Events in the Life of Janet O'Connolly - Destiny

Janet O'Connolly was having a good time.  It was her cousin Juniper's birthday and they were at a bar with a big group of friends and friends of friends, celebrating in style.  Drinks were in every hand and laughter filled the air with ear pounding merriment.  Janet had just made another toast with her buds and was wandering around, looking for her conversation group.  They weren't her best friends by any means, but she found the discussions with them stimulating.  It was kind of like what people nostalgize college to be, and it never is.  Only two years out of college, Janet knew well how boring it really was, for the most part.  As she was scanning the bar for their serious faces, with brows far too furrowed for their years, a hand reached out of the ether and grabbed her elbow.  She looked towards its probable source and saw Mike, a receptionist at the company she had done a summer internship for.  It had been a few years since she had last seen him, but he hadn't really changed at all - same puppy eyes, same crooked grin, same receding hairline.

"What a surprise!" he said when their eyes met, "I didn't know you knew Vince."

"Oh, I don't.  I've never even met a Vince in my life.  I'm here for Juniper's birthday party."

"Oh," he looked perturbed, "Well, Vince organized the party.  I didn't know it was for somebody, he just asked a bunch of us to come..."

"I guess he wanted the place to be packed, which it is.  How's things at the office?"  Janet was actually a little stung that they hadn't offered her a position after her internship, which she felt she had completed brilliantly.  That damn sluggish economy, one might suppose.

"Oh, you know.  Same old, same old," Mike looked a little peevish at having work brought up.  "Old man Williams is a little worked up lately, but you know how he is."  Mr. Williams had been Janet's supervisor, who she thought she got along with splendidly.  Not well enough to be referred for a job, obviously.  Some people thought he was just too full of himself, but Janet had only experienced a man knowledgeable of his field and happy to share his knowledge.  She, and Mike, had been nothing but deferential to him while she was there.

"Yeah, I remember," Janet said as non-commitally as possible.

Mike grinned and downed his beer.  "Hey, listen, I have to go now, but why don't we hang out tomorrow?  We can meet by Britten's on Albert Ave."  Hang out with Mike?  Well, Janet still had a nagging desire to be connected to the company, and maybe he could find an in for her.  She acquiesced.  Mike smiled broadly and disappeared into the crowd, so Janet went back to her search for her partners in serious debate.

The next day Janet went to the appointed meeting place at the appointed time - Mike had texted her later that night with more details - and she stood waiting.  Mike showed up, five minutes late, and said, "Did you have trouble finding the place?"

Janet wanted to reply with, "You're the one who's late!" but she just replied, "No, I used to have an apartment right around here actually."

"Well," Mike was scanning the street, "Why don't we go to the sandwich shop on St. Catherine's?"  That was a little strange for Janet.  The sandwich shop was OK, but she wasn't hungry and she had gotten the impression that they were going for drinks.

"I'm not going to eat anything," she warned.

"Oh, me neither," was the reply, which drove Janet to even more confusion.  Why go to the sandwich shop, if not to have a sandwich?  But Mike was already walking down the street, talking about the time he spent in France as a child.  His mother had worked for a French company and they spent almost four years in Paris when he was young.  So, that felt like it should have been interesting.

They each ordered a beer and sat down at a table away from other customers.  They were quiet for a moment of two, sipping their drinks, and then Mike asked, "What's your favorite thing in the city?"  Janet had to stop and think.  It was a strange question for her, like something you would ask a tourist or a celebrity.

"Well, I don't know," she mused, "I've always liked the news building on 7th street.  It's so classical and stately.  It makes me think I'm in New York City or someplace."

"Oh." Mike was perplexed.  "But what do you do?  Do you just sit in front of it and look at it?"

"What?  No, I just like the building.  Did you mean what's my favorite thing to do?"

Mike looked a little irritated now, but he just said, "What about parks?  Do you like to walk in the park?"

"Yeah, I guess.  I hate dodging dog poo and runaway kids, though."

"But isn't it romantic?  At night?  Under the stars?"

"I...don't know.  I was never much of a romantic.  If you're with somebody you love, I suppose it doesn't matter where you are, under the stars or in the park or what."

Suddenly Mike leaned over the table, close to Janet's face, and said in a quiet, tense voice, "Do you believe in destiny?"

Janet was now very uncomfortable.  "I don't know about that either.  I mean, maybe some things are meant to happen, but it seems kind of simplistic to say all our future is written in the stars or something."

Mike was watching her closely, trying to gauge her openness she supposed.  "Don't you think two people meeting is destiny?  That it's meaningful for how they relate to each other?"

"Actually, that's just confusing to me.  Why should only certain meetings be destined?  How do we know which ones they're supposed to be?  It makes more sense to me that either all meetings or none are part of our so-called destiny."

Janet guessed that Mike was trying to let her know that he thought they were destined to be together.  He was looking more and more frustrated as she spoke.  Finally he leaned back in his chair and said, "You're right, you really aren't very romantic."  For some reason it felt more like a reproach than a simple statement and Janet could only reply, "I guess not."

The beers were gone and there wasn't much reason to stay.  At the door, Mike said he was going shopping for his nephew's birthday and he'd give her a call.  Then he strode off.  Janet felt a little hurt all the way home, which surprised and frustrated her.  It wasn't her fault she wasn't interested in Mike.  There just wasn't any chemistry and nothing they both liked that they could talk about.  Still, she felt guilty and cried a little over the glass of wine she had with her supper that night.