Jack Snow sighed as he made his way back to his office cubicle two floors up. He wondered how many times Marie Karlson would turn him down before she would finally go on a date with him. He thought back to the conversation he had just had with her trying to figure out what he could do differently, what he could have said that would have made her understand how much he liked her.
“It’s not you,” she said, “my life is too complicated right now.”
“You always say that,” answered Jack, “I can handle complicated.”
“How do you know you can handle complicated?” she replied.
“Because I deal with complicated things every day. Being an architect means solving problems.”
“Those complications are job related,” she answered, “there’s a difference between job complicated and personal life complicated. I can do job complicated too, every time my boss gives me the monthly reports to file and I have to determine everyone’s abbreviations, that’s complicated for me, but at the same time it’s a challenge and I know I can get it done successfully. There’s a difference with life’s complications, you don’t know what the end result is supposed to be.”
“Nobody knows what is going to happen in their life, Marie,” answered Jack, “we might have an idea or something we want but I don’t know. I do know that you are single and I would like to date you.”
“Yes, I’m single,” said Marie, “but I’m also a divorced mother raising two children. Dating isn’t a priority right now and I don’t want my children to have to deal with everything that comes with their mother dating.”
“What is everything that comes with dating?” asked Jack, “someone caring for their mother, someone new coming into their lives?”
