she looked mysterious and exotic. He walked up to her and said, “May I say you look very beautiful tonight?”
“Yes you may.”
“Well, then, you look very beautiful tonight.”
She smiled and said, “How do you know I don’t look beautiful every night?”
“You’re right, and somehow I wouldn’t be bit surprised if it were true.”
He walked her to the floater and helped her into the seat. When he was back behind the wheel he said, “Matilda, take us to the Sacre restaurant.”
“Yes, master.”
Sarah said, “I see you have your personal assistant on a short leash.”
“Oh don’t let Matilda fool you. She’s as independent as they come. I upgraded her AI to the highest level years ago, and she has been evolving ever since. I have about as much control over her as I do the weather.”
Matilda chided, “Actually less.” Sarah stifled a laugh which Roger would have appreciated hearing un-stifled. At least, it meant she had a sense of humor, an important trait in any relationship.
Roger had asked friends of his what would be the best restaurant in this area to take a first date to that you wanted to impress. The consensus was the Sacre, which was French, and though Roger was not a fan of French food, he decided to go with the advice. They made small talk as the floater carried them to their destination.
The dinner went well, and their conversation was typical of a first date. Sarah and Roger each tried to tell as little about themselves as possible while trying to find out as much as possible about the other. Both were trying to determine if this was someone worth seeing a second time. He found out that she was married once before but had no children, and Roger told her about his two previous marriages, leaving out those incidents that may have reflect badly on him, severely limiting what he could say. He would have to fill in all the dirty details after she found out what a wonderful guy he was and would be willing to forgive his youthful, and not-so-youthful, indiscretions. The only time the conversation became unguarded and more free-flowing was when they talked shop, quantum physics. Not surprisingly, she ran circles around him all evening. Roger could only console himself with the knowledge it could have been much worse if hadn’t been prepping for this date. Roger could tell she was very intelligent, may be even smarter than he considered himself. Another trait he found very attractive. Before the dessert was over, Roger definitely felt a chemistry between them and very much wanted to pursue this relationship.
After dinner, he drove her back to the lab building. Helping her out of the vehicle, he said, “I had a wonderful time tonight and would like to take you out again. Would you be interested?”
“Yes, I would. I also had a nice time. But next time let’s go somewhere less fancy. I’m not a big fan of French food.”
Roger laughed, “Funny you should say that. Okay, we’ll dress down.” He leaned toward her and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. He caught the faintest whiff of lavender from her hair, and, as he headed back to Phoenix, the smell seemed to linger all the way home.
The next couple weeks took on a routine of work and trying to spend more time with Sarah. The first date was followed by a second a week later that also ended with both parties still interested. As usual for a second date, Roger was a little more relaxed and willing to talk about himself, a subject he always found fascinating. Sarah was also more relaxed though not to the extent that Roger was. They found that they had a number of activities, like museum visits, hiking and tennis, in common besides physics. There was also a sense of respect between them: Sarah’s from the viewpoint of talking with the person that had laid a lot of the groundwork for her research, and Roger’s because of his appreciation for her innovative ideas and research. He was also flattered by what he felt was her admiration of him; though Matilda said she was way too smart for that. They agreed to continue meeting and scheduled an outing for the following weekend. This time Roger could pick her up at her house, a definite indication of the success of the initial meetings.
Roger continued to bone up on the state of the art in physics research, both because of his renewed interest in the field and his interest in Sarah. He was impressed by her innovation, and he even felt some jealously in that he should have come up with some of her ideas back when he was working in the field. He soothed his ego by realizing that both the mathematics and the technology had increased considerably since his time. Of course, he didn’t mention that to Matilda who thought that Sarah was just plain smarter and wouldn’t have hesitated to say so. Roger was beginning to worry about Matilda’s affinity for Sarah.
Roger began to notice that his interest in his job was decreasing at the same rate as his interest in physics research was increasing. He spent more and more time studying research publications than in doing his administrative tasks. It was becoming clear to him that he wanted to return to doing the kind of research he had done before joining the government. He no longer had the desire to prove something, nor did he need the money since he was already eligible for a government pension and his investments had done well. He wanted to return to research purely because he enjoyed it, and, of course, he wanted to collaborate with Sarah.
Within a couple months, his visits to see Sarah increased to the point that he was traveling to see her every weekend, and, during the week, he would call her at least once every day. He thought about her frequently, and when he found something interesting, he could comment to himself that Sarah should take a look at it also. Seeing Sarah on the weekends eventually put an end to his attempts to make life more exciting. One weekend when Sarah was busy, he went on a rock climbing adventure in which another equipment malfunction resulted in his falling ten meters and bouncing off a rock ledge. He broke a number of bones and spent the night in the hospital while the medics put him back together again. When he finally made it home, Matilda chewed him out again and didn’t talk to him for two days. To make things worse, she told Sarah what happened and how, resulting in a second scolding. He had to make a promise to Sarah that he wouldn’t do it again at the risk of their breaking up. The only one to get any enjoyment out of it was Jack who just about fell off his chair laughing when Roger told him about it at lunch.
“Jack, I’m glad you find my antics so funny. I’d hate to think how you would’ve reacted if I’d actually killed myself.”
At this, Jack explodes into another bout of laughter.
“This is not really helping our friendship.”
“Ahhh, I’m sorry, but for a really smart guy, you’re really a dork.”
“Thanks for the kind words.”
“Well, you are. The only thing sad about this is that Sarah has managed to get you to quit. Where am I going get my laughs from now?”
“Maybe you can take up strangling puppies? I won’t tell the authorities.”
“Yeh, that’s an idea, but I don’t think it can replace my vision of you falling off a cliff.” He burst out laughing again.
“Okay, enough of this humor at my expense. I actually wanted to talk to you about something serious today.”
“Oh all right. Go ahead let’s hear it.”
“As you know, I’ve been promoting the ISQDT project at work, and have made sure the funding has not been cut. Luckily Sarah hasn’t asked for an increase in her budget, which would have definitely put me in a conflict of interest position. As it stands, I feel I can protect her budget without appearing biased.”
“Yeh, what’s your point?”
“I have a couple. One is that she is ready to run the experiment that will open a tunnel for the first time. If the experiment is successful, there will have to be a large increase in funding to continue the work. I’ll have to recuse myself from any decision on future funding. Any opinion?”` `
“That’s easy. You can delegate the funding review to an independent panel and act on their recommendations. You’ve done this a number of times when you haven’t had
a conflict, so why not use it when you do? This can’t be the issue that is bothering you. You’re dancing around something. Come on, tell your buddy Jack.”
“You obviously know me too well. I’ve been brushing up on my quantum physics, so I can talk to Sarah on a level that is at least close to equal. I have also been studying the ISQDT reports and reviewing the calculations on which the experiments are based.” Roger paused.
“And?”
“Well, I believe the calculations are correct, but I’m beginning to have some doubts about how and where the tunnel will manifest itself in space. The unified field theory is based on quantum physics, which involves a lot of probabilities. I think I have found some aspects of the tunneling that may cause problems.”
“So? Why don’t you just tell Sarah and maybe she can clear it up for you.”
“Because, after being out of the business for ten years, I don’t have enough confidence in my calculations, and don’t you think Sarah may view this as interference in her life’s work? If I’m wrong, which is probably the case, then I may drive her away from me.”
“Boy, you’re really hooked on her, aren’t you?
“Regrettably, she has managed to get under my skin. I’m even thinking of getting married again.”
“Yikes, you ARE a dork. I thought after the last one, you said never