Peace washes over me.
At midnight, Drew and I open a second bottle of whiskey, Drew produces a joint, and Milkshake joins us to curl up on the couch. The three of us catch up on a season ofRuPaul’s Drag Racethat I missed during my seven-year gap, and Milkshake barks loudly at the TV when he sees his favorite queens.
We laugh and kiss and snuggle and kiss some more. It’s the perfect cap to a whirlwind experience. And after brushing my teeth and putting on pajamas, we crawl into bed with the intensity of two scientists who are nearly out of funding and desperately hoping for the right results in one final trial.
The late hour mixed with our uneasiness gives the room a pulsating sense of possibility. I launch my body into Drew’s and latch on. My arms wrap around his soft-in-all-the-right-ways torso, inhaling his lavender-tinged detergent scent. “I don’t want to let you go.”
“You won’t have to,” he says with certainty, running a large hand through my soft hair.
“You don’t know that,” I say, nuzzling into the fabric of his T-shirt. “Our love may feel like magic, but that doesn’t mean it is.”
Gently, he cups my head in his hands and leads it up to his. He plants a kiss on my lips that tastes like whiskey and promises and forever before guiding me back to my own pillow, letting my head loll as I look up at him. My gentle giant. My no-longer-gangly gentle giant.
“Magic or not,” he says, sinking down into the sheets beside me so we’re eye-to-dazzling-eye, “our love isinevitable.”
That’s all I need to hear before I kiss him, take his hand in mine, and close my eyes, hopefully for the last time in this timeline.
PART SIX
HEMATITE STONE
Beautiful, balanced alignment
Chapter Forty-One
When I wake up with the first licks of morning light, refreshed and excited, the first thing I check for is the nose splint.
The second thing I check for is Drew, curled up on the other side of the bed.
Only one of them is there, and it’s not the handsome, bearded man with tiny imprints on the bridge of his nose where his glasses usually rest.
“Aha!” I shout, springing off my floor-level mattress and launching into a happy dance, which results in me stumbling over Mount Ve-shoe-vius, which has erupted, once again, out of the accordion doors, causing absolute chaos across my cheap, crumb-laden Target rug. Even the sting of landing hard on my ass doesn’t outweigh the utter elation roaring through my chest.
Footfalls echo through the apartment, and my door flies open. Drew, thankfully, does not have the extinguisher this time.
A relieved exhale saws out of me.
He’s here. Thank God, he’s here. That must mean I haven’t jumped to after the wedding. He hasn’t left. I get a redo, and that means the grand plan I thought up last night before falling asleep can still work.
Drew stands there in pajama pants and a sleep shirt. I take in hiseye crusties and that unbearded baby face. “What happened? What broke?” he asks, immediately coming to help me up.
“The space-time continuum, but who cares?” He looks at me funny, while I look at him with love overflowing. “What’s today?” I ask to be certain like I’m Scrooge.
He looks at me even funnier. “It’s Saturday. Today is CeeCee’s wedding.”
My heart jumps for joy, and so do I, taking Drew with me. “My sister’s getting married today!” My voice is a giddy yelp that’s probably penetrating the quiet morning of our next-door neighbors.
“Okay, who are you and what have you done with Nolan Baker, my cynical-yet-motivated best friend?” Drew asks.
“I left him in the future,” I say.
This must stump Drew. Cute creases materialize between his eyebrows. “Shouldn’t you say you left him in the past?”
“No, because this is the past.”
He scratches his head, a funny show of befuddlement. “No this isthe present. Are you sleepwalking or something?” He follows me into the kitchen, where I begin brewing coffee.
“Maybe,” I say with a playful shrug. “But I’m living my dream.” Back here. Back with Drew.
