The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

The idea that both life and love are unpredictable is revealed by the characters’ relationships. Hadley has not been looking forward to her trip to London for many reasons. She doesn’t want to attend her father’s wedding, and she harbors an intense dislike of confined and crowded spaces like airplanes and airports. When she meets Oliver and unexpectedly develops feelings for him, she reflects that she has “spent so much energy dreading this trip that she hadn’t been prepared for the possibility that something good might come out of it” (32). Once she recognizes the similarities between the serendipity of her meeting with Oliver and the fortuitous occurrence of her dad’s encounter with Charlotte, she realizes that she cannot blame Andrew for his. After all, when Hadley feels the “urgency of [her] decision” (141) to seek Oliver out at his father’s funeral, she listens to the impulse despite the apparent irrationality of her behavior. When she later explains her actions to her dad, she sees “a light behind his eyes that refuses to go out. It's the same light that Hadley’s seen in Mom when she’s with Harrison. It’s the same light she believes she saw in Oliver’s eyes on the plane (197).