"You ever wonder about those missed chances?"

I scratched my chin. "What do you mean? Like Missed Connections on Craigslist?"

"No, no," Tim shook his head. "I mean, like, you meet someone briefly, but you don't really follow through. What if that person was The One for you? And now you lost your chance?"

"Hmm… Are you thinking of a specific incident here? Or just in general?"

"Just in general." He looked off in a distance with a pause. "Well, so when I've gone clubbing, I'll get all drunk and start talking to random chicks, you know? What if one of them could have been The One, or at least, a good friend?"

I took a deep breath to take in the question. Tim ordered another beer.

"I think it's all Fate. If you weren't meant to connect with that person, then it's not going to happen. It wasn't meant to be."

Tim took two large gulps. "Yea. But what if, you know? What if that chick was The One?"

"How are you to ever know? The grass always seems greener on the other side, right? I think you're idealizing a missed connection too much."

"Idealizing?"

"Yea. It's easy to think about What Ifs about everything that's ever happened to you. If you look back into your past right now, I'm sure you can pick out a dozen things that could have turned out differently."

"Shit, yea. Let's see, there was that receptionist chick. And that boring but cute chick. And that other chick. Oh man, my life is a mess! It could have been so much better! Thanks man, now I'm all depressed!"

I laughed and snorted up some beer. "Ha! Funny, dude."

"Heh heh. I know what you mean though. It's easy to look back on some random chick and wonder if she could have been The One, but you will never really know, right?"

"Right. And if you believe in Fate, if she really was The One, then you would have connected."

"Yea…" We both took several gulps in silence.

"Man, that was a deep topic," Tim added. "Let's talk about something else."

"Okay." I looked around the bar. "Let's talk about chicks."

"Sweet."

And we wondered no more.

. . .

You ever wonder about those missed connections?