FROM BOOKWERM
(Days after becoming engaged, Carla meets Nick and is thunder struck. When she accepts his dinner invitation she justifies it with this sentence. Could it be written better or is this clear?)
Well, let the chips fall where they may. Either this was going to be my one and final fling or I would learn whether or not I was truly meant to spend the rest of my life with Nick Cisighi instead of Earl Hanson.
RESPONSE
You want to use parallel structure with conjunctions. There are three types of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative. You can google lists of them all, I'm sure.
Anyway, "either...or" is a correlative conjunction. Parallel structure demands that the structure of the words after "or" are formed with the same parts of speech as the words in between "either" and "or". The words in between "either" and "or" - "this was going to be my one and final fling" - are a complete sentence. There's a subject (pronoun), verb, participle, infinitive pronoun, adjective, conjunction, adjective, and noun. Adherence to parallel structure demands the same parts of speech on the other side of "or".
If I were to write this sentence, I would replace that string of empty verbs with just one. Also, I'd move "either" to after the verb because correlative conjunctions read better with as few words as possible between and after. Lastly, I'd try to match not only the parts of speech, but the number of syllables, and it would read something like this:
Well, let the chips fall where they may. This was either my first and last fling or my one and true love, and that discovery would decide between Nick Cisighi and Earl Hanson.
By the way, in the last sentence of my second paragraph, "not only...but" is also a correlative conjunction. See the pretty parallel structure? lol.