Karlie was sitting next to Sean being the counter of the shop during her lunch break, head in her hands, frustrated.
“Karls,” said Sean, “Why are you so down lately? Something happened between you and Taylor?”
“Yeah,” she replied, and Sean looked surprised.
“What happened?” he said in shock.
“Nothing.”
“Karls! You just said something happened! Tell –
“Yes, something did happen. That something is nothing. That’s the problem. Nothing has happened.”
“Wha –
“I never get to see her anymore, and when I do, she’s always dozing off or worried about Connor. She visits him in the hospital more than she visits me! That’s the problem! Nothing!”
“Oh, I get it. Kinda like numbers.”
“What?” ejected Karlie.
“See, zero does nothing. It’s a number, but it has no value. It’s sometimes even worse than negative numbers, because at least those do something. But zero is the most useless number of all.”
Sean was nodding and smiling to himself, eyes closed with a sense of proud achievement.
Karlie managed to laugh in amazement.
“Wow, Sean. So that’s where you’ve been hiding your brain all this time.”
“Oh, be quiet!” he said jokingly.
And they laughed together, making Karlie feel just a little better.
-----------
“Taylor,” smiled Connor from the hospital bed, “You’re back. I didn’t think you’d come –
“Of course I’d come,” she said, “You’re hurt, how could I not?”
She smiled at him as he responded.
“Karlie didn’t seem to want you around me when you two visited me together, last time.”
His face wrinkled, forming a pout.
Taylor shrugged off the comment and smiled.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better, now that you’re here,” he said, and returned her smile.
She chuckled while watching the sun set through the window, tried to keep smiling.
----------------
More days passed, and Taylor was still visiting Connor; Karlie still talking to Sean about her worries.
“You know,” said Sean one day during lunch, “You seem really agitated in the morning now. You were always a morning person, and now you’re just so grumpy.”
“The problem isn’t the mornings,” she said, “It’s the nights.”
“Huh?”
“Taylor doesn’t visit me anymore. She says she’s too tired from visiting Connor at the hospital all day at the hospital, and it will all be over soon once he heals.”
“Oh, then that shouldn’t be a problem, you just have to wait it out.”
“No, it is a problem,” she said, “It’s a huge problem. I used to look forward to my lunch breaks in the morning, and then the nights after my lunch break. Now I have nothing to look forward to. I feel so worn out, so empty. Still, everyday, I count the seconds to my lunch break, hoping she’ll here, and then I count the seconds to the end of my night shift, hoping she’ll be here. And she never appears.”
