“OK, you’ve convinced me,” she said. “I’ve got about a monthleft here at best with the money I’ve got, so what is there to lose?”
“Nothing,” I said. “In fact, I’m so confident I am going togive you the money myself,” and I reached down to my trousers which had beendiscarded in a heap next to the bed in our rush to get into bed, and pulled outtwo £20 pound notes. “Take these, and promise me you’ll put the bet on.”
“Ooh, I’m excited now,” said Lauren. “Don’t you think thisis a bit dodgy, though, you handing me over cash after what we did earlier? I’mnot that kind of girl, you know.” She laughed again, her eyes flashing meanother one of her naughty looks that I was getting to know so well. I wasbecoming really fond of this girl, and was going to miss her when our shorttime was over.
“Well, since you are helping me out,” she said, “maybe I cando something for you, too.”
“What’s that?” I asked, my mind immediately imagining afurther feast of sexual delights.
“I think you should go and speak to my ex, Josh. He has beenobsessed with time travel ever since he discovered it was possible. Since he’sbeen at the university, he’s been getting involved with some time travelexperiments they are doing there.”
Now this was very interesting. I had assumed my journey wasone-way only, always going backwards, never being able to see the results of myactions on future events. What if it was possible to change that?
“I think I’d like to meet him,” I said.
“I’ll give you his number,” she said, and wrote it down on apiece of paper. I took it, but before I could memorise it, she pounced on meonce again and all thoughts of time travel were very quickly forgotten.
The following morning, I again awoke in her bed, cuddled upto her. I reached across to the bedside table for the note she had written, butof course, it was gone. I really had to stop making that mistake.
“Hey, sexy,” I breathed in her ear as I gently woke her. Sheturned and smiled and we kissed. It was Saturday and she had to work, so therewas little time to talk. I needed to get Josh’s number from her again, butsince all memory of the conversation we’d had would now have been erased fromher mind, I couldn’t just come out and ask her.
It wasn’t urgent. The fact that I’d woken up in her bed onSaturday morning meant that I’d be seeing her on Friday night, so I’d find away of getting it out of her then.
Unfortunately, she didn’t seem anything like as receptive totalking about her ex on Friday night, perhaps because she’d only known me a dayor two at that stage. She seemed mainly interested in getting pissed and havinga good time.
With some reluctance I allowed myself to be dragged along toa club, bearing in mind my only previous visit as a sad, single, middle-agedman had been a dismal failure. This time was different. With a sexy young girlin tow I no longer felt like a loser and even managed a few steps on the dancefloor, amazed at my bravery.
For a while I forgot my age, and found myself reallyenjoying myself in public for possibly the first time ever.
Unfortunately, I was about to have my very own Cinderellamoment. I had stayed up until 3am before, but always in the safety of my ownhome. I had been having such a good night that I had lost all track of time.
Lauren and I had left the dance floor to get some moredrinks and move to a quieter area of the club. Here there were small, circularrecesses set into the walls like bay windows, with a small circular bench justbig enough for a couple to sit in.
We were sitting in one of these cubicles when suddenly theworld around me vanished and I found myself at home, on the toilet, having asitting down wee. To say this put a bit of a dampener on proceedings would havebeen putting it mildly.
Usually when my 3am jump back in time occurred I was asleepeither at the time I left the future, or at the time I returned to the past. Icouldn’t recall another occasion when I had been awake for both.
It got me wondering what had happened to my future self inthe club. Was I still in the booth, after 3am, kissing Lauren, and if I was,would I still be me, or would I be another me, starting another timeline? Therewas still no way of knowing these things.
All I knew now was that my best lead so far towardsanswering these questions was to find Josh.
Horses
December 2021
I had only one day left with Lauren after my Cinderella exitfrom the club, and that was the day when I first met her. It was quite abittersweet moment for me, knowing that I wouldn’t see her anymore.
I knew where and when we’d initially met from ourconversations, and so it was that I made sure I was in the coffee shop at theappointed time. I needed to engineer things to ensure that our chance meetingtook place on cue.
Apparently I had bumped into her and knocked her coffee outof her hand at which point I’d offered to buy her another. In the originaltimeline, it was no doubt a simple accident.
My attempt to re-enact the scenario this time round musthave looked like a blatantly contrived effort, but it still did the trick. Itgot us talking and we had a very enjoyable day together which ended with usarranging to meet again the following day.
Now that our little fling was over, I pondered what it wasshe’d seen in me. Perhaps I was something different, a father figure perhaps? Iguess I would never know now. I decided just to be
