Ella never leaves work early. She loves her copy of Strunk & White. She buttons her shirt up to the top. She buys beige furniture. She pays her bills on time and always says hello to her neighbors. If she were a superhero, her alter-ego would be SuperPoliteGirl. She doesn’t have any vices—as long as swearing in Italian doesn’t count.

If she were in a romance novel, her fiancé wouldn’t fit the mold of the love interest—not by any stretch of the imagination. His shoulders aren’t particularly broad, his five o’clock shadow comes in patchy during the night, and his voice is a moderate tenor, not a shiver-inducing baritone. But those minor issues are the elements of fiction. No one needs that in day-to-day life.

Right?