Studying Math with Ruby

It takes you a while to find the library room that Ruby texted you, but you eventually get there, finding the small glass door tucked behind rows of bookstacks. Ruby’s wearing a red jersey dress today, and she’s thumbing through some food blogs as you step in.

“Hey hey,” she says as you step into the room. There’s a twinkle in her eyes, and she gives you a weird kind of three finger wave.

“I’m liking the math studying going on here,” you say, pointing at her laptop screen.

“O yeah, don’t you know? This is how all great mathematicians got inspired - by their love of food,” she says. You cast her a doubting look. “Okay, fine, maybe Erdos was inspired by his love of meth. But still, that’s kind of like food.”

“Ah, so when do we get to the meth blogs?” you ask.

“Meth, math, same deal,” Ruby says, pulling out her papers. “Okay, in all seriousness though? You asked me yesterday to get help on catching up, but I think we’re already mostly on the same page.”

“Why don’t we run through the stuff starting from the first class?” you ask. “That way, we can make sure I don’t have any gaps, and it’ll be good review for you too.”

“Sure sure,” she says, and together you begin to talk through the first theorems of the class. You’re immersed in her explanations - it helps that she has two sizeable mounds that ahem can focus your attention.

“… and that brings us to the proof you did yesterday in class,” Ruby says. “Not so bad, is it?”

“Not at all,” you say

There’s a moment of awkward silence as both of you wonder if that’s the end of this little encounter.

“Um… I’ve still got a while before my next thing,” Ruby says. “Want to work on some of the problems for next class?”

“Sure,” you say, shifting your chair so that it’s positioned next to hers.

The two of you stare at the first problem. It is titled “Construction of the Real Numbers.” You start to write something, and then drop your pen. Next to you, Ruby spends a little longer writing, and then scratches everything out.

“This one is kind of hard,” she says.

“The problem suggests two methods - Cauchy sequences and Dedekind cuts. Which one are you trying?” you ask, looking over her page. It’s kind of hard to make anything on and you give her a skeptical look. She shrugs, and scratches the remaining “x, y, ???” on the page out.

“I was trying Cauchy,” she says. “You?”

“Neither makes sense to me,” you say.

“I give up,” Ruby says. She throws her hands in the air in frustration, just as you reach an arm out to give her a hug, and her head comes to rest on your shoulder.

It rests there for a moment, and you suddenly realise how close you are to her. You can smell the scent of her perfume - something sweet and tangy, and in the corner of your eye, you see her lips, painted bright red by smooth strokes of lipstick.

You twist your body until you’re almost face to face with her. She stares deep into your eyes, your noses grazing one another. Her eyes flicker down to your lips, and you kiss her. It is long and light, lips pressed against each other, and she breaks away after a few seconds. She looks away.

You reach out with your hand, and turn her head towards you. She looks like she’s about to say something, but then decides against it. Instead, she leans forward, and this time it’s her hands that grab your shirt to pull you in, and you kiss deeply, your tongue corralling hers into her mouth, and you taste a hint of something sweet on her breath too.

“That was good,” she breathes as you come up for air, and you nod. You kiss her once more, and the two of you hold each other tight as your tongues battle for dominance once more.

“Is that really necessary?” A librarian’s voice calls out from the open door. “Shoo! Get out! Do this elsewhere!

You abruptly break away from Ruby, and smile abashedly.

“Sorry about that ma’am,” you say, and Ruby mutters something similar. Her face is bright red - embarrassment? Or is she worked up? Either way, she hastily gathers her papers and leaves.

“See you in class tomorrow,” she says, and you watch her disappear into the bookshelves.

So that’s why these rooms have glass doors, you think to yourself. That Foucault guy kind of has a point when he’s talking about how these places are designed.

Ruby +20