Page 227 of Valentino

The old man beside me sips his coffee and opens his nuts before holding the bag out to me. “Want a nut?”

“Thanks.” I reach in and take a cashew and slip it in my mouth. “Delicious.”

“Sure is,” he grumbles. “My wife was allergic.”

“Ah.” I pretend not to have heard his earlier conversation. “Really?”

“Yep, she’d be up in heaven right now probably wheezing just at the very sight of me.”

I smile as I imagine an old woman having an asthma attack in heaven. “How long has she been gone?”

“Three years.”

“You must miss her?”

“Every day.”

“How long were you married?”

“Forty years.”

“What’s it like to love someone for forty years?”

“Honestly?” He looks over at me.

I nod.

“It’s a pain in the ass.”

I giggle in surprise, not what I was expecting him to say. “Why?”

“Well…” he gives a weak shrug, “…some days we loved each other and some days we didn’t.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, perplexed.

“Well, it’s the same for everyone.”

I frown. “You’ve lost me.”

“People assume that you meet someone and everything falls perfectly into place. But the fact of the matter is that nothing falls into place unless you try.”

“Some things would never work no matter how much you try,” I reply.

“True.” He throws another nut into his mouth. “I guess that’s where you rely on destiny to take over.” He winks.

“What do you know about destiny?” I smile.

“It always shows the way.”

“Interesting theory,” I reply as I take another nut from him. “But the reality is that sometimes there is no one qualified to show you?”

“The strings will.”

“I’m confused.”

“String theory,” he replies.

“String theory?”