At the beginning of the evening Jill, a bright eyed and naive college student, had wanted to discuss radiocarbon dating and the scientific problems with it.
However, Larry, an elderly, goatee wearing professor had wanted to discuss a much different sort of dating. So it was that Larry had begun expounding on his own greatness and all the advantages of dating him. However, as old as Larry was, Jill suspected that she would need to use radiocarbon dating to properly date him.
She just knew that this would create problems.
The sad reality was that dating ancient fossils was full of challenges.
“Another cup of coffee?” Jill looked up at the handsome waiter standing before her as if she were searching for a way of escape. “No.” Was the only word her weary brain could force out of her mouth.
Clearly disappointed, the waiter humbly returned to his task of sweeping the concrete beneath his feet.
Jill shifted in her seat. After about an hour of listening to Larry’s important lecture, she had begun to realize an important truth. The truth that the people who are actually important don’t have time to sit for hours and talk about how important they are. Another thought that occurred to her was that perhaps, just perhaps, being self-important wasn’t exactly the same as actually being important. As Larry droned on, Jill took a stand, preparing to leave this wretched campus coffee shop.
Completely self-absorbed, Larry continued to expound his theory of how their life together would work. According to him, it would be a relationship evolving from a germ, a tiny thought, becoming greater and better with time.
Jill stifled a giggle as she watched her professor sitting there in that bench and carrying on. If this was Larry’s idea of a scientific dating method, it wasn’t working very well. Larry’s theory suffered from a missing link…specifically, any link with reality. With that bold thought to motivate her, Jill began to stride toward freedom.
Only to be swept off her feet by the waiter, who wasn’t watching where he was waving his broom. As Jill lay there on the ground, looking up into the sparkling blue eyes of the handsome young waiter, her feet entangled in his broom, she realized that she had fallen for the right man.