Expiration Dates

Daphne received her first mysterious note when she was in the fifth grade, a postcard that read, “Seth, eight days” (6). She asked her parents what it meant, but they did not know. Then, she recalled a boy named Seth from soccer. She asked him if he sent the note, and he denied it. He then became Daphne’s first boyfriend. From then on, Daphne has received notes that appear from nowhere, either just before she meets a man or shortly after, and tell her the exact amount of time they will stay together. She believes that the universe gives her this information.

The note containing only Jake’s name is the first time that a note has not included a time limit. She concludes that this can only mean that they will stay together forever. Over the date, they proceed from small talk to light banter. Jake asks Daphne about her work as an assistant to a famous film producer named Irina and talks about his job as a television executive. Jake also explains that he was late because of car trouble and then reveals a strange quirk: He must mark in a notebook every time he sees someone wearing black Doc Martin boots. At the end of the date, Jake walks Daphne to her car, and Daphne heads to meet Hugo for drinks.

The narrative flashes back to Daphne first meeting Hugo five years ago outside an acting class. As an assistant at Warner Brothers at the time, Daphne is chauffeuring an actor from his classes to the studio for shooting. As she waits outside for the actor to emerge, she sees a tall, handsome man in a black leather jacket also waiting. They speak briefly, and he introduces himself as Hugo. Then, the actor she is waiting for arrives, and they go their separate ways. Weeks later, however, Daphne is again outside the class while Hugo is there for a different actress. This time, Hugo asks for Daphne’s number. At first, she demurs, but then she finds a new note on her windshield that reads, “Hugo, three months” (21), and relents.

Hugo is waiting for Daphne when she meets him for drinks after her date with Jake. Hugo is the only person she has ever told about her notes. She tells him about the blank space beneath Jake’s name on her note, and he is shocked by this revelation. They discuss whether it means “forever” or something else entirely. Hugo asks Daphne if Jake is who she pictured herself being with. She considers the question and realizes that Jake fits an image she had when she was much younger, a version of herself “who didn’t quite understand her life yet” (25), but finally answers only that he seems nice. At the very least, she intends to go on a second date.

The narrative flashes back to Daphne’s first date with Hugo, who takes her to the Tower Bar, “a well-known restaurant in a well-known hotel on Sunset Boulevard” often filled with celebrities (27). Hugo is clearly a regular and says that it is one of his favorite places. They flirt and talk while they eat. Daphne tells herself not to become too attached. Knowing the expiration date of every relationship makes her feel resigned but also helps her protect herself because she knows how much of herself to invest and for how long. Then, when the ending inevitably comes, she is always prepared. 

Daphne teases Hugo that he is a “foregone conclusion,” which he takes as a challenge. They continue to flirt. Daphne feels an “unfamiliar sense of anticipation” in contrast with her usual resignation (32), and when Hugo asks her to dance, she replies, “Why not?”

In the present, Daphne drives Hugo to his home in West Hollywood and then returns to her own apartment not far away. Her dog, Murphy, barely acknowledges her arrival, and Daphne jokes that he is not a normal dog but “a 1940s banker who was once cursed by a witch to live in a dog’s body” (36).

Daphne lives in a large apartment near Sunset Boulevard that she has filled with mismatched furniture, artwork, and knick-knacks. She thinks about the newest note. Daphne desperately wants love, “real love, the kind that makes you want to grow old together, makes you not just unafraid of all that time with one person but electrified by it” (37). She has always assumed that the notes would stop eventually, but she also dreads that moment. She is afraid that she will miss the excitement of never knowing who might appear in her life next. Worse, she is afraid to stop moving from place to place and person to person for too long for fear that stopping means sinking and drowning.

The narrative flashes back to three years ago. Daphne is in Paris for a month while assisting Irina at a film shoot. She has only recently replaced Kendra as Irina’s assistant and is excited about the opportunity to travel to someplace as romantic as Paris. While there, she finds a note that tells her that she will have three days with “Martin,” though she does not know anyone by that name. Later that day, however, she meets one of the actor’s stand-ins, an American named Martin who has lived in Paris since finishing acting school several years ago. She decides to behave with indifference, not making the first move, to see if the note will still be accurate if she does not help it along. Then, Martin offers her a ride home on his Vespa.

The flashback continues. Martin takes Daphne out to dinner and offers to show her around the city. Over the weekend, he shows her around all of Paris, and they sleep together. The sex is uninspiring, but the simple fact of having a brief affair in Paris makes it more impactful than it would otherwise be. Daphne imagines the story that she will tell about the experience. She knows that she will miss “the particular feeling of being twentysomething and lost in Paris, together” (50), more than the man himself.