“That one looks like a giant dragon,” Peter said, pointing to the cloud almost directly overhead. He then passed the joint to Rachel, who was lying next to him on the blanket.

Rachel took a deep hit and sighed. “Life is so random,” she said. “I abhor life’s randomness.”

“Sheesh, Rachel,” Peter said, “you always become ascetic when you’re stoned out of your gourd.”

“I most certainly am not ascetic,” Rachel objected. “Contemplative, maybe. Pensive perhaps. But I certainly don’t practice self-denial.” She smiled and took another hit off the joint and handed it back to Peter.

“You say you abhor randomness, but when we met at that Kamala Harris campaign rally last year, don’t you think that was rather random?” Peter asked.

Rachel laughed. “That wasn’t random,” she said. “It was serendipitous.”

“They’re the same thing,” Peter said.

“Well, that depends on your definitions,” Rachel said. “I define serendipitous as an unsought, unintended, or unexpected occurrence, but one with a fortunate, or happy outcome. Random is just arbitrary.”

“So you consider our meeting to be a fortunate occurrence with a happy outcome?” Peter said with a broad smile on his face.

Rachel blushed and pointed to a cloud in the sky. “Look, Peter, that one looks like a lion.”

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Written for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (random), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (abhor), Your Daily Word Prompt (ascetic), The Daily Spur (campaign), and MMA Storytime (depend).