“Filipe called in sick, again?” Rachel pursed her lips and glared at Bill where he sat in his cubical.
“I know what you’re worried about, but stop it,” Bill said. “We’ll finish the first phase of the experiments by the end of the week,”
“Not likely. We’re too far behind schedule.”
“You know you only have yourself to blame for his absence.”
“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” She crossed her arms while she continued to stare angrily.
“He’s at home pouting because you won’t go out on a date with him.”
“Oh… Don’t you dare go there again. I’ll be down at HR-”
“Whoa, whoa.” Bill sat erect and motioned with his hands for her to keep her voice down. “You know I’m only teasing.”
“I know.” Rachel collapsed into the guest’s chair beside Bill’s desk, her back rounded over as if she were tired and defeated. “Why would he want to date me?”
“Besides the fact that you’re tall and gorgeous with huge knockers?”
Rachel raised one eyebrow and cleared her throat. “Keep pushing my buttons.”
“Go talk to him,” Bill said. “You know he lives across the street.”
She thought about Bill’s suggestion and her reputation as a hard ass. Hell, half the staff feared her. Maybe she could bully him back to the lab. “You’re right,” she said to Bill then turned to leave his cubical while tapping at her schedule on her Droid. “I bet I can buzz across the street and have him back ten minutes before my next meeting.”
“Don’t piss him off,” he called after her.
* * *
As Rachel exited the office building, she thought about the last time she visited Filipe’s apartment, to attend a party. That night, he had gotten drunk and professed his undying love for her minutes before he blacked out his confession. Unfortunately, he had recently done it again, but this time remembered every word he had said. Since Rachel had shot him down, his so called illness had kept him away from the lab.
After reminiscing, she considered returning to the office, but instead huffed and crossed at the light.
* * *
Rachel rang the buzzer outside Filipe’s apartment and the door opened before she lifted her finger from the button.
“I knew you’d come,” Filipe said then rolled his eyes to avoid visual contact.
“How are you feeling?”
She got no reply while he graciously waved her inside.
“May I get you a cup of tea?” he asked as they walked toward the living room.
“Um, sure.”
“Earl Grey, no milk, one teaspoon of sugar?”
“Yeah.” Rachel’s eyes widened as she thought it scary he knew exactly how she drank her tea.
Filipe disappeared into the kitchen.
The living room was untidy, with open books scattered around the room and over a dozen take-out containers with spilled remnants of a week’s worth of meals.
Have I depressed him? she wondered as she used a paper plate to brush pizza crust, empty cups and a dirty fork to the opposite side of the couch before she sat down.
A few minutes later, Filipe returned carrying two steaming mugs with tea bag strings hanging over the side. He jittered as he handed a cup to Rachel. “You’ll have to excuse the mess. I’ve been finishing my latest invention.”
“I thought you were sick,” she said then took a sip of the tea.
“Bill and I have an arrangement. Didn’t he tell you?”
“No, he had me thinking.” She paused. “Something else.” Rachel nervously sipped at her tea, not caring it scalded her tongue.
“When I’m on the brink, I stay home sick and no one asks questions.”
“I guess I’ll have to ask him about that.”
After a painful silence, Filipe finally said, “Einstein once asked his friend, ‘Can you prove the moon exists when no one is looking at it?’”
Knowing Filipe, Rachel paused in mid sip and waited for him to say something equally bizarre.
“Have you ever wondered if the opposite is possible?”
He always delivers was her last thought before her vision blurred. When next her body went limp, she realized Filipe had drugged her. Seconds later, she passed out.
* * *
Rachel opened her eyes and looked up at Filipe staring down at her.
“You’re finally awake,” he said.
“What the hell did you do to me?” Rachel slurred as she pulled herself up, but a sick and woozy feeling collapsed her back down onto the couch.
“You should rest.”
“Rest? Fuck you.” She was able to sit up on her second try and formed a fist, although she had little strength to do anything with it. “If you raped me, so help me God.”
“Why do you think I’d hurt you?”
While her eyes fought to focus on the nearest exit, Rachel steadied herself against the furniture and pulled upward into a standing position.
“You can’t leave, Rachel?”
She turned and faced Filipe. “Try and stop me.”
“Seriously, do you remember what I told you about Einstein before you fell asleep?” Filipe paused and moved to a nearby chair. “What if instead of questioning whether the moon exists when no one is looking, I could take away an object’s existence when it is observed.”
Rachel had stopped listening to Filipe and had instead put all her concentration into reaching the door.
“I did it, Rachel. My latest invention has created the ultimate love nest for us, as if we now have our own private Island.” His excitement grew as he continued to speak. “No one can observe us. I’ve wiped our existence from reality.
Rachel clutched the door knob, turned it, and pulled the door open to a black abyss.
“There was only one problem with my hypothesis,” Filipe added. “I didn’t consider that when we look back at reality, there would be nothing for us to observe.”