Long Story Short: Caroline and Christopher got trapped at the same party during a snow storm. Short Story Long: On January 23, 2016, an unruly blizzard dumped 27.5 inches of snow in Central Park. It was later pronounced the biggest snow storm in New York City’s history. That morning, as the flurries began, Caroline looked forward to cozying up with a good book and drinking hot chocolate in her Murray Hill apartment. She was content with her plans until her sister Colleen called. “N.Y.P.D and Cuomo just announced a city-wide travel ban going into effect in a few hours. You should go meet up with friends before you get trapped alone!” Incidentally, Caroline’s closest friends from Semester at Sea, Josh and Alex, had invited her to their place for an afternoon of frozen daiquiris and building snowmen. Pushed by Colleen, Caroline packed an overnight bag and headed to the Lower East Side on one of the last running trains of the day. When she arrived, Josh and Alex were shouting hellos over the blender and eager to share their ironically tropical drinks. A few drinks later, Caroline and Josh went to the New York-sized backyard to build snowmen. After getting cold, they went back inside only to find a full-blown party, much to the surprise of Caroline. “How did all of these people even get here?” Caroline wondered. All transportation had been closed for hours by that point. Caroline scanned the room and was disappointed to learn she had met several of the new guests and had, regrettably, not gotten along with them. She sat down next to the one face she happily didn’t recognized and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Caroline.” “Hey, I’m Chris.” It was an average party painted against the backdrop of one of the quietest, whitest nights in New York City. Music played over the weather channel, and while no one had anywhere to be the next day, there was a child-like anticipation as though everyone was hoping for school to get cancelled. Caroline had recently finished a book that she was eager to discuss. “It’s about an ordinary, blue-collar man who got in a fight, hit his head and woke up a math savant. He can see fractals in everything, and it was so overwhelming that he became a recluse for years.” One of the people Caroline disfavored patronizingly responded, “How could he see factorials? That makes no sense” The group brushed off Caroline and her story about the book and continued to chat. Then Chris pulled her aside and said knowingly, “I know what a fractal is.”