Boy meets girl, girl falls in love, blah-blah-blah.
Let me be clear with you from the beginning. This is not that kind of story.
My name is Cait, and I live in the great city of New York. Okay, so maybe I've only lived here for a week and a half...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I couldn't believe I said yes.
I said yes to having dinner with a stranger, someone I literally just met on the street, tonight. Tonight! That didn't give me any time to do any of the normal first date stuff. Not that I'd been on a first date in, well, a long time. I couldn't fret over my outfit, fix my hair and makeup, blab about it with Val...nothing. Hell, I couldn't even Google stalk him. I was wearing my work clothes from Starbucks, and I'd nearly worn mismatched shoes today. I was definitely not ready to have dinner with him.
What did I get myself into? I don't do dating.
I walked through Central Park in somewhat of a haze - more than my usual haze, that is - and I didn't even realize that I had walked right past the Naumburg Bandshell. All I could think about was the handsome guy who asked me out and whether or not I was going to get murdered later tonight.
Okay, sure, I have an overactive imagination.
His name was Andrew, I knew that much, and he was off to some charity benefit thingie for the next two hours. I was supposed to meet him at BarBacon (a bacon-themed gastropub, if that's not obvious) at eight thirty, which gave me over an hour and a half to enjoy the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra before heading that direction.
After circling back to the bandshell, I made my way to a seat and took off my headphones so I could enjoy the music. I'd never been the type of girl who obsessed over some guy, especially some guy she just met, so I let my mind wander as I closed my eyes and listened to the music.
He's really cute.
I opened my eyes, taking a deep breath, and stared up at the sky. He was cute. He was more than cute...and he wanted to buy me dinner. I haven't been on any dates since I moved to New York, except for one awful blind date Val forced me on because the guy she was seeing at the time wanted to double, and truthfully it wasn't high on my priority list. I didn't want a boyfriend, not when I was focused on working my ass off at Starbucks and getting into CUNY next year so I could study computational mathematics.
Did I mention that I really like math?
You'd think with my love of music I'd be a musician or something, but - in reality - I can't play a single instrument. I taught myself a few songs on the piano, but I sounded like a six-year-old with a sugar buzz. My hands just didn't cooperate with my brain, and I don't really blame them.
Nope, math was my calling, and I couldn't wait to dig back into my studies. See, computational mathematics involves mathematical research in subjects where computing plays a central and essential role. Think algorithms, numerical methods, and symbolic computations. There's a big emphasis on using the computer to help solve mathematically modeled physical problems, which is part of the reason I loved it. I wanted to use math to help solve problems - big ones - and a life as an accountant just wasn't going to cut it for me.
