The Mathematics of Love ✔

Chapter 4

We’d been sending Liang Liang to this place for as long as I could remember. I knew practically every employee there by heart. That was why, when I stepped into the store that afternoon, the girl behind the desk looked up and smiled at me immediately.

“Hey,” Vanessa Fox said. “How's it going?”

“Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”

Vanessa tucked her brown hair behind the new, chic red glasses she was sporting and gave me a hard look. “Nancy. How long have we known each other again?” she said.

I thought for a moment. “Since that phase when you went through black lipstick faster than CVS could sell them?”

“Yuck.” Vanessa shuddered. “Freshman year. Don’t remind me of it.”

“Yeah, and you were always telling me and Kevin about how the world would end soon, too.” I paused. “You know, you’ve changed a lot since then.”

“I’d really rather not take a trip down memory lane right now, if that’s alright with you.” Vanessa stood up and made her way into the back, her high heels clacking behind her. “Here, Liang Liang, it’s time to go home!” I heard her coo.

Vanessa’s love of animals really had changed her over the years. When she and Kevin were in the same class years and years ago, her clothes consisted mainly of black and her expressions mainly of glares.

Now, the girl who sat at the front desk at Doggie Daycare looked like a more modest version of someone you would expect to come strutting down a walkway, and her smiles could put the sun to shame.

“Here. He’s all fed and watered, so you guys should be all set with him for the rest of the night,” Vanessa explained as she carefully placed Liang Liang into my arms. She gave him a soft smile when he barked. “He’s such a sweetie, isn’t he?”

“Oh, yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “You should have seen what he did to my calc homework the other night. The worst part was, I couldn’t even tell the teacher that my dog did eat my homework.”

Liang Liang gave a sharp bark and tried to wriggle out of my grasp, but I anticipated this. I held onto his fur tightly.

“Man, that stinks,” Vanessa snorted. Then her expression grew a little more serious. For a moment, she even appeared to look uncomfortable. “So, how's Kevin been holding up lately?”

“Him?” I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “No idea. He's been lazing around the house and eating all the food out of the fridge, mostly.”

“Really?” Vanessa cleared her throat and avoided looking me in the eye. “So he hasn’t said anything about…?” She trailed off and raised her eyebrows, like I was supposed to understand.

I didn’t understand. At all. “About…what?” I prompted.

Vanessa stared hard at me with her mouth parted slightly. For a moment, it seemed like she was going to say something important, but then she just shook her head with this odd little look on her face.

“Oh, it's nothing, really,” she said too casually. “It’s just…It’s just something really important to him. To us, actually.”

“Really? Have you two been hanging out a lot lately?” I said in surprise.

I hadn’t even known that Vanessa and Kevin were still in contact. They’d been friends/enemies all the way up until high school graduation, when they parted ways. Kevin went off to Arizona State University, and Vanessa enrolled into community college with a part-time job at Doggie Daycare.

“Yeah, we’ve been doing some…stuff…since he came back in town.” Vanessa paused. “No, not what you're thinking, Nancy. Anyway, I thought Kevin would have mentioned what we’ve been doing to you, at least.” She shrugged. “Guess not.”

“Mention what?” I demanded. Then a light bulb went off in my head. “Hold on. Does this have anything to do with all the moping he’d been doing lately?”

Vanessa’s eyebrows flew up in genuine surprise. “Moping? Really?”

“Yeah, he’s been moping. Even more than usual.”

“I have no idea,” she said. “Maybe it’s Allison.” She added this with a thoughtful look, more to herself than to me.

“Allison…the girl my brother liked all though high school?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, Kevin still carried a torch for Allison even now, despite the fact that they’d parted ways almost six years ago.

“The very same,” Vanessa said solemnly. “Unfortunately, the freshman Spring Formal was the biggest shot Kevin ever got with her.” She shrugged. “Allison got married this past winter.”

“Really?”

Come to think of it, Kevin had gone through an ice cream-eating phase when he came home for Christmas break. Maybe that explained it.

I suddenly felt a lot more sympathy for my brother.

“Yeah, she got hitched to some chump she met in college. I thought Kevin had gotten over that news already, though. Maybe…maybe he...oh.”

Realization dawned on Vanessa’s face. I leaned in eagerly, causing Liang Lian to nearly slip through my hands, but at the last moment Vanessa recovered herself and gave me a hard look.

“You were saying?” I prompted.

“It’s not my business,” she said shortly. “Sorry to be so blunt, but you gotta realize that Kevin’s a grown man now. I think he can take care of his own problems without you or me butting in.”

“But—”

Vanessa practically herded me out the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay? Oh, and when you see Kevin,” she added, her eyes trained seriously on mine, “tell him if he touches The Book again, I’ll kill him.”

“The Book? What book? Wait—Vanessa!”

Before I could interrogate her further, Vanessa closed the door behind her and left me and Liang Liang staring at the closed door.

For a moment, I considered going back in there and demanding that she tell me everything she knew about what was going on with Kevin, but then I reconsidered. I seriously doubted Vanessa would listen to me now that she’d made up her mind to stay silent. She was one of the most stubborn people I knew.

“Okay, Liang Liang, let’s get you home,” I sighed, scooping him up into my arms. “And if you happen to find out anything about Kevin’s situation, let me know, okay?”

I knew I was really running out of ideas when I had to resort to consulting the family dog on my brother’s status. Sherlock Holmes would have been appalled.

It seemed like the more people I talked to, the less I knew about what was really going on with Kevin.

*****

A/N - You know, I like this mystery vibe. I think I'll continue it. I'll just keep you guys guessing about what's going on. Also, sorry for the slight delay in uploading...my grandparents are staying over so I've been given the delightful task of entertaining them. ...That did not come out the right way.

Anyway, I'll try my best to get another chapter out early tomorrow :) Comment/vote to show your support for this story! Thanks!