2 Questions Every Girl is Asking Herself

Epilogue

3 Years Later

Beijing, China

Fei Cheng Wu Rao Reunion

I'm sitting in a café in Beijing, waiting for my good friend Jing, a FCWR contestant from Toronto. Since the dating show, she has moved back to Beijing, tried her hand at investment banking and is now starting her own business. She strides in on her long legs with her blown out hair bouncing in the breeze.

"You look fantastic!"

"Thanks!" Jing flips her hair, "Don't be fooled by appearances. I've been living on caffeine just to keep up with this crazy schedule."

"Running a business is tough huh? My treat today. Caramel macchiato with extra shot of espresso?" I name her favorite drink.

"Yes!"

I turn to the cashier, "Two OJs please."

Jing gives me the side-eye, "I can't believe the only thing I got out of that show was you."

"You make it sound as if it's a bad thing."

"Is it! Now I'm 30 and still being set up. Why do you think I got a blowout today?" She flips through her schedule, "Let's see... today is guy three hundred and fifty-three."

"Gosh it's been three years huh," Jing looks up from her calendar.

"Yep, three years since the show. It's kindda lame when you think about it, we were on the biggest dating show in China, and the only thing we got out of it, was... girlfriends."

"Yep," confirms Jing, equally disappointed.

"How did that happen? How did we end up like this?"

"Remember Susan Miller said something about Mercury retrograde that summer..."

"Jing, that's not the point."

"I'm just sayin', there's something there."

"You are like the only thing I got out of that show," I say.

"And I'm not even that great."

"I know. Which makes it worse. I'm 30 this year, I thought I would be a published author by now, but it's still not happening."

"Why are you so hung up on the book thing? I can't remember the last time I read a book," Jing scratches her head, "Gosh, the last time I read a book I think, it was like, 10 years ago, Introduction to Finance."

I let my eyes roll themselves at her.

"Who reads books these days anyway? You know what you should do? You should write movies!" She nods affirmatively at her own idea.

"I can't write movies. Do you have any idea how hard it is to write a movie? Or just to break in? Screenwriting is for screenwriters. I'm a book writer. I write books."

"Yeah you write books. Writing books is hard. Writing movies is hard. Gosh reading words is hard. Come to think of it, I know someone, who knows someone, who is a producer."

Jing waits for a dramatic pause.

Then, she looks me in the eye and asks, "Now, what was that thing you said you couldn't do again?"

I break into a grin, "You know, you are pretty smart for someone who doesn't read."

"I listen to audiobooks."

We clink our glasses of OJ, set our complaints to the side, I say to Jing:

"I can't believe the only thing I got out of that show was you."