Fortune Cookie Literature

Mortimer Brackett relies on books the way a gypsy relied\s on tarot cards. Whomever he reads before leaving his house—Homer, Hemmingway, O’Conner, Orwell, or even Dickens; be it a sentence, a passage, or even a chapter—Mortimer believes the protagonist’s fate predicts the future outcome of his day.

So, what happens when Mortimer goes on a first date?