Page 99 of Time Loops & Meet Cutes
“I understand her much better than I did before,” Noelle says at last. “I know she’s doing the best she can. I want to make things right. I have to apologize to her.”
I’m not sure what to say, but I appreciate that she wants to apologize. Not everyone will admit when they’re wrong. My parents, for example, are rather terrible at it.
I nod and wrap my arms around her again. It’s the middle of the night, and words aren’t coming to me as quickly as usual.
She leans back against me. “I’m sorry. It’s our first night together, and here I am, talking about my family problems.”
“I don’t mind,” I say, and I mean it. But I think there’s something she’s not telling me. “Are you ready to come back to bed?”
“Yes.”
I pick her up in my arms and carry her to my bedroom, just like I did earlier, in rather different circumstances. She giggles, and it’s music to my ears. There’s a rush of longing in my chest. I want to spend all the time that I can with her.
“Good night,” I say, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck.
I can tell by her breathing that she falls asleep right away, but I don’t.
On the night of Darrell’s wedding, I wondered if I’d missed her, the woman for me. Now, I know I didn’t—I just had to wait a little longer—but I still have to keep her.
37Noelle
I wake up in Cam’s bed, and it feels like a miracle, even though I’ve been out of the time loop for a while. Before I realize what I’m doing, I reach out and put a hand on his shoulder, as if testing that he’s not a mirage.
Yep, he’s real.
And last night was fantastic—and he’ll actually remember it.
It puts a drowsy smile on my face, but then I feel a pang of guilt. He doesn’t know that it wasn’t really our first time together. That’s what made me restless in the middle of the night, the reason I got out of bed at three thirty. But when he found me, I couldn’t tell him the truth, so I told him about my sister instead.
Because how can I tell him that I was trapped in a time loop? And that while I was there, the rest of the world kept going… and I don’t remember it. That’s why I don’t recall what I told my sister, rather than whatever he assumes.
It feels wrong to start a relationship with this kind of secret. I curse the time loop, but it’s the reason we got together in the first place.
And yes, he believed me fairly easily in the loop, but I suspect that in our current reality it won’t be the same, and if I’m unable to convince him…
I can’t bear the thought of failure; I can’t brush it off when he won’t forget overnight. If I fail, I’ll forever be the wacky date who claimed she’d been stuck in a single day, and I’m not sure he’d ever forget.
Memory can be both a blessing and a curse.
“Morning,” Cam says, jolting me out of my thoughts. As his eyes drift open, he smiles and pulls me close.
How does this sweet man like me so much? He made a fucking ice cream sundae for me last night, and that doesn’t require much in the way of skill, but it was thoughtful nonetheless.
He doesn’t deserve all my complicated feelings right now, so I smile at him and say, “Good morning.”
As he starts kissing my neck, that smile doesn’t seem quite so forced.
“How are you doing?” he murmurs, as though he really does want to know the answer.
“Good,” I say, and it’s not a lie. I slept well after I returned to bed, and with his body around mine, my doubts seem far away. I marvel at having a real morning-after with him, so unlike the time I woke up alone and desperately tried to find his scent on my sheets.
He lifts his head and grins as though my well-being and happiness is the greatest news, then rests his forehead against mine.
Before I can say another word, he sets about making me feel even better.
When I step out of the shower, I pull on one of Cam’s Leaside Brewing T-shirts and my underwear. Having anticipated that I might stay the night, I brought a fresh pair with me. Since his roommate won’t be back for hours, I don’t put on anything else.
Cam isn’t around when I head into the kitchen, but coffeeis ready, and I pour myself a mug. He said he was going to get something for breakfast and would be back soon. I sit down at the table and inhale deeply. It smells even better than coffee usually does, almost like all my senses are heightened after last night.
