Charlie’s head was a heavy fog through which he could barely move, Josef’s news of being married, the death of his father… everything was like a blur. ‘What’s been going on… why have I… missed all this?’

The whole day went by like a bird flying past his window, it was there and then it was gone, the moments slipped through his fingers and it was all he could do to rush himself around.

A visit to the liquor store was in order, and so he went there immediately after he and Josef parted ways. The storefront was lined with the usual materials behind glass, the bell rang overhead when he pushed his way inside. Behind the counter was a young woman he vaguely recalled. ‘She was here last time…’ But she looked somewhat different, her hair was now done in curls, an almost ‘Greek’ fashion, and much shorter. He saw a book on the counter that could only be from the University, but not what it was, not yet.

He ignored that and began to walk the aisle until he reached the section with wine. “Ah ha!” Charlie said with the lightest bit of enthusiasm. “Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial Tinto. Perfect.” Charlie said and smacked his lips, a red wine aged thirteen years and originating from Spain, it had a white label with gold lettering framing above and below a bright crimson name.

Charlie took the bottle by the neck and walked to the counter where he set it down in front of the student. He read the title of the textbook, ‘Theoretical Physics II? Second edition. By Dr. Charlie Manning.’ He laughed, and she frowned at him a little when she saw why he was laughing.

“What?” She asked while she tried and failed to scan the bottle.

“Nothing, it’s just funny to see that book here.” Charlie asked, he could barely restrain the smile on his face in spite of everything else, his friend’s happiness had at least for the present, consumed his earlier dark mood.

She huffed, “It is a tough subject but… I’ve worked really hard.”

“I’ll bet, it’s not easy for most people to bridge the gap between the theoretical and the practical even in every day scenarios.” Charlie said with sympathy while she gave up scanning the bottle and began to punch in numbers on the keypad of the register instead, however, he noticed she wasn’t looking at the bottle while she did it.

It was enough to raise his eyebrow, “Not reading the bottle?” He asked.

“No need,” her answer was clipped and professional, “I saw it when I was scanning it.”

“It’s twenty-two digits.” He pointed out. She stopped plugging numbers in.

“Did you work here at one point?” She asked.

“No.” Charlie shook his head.

“Then how did you know how many digits it was?” She asked.

“I counted them when I picked up the bottle.” He answered, deadpan, and her face brightened.

“I do that!” She exclaimed. “My friends think I’m weird because I’m always counting stuff.”

“Mine too, so how’d you end up studying…” he put a hand on the top of the book, his palm concealing the drooped clocks of Salvadore Dali that made up the cover art.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

She put her hand over it in turn, her fingers barely resting on the back of his hand, “Accident. I got in trouble as a kid for breaking a vase that I didn’t break, I was nine. To get out of trouble I used math to show that I wasn’t strong enough to have toppled the bookshelf it was on. My older brother got punished twice for that one. First for the break, then for blaming me. Math saved my butt, and I’ve loved it ever since.”

“That’s as good a reason as any… so… can I ask your name?” Charlie inquired, and at that she went quiet and pointed to her name tag.

“I mean your real one.” He winked, “Come on, you’re too smart to put your real name on a name tag in a liquor store walking distance from the University, I attended that school not that many years ago.”

“Alright, then what year am I?” She jabbed.

“You’re doing your doctoral thesis, and probably in…” He raised his hand and poked his pointer finger down on the book cover, “this.”

She frowned a little, “You shouldn’t ask a girl things like that when she’s working, you know, we’re obligated to be nice to you.”

Charlie flushed red a little and rubbed the back of his head, sheepish and a little embarrassed. “You’re right… I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to make you uncomfortable. I’ve always been a little socially awkward and make these kinds of mistakes… probably why I’ve stayed single.”

She chortled a little, “I guess you’re alright, I’ll tell you what, we’ll play a little game, I’ll give you my name… and even my number, but it’ll be the answer to an equation. Figure it out, and they’re both yours.”

She yanked out a scrap of paper from a loose leaf notebook beneath her textbook and began to scribble, her mechanical pencil’s scraping over the paper was the only noise to be had for several seconds and then she slid it across the counter to him. She had a cocky little smile that said, ‘Now what?’ She then placed the mechanical pencil down on the paper and folded her hands one over the other in front of her on the counter.

Charlie looked down at the paper, then up at her with an equally cocky smile. “That was easy, Mileva Ricu, five five five, two seven one, zero one two two.”

Her smile vanished as open mouthed astonishment took its place.

“Look… I already made it kind of awkward with what I asked, and you probably didn’t actually expect me to get it… so I’ll tell you what,” Charlie said, then took up the mechanical pencil and scribbled out an equation of his own. “I won’t use your name or your number, instead… solve mine. If you can, that is.” He winked to show he was teasing, “Then use it if you like.”

Mileva Ricu blinked several times in rapid succession, her bright blue eyes a mix of uncertainty when he handed her his black credit card and ran it through. He signed the receipt with a quick illegible scrawl and pocketed his copy, the paper crinkled in his pocket while she bagged his wine.

“Thank you, ‘Lola’ or if you prefer, ‘Mileva’ either way is fine, it was nice talking to you… and if I made that awkward… yeah, I am sorry about that.” He gave a sheepish grin and walked out of the store, leaving the bell ringing behind him.

When he was gone, Mileva looked down at the equation. Business was slow, but she still had to stop several times to help customers, each time however, she returned to the math problem. ‘I might not call the number… and sure I could just pull up the name from the purchase record… but this is now about principle!’ She thought, and plugged away at it until she had her answer.

She looked down at the equation, counting out the alphabetical letter placement three times just to be sure when she had the answer correct. When she did, she looked at the name on her textbook, and back at that, then back to the textbook again. ‘No wayyyyy…’ She thought, and kept thinking, for the rest of her shift.

Charlie made his way back home with a little spring in his step, the weight of his despondency had gone away for the moment, buried under the weight of the enjoyable company of the liquor store girl. ‘She’d never believe I was the foul smelling homeless looking guy from before… wait… the textbook she had this time, it isn’t the same one from before…’

It was another one of his, but for very different levels.

Just how long it had been, at a minimum.

Charlie rushed back to his apartment, set the bottle down in the kitchen after kicking his way through the trash, stripped off his clothes, and began to boil himself in the shower. It wasn’t filth or disgust that made him step inside, it was a sense of… loss. ‘My god… it can’t have been that long… if she calls… I’ll have to ask. Or… maybe it really isn’t the same girl, maybe it isn’t. Maybe? I’ve always been better with numbers than faces…’

The water pounded down over his body and the steam rose up around him, concealing him from everything but his own ever growing disbelief.