Page 68 of Time Loops & Meet Cutes
“We have to do that again,” I say as he pulls out.
He presses a hand to my cheek. “We will.”
24Noelle
When we return to the taproom, Justin winks at Cam. He knows exactly what we were up to, and if he’d remember tomorrow, the embarrassment might cause me to flee.
“Corktown?” Cam asks when he’s behind the bar.
He’s fully clothed and not touching me, which is unfortunate, but for another eleven or twelve hours, he won’t forget who I am and what we’ve done, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Yeah, I can deal with Justin knowing, in exchange for that.
Cam serves me a pint, and I check the time on my phone.
“You’ve got three minutes,” I say, “until your next customers arrive.”
“Who are they?”
“Couple in their forties wearing Blue Jays jerseys.” I tell him which beers they order.
“Wanna bet on that?” he asks, and we share a laugh. He really has accepted my strange reality so easily.
The next hour passes similarly to how it has in the past, but whenever Cam smiles in my direction, I remember that mouth on mine—and between my legs. At one point, he winks at me, and I almost fall off my stool.
Just before five, Avery walks in and sits beside me.
“Hey,” I say.
She gives me a look. “You two did it, didn’t you?”
Is my post-sex glow that obvious? I hope she’s the only one who can tell.
“Shh,” I hiss. “Not so loud.”
“I’m whispering.”
“Not quietly enough.”
She chuckles and pats me on the back. “I’m happy for you. What if sex gets you out of the loop?”
I look at her, wide-eyed. “You thinksex—”
“The old woman said the dumplings would give you what you needed most, right? It had been a while for you, so what if…?” Her eyes dance.
“No,” I say decisively.
But as appalled as I am by her words, I’m glad she’s teasing me. It seems like a sign she’s doing better than she was in some of our previous iterations of June 20.
When Cam and I leave the taproom to go to the night market, Avery is flirting with the same man as last time. I tell her to text me his info if she ends up going home with him. She promises me that either way, she won’t come to my apartment tonight—she’ll stay at her place if she needs to. Despite my protests, she insists.
I’ve never traveled with Cam to the night market before; we always meet there. Upon our arrival, I wander on my own for fifteen minutes, giving him time to talk to his food truck contact. As always, I walk past the place where the dumpling stand should be, but nothing’s there.
Cam orders the bulgogi poutine, and I order the samosa chaat, since I want the same food that I got on our first first date. Maybe sex has me feeling strangely sentimental, I don’t know.
We’re here a little earlier than usual, and so we sit at a different bench than usual, his thigh pressed against mine. Whenhe sets down his tray afterward, his arm slides along the bench behind me, and I rest my head on his shoulder.
“What do we…” His voice trails off as a new song starts playing over the speakers, which are quite close to this particular bench. “You want to dance?” He holds out a hand.
