Steven King novel; and that he had no illusions about being a nerd, albeit a sports one. He was proud of it, in fact.

He did mention his dad quite a bit. It was obvious that Mr. McCall had been responsible for Charlie's love of anything athletic. From the little stories Charlie told, Chloe got a picture of a guy who had the world history of sports stored in his head, who was very smart but not always on the ball, and who was not by any stretch of the imagination a cool dad. Charlie seemed oddly proud of that fact.

So it was a bit of a surprise for her to flip to CSC one night (thinking vaguely about watching a horse race or something and surprising Charlie with her knowledge the next day) and find a gorgeous, well-dressed man smiling Charlie's smile at her and saying, "I'm Casey McCall alongside Dan Rydell, and you're watching Sports Night."

She had the phone in her hand and was dialing before she even realized it. "Charlie," she said before he even got a greeting out, "is there something you wanted to tell me? Something that airs nightly on cable, maybe?"

Pause. "Oh, did my episode of Red Show Diaries finally air?"

"Ha. Spill, McCall."