Boy Meets Nerd by Leia Shaw

this crush now.
    They had nothing in common –
    they’d be terrible together, even if h e was interested. Besides, guys like him went for girls like Hope –
    the original version. Beautiful, sweet-faced, perky. Not cynical, anti-social, and nerdy.
    Her male counterparts in the geek world lusted after Barbie dolls too. Emerson was always a last resort. It sucked, but such was her lot in life. It was easy to be confident about her intellect but when it came to what she had to offer past that, she’d never gotten beyond the insecure teenager stage.
    When it came to numbers and computers, she was Emerson, Supervillain Hacker Queen. But her glasses, flat chest, and scrawny frame ensured she’d never be anyone’s first choice when it came to a relationship.
    With Jonah, she’d figured out just how important sex was to her. Not that she knew exactly what she wanted, only that what he offered ended up anti-climactic.
    Literally. There were no guarantees Levi would be any better, but damn, at least he was good to look at.
    Levi returned to the table, carrying two cups – one topped with whipped cream and caramel drizzle. This was one of her favorite treats during the summer.
    He handed her one and sat down across the table.
    After popping the lid, he said, “Here goes.” He took a sip then made an exaggerated thinking face. “Hmm.”
    “Yes?”
    “It’s good!”
    She smiled. “You’re such a dork.”
    “What?”
    He
    looked

    genuinely perplexed. “Starbucks is a greedy bitch. Four ninety-five for this thing.”
    “I’ll take it off your bill.”
    “No, that’s okay. I don’t mind spending money on you. It’s corporate America robbing me blind that I don’t like.”
    “It doesn’t bother me as long as they keep me awake. One of these days, I’ll find my prime number and it’ll all be worth it.” After a big gulp of his drink, he asked, “What is this prime number thing anyway? You seem a bit…”
    “Obsessed?”

    “I
    was
    going
    to
    say
    passionate.”
    She
    chuckled.
    “You’re
    kinder than most. Jess makes fun of me.”
    “I’m a composer. I know
    what obsession is.”
    Did he? Musicians were
    artists. Her work was concrete. It wasn’t something that could be judged based on personal taste. It was so very different from music composition.
    But
    obsession,
    passion, whatever you called it, was something that spanned many fields. Many famous classical composers were known for their eccentricities,
    just
    like
    some
    mathematicians she knew.
    There was a fine line that separated intelligence and madness.
    Anti-social,
    OCD,
    personality
    disorder…these were words that had been thrown around behind her back. Maybe there was some validity there, but it was even worse for artists. The creative genius straddled that line closer than mathematicians.
    She eyed Levi carefully.
    Just how good was he?
    “So prime numbers,” he
    said, urging her on. “That’s like eleven and thirteen, right? What do those have to do with hacking?”
    “Yes, prime numbers can
    only be divided by one and themselves, so they make good answers to puzzles. They’re the basis
    for
    security
    encryption.
    Companies will use the product of two large prime numbers as a public key to encrypt a message, but the numbers themselves are kept a secret. When the product number is large enough, it takes too long to factor the private keys and hack into the system. So to test a system’s security, companies will challenge cryptologists,
    also
    known
    as
    hackers, to factor the public number and find the two prime numbers that secure it. If the hacker can do it, the system isn’t secure. An even better way to ensure security is to find even greater prime numbers. So far, the largest non-prime number a computer has been able to factor is four billion, two hundred ninety four million nine hundred sixty seven thousand two hundred and ninety six.”
    His eyes widened. “That a big number.”
    “Yes, but imagine if we
    could find an