Have times changed? `I want to marry you. I want to marry you and have your babies. Two, I thought. Possibly three.' But when Natasha Proctor proposes to San Berenger in her lunch hour he flees down the stairs, 'his tie hanging over his shoulder like a panting tongue'. Natasha's dilemma (how much or how little have relations between men and women changed?) is one of the situations faced by the characters in Elizabeth Smither's delightful new short story collection. Why is a woman afraid of an unoccupied white bed in her hotel room? How does a competent HR consultant deal with road rage, or a middle- aged violinist endure mid-life? But there is fun as well: a library roster based on Chinese astrological signs, a proposal for a society of people with Big Heads; and the enduring happiness of Kathy & Tim, the Internet true love story featured in Six Pack Two.