The Inciting Incident:

Do you remember the story of Cinderella? How she disappeared leaving a single glass slipper behind? And the prince searched for her by trying the slipper on young women of the kingdom until he found one that the slipper fit?

In my version, the guy isn't looking for a princess. He's looking for meaning. Whenever someone asks him how he is, he responds with a line from one of his favorite novels or comics, like:

"Trapped on the surface of a giant sphere; or

 "I'm not bragging."

Literature is his religion and he's not a believer in god or love. One day a woman asks "how are you" and he responds with a line from his favorite all time novel. And she responds with the correct reply to that line, verbatim as it was written in the novel....