Chemicals and Circumstance

"I think there is something wrong with the women who are attracted to me."

He did have a history.

""I know it's true. Why else would they want to go out with me? Especially as I get older? I don't have money or a nice car. There isn't really much to recommend me."

I didn't want to go down this road with him, but I was having trouble finding a turnout.

"They've been awfully pretty," I told him, hoping to diffuse the inevitable.

"That's what I mean. Why would they want to go out with me? Something happened to them somewhere along the line."

I thought something unprintable.

"I know what you're thinking," he said. "None of them were getting schtupped by their daddies."

"As far as you know."

"Right! And I know. Their fathers were powerful, exceptional men except for the one who got Baker Acted. She didn't have a father at all. No, it is something else. It is chemical."

"Absolutely," I agreed, though he had contradicted himself. I think all things are. The Human Genome Project gave us that. They'll find more. By and large, we can't help who we are. It is all Chemistry and Circumstance.