I made it to the UNLV Computer Center with no major mishaps. As I entered the lab, I wiped sweat from my face and smoothed my blouse, hoping the coffee stain wasn't too noticeable. I'd been the victim of a spill-and-run at the coffeehouse - the latest in a string of unfortunate incidents.
         But it wasn't bad luck like my mom said; there was no scientific basis for 'luck'. My mom also said I was in danger of becoming an old maid now that I'd gotten my Master's Degree, so she wasn't exactly a reliable source.
         A dark-haired head popped out from behind some electronic equipment in the corner. "Are you Isabelle?"
         I nodded. "Isabella."
         The man crawled out of the corner and stood up - but not before checking me out, I noticed. "Hi, I'm Zach Macuill." He had the most amazing long eyelashes I'd ever seen.
         My heart started beating like there was about to be an unfortunate disaster. "Hi, I'm Isabella Hote." I held out my hand for a shake.
         He chuckled. "Yes, I know." He wasn't wearing a wedding ring.
         When our bare hands touched I felt a jolt of electricity, and couldn't seem to look away from his eyes. Who was this guy?
         "Are you feeling all right, Ms. Hote?," he asked. "You have an odd expression. You're not going to be sick are you?"
         Get a grip, Iz. I backed away from him. "I'm fine," I managed to eke out. Still backing up, my backside hit one of the lab tables.
         How old was he? Twenty-six? Twenty-nine? Something fell off the table behind me and clunked on the floor, spraying brown liquid everywhere - including all over my pants. Ah well, the stains on my pants would match the one on my blouse.
         Zach almost suppressed a laugh. "Oops. You're not having a very lucky first day, are you?" He took a step toward the door. "I'll go get some paper towels."
         I held up my hand. "No. I did it. I'll go." I started walking for the door. I needed to pull myself together and quit acting so goofy, anyway.
         Of course, I couldn't find any paper towels or any restrooms. I had to go back to the front entrance and ask the receptionist where they were.
         "Hi, Eva, remember me?" I smiled widely. "I just asked you where the quantum computer lab was. I'm Isabella."
         She smiled and nodded her head. "Sure. Hi, again. What can I do for you?"
         "I need some paper towels. Where's the ladies room?"
         She gestured back the way I'd come. Of course.
         "You don't happen to know anything about that guy Zach, who works in the quantum lab, do you?" I asked casually. "Is he like a grad student, or..."
         Her eyes lit up. "Oh, Dr. Macuill? Yeah, he's a real sweetie. He brings me coffees."
         I gulped. "Doctor?"
         "Oh, yes," she nodded. "I think he's in charge of the quantum lab."
         Crap. I had a crush on my new boss. Now that was a delicate situation.

         After lunch, I gingerly placed my prototype on the lab table, took a step back and sighed in relief. The almost-car-accident was a near thing, but the prototype and I managed to make it here without any actual critical injuries.
         My skepticism about bad luck did not seem to be stopping the unfortunate incidents.
         I needed to focus my attention on work though. I was excited to show Zach, er, Dr. Macuill, my thesis project - for purely professional reasons, of course.
         Where was he? He might be hiding behind some equipment for all I knew. "Dr. Macuill? Are you here?" I pictured his chocolate-brown eyes framed by those luscious lashes. I pictured him leaning toward me, lips slightly open...
         "Ms. Hote?"
         I jumped. "Yes, sir, Dr. Macuill. I mean, what, Dr. Macuill?"
         "Please call me Zach. We're going to be working long hours together getting the quantum computer off the ground." He smiled, displaying tiny laugh lines around his eyes.
         They made him look even more delicious. "Yes, sir, Dr. Zach, I mean, Zach." I took a breath. "Please call me Isabella." I exhaled.
         "Okay, thanks, Isabella." He smiled at me and I tried to remember how to breathe. "Is this your thesis project?" Zach pointed at my prototype.
         "Yes!" That's it; focus on the work. "You asked me to bring it in. It's a quantum computer. Would you like me to show it to you?"
         He just grinned.
         Duh. "Of course, you would. That's why you asked me to bring it in. Do you know how a quantum computer works?"
         He looked like he was trying not to laugh. Finally he said, "I think we can assume I know how it works, but I'd like to see how much you know, so pretend I know nothing." He sat on one of the lab stools.
         "Okay." No pressure - just a pseudo-job-interview after I'd already gotten the job. "A quantum computer works like a normal computer except it has quantum bits, qubits, instead of regular bits."
         "And what's different about a qubit?" As he put his hands on his thighs, I was aware of his every move: he filled his lungs with air, he shifted on the lab stool.
         "Uh, regular bits have only two possible states, they can either hold a one or a zero. But a qubit can hold a one, a zero, or a quantum superposition of these."
         "Superposition?" His eyes were still smiling.
         "The superposition is important because it means the quantum computer has way more states to work with," I said. "An old-fashioned computer can only be in one of two-to-the-nth states at any one time, but a quantum computer can be in up to two-to-the-nth states at the same time. Entanglement is involved, too."
         "And how does the superposition work?" He leaned forward slightly.
         My heart sped up. Easy, girl. "Quantum mechanics," I said. "But, to be honest, I never understood that part." A little late, it occurred to me that I probably shouldn't be so honest with my new boss. "Uh, but I know it has to do with probabilities."
         "Don't worry about it," he said. "Quantum mechanics has boggled some of the best minds in history - like Einstein." He smiled again. "The states of the quantum computer are represented by wave functions which actually specify probabilities. So all these different probabilities each attack the computer task at the same time."
         "Like parallel processing," I said.
         "Exactly. And when the calculation finishes, the quantum states collapse to a classical state, and we have the answer."
         I scrunched up my nose. "I must admit that's the part I don't get. How do all the states 'collapse'?"
         Zach leaned toward me and whispered, "I don't really get that part either."
         I did not sniff his hair.
         He straightened. "But the physicists say an observer instantiates the new reality."
         "Not totally helpful," I pointed out.
         He laughed. "I agree."
         His laugh was so infectious I had to laugh with him. And then I found I wasn't quite so nervous around him.
         He pointed at my prototype. "Should we fire it up?"
         "Yes. But I have to warn you, I only have eight qubits in here."
         "I know." He showed off his laugh lines again. "A qubyte. It could be interesting."
         Amazingly, the test went perfectly. My prototype worked great.
         Afterward, Zach showed me his prototype in great detail. It was fascinating; I couldn't believe I was going to get to work with such a machine. It utilized much more sophisticated active-quenching circuits with superconducting flux qubits - he said. I didn't totally understand it, but I didn't admit it to him.
         "So, have you tried yours yet?" I asked after the tour.
         Zach shook his head. "No. Well, I mean we've done some tests with a few qubits, but Professor Tuche thinks we should do more simulations before operating with a qubyte or more. He's worried about unexpected side effects or something."
         Hold the phone! "Professor Tuche?"
         "Yeah, Professor Tuche. You know, our boss? In charge of the quantum lab?"
         I must have looked blank.
         "Oh, right, he's been on travel." Zach held up a finger. "But didn't he interview you?"
         Duh. "So, you're not my boss?" I asked, a little slow on the uptake.
         He laughed. "God, no."
         Thank God. I digested that for a moment. "Uh, didn't we just operate a quantum computer with a qubyte?"
         He looked at me. "Good point. And I don't see any weird side effects, do you?"
         "Not a one," I said and smiled. I was so relieved he wasn't my boss.
         "I've been dying to fire this bad boy up." He shot me what might be construed to be a mischievous grin. "And there's no time like the present."
         "I'm honored to be here for the first test." And I was. It was exciting - in more ways than one.
         Zach finished connecting his prototype to the standard computer that would run it, and sat back on the lab stool. "Ready?"
         I nodded. "Go for it."
         "I'm going to run it for ten minutes." He typed some commands onto the keyboard. "There. It started."
         Of course, nothing was immediately noticeable in the lab, so I didn't know what to say. "Neat."
         "Weird," Zach said, peering at the monitor. "There's more states in play than I would have expected from this little test."
         Before I could reply, a loud rumbling noise erupted outside. "What was that?" I said, walking over to the window. It had gotten quite overcast and we hadn't even noticed. I glanced at my watch. We'd been working for hours; time had really flown.
         The noise, thunder, boomed again, followed closely by ice falling from the sky. "I can't believe it!" I said. "It's sleeting!" I turned around to look at Zach. "It hasn't sleeted in Las Vegas for years. It hasn't even rained for years. I'm going outside." I ran for the door.
         "Wait for me," Zach said.
         We weren't the only ones who had wanted to experience sleet first-hand. Campus was chock-a-block full of people standing outside looking at the sky, mouths hanging open in surprise. The temperature must have gone down to like seventy degrees, too. It hadn't been that cool in years. The whole thing was amazing.
         And then, as quickly as it began, it stopped. Within a few minutes, even the gray clouds had gone.
         "Weird," Zach said. "Sleet wasn't predicted for today, was it?"
         "No," I said. I didn't even remember the last time rain had been predicted. "But the drought must be over! It's awesome! We should celebrate!"
         "If the drought is over, that's huge," Zach said. "I think you're right." He grinned. "Let's celebrate."

         At the Lucky Star, Zach sat at the bar, nursing a cold one and chatting with the bartender. The cool darkness of the bar felt great after the blast-furnace outside. The temperature had skyrocketed back to normal after the storm.
         I slipped onto a stool next to him. "Hey, Zach. How's it going?"
         He shook his head.
         "Aren't you excited about the end of the drought?" I asked.
         "Of course. It's just that the quantum computer did not work well during our test. It was really inefficient and utilized a huge number of states."
         "Bummer." I nodded at the bartender. "I'll have what he's having."
         Jim, according to his name tag, placed a frosty mug in front of me. "Tough luck, Zach," he said.
         "Been here before?" I asked, taking a sip of my frothy beverage.
         He nodded.
         "Hey, man, things are tough all over," Jim said. "Everybody started winning on our slots today." He pointed at some darkened machines by the front door. "Just my luck that I was working this afternoon; I was 'sposed to be off. I called the owner and he about tore me a new one before I thought to unplug 'em."
         "That's not fair," I said.
         "Yeah, and it happened at the same time as that freak sleet storm," Jim added.
         "Weird," I said, my voice full of sympathy, my eyes full of the evening news on the TV in the corner. It showed a national weather map with the log line 'Freak Cold Weather'. "Hey, turn that up," I said.
         The bartender complied and we were serenaded with, "The big news of the day was parts of the Las Vegas area were subjected to bizarre cold weather, complete with sleet and freezing rain." The weatherman continued, "It's too early to tell for sure, but if this keeps up, it looks like there's a chance the drought is over!"
         Everyone in the bar cheered.
         The camera went back to the news desk and the male anchor mock-shivered and said, "Brr, it was cold, but at least it only lasted for ten minutes."
         Something about that statement seemed important, but I couldn't quite identify it.
         The female anchor giggled and said, "Yeah, if it had kept up, we could have forgotten about global warming."
         Both anchors laughed.
         The male said, "And in other local news, apparently many slot machines and gaming tables in Las Vegas paid out 100% this afternoon. Casino owners are estimated to have lost millions of dollars in just ten short minutes." They went to a shot of a casino floor, with a bunch of folks, gamblers presumably, holding up wads of cash and yelling in the background. "Yeah! Woo!"
         Again, something was on the tip of my brain.
         But I gave up on thinking and gave in to celebrating and had a nice time at the bar. Unfortunately, Zach was clearly brooding about his computer and so not overly sociable.
         Nothing bad happened to me at the bar however, so I considered the night a success. In fact, by the time I went to bed it had been over seven hours since anything bad happened. My hopes started to rise. Maybe the black cloud over my head - which was not bad luck - had passed just like those storm clouds this afternoon.