Math and boba with Christina

You’re still deliberating on the question when a text comes in. It’s Christina!

“Hey, I’m stuck on question three. Got any ideas?”

You open the assignment and stare at the question. You saw it earlier, thought about it, and decided that it was too difficult to do. Now, you’re faced with it again. After a minute spent thinking about it, you’ve come up with nothing.

“No clue,” you text back. “This one’s tough.”

“Hmm… shit.” She writes. Then, a couple seconds later: “Want to grab some boba?”

You laugh at the non-sequitur, but she’s serious about it, so a couple minutes later, you find yourself at a small shop tucked away near campus. It’s clean and bright, the red logo prominently displayed above the door.

“Alex!” Christina calls out, giving you a side hug.

The little Asian from your hall is wearing a cute cropped cardigan knotted down the middle and a pair of shorts. {if Christina > 50} She takes your hand and leads you into the store. {else} The two of you head into the store. {endif} There’s two dozen options on the menu, and you’re overwhelmed for a minute with all the choices.

“What’s good here?” you ask.

“The original milk tea’s a classic,” she says. “I’m thinking of getting… oooh, the honey oolong looks great, I’ll have that.”

“Cool,” you say, heading up to the counter to get exactly that.

You cheerily make your order, ignoring the mock glare that Christina shoots at you.

“Hey, you stole my drink,” Christina pouts.

“Well, I did get a large, and it’s looking pretty darn large,” you say. “We could share it.”

“I guess that’s one way to save money,” she laughs. “But I get first dibs at the drink.”

“Deal,” you say, and the two of you expectantly watch as the drink is delivered into her waiting hands.

“So,” you say, watching her sip on the drink. “This is what you do all day instead of studying?”

She swats you playfully on the arm and then hands the drink over to you as you begin the walk back to your dorm. You take a sip and are pleasantly surprised by the taste. You can see why Christina’s so fond of it.

“This is studying,” she says, taking back the drink. “Going for long walks has a storied history in mathematics. Every winner of the Fields medal has gone on a walk in their life.”

“Yeah, sure,” you chuckle, watching her sip from the drink again. The way she sucks on the straw, that playful look on her face, you could just imagine her lips wrapped around something else… You take a second to compose yourself. “You’re telling me every winner of the Fields medal has used boba as inspiration too?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” she laughs, passing the drink back to you.

You suck on the straw too, wondering if it looks nearly as hot when you do it. Probably not.

A minute later, the two of you head back into her dorm room.

“Where’s the roommate?” you ask.

“Lucy said about flying planes or something weird like that,” Christina shrugs. “I never know what she’s up to.”

She pulls up the assignment on her laptop, and you look at it over her shoulder, passing the drink back to her. There’s not much of it left.

{if Christina > 50} “Mind if I give it a good suck?” she asks, wiggling her eyebrows. {else} “Mind if I finish it?” she asks. {endif}

“Be my guest,” you laugh as she does just that.

The two of you stare at the problem for a minute longer, before it hits you.

“By the way, I think my strategy worked,” Christina says excitedly, scribbling down something on her notepad with her right hand while she holds her drink with her left. “You think the solution looks something like this?”

“I was just thinking the same thing!” you say, and in a flurry of excitement, the two of you work out the answer to the problem in a matter of minutes.

“Wow. Maybe there is a method to your madness,” you say, snapping a photo of the write-up.

“Guess we’ll just have to try it again to see,” Christina says, giving you a teasing smile. “Next round’s on you again!”

Christina +15