Her Melting Point {Wattys 2024}

Halmos Ever After

"If you got sacked and found a position elsewhere, would you ask me to go with you?" he asked.

Jackie whipped her head and gawked at him. She hadn't even thought of this option... but to think of it, wasn't it the best option? Her mind worked frantically, and then her shoulders dropped, relaxing.

"Yes," she said simply. "I would. I wouldn't be able to stay here, and I want to be with you. And when you were in California, you said that you didn't have to come back to Fleckney to continue running your businesses, right?"

He studied her face. Jackie was still digesting her own unexpected realisation that if push came to shove, she'd work her arse off to stay with him. His straight arms heavily lay on her shoulders, and he locked his hands behind her back.

"I've got a hypothesis, but we should wash first," he said.

"Alright. Let's face it, I am getting pretty pruny."

He placed a quick tender kiss on her lips.

"Were you going to wash your hair?"

Jackie caught the eagerness hiding in his nonchalant voice and laughed. "Knock yourself out."

***

She sat down in the kitchen, and she watched him start the kettle.

"What's the hypothesis?" she asked.

He turned to her and leaned his back against the counter.

"I think I understand what you meant by a 'typical couple.' Please let me finish," he said before she ventured into reassuring him. Jackie closed her mouth and nodded, encouraging him to continue. "Our relationship is undefined," he postulated. "Like a primitive notion."

"Oh my god, yes!" Jackie flailed her hands in the air. "Exactly! It's not defined by preexisting concepts! So, when there's a new issue or we try to figure out some fundamentals–"

"We struggle because of the possibility of infinite regress," he finished her thought.

"Yes!"

"It is a real-value function, though," he said. "I'm not worried. We just need to establish the axioms, and then we can solve the rest."

He crossed his arms on his chest. Jackie wondered if she should ask him to get dressed, since the only item on him was a pair of soft bottoms, and he was probably going commando as usual. He'd just said 'real-value' and that he wasn't worried; which, in Alexander talk, probably meant she was one and only, and he'd love her till the end of times, or something of the sort. The conversation was clearly heading in a positive, intimacy-building, connection-strengthening direction. His physical form once again became distracting.

"You say the most romantic things," Jackie snorted.

He poured the water over the teabags and sat on a chair across from her.

"Are you being sarcastic?" He calmly lifted the mug to his lips.

"No, I'm not. I'm teasing you, but I honestly think that it's romantic. Clearly, maths is our shared love language. It's brilliant!" 

She covered his warm hand on the table and stroked it with her thumb. He flipped their hands, lifted hers, and pressed his lips to her knuckles.

"Alright, so what are the axioms in our relationship? I love you, and you love me," she said with a slight questioning intonation.

"And we can cohabitate successfully. We've tested it. So, we can make it permanent," he stated, almost as if in passing; and apparently promptly moved onto the next topic. "You want to have a child."