So tell me now how these few years have been
What is living to honor the past?
And I have been well, I've saved you a smile
These feelings they come and go fast...

- Blue Pool, Vanessa Carlton

There was never anything exciting in Cindy Vortex's mailbox.

Bills, coupons, more bills, the annual postcard from her mother, and did she mention...bills?

Needless to say, she wasn't particularly expecting to find anything life-changing when she rifled through the little stack of envelopes her cleaning lady had brought in for her on Thursday evening—but she was shocked to find a very fancy looking invite amidst the usual junk, enclosed in an embossed, rather large envelope. She slid a butter knife under the seal and extracted a piece of high-quality, cream-colored card-stock—the kind that had a bit of grainy texture to it.

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE RECEPTION FOR THE BOHR PRIZE IN PHYSICS

August 12th, 6pm, The Everton Hotel

CONFERRED TO DR. JAMES ISAAC NEUTRON
PHD, FARADAY CHAIR IN PHYSICS AT MIT, PROFESSOR OF LETTERS,
RECIPIENT OF THE MARTONE FELLOWSHIP

DINNER, PRESENTATION OF AWARD, AND DRINKS TO FOLLOW
FORMAL WEAR A MUST

"If anybody says he can think about quantum problems without getting giddy,
that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them."

-Niels Bohr

The angry part of her wanted to rip the damn thing to shreds.

The jealous part of her wished she'd had the bright idea to invite Neutron to one of the awards she'd won back in law school just to rub it in his face how smart she was.

The pathetic part of her felt her heart leap out of her chest at the thought of seeing him in a suit after all this time and wondered if there was some subliminal message he was sending by inviting her.

The deranged part of her thought she detected a hint of his cologne on the envelope and immediately remembered how much she'd despised the scent back when they were together. They'd even hate fucked after an argument about it one time. That was classic Jimmy and Cindy for you.

Ever since they had first met in elementary school, they'd sniped at each other like their lives depended on it. A pattern that continued throughout high school and most of college. The difference was that somewhere along the line, the sniping was accompanied by making out and planning their lives together.

That was, until he'd moved halfway across the world for graduate school. Knowing Neutron, she supposed she should have seen it coming. At least he hadn't moved galaxies.

They'd more or less fallen out of touch for the past three years. It wasn't like Jimmy was the only one who had a career, after all. Cindy was a very busy lawyer who was hoping to make senior partner at her firm within the next few quarters.

But she had to admit, the invite intrigued her. Her social calendar wasn't exactly what one would call impressive (or more importantly, existent), and how often was an old...friend in town? She might as well go, right?

But what would she wear? And what would she say to him? Hey Nerdtron, congratulations and all but what the fuck is up?

Just thinking about it made her unnecessarily anxious.

Maybe Libby would have a clue about how to handle this whole debacle. But Libby was busy. And what if she'd been the one who'd cooked up this whole 'run-in' in the first place? She didn't put it past her childhood best friend to concoct some kind of scheme to try and bring her and Neutron back together again. Especially since she had no idea that it was actually him who'd broken her heart and not the other way around, as everyone seemed to think.

Perhaps the best plan of action was to just to give Neutron himself a call and see what was up. But that felt preposterous to her. It had been ages since she'd called him, even though there had been a time when they called each other all the time. But that had been back when he would end the calls saying, I love you.

She was curious if there was any chance he still loved her and then tucked the question away. She had to be realistic. There was no way Neutron hadn't moved on. Just because she had yet to fully move on from that relationship (which to be fair, had been the central relationship of her life for a very long time!), didn't mean that he hadn't found some new girl to take her place. Even in the early days, he'd been 'Mr. Bag a Bitch,' between Betty and April and Sally and all the others.

She tried to set her mind at ease by reminding herself that it wasn't like she hadn't been on dates. It wasn't as if she were laying around pining for her ex day and night, longing to be held in his arms. She regretted how things had turned out between them but that didn't equate to her wanting to do anything about it. Wasn't he supposed to fight for her, if he really cared?

In any case, dredging up old feelings wasn't going to do jack shit for her. If she was going to go, she had to get the details from him straight, find a dress glamorous enough for the occasion, and settle on a plan of action.

So she found her home phone and dialed his number. The number she had committed to memory ages ago.

She was a bit taken aback when he picked up halfway through the very first ring.

"Very eager to take my call, I see, Neutron."

"You still have this landline, Vortex? What person has a home phone number in this century?"

"What person still sends expensive invites in the mail instead of by email or text? What is this, Bridgerton?"

"Bridge? Isn't that a game they play at senior citizen homes?"

"Bridgerton, Neutron? On Netflix?" She shook her head in disapproval.

"I find that television rots the brain, Vortex. My precious brain cells must be preserved."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, I seem to recall you were totally okay rotting my brain cells with your stupid physics documentaries on our so-called 'dates.' Those documentaries were so boring I lost my mind."

He let out a laugh, clearly unable to help himself.

"I've missed this, Cindy."

"Oh you have, have you?" She tried to keep her voice even. Like she didn't care in the least whether he'd missed her or not.

"You're coming to the event, right?" He sounded hopeful.

"Yes, I have to tell all the bigshot scientists there embarrassing stories about all the times you almost blew up Retroville, of course I'm coming."

"It would be really nice to have you there." The warmth in his voice made her want to melt into a puddle on the floor. But she was Cindy Vortex, so of course she had to deflect her true feelings with a snarky comment.

"What, so you look better by comparison?" She let out a snort.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I always thought we cut a pretty picture together."

"You're still a silver-tongued devil, eh?"

"Guilty as charged, Vortex." Then, suddenly, his voice got serious. "Listen, the award is important. But I have tons of those crowding my closets—"

"Modest too. What a catch." She interjected dryly.

"Fuck you. The real reason I thought I'd invite you was so that you would finally get a chance to meet my girlfriend before I propose."

Cindy thought she'd had the wind knocked out of here and couldn't say anything for a solid minute.

"Cindy, are you still there? Has your landline finally hit the dust?"

"I'm here." She managed weakly.

"Good. Well, I look forward to seeing you. And I trust you'll be able to find a formal dress?"

"Who do you take me for, Neutron?" She sneered. "I'm a woman, I have plenty of money in the bank, I can acquire a dress."

He ignored the scorn in her voice. Either that or he didn't detect it. "I'm glad you're coming. That we can be friendly. It means a lot."

She had a thousand questions, and a freshly shattered heart to boot, but all she could bring herself to say was, "Thanks for the invite, Neutron."

And with that, she found herself looped into what she feared would be the worst night of her life, and one of the best nights of his.