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Marsie introduced her best friend to her new friend. Jill set her coffee and pastry on the table and sat. Beck sank into a chair, almost like it was the only other option besides going out to get a divorce lawyer, which she didn’t want to do.
“You’re friends with Jason,” Beck said. “Marsie’s online dating buddy.”
“Online dating buddy?” Jill asked, turning from Beck to Marsie. “I just knew you as his work-coffee friend.”
Marsie shrugged, still embarrassed to be talking about online dating. “We’re each other’s moral support for dating, too.”
Jill took a bite of her cookie and looked at Marsie long and hard. “But you and Jason aren’t dating. Have you tried?”
Marsie shook her head and was about to answer when Beck interrupted, “According to Marsie, they have nothing in common.”
“Hey,” Marsie said. “It sounds stupid when you say it like that.”
Beck raised a brow. Jill wiggled her fingers for more. Marsie put down her coffee cup and explained the algorithm, hoping that math made saying “we have nothing in common” about a man as great as Jason sound less stupid. Unfortunately, when she was done, Jill was nodding. “I see the problem,” she said.
“The problem with Jason and me dating?” Marsie asked, knowing she was wrong.
“The problem with your method for choosing men. I’m guessing that Kenny wouldn’t pass your algorithm.”
“But would he pass yours?”
Jill looked thoughtful. “I think I’m too far removed from when we met to remember what I was looking for in a partner, other than supportive. Caring. Accepts me as who I am and doesn’t want me to change, but also who helps me become a better person.”
“You know,” Beck said dryly, “the minor things.”
Marsie scowled at Beck, then saw the sadness in her friend’s eyes and softened her glare. “When you say it that way, it sounds almost impossible. There’s nothing you can tell from a man’s online profile about how supportive he’ll be in a crisis.”
Even her new qualitative analysis couldn’t tell her if a man would make her want to be a better person. That took getting to know someone. Then she was back in the same problem, how to sift through the large number of men on the dating site to pick the ones to meet and hope they might be that accepting, supportive, loving partner Jill talked about.
“No,” Beck said. “All you can tell are the things on your algorithm. Neil would have passed my algorithm. By your account, we have everything in common. Except me wanting kids.” Beck’s voice trembled and both Jill and Marsie reached out a hand. Jill rested hers on Beck’s shoulder, Marsie on her knee.
“But I didn’t really know what that meant when we got married. All I knew was that we were perfect for each other.” Beck paused. “Until we weren’t. Things can always go wrong.”
“But you have to take a chance,” Jill continued. “That’s what happened for me and Kenny. He has a twinkle in his eyes that I really like. I took a chance on that twinkle.”
“The world is full of possibility,” Marsie said, as much to herself as to her friends. “I just need to open my mind up to all of them, even the improbable ones.”
Beck looked amused as Jill shook her head and said, “I wouldn’t have put it that way, but sure.”
“I need a break from looking at the online dating site. At least until I process this.”
“If you rework your algorithm again, I think you’ll have missed the point,” Beck said. Her friend knew her too well.
“But I need some way to sort through the men. The algorithm is as good as anything.”
“I’ve not seen the algorithm,” Jill said, “but I would say use it and then keep your options only for the man who doesn’t pass, but looks interesting anyway.”
Jason, Marsie thought, though she wouldn’t ever say it to the two women. Then she’d have to explain spark and how they didn’t have any. Instead, she spent the rest of coffee listening to her old friend and her new friend get to know each other while she wondered if Jill’s and Beck’s advice had changed anything.
