Blind Date

Blind Date

It’s 5:38 on a Saturday night. Like every great masterpiece, Jennifer is gently putting on her foundation, and ready to begin the process of “becoming beautiful.” She is staring closely at her flaws and imperfections as they close and become hidden underneath her powdered mask. She looks into the mirror, not vainly, but optimistically, as she is hoping tonight will be the night; the night she meets her prince charming, the night she is swept off her feet by her valiant and handsome hero, and live out the Disney fantasy. She smiles back at herself, with these thoughts of her perfect evening running through her head. Like an artist, she is contouring her face, with product after product. Slowly hiding away a part of the beautiful girl she really is, but out of evolution, she must adapt. She must evolve to compete with the other girls who do the same thing to score her alpha, her dream, her Disney prince.

Her phone alarm goes off as she cautiously puts on the last touches of eyeliner, and smiles back at her “new” self in the mirror. Butterflies hit her stomach wall as she taps her phone to quiet the alarm. She knows she now has only five minutes to leave the house before being late for her own date. Though deep down inside she knows it’s become a thing to be “fashionably late” she is eager to meet with her new Romeo. She puts on her highest heels that raise her calf muscle the most, even though they are painful to walk in, and even harder to drive in. She still risks it. Before she leaves, she does a final check in the mirror, slowly pushing her hands down her way-too-short dress for winter, and off she went with her hopes in her pocketbook.

Tonight, Jennifer is meeting with her co-worker’s friend Tim. Jennifer has seen Tim before and knows he is handsome, in good shape, and seems to be out of her league. Still, Jennifer gladly accepted the idea of them going on a date to see if any sparks fly. Jennifer has been single so long, she was happy even to see an ember between them.

Tim texted her to meet him at 7:00 at Landmark Americana, a bar that gets quite crowded on a Saturday night but has food and Jennifer didn’t mind. She really enjoyed the food there, although tonight she’d be lucky to manage a salad, as her nerves were slowly overcoming her. She parked in a shady parking lot that was a block away and looked at her “accessory” watch. The watch read 7:07, which made Jennifer forget about the cold as she sped walked in her painful high heels. She entered the bar area and walked past the hostesses and found Tim right away. He was wearing a blue button-down shirt, sitting at the bar with a half-drunken beer in his hand, staring at a sports game of a team that wasn’t local.

Jennifer tapped him on the shoulder, and he quickly turned around to greet her with a friendly “Hey! How are you?!” His beard tickled her exposed shoulder as he went to give her a hug. Jennifer thought this was a bit awkward, as they’d never seen each other before tonight, other than online.

“Hi! I’m so sorry I’m late. I honestly was trying to get here on time.” Jennifer replied in a high voice of excitement and anxiety.

“No worries, I was just watching the game. Patriots VS the Seahawks. Do you watch football?” Tim asked honestly, thus beginning the interview process that is a blind date.

“No. I’m kind of one of those bandwagon people that will cheer for the team if they're in the playoffs or I’m at the game.” She replied back truthfully, hoping for a pleasant response.

“Oh, you’re one of those people, huh?” He smiled as he ended the sentence. “Care for a drink?” He asked.

“Maybe. Maybe when I eat.” Jennifer replied.

“Eat? You didn’t eat yet?”

“No….I thought we were eating together.”

“I didn’t get that impression. I’m sorry. I ate before I got here.” This was strike two actually in Jennifer’s mind, as Tim neither saved her a seat at the bar nor offered her his seat. But Jennifer let it slide, as it is considered rude to hold a place for someone at a crowded bar unless they are already there. Tim did look handsome, and still out of her league, but Jennifer knows that looks are great for the bedroom, but not for real romance.

After another patron saw Jennifer standing got up from the bar next to Tim. The man said nothing but got up and offered his stool to her. Jennifer felt a flutter of gratitude towards the man, and almost a sense of admiration for his sense of chivalry. However, the butterflies in her stomach were now floating with hunger pains, as she smiled and listened to Tim talk about himself and his job. Jennifer was genuinely interested, as she was hoping desperately for this date to become something more. Tim worked as an electrician for PECO and was telling her how his friend got shocked that day, and he laughed as he recalled it. Though much of the story didn’t make much sense to her, as Tim was using jargon only electricians know, so for most of the story she didn’t know when to laugh until Tim was already laughing.

As Tim came down from laughing, he looked at Jennifer as she smiled, “So, how is it working with Becky?”

“Becky is great! I love her, she is so sweet and…funny.” Jennifer had a tough time coming up with things to say about Becky as she didn’t really know her too well, other than the occasional side conversation at work. “There’s actually a funny story about Beck…” as Jennifer was talking Tim began looking at the TV and chanting and screaming at the TV as the rest of the crowd joined in like a cult of testosterone repeating after each other. Tim high-fived the people around him, and slowly looked over at her, “I’m sorry Jen, what were you saying.”

“It’s okay.” Even though Jennifer knew it really wasn’t. She didn’t want to seem like a nuisance or the killjoy for Tim and refused to say anything about it, although she was holding back a wall of anger and regret. “I was saying I have this funny story about Becky….” Jennifer began to tell the story about Becky, and as she was telling her story Tim’s eyes would dart back to the TV for a brief second, and just as Jennifer wasn’t sure when to laugh, Tim laughed after Jennifer, too.

“Are you sure you don’t want a drink?” Tim asked quickly, coming out of his unsure laugh.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t want to drink on an empty stomach.”

“That’s a good idea,” Tim replied as he slowly went back to watch the game. Jennifer would interrupt him occasionally asking things you ask on a blind date,

“Where are you from… what high school did you go to… what music do you like, what are your interests and hobbies…” You basically ask all the questions you learn in Spanish I. Slowly, Tim would answer each one, taking his eye off the game for a few moments here and there, and then returning them, like a yo-yo. But during one of these yo-yo breaks his eyes were staring past Jennifer and into a great beyond. Jennifer was talking about a high school experience, but Tim was not paying attention to even a syllable she had said. Tim’s eyes and face followed a group of loud girls throwing a bachelorette party. The girls were in their early to mid-’20s, wearing shorter and tighter dresses than Jennifer would even dare put on. They wore high stiletto heels, and were already drunk and stumbling over themselves.

Jennifer didn’t blame Tim for looking, she understood that he is a guy and that guys will look. After all, that was the intention she hoping to get tonight. But it hurt her. She really tried. She took her time to cover up her imperfections, she worked out and dieted all week to fit in her tight little dress, and she wanted to make him interested in her and wanted to be interested in his stories. She put her heart out for the critic to see, to only see it get a bad review.

Tim’s eyes now didn’t know which way to turn. To the right was the game and left was his easy target at the bachelorette party, and of course, Jennifer in the middle. As there were breaks in the conversations, he would make up reasons to look to his left like, “I think I know that DJ” or “I think those girls are louder than the music.” Jennifer, unfortunately, knew where she stood tonight. Tim was not her Disney prince, her valiant man. She was hoping for a spark or even an ember to burn, but there was just nothing between them. It was fire without oxygen.

As Tim swiveled his eyes, Jennifer looked in her purse for her phone, as she knew the night was now going nowhere, but to her dismay, she realized she left her phone in her car.

“Crap.” She said out louder than she’d have liked. Tim looked away from the TV and asked “What?”

“I left my phone in my car.” She responded, still searching for hope in her bottomless purse, that went with her outfit.

“Are you sure it’s in your car?” Tim, instead asked.

“Yeah, I used it before I got here.” Jennifer saw this as her actual ticket out of her date. “I’m actually going to go. I have to be at my parent’s house early tomorrow for mass.” Jennifer hadn’t been to church in eight years but knew that Tim wouldn’t question her on a first date. “I had a really great time though, Tim.” Jennifer went in for a hug, and Tim followed suit.

“I had a great time, too. Are you sure you have to go? I’ll buy you another drink. I mean the night is still young, stay out. We can still go back to my place.”

That was Jennifer’s final indication that Tim was not the man she thought, nor probably ever would be. “No, it’s okay. I really have to go to mass early in the morning. But thanks. Thanks for everything.” Jennifer got up onto her high heels, feeling the aching already, and began her walk of guilt. She kind of hoped that Tim would be a gentleman and walk her to her car, as it was in a kind of sinister feeling lot. But Tim continued to drink his drink, with one eye on the TV and his other on the Bachelorette party.

With each step on her high heels, she could feel the aching pain, silently believing that she somehow deserved this pain. She began the five stages of remorse, starting with sadness and blame. Blaming herself for not dieting harder, for doing her hair the way she put it, and not trying harder to be interested in Tim’s conversation. As she stepped past the slim-fit dressed hostesses and opened the door, her foot pain was sidelined for that of the cold winter night.

Too tired and in too much pain, Jennifer decided to walk as she would on a breezy spring night, and let the bitter cold hit her exposed skin. She passed by the happy couples as they cozied up to each other feeling the oxytocin through their thick jackets with smiles on their face and love in their eyes, and occasionally passed the drunken girls who like her were wearing dresses that were cut lower than their present morals. When finally she arrived at the dubious parking lot she had parked in only about a half-hour ago, the pumpkin-turned chariot that was to whisk her away to meet her prince charming, was not there. She pressed the lock button to hear the sound of her car silently honking, as she had thought maybe she forgot where she parked. But, her car did not give her a friendly hello honk back. Instead, she received the silent treatment. She hurriedly ran across the parking lot, hitting every button on her key ring. Until finally she ran up to an empty spot that looked familiar and saw a large confetti of shards of glass where her driver's side would have been.

“Shit!” she silently screamed. “Shit, SHit, SHIt, SHIT!!!” She screamed louder with each shit. Her car had been stolen. She didn’t care so much about the car, but rather the items that were in her car. Her life’s work of mix cd’s and music, her extensive line of make-up that would make any make-up artist jealous, and most of all her cellphone. She stomped her high heels on the ground as hard as she could, not thinking of her wobbly and clumsy she was without heels. She twisted her ankle and immediately fell to the ground. The dress she had looked for in so many stores, until she finally found the right one, even though it was a size too small, she dieted and worked out twice a day to fit in, was now in the dirty wet parking lot.

Jennifer didn’t feel the cold anymore, but could only feel the weight of her regret pushing out of her through her chest all the way up through her tear ducts, as she began to cry. Her massacre and eyeliner fell like wet paint dripping down a canvas. For a moment she had thought she would just stay there, on the cold hard ground, never moving, just waiting until something better comes along.

“Miss” a man’s voice broke through her consciousness. “Are you alright?”

Jennifer began to look up from her knees and first saw a pair of jeans, with Chuck Taylor’s at the end of them. As she slowly looked up she saw a man with a gentle-looking face, he wasn’t muscular but wasn’t overweight. He was wearing a white button shirt and a purple tie with a black hoodie. Jennifer tried not to judge the man based on his wardrobe as she had no room for judgment for herself currently. But thought, what an odd get-up. But for whatever reason, it worked for the guy.

Then she realized it was the guy from the bar that gave up his seat for her.

“Yes. I’m fine.” Jennifer said sternly, getting up and pushing her ruined dress back down.

“Are you sure? Do you need to call anyone? Were you hurt?” The mystery man asked.

“No, I’m fine. I said.” She sternly answered again, this time with a little more anger in her tone.

“I don’t think so. There aren’t many pretty women, in nice dresses lying and crying in parking lots, over empty car spaces.” The man replied in his gentle tone, matching his gentle face. “I’m assuming your car was stolen?”

Jennifer was still in awe, over the fact that the man had complimented Jennifer twice in one sentence, and moreover, it was a man she hadn’t met before or even been on a date with. This mysterious man had already given more compliments to her than her actual date did in less than the five minutes they knew each other. But Jennifer knew, from her own history, that kind men can also hide mean secrets.

“Yes.” She said rather shortly.

“Well, would you like to use my phone to call the police?” The man asked. Jennifer slowly walked in the opposite direction as the man went into his pocket. Jennifer’s mind went into dark corners and began thinking of all the tiny sharp and deadly objects that can fit in a small jean pocket. Jennifer began looking for the closest person and came up with an escape plan, just in case.

The man pulled out his cell phone and began handing it over to Jennifer.

“Here, it’s ringing.” As the man stepped towards her, she took another step back. The man raised his eyebrow in a puzzled fashion as if wondering if what he was doing was wrong.

“Ok.” The man said. He began slowly putting his phone down on the next car, as if he were held at gunpoint and told to lower his weapon slowly. “I’m going to put the phone on the car, and I will move over to the next car over and place my hands on the hood. I promise you, the last thing I want to do is hurt you. I only want to help.”

“I don’t need a prince to come to my rescue, you know,” Jennifer said, folding her arms, and looking austere.

“I understand that, and believe me I am no prince.”

“Hello, this is 911. Hello? Is anyone there?” The voice of the 911 dispatcher echoed off the trunk of the car. Jennifer, still cautious, reached out for the phone and responded.

“Hi. My car was stolen…” Jennifer explained the situation, as the man didn’t move his hands from the car he was standing at. When she finished her conversation, she placed the phone back on the car and walked back to her safe zone/her cautious area.

“The police are on their way.” Jennifer told the man, as if she were trying to scare the man into behaving properly, even though he was more proper than any man she had ever met.

“Great.” The man replied after taking his hand off the vehicle and placed his phone back in his jean pocket. A minute of unspoken silence passed between them. Jennifer’s adrenaline had dropped back to its regular state, and she could feel winter creep back onto her skin and drive its head into her bones. She began to shiver, and the man took off his hoodie and handed it over to Jennifer, just barely breaking into Jennifer’s invisible comfort bubble.

“Please, take it. It’s freezing, and I’m wearing long sleeves.” Jennifer kept looking at the man with a quizzical look. “Listen, A. as I mentioned before I wouldn’t ever hurt you. And B. the Police are on their way. Believe me, you are safe. Please, take the hoodie. I’m not diseased. I’m just worried you’ll catch hypothermia before the police even get here.” Jennifer, trying to show her tough exterior continued to deny the man, but after a cold breeze blew through her icy skin, she caved in. Even the most durable steel bends under pressure. She welcomed the oversized hoodie with a warm embrace, and she could smell the man’s intoxicating scent and natural aroma.

“Thank you.” She whispered her words through her tight lips.

“You’re welcome.” She answered her.

“Won’t you be cold?”

“I can take the cold. Don’t worry. The cops will be here soon… at least I hope. I’m sure it’s not too uncommon a crime around here. Listen, what’s your name? I figured if we're going to be staying here for a while, we may as well get to know each other’s name.”

“You’re staying? You don’t have to stay!” Jennifer’s teeth were no longer chattering, and her words were more forced with anger than felt with it. She didn’t know why she was angry at the man, he was just trying to be helpful. But with everything that happened tonight, she couldn’t withhold her anger and unleashed it on him.

“You can go, honestly. I’ll be fine!” She attacked him.

The man said nothing but pointed at her shoulders, tightly crunched up in his hoodie.

“Oh.”

“That’s my favorite and supposedly lucky hoodie. But after tonight, I think the luck is gone.”

Jennifer began taking off the hoodie, but the man insisted she keep it on. “Please, it’s no worries. Keep it on.” The man put his hands in his pockets and began kicking gravel with his chucks. “My name is Dylan by the way. Dylan Chivel. In case you wanted to know.”

“Jen.” She replied, pushing her hair behind her ear and began looking at the confetti of glass shards on the ground.

“Nice to meet you, Jen. I’m sorry it had to be under these circumstances.”

Jennifer wanted to smile but the weight of tonight’s events held her cheeks back. “Why are you helping me?”

“Well, to be honest. I don’t know. I was walking to my car which is over there, and then I saw you crying on the dirty ground. And knew that I couldn’t let you be by yourself. So I came over, and now we’re here.”

“Well, thank you.”

“It’s no trouble. Just when I thought I was having an awful night, I met you and saw that my night could’ve been worse.”

Jennifer scoffed.

“I’m sorry, I only meant that tonight was kind of me just going out on a limb night. I was trying to put myself back into the dating field. I got all dressed up and went to where people like us go to meet love nowadays, a bar, and it was just a disaster.”

Jennifer couldn’t believe his story. Her ears perked up like a dog hearing the word “treat.”

“Yeah, it’s crazy. I haven't been out in a long time. I’ve been working so much and studying so much that I just never got out, and tonight was the night I was supposed to fall in love. But, like most things in my life, I was met with disappointment.” Dylan kicked some more gravel with his hands still in his pockets.

“What happened?” Jennifer asked him, inching closer to Dylan, with him noticing.

“Well, I went inside the bar and was trying to be confident. I ordered a drink and started talking to a girl I thought was cute, but out of my league. She and her friends didn’t even give me the time of day. Then some guido mob took them over to the dance floor and then I found myself alone at the bar. After my drink and several failed attempts of trying to make a conversation I left. I was planning on going to Wendy's to get a cheeseburger, a frosty, and go home and watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia reruns. But then I found you here.”

Jennifer’s stomach grumbled after hearing the word cheeseburger. She reached down to her flat stomach to soothe its aches. “Sounds rough. I guess I never thought about how much it takes for a guy to talk to a girl he doesn’t know, especially if they are with their friends. But it sounds like you had a fun night planned after. God, I’d kill for a cheeseburger or a frosty. And I love Always Sunny!”

It had been two weeks of lean meat and no cheat meals for Jennifer. Her flat stomach looked good but felt awful.

“Maybe after…” The flashing red and blue lights of the police squad car rolling into the parking lot interrupted Dylan. As the car pulled in, Jennifer holding tight on to Dylan’s hoodie was now inches away from him. She didn’t know if it was his story or the fact that her history with police had never been pleasant, but his presence comforted her.

“Took them long enough.” He joked.

“Yeah.” Jennifer looked down at her pained feet feeling no sense of relief that the police were there, but instead she felt disappointed that this might conclude her encounter with Dylan. He was kind, seemed to have a sense of humor, a gentleman, and now that she looked closer was kind of cute. His features weren’t that of a male model, but he was still very handsome.

The police got out of the car and took statements from both Dylan and Jennifer. As they were questioned by the police Dylan would look up at Jennifer and sneak a smile at her, and Jennifer would follow. Finally, after 20 minutes of tedious questions, repeated stories, and no helpful advice the police had been convinced the car was stolen and they wrote a report on the car. As the one policeman got into his car, he rolled down the window and said, “Ma’am if you’d like we can give you a ride home. Or we can call you a taxi.”

Jennifer thought about it, though the hoodie kept her warm, her legs were still out in the open cold of the night. She didn’t know Dylan, but then again she didn’t know the policeman either. She went on a leap of faith and responded back, “No, thanks.” She looked toward Dyland and asked, “Do you mind giving me a ride?” She looked at Dylan, holding on to his warm hoodie.

“Absolutely.” He answered with a grin that stretched his face to reveal a perfect set of teeth.

“Ok, Miss. Have a good night. Good luck with the insurance, and you can come by the station tomorrow to pick up the paperwork on your car.”

“Thank you, officer. Have a good night.” The cop car slowly drove around the parking lot and out. When they were clear Jennifer looked at Dylan who was still smiling and said, “So, Wendy’s you said?”

“I did. Come on, my car’s over here.” Jennifer followed Dylan into his outstandingly clean car, and together they drove with the heat on full blast to Wendy’s. Dylan paid for Jen’s meal, and together they sat and ate hot greasy fast food. To Dylan, it was a treat, but to Jennifer, it was a cathartic cleansing. Together they ate, joked, and repeated their favorite quotes from It's Always Sunny. Though the TV was on with a football game in Dylan’s direction, he never broke his stare from Jen.

After a moment of silence, after they had finished laughing to tears, Jen looked up at Dylan and said, “I’m sorry I was such a bitch to you earlier. I just have had bad luck with guys recently, and I just didn’t trust you.”

“Oh, it’s alright. It just shows that you have character, and have a good sense of judgment. I mean, here I am, a total stranger to you after your car was stolen and here I come willing to give you my phone and help out. I could’ve been a total creeper. I don’t take any offense to it. Some crazy stuff has happened to beautiful girls like yourself.” That was twice Dylan commented on her looks. Already more than double what she received from her original date.

“Anyone else would have just left. I mean, why did you stay?”

Dylan took a spoonful of his frosty and laughed. “I told you because you needed help.”

“But… why did you help? Most people would have left me.”

“Well, to be honest with you, most people suck. And I don’t ever want to be like most people. If I were like most people, I wouldn’t be here with you having a wonderful time. If I were like most people, I’d only care about my ‘image’ and myself, and life is too short to care about that kind of nonsense. I might not be Mr. Six-Pack Abs, but Mr. Six-Pack Abs works out two times a day and doesn’t know how to live. Going to the gym is fine, but to spend all your time there when they could be spending it with someone like you, is just ludacris to me.”

Jennifer could feel the blood rush to her face, most importantly her cheeks. She hadn’t been flirted with in so long she didn’t know how to respond. So she sat there and smiled, and Dylan smiled back.

“So, what happened tonight? Were you having a girls night out or something?”

“No! I hate girls night out. Girls nights out just mean drama and lots of drunken slurs. Unfortunately, I, not unlike yourself, had a failed date.” She went into detail about Tim and his lackadaisical effort at the date. Dylan was shocked and listened to every word, and laughed before Jen, showing that he was genuinely listening and interested.

“What a jerk! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. That really sucks.”

“Yeah, but I guess it turned out ok. I got a free Wendy’s meal.”

“Indeed you did.” Right then an employee came over and told Jen and Dylan that they were now closed and had to leave. They both walked to the car, and Dylan opened Jennifer’s door. No one ever opened Jennifer’s door for her, from her first boyfriend to her latest ex. Sometimes, they’d even forget to unlock the door for her. Dylan got in the car, and together they drove with Jennifer giving him street-by-street guidance to her apartment.

“Do you mind if I put on some music?” Dylan asked.

“No, not at all.”

“You can pick a CD. My book is in the center console.” Dylan handed her his cell phone to use as a flashlight to see in the dark.

“CDs, huh?”

“Yes. There’s nothing like them. I know everyone has a million songs on their phones thanks to Spotify, but it just doesn’t do it for me. There’s something about CDs, maybe it’s nostalgia to a better time in my life. But, I like them. I could turn on the radio if you’d prefer.”

“No, I don’t mind CDs.” Jen looked through the CD book with delight. Dylan’s musical taste was almost that of her own. They liked the same artists, and would stop everyone once in a while when she spotted blank CDs with titles on them like Crappy Day or Pick Me Up, Buttercup. She picked up the Pick Me Up, Buttercup CD and said its title aloud.

“Ok, this needs an explanation.”

“It’s just a compilation of songs that keep me going and also make me laugh. Put it in.”

Jennifer put the CD in its slot and the music began, and it was hard to hold back the laughter as Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” came on.

Dylan looked and could see the smirk on Jennifer’s face off the passing headlights of the traffic that drove by. “What? It’s a great song. A great reminder.” He couldn’t help it. He sang along to every word.

Before she knew it, so was Jennifer. Together they sang word for word lyrics out of harmony and out of key. They laughed as they missed turns and streets because they were either singing too loud or too much.

After the last turn and as Dylan approached Jen's apartment, she couldn’t help but feel let down again, let down that the night was going to end.

“It’s the last one on the right.” Jennifer said, as Dylan put the car in the park. Her heart pounded and reverberated against her breast.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye. I had a GREAT night, Jen. Maybe… we could do this again. Maybe… watch It’s Always Sunny and get another burger.”

Before Dylan could finish, Jen had already answered. “Yes. Yes! I had a lot of fun, too. Tonight ended a hundred times better than it began.”

“I’m glad you had fun too. So…” Dylan dragged on, as Jen hoped he was going to kiss her. “Can I walk you to your door?”

“Absolutely,” Jen answered excitedly, as Dylan broke the record again for being more chivalrous than any other boyfriend of Jennifer’s ever.

When they arrived at Jen’s door, she looked up at Dylan seeing his eyes reflect the warm moon above.

“Thanks again for everything, Dylan. I had a really good time tonight.” A moment of silence passed between them, the tension grew, and finally, Dylan dipped his head in and kissed her. There were more than embers that Jennifer was hopeful for tonight, there were uncontrollable fires between them.

They unlocked lips and stared deep into their dark-filled eyes.

“Thank you, Jen. Text me or call me tomorrow. I’ll pick you up and take you wherever you need to go or help you in any way.”

“Sounds good.” She chuckled. “Good night, Dylan.”

“Good night.”

Jennifer walked into her apartment, and she watched Dylan leap into the air clicking his heels in excitement. A quiet chuckle reverberated off her empty apartment walls. She watched as he drove off in his car, and she crashed into her warm bed and began rubbing her aching feet. When she laid back, she remembered that she was still wearing Dylan’s hoodie. She closed her eyes and hugged herself, embracing and feeling the soft cotton of Dylan’s hoodie, taking in his scent. She thought to herself, “Maybe it was lucky after all.”