In the end, she settled for:
Amie: Great! See you then
Coward, she thought, locking her phone and returning to the kitchen.
Day 5 A.L.
Amie knew that being free from the time loop meant she should have been cherishing every fleeting moment of her newly mortal life. However, she ended up spending the majority of her Saturday researching colleges and scrolling through social media, the latter being an addiction she thought had been beaten by the time loop, but turned out to have just been—as was everything else—put on hold.
She also talked on the phone with her parents. Amie had been avoiding calling them, mainly because she was worried they’d be able to tell, even through the phone, that things were … different. But her mother called her Saturday morning after Amie forgot to phone the night before (a Friday night ritual she’d forgotten about after 700+ Mondays). Amie wasn’t sure if her parents entirely believed her when she said everything was fine, but regardless, she was happy to hear their voices, and promised to call back soon.
Then she moved her bed.
Alone in her apartment the night before, she’d once again had trouble falling asleep, until she’d pulled her sheets out from under the mattress, grabbed her pillows, and soon after fell asleep with her head resting at the foot of her bed. After waking up late in the morning, Amie had a quick breakfast before getting to work rearranging the layout of her bedroom. Her primary focus was moving her bed against the opposite wall.
It wasn’t the cleanest fit—her dresser was partially blocking the door to the closet, and she had to remove her hanging watercolor of the aurora borealis to push her bookshelf against that wall. But in the end, her bed was in a completely different place than it had been for the entirety of the time loop. Amie hoped that would be a big enough change to allow her brain to let her fall asleep without hours of anxiety-ridden torment.
Amie gave her room another once-over while preparing to leave late that afternoon. She wondered if Ziya would like it. Ziyawas always moving furniture around in her apartment, often to her roommates’ dismay. Amie, on the other hand, hadn’t changed anything after moving in, not even the way her mom had arranged her chairs around the kitchen table, even though Amie was always squeezing past the one at the end to get to the sink.
But she liked it. It was different. A little awkward. But nice.
The bus dropped her off two blocks from her destination. As Amie walked, she checked the time on her phone. 5:50.
Ziya had given Amie’sSee you soon!text a thumbs-up, with no other response. Amie had to remind herself that this was normal behavior for Ziya. But that was back when Amie was secure and confident in their relationship. Now, after sleeping with her ex, telling her all about her experience in a time loop, and then waking up in an empty bed the following morning, Amie wasn’t sure she wanted “normal.”
Her wish was granted as she turned the corner and saw Ziya standing outside of Jonathan Oakland’s building.
“You’re early!” Amie called, surprised.
Ziya looked over and smiled. “I’m always keeping people on their toes,” she called back. “Never let them know your next move.”
Amie relaxed. Ziya was smiling at her, making jokes. Everything was fine.
As Amie closed the distance between them, Ziya gestured to the revolving door of the building. “Shall we?”
Amie thought she might say something else, like “Sorry I ran out yesterday,” or “It’s good to see you,” or “Let’s define the relationship right now, before we go in to talk to this potential murderer.” She would have even settled for just a kiss. Actually, she was moving that to her first choice. If Ziya kissed her, she’d have zero complaints.
But as Ziya headed for the door, leaving Amie unkissed, Amie realized that was probably not in her near future. Which was fine. Ziya was focusing on the task at hand, and so was she. They could talk (and kiss? Hopefully??) later.
“I’m so bad at these,” Amie mumbled self-consciously as she emerged from the revolving door, having taken several long seconds before she managed to successfully hop in.
“I think they’re fun,” Ziya said as they approached the desk to their right. “Regular doors are way too easy to walk through. Why not make them unnecessarily complicated?”
“Hi,” Amie said to the man sitting behind the desk. “Amie T. for Jonathan Oakland?”
“IDs.”
Amie and Ziya pulled out their IDs, handing them to the man. He scanned the cards and returned them, giving Amie an additional card.
“Scan this in the elevator,” he said. “Make sure to return it when you leave.”
Amie looked at the card, which had the word GUEST printed on it in bold letters. “Sorry, what’s this?”
The man had already returned to his computer. “Penthouse access,” he said, not looking at her. “Scan it and press the button with a P.”
“Got it, thank you.”
Ziya’s eyes were comically wide as she mouthed,Penthouse?
