Olga Pataki held the roses she'd received in her hands as she entered the reception area, walking slowly.
"Olga, what do you mean you only want to stay an hour?!" Alyssa asked almost incredulously. "It's a Saturday night!"
"I have an exam coming up on Monday. I have to study!" Olga smiled.
"Always the honor student huh?" Alyssa asked.
Olga smiled lightly.
"You need to greet your adoring fans though!" She teased.
Alyssa had not finished her sentence when the two became visible to the crowd, and everyone began to applaud Olga, Alyssa included. Olga beamed and waved to them. They walked further into the room.
"Olga!"
She turned around and beamed at a familiar face.
"Professor Hensius!" Olga greeted excitedly.
The two exchanged a hug. Olga looked at one of her favorite professors and beamed. Judith Hensius was an older woman in her 60's who taught many of the literature classes she'd taken, including the infamous Elizabethan Poetry class which...well, Olga would rather not think about that incident.
"Wonderful performance Olga! We all missed having you around!"
"Oh, thank you!" Olga gushed. "I just wish I could have been in one of your classes this semester!"
"Don't worry about it dear. I'll always be around. You just continue on with your fabulous performances! Oh, you bring such joy to everyone."
Olga smiled warmly and waved to some more of her fellow students in the orchestra that were passing by.
"Girls, why don't we go and get some drinks?" Judith suggested.
Olga and Alyssa nodded and followed the professor toward the bar. As soon as they moved toward that area, a number of young men moved to greet them.
"Congratulations Olga!"
"Fantastic performance!"
"Allow me to buy you a drink!"
Olga closed her eyes and breathed deeply, then looked toward Alyssa, her eyes sparkling. Both girls shared a giggle and Judith looked toward the scene with a mirthful smile.
"If that is true, as you say, then it would mean the whole nature of reality is in fact, akin to a digital realm." Louis replied as he and Alex walked slowly into the reception area. Girls would walk by and eyeball him, but he paid them no attention.
"Indeed. It is a very eerie parallel. Let's say Louis, that you're crafting an image on your computer. You do this a lot in your business right?"
"Sure." He answered as he took a couple of glasses of wine that were being offered by a server, passing one to his friend.
"When you zoom down to the barest level of the image, you find that it's really just a collection of pixels arranged in a certain way to give you the final result that you see, right? Well this is actually the way the universe itself behaves. When you go down to the barest levels, you'll find that particles are all arranged in a certain way to essentially present the images we see. And when you look at the way that particles seem to be arranged, it's eerily similar to a sort of binary code."
"So you're saying we live in some kind of gigantic alien Nintendo?" Louis teased.
"Who knows? But it's a fascinating topic. I'm planning on pursuing this for my doctorate. It's an emerging field in physics and I'd like to be a star in it." Alex said as he looked around the room and took a sip of his wine. He looked toward the bar and elbowed his friend. "Look. There she is."
Louis took a few small steps forward and looked through the crowd to see her gracefully sipping on her drink, a small smile on her face. His eyes twinkled and his face morphed into a bold, determined expression. He turned his head back slowly toward his friend.
"Well, you keep on being a nerd. I'm gonna go bag my bird." He smirked.
Alex chuckled and elbowed his friend slightly. "It's a difficult approach." He warned with a slight tease. "Look at all those guys surrounding her. You sure you want to do it now? I told you it was gonna be like this!"
"It's more entertaining this way." Louis smirked again and looked toward her admiringly.
Alex grinned. "I'll bet you twenty bucks you won't be able to pull it off this way."
Louis turned back toward him. "Twenty extra bucks just to get her away from those chumps? Done." He grinned and slowly took a twenty out of his wallet, handing it to his friend. Louis began to stride slowly over, but then turned his torso back toward Alex. "You can go on counting the amount of particles you're about to lose on your own twenty dollar bill. Tell me how many particles each dollar is worth."
Alex laughed out loud and Louis began the trek once again. His eyes twinkled again as her form got closer. Unlike his friend, he could tell that this was going to be very easy. The way that she subtly moved her head at times, not paying particular attention to anything, told him that she was bored, or at least dissatisfied. It was easy to see why. The men were fawning over her like little puppies eager to please, and none of them were dressed particularly well. There were suits and then there were suits. None of them wore the latter. Slowly and surely, Louis strode over with a fluid determination in his movements.
"I remember when I had to take piano lessons when I was a little boy!" A senior by the name of William Devlin began. "I was just terrible but they made me do it anyway! Glad to see that you've made use of these things at least!"
Olga smiled lightly as another man talked. This one was Landon Marshal, a freshman and a rising star on the lacrosse team.
"Well I'd heard a lot about you Olga. I'm just happy I got to finally see you and now meet you in person!"
"Oh, thank you! I'm glad you liked it!" Olga gushed.
More and more admirers began to arrive at the scene to pay Olga their compliments. Olga greeted each of them, smiling lightly at their jokes. She shared glances with Alyssa and the two narrowed their eyes in a knowing smile. Even Professor Hensius was giggling. Olga put her chin in her hand and let out a small sigh as she received yet another compliment from a well-wisher, smiling politely at him. Then she heard a voice not directed at her, but to her crowd of admirers.
"Excuse me, excuse me gentlemen! How are you all doing? Hope you're night's going well. Olga! There you are!"
It was a voice she did not recognize. She darted her head up.
"Wow..." Alyssa whispered wistfully.
"Olga, it's getting late and I don't have all night. We better go do that interview now."
Olga looked a bit confused, but Alyssa was nodding her head approvingly. Even her professor was giving her a small giggle and wink.
"C'mon, let's get going." He said and whisked her away, to the astonishment of the guys that had gathered. They walked for a minute or so until they reached a large window that was overlooking a park area behind the theater. He stood to the side and looked out of it, enjoying the view. There were some people outside socializing amidst the tranquil scenery.
Olga took the time to get a better look at him. Things had happened so fast that she was confused. He was certainly handsome. "Um..." She trailed shyly. "Is there a series of questions you wanted to ask me? Do you work for one of the school publications?"
"No." He chuckled and did not look at her.
Now Olga was confused. "Then...why did you ask me to come over here?"
He turned toward her, a sly smile on his face. "A convenient excuse to get you away from your loyal terriers." His eyes twinkled.
Now Olga began to blush and look down at the ground, shuffling her feet.
"But you can go back to them if you want. I'm sure it's quite invigorating being around that lot." He said sarcastically.
Olga giggled lightly. "I haven't seen you around these parts before. Do you go to school here?"
"No." He answered and again took a couple of wines off the tray of a nearby server, offering her one. "I do business around this area. My apartment isn't too far."
"Oh..." Olga trailed shyly as she took the offered wine. "If you don't go to school here, how did you know about this performance or about me?"
"A friend of mine invited me tonight. I believe you know him: Alex Narshkev, a graduate student studying physics. He says he was a TA in some atmospheric science class you took."
"Oh! How's he doing?"
"He's doing as good as can be done for a nerd like him." He smirked sarcastically. "Hope he didn't give you a hard time. Just now he was talking about how he's doing his doctorate based on a hypothesis that the universe is a gigantic computer and we're all a bunch of zeroes and ones. You'd be the zero of course."
Olga was giggling and smiling warmly now. "He was pretty attentive to detail in my class, but I found I learned more from him that way."
"You must really be bored." He teased. "I sort of like that though."
"What's your name?" Olga asked with a warm smile.
"Louis Burbon." He answered and extended his hand. Olga took it. As Louis held on to Olga's hand, savoring her soft skin, he slowly took a look backward and spotted Alex. He shot him a knowing glance that conveyed the message: you owe me twenty bucks.
Alex, who was across the room and otherwise busy talking to a young woman in his own right, cast him a silly, but also admiring glance.
Louis turned his head back toward Olga. He was still holding her hand. She began to blush as he slowly withdrew from the handshake.
"So, tell me, what exactly were you doing in Alaska teaching Inuit children? Alex told me about that too. Why would a girl like you decide to go there?" He slightly challenged.
"Well..." Olga began to trail. Her eyes appeared to be heavy and her voice trailed off. Her lips noticeably tightened.
"...Is there something the matter?" Louis raised his eyes in surprise.
"No! I just wanted to help those less fortunate than myself and..." Olga began.
She was interrupted by the sound of Alex Narshkev greeting her.
"Hi Olga, it's been a while!"
"Hello Alex." She greeted softly.
"Louis, a word?"
Louis turned his back on Olga and immersed himself in conversation with his friend. They walked to the right. Olga ran her finger on the edge of her glass, watching them. They looked to be talking about something serious. She wondered what that was. Olga took the opportunity to get a good look at him again. He was certainly a very handsome man, and charming too. What surprised her most though was the way he was talking to her.
"Olga!"
She turned around to see another man, a fellow junior by the name of Greg Walsham walking up to her. She greeted him with a polite smile.
"I didn't get the chance to congratulate you on your performance!"
"Oh, thank you!" She gushed.
"You had everyone on the edge of their seats with the tempo of your concerto!" Greg continued.
Olga smiled, slightly darting her eyes to the right.
"Well you better get on that soon Alex, your time is running out." Louis said, turning his head back toward Olga. Their eyes met. He smirked when he saw her talking to the other guy and his expression was a sort of telegraph: having fun? He was asking with a sarcastic face. Her eyes beamed and she turned back.
"We can talk about it more tomorrow I guess. Apologies for not bringing it up sooner. I don't want to play the role of cockblocker." He grinned. "By the way, here's your twenty."
Louis smirked as he was handed the money. He put it into his wallet.
"Looks like you have another cockblocker." Alex grinned slightly as he saw Olga talking to Greg.
"One is nothing." Louis smirked and walked back.
"But what I really liked most about your performance was..." Greg continued.
"Apologies for the interruption, Olga." Louis said, entering the conversation again. "Business."
She smiled warmly when he returned. "Greg, this is Louis Burbon. Louis, this is Greg Walsham. We had a class together once." Olga informed.
"Nice to meet you." Louis greeted. "You were in a class with her?"
"Yeah, we were..."
Louis turned his head slightly but moved very close to Olga as Greg continued to talk.
"Listen." He whispered. "I'm gonna pretend I need to talk to Alex again. You tell him you need to go to the bathroom, then do a roundabout and meet me outside in the park."
Olga silently and subtly nodded.
This conversation continued for a few more minutes. Louis then excused himself. Olga followed suit about a minute later.