Page 20 of Margins of Love
There she was, the girl with the teal sapphire eyes. Fave tripped over a stool and dropped his supplies.
“Oh, you startled me.” Rachel clutched her hands to her chest. They both bent down and began to collect the sheets. Her eyes fell on the various compasses before him.
“Are you teaching advanced geometry later today?”
Fave gathered the tools and graphite sticks.
“I studied geometry and classics at Oxford, a little bit of geology, but no, I am not teaching it,” he said. Rachel decided to ignore his adorable frown.
“This is stunning.” Rachel reached for a sketch on the top of the pile. It was a busy collection of different gemstones, each one carefully drawn but in varying levels of detail. The larger ovals were colored, but some of the smaller circles were merely outlined in graphite. Rachel appreciated the precision and detail in these artful drawings.
“What do these triangles mean?”
He took the sketch from her. With one of the thinner graphite sticks, he connected the points of the triangles. His hands moved swiftly and expertly across the paper. Rachel had always admired artistic dexterity, but Fave’s display of skill was something else entirely.
“Are you applying the golden ratio to gemstones?”
His eyes darted to hers. “You know about Greek architecture? I just wanted to illustrate the harmony among the elements.”
A pang of admiration in his voice gave away that he enjoyed having a worthy conversation partner.
“Harmonia was immortal, daughter of Ares and—”
“Aphrodite. The precision of his arrows and the beauty of her love. The guiding principles in the ancient Greek monuments,” Fave said, finishing her sentence. She blushed. Her eyes seemingly dwelled on his mouth.
“Are you traveling by sea soon?”
“No, Rachel, but you are sharp as always. I use cartography tools for my sketches.”
“What’s this?” Rachel held two pieces of a white swirly stencil.
“Ouff, this was my ivory golden ratio viewer.” Fave took the two pieces and put them in his waist pocket. “I made it years ago. My grandfather had one, too.” He stuffed the other tools into the leather etui.
She twirled a strand of hair around her finger. Fave concluded that she must be feigning interest—nobody usually listened to his ideas. It was so nice to have an audience.
“It’s all about geometry,” Fave said and stood. She looked up at him and he offered his hand to help her rise.
“Your sketches are exquisite,” Rachel said, still studying some of the papers.
Fave did not like to discuss his unfinished designs with strangers, but there was something about her that he was inclined to trust.
She was still listening, so he continued. “Some call it the divine proportion, but it’s really just math. It’s everywhere in the natural world, for example the number of sunflower petals or seeds. Did you know that pinecones twist in opposing spirals of Fibonacci numbers?”
Her eyes widened and those amazing shades of teal glistened. She handed him the sketches.
“Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician. His theories include the golden ratio, which is approximately the number 1.618, represented by the Greek letter phi,” Fave added.
“You studied geometry and classics at Oxford but you cut jewels?” she asked.
“Yes, I design them. Sometimes I cut them, but we employ people for that, too.”
“You are an artist and a scientist.”
She beamed at him. It was really too much. She was so beautiful that his heart ached. She was so easy to talk to.
As if she could hear his thoughts, she resumed her position over the books.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.” Fave stepped closer and looked at the open books before her. Evidently, she had been researching something. He leaned over the books, putting his weight on his hands, realizing that his hand was close to hers. He did not withdraw, even though his heart pounded vigorously, and his breath caught when she made eye contact. The side of his thumb was near her pinky finger and he dared to stroke the soft skin of her hand ever so slightly. It was a small gesture of intimacy but it spoke loudly. She did not withdraw her hand and looked down at his thumb.
