In my experience there is a kiss or hug when you part from a date, and there is a kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve. It's an unspoken understanding. There is a kiss under mistletoe, too.

As old-fashioned, chauvinistic, and full of platitudes as my mother raised me, she was so right in her advice for getting a man.

It is the happily ever after part my mother and I have the trouble with...