"I question a couple of them, but, yeah, some of them seem like improvements," I say, tracking his gaze to spot... the women's self-defence teacher. Peggy, I think her name is. Then I check out his look and declare, "Captain Steve, do you have a girlfriend?!"

The Captain Steve just slipped out. One of the improvements is that he seems less likely to yell at me for that sort of thing when I forget to be intimidated.