“Marrying me was holding her back.”
“She was young and thought you were hot and rich when you paid for the drinks with a hundred-dollar bill. Your fears of her taking over the world were valid, but she never wanted that much power. She only cares about herself.” I guess I should have known that. The what-if games I’d played in my head were worse than any of reality. Taking over the world came with a lot of responsibility, and Chasity was allergic to the word.
“Why’d she roll her eyes at me?”
“You may not be married to her, but you are in the family. A family she doesn’t like to acknowledge.” If I was in the family, that meant the future I visited…
“Next stop.” Phillip knocked his hands on the desk before walking back to the SUV. He drove a few blocks over and parked in front of the park. Emily and my park, to be exact. It looked… the same as it did in the future. Trees had grown back like I remembered, and the ground where the satellite hit looked as if nothing touched it. The sculpture that memorialized the fallen Hero Society member had been replaced with that of a familiar-looking lion.
Everything else looked the same: the five benches and the koi pond.
“The park was ruined and needed a lot of work. Since it meant so much to you and Emily, you bought it.” We stopped in front of a bench. It’d be a lie if I said I wasn’t nervous to look at the engraved metal plate on the bench. What if it looked the same with Aemilia on it? My chest hurt remembering how it looked before, but I inhaled and glanced as I exhaled.
E <3 V
“See, not bad. It’s still y’all’s home away from home if you will. You both visit every time you’re in the city for hero work.” He clapped his hands together and walked off again. Time to head to our next stop. I gave the bench one last look and smiled. I tilted back to see if the magic mailbox was there, but it was gone. Maybe it burned up in the fire or we took it to our house.
We ended up back at the hero headquarters, the training room to be specific.
“I can’t believe you cut off their power source with an axe. That was so cool.” Two females walked by, completely covered in dirt as we stepped out of the elevators.
“Terratrex deserved it.” They laughed all the way to the locker rooms.
“Bad shit can always happen. However, as long as there are those who are willing to fight, then we’ll be ok. Terratrex lived on, but so did the heroes. You needed to trust in love, Vincent. To trust that good things can happen, as can the bad. If you only focus on the bad things, then you miss out on all the good in your life.” Phillip placed his hand on my shoulder, and I thought I wanted to hug the male. He gambled on love, and it once again was a solid bet. I should have trusted him, but if I did from the start, things might not have turned out as they did.
I guess that was the game. Trusting the journey to lead you to where you’re truly meant to be.
“Shit. What happens to the past me?” I didn’t live in Seahill, but I’d be moving in a year. If I stayed in the past with Emily, technically there would be two of me in the same time.
“It’s an odd feeling, but you and Emily started a whole new timeline. The previous one no longer exists. It’s a complicated thing, but essentially the older you merges with the now you, like what happened with us time changers before. You’ll have the memories of the before, but everyone else won’t. Chasity doesn’t remember a life married to you. It’s like it never happened.” I got to stay with Emily in the past without running into my old self. I’d been traveling throughout time for decades now, and it still surprised me. Speaking of surprises.
“How come you remember?” I shouldn’t doubt the seer, but I was curious.
“I still remember all the futures I’ve seen. The ones that could have been and all. I don’t have any memories of experiences from the other timeline, but I remember the visions.” Sounded like a headache. “However, we did become best friends in all the futures.”
Glad that didn’t change. I’d been miserable in the other future, and the only parts that made me smile were joking around with him and working with the Hero Society.
“Should be satisfactory. If I remember correctly, there’s a hot pizza and pretty pink-haired girl waiting for you in another time.” He stepped back with a grin. I thought about Emily’s face and how she glowed with happiness after surviving in the park. “See ya soon, future best friend,” Phillip called out as I closed my eyes and left this time.
I felt the hard seats of Pizza Pazza first, then a soft hand touched my arm. When I opened my eyes, no one paid me any mind as they ate except for Emily.
“Everything ok?” Her green eyes softened, and I leaned in for a kiss. This girl, this time, this life. It was real, and it was mine now. It all worked out. Better than worked out, it was the future we were supposed to have all along.
“Everything is perfect.” I breathed against her lips.
“Great.” She beamed, then lifted up to whisper into my ear.
“While you were gone, I was thinking. Earlier, I wanted to fuck in the elevator, but the ride is so quick. But now…” Now we had the ability to stop time.
“First you want to have sex on pyramids or ancient Greece, now you want to stop time to fuck in an elevator?” I teased and ignored the look Phillip shot our way.
“Sounds like a very nice experience to be grateful for.”
I fucking loved this woman. As we ate and celebrated with the heroes, I couldn’t help but truly appreciate the moment. The trials, the laughs, and the magic of it all. In the end, we’d likely never know how it all happened so perfectly. Phillip was great at straddling the lines of futures, but he wasn’t a god himself. It was as if the stars had aligned, and Emily and I played out our roles.
However it happened, I would live the rest of my life grateful for the magical mailbox and the woman who taught me to live in the now, whenever that was for us.
The End
