“What? That would be so … stupid.”
“I know! And I was so disappointed you would do that. But when that reporter called, I realized that you gave it up for him to have the chance.”
Am I supposed to feel more or less foolish now?
“How did you figure that out? Did they tell you?” I try to remember my reply to Stephanie Rayner. I’m almost positive I never said anything about Zenn.
My mom shakes her head. “The reporter said that he withdrew his name, too.”
This surprises me at first. But Zenn is proud and I’m sure when he found out that I had pulled out, he did the same. I explain to my mom.
“No, honey. He did it before.”
“Before when?”
“Before you did.”
“What?”
“She said he actually withdrew first.”
I just stare at her.
“He gave it up for me?”
I drive by his place, but his truck isn’t there. Of course it isn’t. Even if he is as heartbroken as I am, he still has to go to work and pay the bills. Self-pity is a luxury he doesn’t have. But I know his schedule by now and I know that if he did go to work, he’s at the grocery store today.
I pull into the parking lot and wait next to the cart-return rack, watching the store’s automatic door from the minivan. My heart races every time it opens. Finally Zenn comes out, orange safety vest over his winter coat, knit hat pulled down, no gloves. No gloves in this weather? No wonder his hands are such a beautiful disaster.
The wind has picked up and he hunches against the cold as he makes his way toward the rack. I don’t get out right away and he doesn’t notice me sitting in my mom’s van.
I am a wreck, a jumble of devastation and hope and anger. I have no idea what to say.
He starts to collect the carts from the rack. I take a deep breath and open the door.
When he sees it’s me, he pauses, letting his hands drop from the cart he was pulling from its metal cage.
“You left out some important information this afternoon.” My voice is so smooth I almost can’t believe it.
I think he knows what I’m talking about. I can see it in his eyes.
“I can’t believe you gave me that high-and-mighty speech when you did the exact same thing.” I can hear the anger creeping into my voice. I am a mess of conflicting emotions: angry at him, but also grateful and touched. Disappointed that we’ve both screwed up our chance, and petrified of losing him.
He looks up at the sky, which is dark already, before five o’clock. He doesn’t ask how I found out. I don’t suppose it matters.
“It’s different, Eva.”
“No. It’s not different at all.”
“It is. You …” His hands go up to his head in frustration, grabbing his hat and pulling it farther back on his head. “My family ruined your life —”
“No one ruined my life. My life is just fine.” And I realize that it is. Fractals or no.
“They wouldn’t have given me the scholarship anyway.”
“That’s for them to decide.” I kind of like throwing his own words back at him. “You are not the kind of guy who gives up everything for a girl,” I say, trying to remember his exact phrasing. “I wouldn’t fall in love with a guy like that.”
I see the hint of a smile.
He looks down at his feet and shoves his hands into his pockets. He sighs. “Well, shit. We really fucked this up good, didn’t we?”
I step a little closer to him. “Yep.”
“Maybe we should talk before we do anything idiotic next time.”
I’m happy he’s referring to the future. “Probably a good idea.”
He smirks a little and my heart skips. “Who do you think would have gotten it?”
“Definitely me,” I say. “I mean, who could resist my mad math skills? It’s super fun to watch me use the Chebyshev method.”
“I’ll bet.” He takes his hands out of his pockets, like he wants to reach for me. But he doesn’t.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I really didn’t want to break up with you.”
“Of course you didn’t.” I reach out and tug at his sexy orange vest.
His arms slip around me, encircling me.
I think about when we met and I asked him his name and he made that Venn diagram with his hands. I probably fell in love with him right on the spot. I think about how our circles once seemed to barely overlap. Two separate lives with a tiny sliver of math tutoring in common. But now it’s like my whole circle and his whole circle are the same: our past, our present and maybe even our future.
EPILOGUE
STUDENTS WHO SACRIFICED SCHOLARSHIP MAY GET COLLEGE MONEY AFTER ALL
A tragic car accident leaves a young couple dead, their infant daughter orphaned. A war veteran is sent to jail for manslaughter, leaving his unborn son to grow up without a father. They are heartbreaking stories pulled straight from the headlines, and they definitely caught the attention of the committee who reviews applications for the prestigious Ingenuity Scholarship, which awards a gifted Wisconsin teen $100,000 for their college education. Two applicants with these exact stories — Eva Walker and Zenn Bennett — were chosen as finalists for the scholarship from a pool of thousands.
When it was discovered that Bennett’s father was actually responsible for the death of Walker’s parents, and then both teens withdrew their names from scholarship consideration within days of being named as finalists, truth quickly became stranger than fiction.
After Walker and Bennett withdrew, the scholarship was awarded to the third finalist: Jason Barber of Maple Grove. But Scholarship Chairperson Stephanie Rayner wondered if the first two finalists had each withdrawn to give the other a better chance of winning.
“That possibility seemed very ‘Gift of the Magi,’” Rayner points out, referring to the story by O. Henry in which a poor husband and wife each sell their most prized possession to buy a gift for the other.
The Milwaukee Sentinel ran an article announcing the winner, with a small sidebar about the unusual connection between Bennett and Walker.
Their story gained immediate and national attention. Since that time, social media has worked its magic and to date, their story has been shared on Facebook alone over 500,000 times. A GoFundMe account was anonymously established for both of them, and money started pouring in.
Both Walker and Bennett declined to be interviewed for this article, stating that they’ve gotten far too much undeserved attention already, but they thanked the public for their generous support.
If the GoFundMe account keeps growing, Walker, with the help of some academic-merit aid, hopes to attend Northwestern University in the fall and major in engineering science and applied mathematics with plans to eventually get her PhD in neuroscience. Bennett, a gifted artist, hopes to attend the Art Institute of Chicago in the future.
The two remain very close.
Acknowledgments