Math is easy. There's always an answer to the equation. Sometimes you can solve the problem in a myriad of ways.
Love on the other hand is complicated. There are far too many variables and not enough constants.
Love may be hard to explain but like most things in this world, it just takes math to figure things out.
This was running through Alden's mine as he sat in his Algebra class. After a two year break from college, he had come back determined to get his diploma. The hiatus came after he had broken up with his girlfriend. Now, standing in front of the room announcing her position as teaching assistant was his former girlfriend, Maine.
They had dated two years ago, but she chose to take her final year of college in the US. They promised to stay together despite the distance. But of course they couldn't. Long distance relationships hardly worked out. He even validated this with an equation.
L= C/√X
L was the amount of love and X the distance between them. C was constant. Therefore, a high value of X, meant that the further they were apart, love decreased.
In the end, they broke up. And like two parallel lines on a graph they moved forward never meeting. Until today. When Maine came back, changing the trajectory of her path, so that her line intersected with his.
He couldn't take his eyes off her. After all this time, he still felt something for her. Maybe things could work out this time. After all, the problem of distance had been removed. It was now just a matter of probability. What was the probability of her agreeing to rekindle their relationship? Was he actually going to calculate this? The number of ways it could occur divided by the total number of possible outcomes?
His pencil was poised to start solving for the answer at the same time that she looked around and spotted him. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second. Enough for her to give him a warm smile and a small wave.
He quickly looked down, his ears turning red. A little flustered over being caught staring at her. He dropped his pencil. He didn't really need math to figure out that he still wanted to be with her.
That night, he happened to drop by a cafe to do some late night studying when he spied her sitting by herself at the shop. This was it. His chance for a do over. If she'd let him.
He walked up to her, "Hi Maine. Mind if I join you?"
She moved her things to give him room. Once he sat down, the conversation flowed with hardly any awkwardness. It was like they just picked up where they left off.
In a rare moment of silence, she smiled at him, "It's nice to be talking to you again. I really missed this. I really missed..." she stopped and looked down at her coffee.
Alden sensed an opportunity and started writing on a piece of paper.
"Earlier in class, a couple of thoughts occurred to me. I'm a little unsure about a few things, do you think you could help me out?" He asked pushing the paper towards her.
Maine glanced at the sheet, a look of disappointment crossed her face. "You need help with equations?"
"Do you mind? I was hoping to get an answer from you."
Maine scanned the paper again.
(x + y) = (x + y)
"This doesn't mean anything. All I can decipher is that this equation holds true." a confused expression passed over her features.
Alden reached for the paper and added:
If x is me and y is you.
x + y
Will the equation still hold?
Maine looked up from the paper. Before she could say anything, Alden gently took her hand in his. "Maine, I want to try again. I want to try to solve for us." He pressed another note into her palm.
She opened it.
Solve for us:
(x^2+y^2-1)^3 = x^2 y^3
Where x is me and y is you and 1 is our past.
Because I believe that
Me + You - our past = MeYou
And if you graph our equation you would know my feelings for you.
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Maine crumpled the note and pulled him towards her. "Shut up. You had me at x + y."
*equations from www.eoht.info & patternizer.wordpress.com; wolframalpha.com for the graph
