Fostering the next generation is the survival instinct "going long" and throughout our ancient and modern history the business of reproduction has remained at the core of humanity's existence. Chapter 3 heralds the rise of Homo sapiens about 150,000 years ago, and the extension of the pair bond into more permanent commitments between women and men. It focuses on what we look for in a prospective mate and why, and the divergent romantic agendas of maturing men and women. The chapter marshals a wealth of fascinating academic research on the subject of sexual fantasies which provide novel and tantalizing ways of understanding the sexes' mating agendas. We discover why visuals and pornography attract so much male attention and why women buy so many romance novels.

If fantasy and the prospect of a gratifying sexual encounter are not enough to pin down a relationship, nature has a mind-boggling trick up its sleeve: the Trickster Called Love. Like most other human desires, love is here to do nature's bidding. It is a sweet con artist and a seductive hypnotist, cloaking the object of our affection in an amorous mist; infatuation seduces us into glossing over our partner's less appealing qualities. In this way, love carries the reproductive game into the end zone. Swooning in ecstatic rushes, our feet barely touch the ground as the wings of an infinite future take flight in our partner's eyes. We are in love.