BRICKS

She likes his easy smile: 5 bricks. He likes her straw-colored hair and the way that it falls on her shoulders: 7 bricks. He’s wearing loafers and a beautifully wrinkled linen shirt: 5 bricks. She has a sizable scab on her left knee and he wonders how she got it: 6 bricks. He’s drinking water and making sure his friends do the same: 10 bricks. She’s drinking a dark beer and watching the game with hers: 10 bricks.

He gets up. He walks across the crowded bar and says hello. No line, no feigned modesty. Just “hello” and an outstretched hand which, when she takes it, matches her force exactly: 20 bricks. Also, he has a cowlick on the back of his head: 3 bricks.

They exchange numbers. They’ll go on a date the day after tomorrow (He doesn’t wait to call: 4 bricks. She picks the place: 5 bricks.) and the date will go well. He’s genuinely funny: 4 bricks. She snorts when she laughs really hard: 4 bricks. Subsequent dates will also go well.

They’ll move in together five months later.

He squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube: -1 brick. She snores: -3 bricks. He does the dishes, but leaves the dishwater in the sink: -5 bricks. She reflexively replies “Huh?”, even though she heard him the first time: -3 bricks. 

This goes on for some time- maybe years, maybe months, maybe days- until the pedestals that the bricks had built are leveled and all that they are left with is each other.