“Did you see a shattered vase on the floor of the apartment when we were in there?” Amie looked over the back of the couch at David.
“Sure did. I had a look around while you went to meet the ambulance. Seemed like the table it was sitting on got tipped over. Was that what the wire was attached to?”
“Yeah.” Amie turned back around. “Andrew rigged up the trip wire to the vase as an alarm system.” She used the flamingo togesture across the room at the finished (she assumed it was finished, though she could never really tell) machine that covered the surface of David’s work table. “I think you two would get along.”
He snorted. “I’ll make sure to schedule a play date if he survives that head smash.”
There was a pause. Then:
“Sorry. You’ve had a long day.”
Amie shrugged. “Not my longest.”
She braced herself as David went to sit in his armchair, not knowing how to answer if he asked what had happened with her and Ziya.
“How’s the adjustment going?”
Amie frowned, confused. “The what?”
“To post-time-loop life.”
“Oh!” She hadn’t expected that question. “It’s … fine. I tried some memory exercises yesterday. And your method of doing things differently has been working well. I moved my bed today because the only way I could fall asleep last night was by sleeping upside down.”
“Like a bat?”
“Horizontally. Feet where my head was, and vice versa.”
“Ah. Interesting.”
Amie traced the plastic feathers of the flamingo’s wing with her finger. “It’s strange how leaving the time loop made everything that felt comfortableuncomfortable. Now I have to do things differently to avoid the discomfort. But I assume that’ll go away with time.”
She glanced at David. “Do you think I don’t do anything?”
“What do you mean?”
“I … guess I don’t really know.” Amie hugged the flamingo closer, sighing. “How do you know if you’re happy enough with your life to not want anything more?”
David shifted forward in his chair. “I feel like these questions are all connected to one thing.”
“They are, but I’m not ready to talk about that.”
“Okay.” David got to his feet, crossing the room to fidget with his machine. “I guess I don’t know. Can’t imagine anyone’s happy one hundred percent of the time. I think anyone who’d claim that would be lying to themselves.”
“But how—” Amie rubbed her face, feeling her frustration mounting. “How do you know you’re spending your time in a way that will give you the best version of your life? How do you know that the choices you’re making now are going to pay off later?”
“Kid.” David pulled a silver concierge bell out of a box. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“You don’t?” Amie asked miserably.
David tapped the bell, then scowled at it as it failed to let out thedinghe’d apparently been hoping for. “Piece of junk,” he muttered, tossing it back into the box.
“That sucks.” Amie flopped over onto the couch, flamingo still in her arms.
“That’s life,” David said. “Look, you know I love to haggle. Got that bell down to fifty cents from the original two-dollar asking price. But if you treat your time like money, and are always trying to haggle to get the most for it, you’re gonna leave the yard sale with nothing.”
“Hm.”
“I lost you with the metaphor, didn’t I?”
