“We have not.”
“Not even once in all the times you’ve relived this day?”
“Not a single time. All we’ve ever done is kiss.”
“And you’re not lying to me to save your own ass?”
Sergio hooks his thumb and first finger onto Jeremy’s chin and directs him to look directly into his eyes. “I wouldn’t lie to you,” he says. “Especially about that.”
“All I’ve ever done is kiss you?”
“Just kisses.”
“Not even hand stuff?” Jeremy asks, a glimmer of a playful smirk coming back to his face.
Sergio huffs out a laugh and brushes his thumb over Jeremy’s cheek. “Not even hand stuff.”
“That seems unfair,” Jeremy says and takes his attention back to the food.
“You’re telling me.”
“I’m talking about the kisses, not the lack of hand stuff, by the way.”
Sergio wrinkles his nose and nods knowingly at him. “Thanks for clarifying.”
“I’m just saying that it sucks that you get to remember all these kisses and all I get is the one I got today.”
“Yeah,” Sergio says and steps behind Jeremy at the stove. He places his hands on Jeremy’s hips and hooks his head over Jeremy’s shoulder. “That’s what I was referring to as well.”
Jeremy turns his head to look over at him, the best he can in the space Sergio has provided. “Don’t think for a second that I’m sleeping with you today after I now know how unlikely it is I’ll remember it.”
“I guess that’s a no to hand stuff then, too?” Sergio gives him a quick kiss.
“You’ve got your own hands.” Jeremy kisses him back.
Despite the lightness of their teasing, Sergio has something important he needs to say. He spins Jeremy in his arms and looks at him with soft eyes, holding Jeremy’s direct attention as he makes a promise. “I wouldn’t take advantage of you. Ever. I mean it.”
Jeremy nods his head at him in understanding, and Sergio takes that as his cue. He holds onto Jeremy’s hips a little tighter, then kisses him with the crackle of the food cooking on the stove covering up the sound of the content sigh that escapes his lips before he kisses Jeremy more firmly.
After dinner, withGroundhog Dayplaying on the TV, Sergio and Jeremy are snuggled together on the cramped sofa. Jeremy lets out a yawn and scootches closer to Sergio, pressing himself flush against Sergio’s body. Sergio holds onto him like a life raft.
The hour is late, and the clock is fast approaching midnight. All Sergio wants is more time. More time he isn’t going to get into a dilemma that is giving him nothing but time for everything but this perfect version of this day that he’s been reveling in.
He places a soft kiss on the top of Jeremy’s head and breathes in Jeremy’s ginger, lemon, barn wood, and ice smell. His eyes are focused forward on the TV screen. It was Jeremy’s idea toput the movie on, claiming the irony of the situation was funny, or at the very least, it would give Sergio some clues as to what else he could do in his quest to break his loop. But Sergio has hardly been paying attention, choosing to cling to Jeremy and the idea of being able to have these near-perfect days with Jeremy again and again. Preferably, after Sergio breaks free of this torturous loop, and they both get to remember them.
“What should I expect?” Jeremy asks.
“About what?”
“About what’s going to happen at midnight?”
“I’m not sure,” Sergio says and runs his hand up and down Jeremy’s arm. “The clock always strikes midnight at the party, and then suddenly I wake up back in my bed up at the house.”
“And you’ve never not gone to the party?”
“Nope,” Sergio says, then winces. “Except that time I pitched myself off the chairlift on the mountain.”
“Yikes,” Jeremy says.
