Laurel's words were sweet, but Bethanie just didn't believe them, or even really believe that Laurel meant them. Of course Laurel wasn't going to say that Bethanie had no chance of meeting anyone - she was too nice, and too polite - but that didn't make it any less true. For a silent moment, she didn't know what to say, wanted to argue that even people who cared about more than appearance still did care a little. Even Bethanie wanted someone she could be attracted to, she just didn't believe that any of those people were ever going to feel the same way about her. "It hasn't so far," she said at last, which was gloomy but at least definitely true and not poisoned by her own inner critic. "I don't think blind dates are going to help much." One date, during which she would almost certainly be shy and awkward, wasn't going to be enough to get anyone to look past her appearance and agree to a second. "Maybe I'm destined to find love when I'm in my fifties. By then, maybe people won't care so much what I look like." Or maybe, by then, she'd be too set in her ways to be able to compromise with anyone.
She was glad to turn the conversation back to Laurel, even if she didn't quite know what to say to make it all okay. As much as she could have reassured Laurel that Bethanie didn't care whether she liked men, women, neither or both, she assumed it wasn't her approval that Laurel was after. "I'm sorry," she ventured. "That must be difficult. But they can't make you go on a second date with anyone, and maybe if you go on a few first dates that'll get them off your back because it'll seem like you're doing what you want?" It probably wasn't the best way to live. Someone braver would probably have counselled Laurel just to tell her family, or to make a break with them, but Bethanie wasn't that kind of person.