Some friends you seem to compete with all the time — even if you’re tight. That was the case with Sharona and me.

We’d met in college, right around the time I’d been thinking of dropping out. I ran into her one night at a party. Sharona was a pretty woman with a dazzling smile — and she still is. We started talking and turned out to have a lot in common — favorite sports teams, similar tastes in books, crushes on the same music idols.

We were also both eyeing the same guy at the party, though neither of us had yet made a move for him. He was nicely built, wore eyeglasses and a T-shirt with the face of an alien from a TV show on it. He had a shy air about him.

“I like the geeky types, too,” Sharona said when she caught me gazing longingly at him.