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“I tried that for a while,” said the girl. “I was living with this guy and his parents were basically paying for everything. Financially, I was set. I had nothing to worry about.
“We had this little bay window above our kitchen sink that looked out onto the back yard and I just remember standing there washing dishes once and thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’”
“Did you feel like the stereotypical 1950s housewife?”
“Yeah, kind of. I mean, our relationship wasn’t like that. But it was kind of like that.”
The guy with the dreads laughed and Jeff found himself rolling his eyes as he restocked the baked goods.
“I don’t know, I just felt so empty,” the girl went on. “Like my life had no meaning.”
“I hope you don’t feel that way now,” said her date.
“No, no! Not at all! Like, at all! No, now I really feel like my life is on the right track. Like I’m doing what I was put here to do.” She giggled. “Do you believe in that stuff, or do I sound like a total wacko?”
Jeff thought she sounded like a total wacko, but her date reassured her.
“No, I totally get what you mean. Like, destiny, right?”
“I guess. I don’t know. I don’t want to call it that, but I guess that’s basically what I’m saying. I like to think of it as having a purpose. Which I guess is basically the same thing is destiny.”
“No, I get it. I mean, I don’t know if I have a destiny. Or if I do, maybe I just haven’t found it yet. But I’m totally open to the possibility that, yeah, some people were put on this earth to do good, and if you think you were put here to do social work, then that’s awesome.”
“OK, I just. I don’t know. Some people react weirdly when you talk about things like destiny and purpose. Like I’m just some sort of deluded person with visions of grandeur.”
“I don’t think you have to have visions of grandeur to think you have a destiny. If you do good things for a few people, you’re still doing good.”
“Exactly! And if I help even just one person, then they can help someone else, who can then help someone else, and it can just keep going on forever.”
“Yeah, and I totally think that when you put good out there, good things happen to you, you know?”
The girl giggled. Jeff didn’t even know why. She seemed to giggle at every single thing this average-looking guy with the unwashed hair said. Every time he looked over at them she was grinning from ear to ear. “I think so, too,” she said. “Like, it’s the circle of life or something.”
Jeff rolled his eyes as he swept the floor, hoping the couple would leave soon. It had been two hours. This date had to be over soon, right? It couldn’t go on forever.
To be continued …