Page 17 of Reunited

“My pizza.”

“You have pizza? Sounds great.” He walked through the door.

; “Uh, leftover pizza, and it’s only two pieces.”

“We’ll order one then. My treat.”

“Brett—”

“Fresh pizza’s way better than microwaved leftovers.”

She couldn’t argue there. “Your treat?”

“Sure.” He pulled out his wallet and leafed through it. “I’ve got a twenty.”

“And you want to spend it on pizza?”

“Sure, why not? A man’s gotta eat.”

What the heck? She’d eat his pizza, help him with his math, and then politely tell him to leave. Deb and Bruce wouldn’t be home until well after midnight. Shouldn’t be a problem.

“There.” She pointed to the phone on the end table. “Call for the pizza. I’ll get us something to drink.”

She headed to the kitchen and poured another glass of iced tea. “You want sugar in your iced tea?”

“No. Plain’s fine.”

“Okay.” She hastily returned the leftover pizza slices to the fridge.

She walked back into the living room. Brett was sprawled on the couch looking right at home. Such a beautiful masculine specimen. If only he weren’t an asshole.

“All right,” she said, sitting next to him. “What seems to be the trouble with your math?”

“Okay, I don’t get the whole negative number thing.”

“What don’t you get about it?”

“How come when you times two negatives together, you get a positive?”

Kathryn sighed. She didn’t get that either. And for her, someone who needed logic in her life, that didn’t sit well. But she’d learned to just accept the rules, apply them, and get the right answer.

“Who cares why that’s the case? Just memorize the rule, Brett, and then use it. You’ll get the right answer.”

“But it doesn’t make sense. And then when you times a negative and a positive, you get a negative.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know the rules. Just use them. That’s all you need to know.”

“But I want to understand why.”

Kathryn wanted to understand, too. But she didn’t and it frustrated her. Which was a huge reason why she was not majoring in math in college.

“Maybe there is no reason, Brett. Maybe someone just made that up to confuse math students.”

“There’s got to be a reason.”

“Geez…Okay, do you have any graph paper?”