You’re at a reception, and you’ve just met someone. You’ve exchanged names and traded the line you always say about what you do. Then comes the pause where the conversation either goes somewhere or it doesn’t. Three things can happen next. You stay on facts. She mentions she’s been at her firm four years. You offer something similar about your own path. The two of you trade biography for a while, pleasant and forgettable, until one of you spots someone across the room. You mo