Second Chances

Jennifer was silent as they took the elevator up to the seventh floor of the Sheraton, where his suite was located. Brian gazed at the numbers above the door, watching the three light up and then the four. He was well aware that Jennifer’s eyes were on him.

Brian knew what Jenn wanted him to do. She wanted him to have dinner with Jennifer. She wanted him to be bright and funny. She wanted him to charm her, to be some kind of super, extra-strength, high-dosage Brian. She wanted him to try to condense five years of friendship into one short evening. And she wanted him to cement the whole thing by spending the night with Jennifer.

But what was he supposed to do after he succeeded in convincing Jennifer to change her entire life, her career----assuming one glorious night of sex could actually do that. Was he supposed to spend the rest of his life with her?

He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the woman standing next to him. She was a stranger---except she wasn’t. Not really.

Jenn had desired him—maybe even loved him, although she hadn’t admitted as much---for five years. Jennifer had met him two days ago.

He’d fallen in love with Jenn. But every experience Jennifer had lived, Jenn had too. Was it possible to love Jenn without loving Jennifer as well? Brian shook his head. This was much too complicated.

And then there was Jenn. Did she love him? He’d thought perhaps she did. Last night she’d made love with him so passionately, so emotionally. But maybe she had been simply having sex with someone who looked like the man she truly cared about---a man who had died in her arms five years in the future.

If so, what an incredibly complicated love triangle THAT would be. And if Brian did what Jenn wanted, he would be involved with Jennifer, too, making their relationships even more tangled. That couldn’t be the solution to anything.

Brian didn’t know what the solution was, but the first step seemed kind of obvious-----he had to tell Jennifer the truth.

The elevator doors opened onto the seventh floor, and they headed down the long, elegantly carpeted corridor.

“So,” she said. “How long are you guys gonna be in New York? I promise not to tell anyone where you all are staying.” She commented with a smile.

Brian pushed the door open and stepped into the room, turning to look back at Jennifer. “I’m still not sure how long I’ll be here. Actually, I am the only one of us staying here. The others are at another hotel.”

“I didn’t mean to be nosy,” she said, following him into the spacious living area of the suite.

“I know you didn’t. Please, have a seat. Would you like something to drink?”

“Some water would be great, thanks,” she said smiling at him thankfully. Just looking at him was enough to make her mouth go dry. And when she thought about what might happen between them in this room…….well…..she felt like a kid at Christmas time about to open the biggest present of all.

Brian handed Jennifer her drink and sat down on the sofa beside her. His mother had always told him that the easiest way to tell someone the truth was to just come out and say it. “Jennifer, I need to talk to you about your work with time travel.”

The change that came over her was extreme. One moment she’d been looking at him with such warmth in her eyes. Now…..if a look could cause frostbite, Brian would definitely require hospitalization. Still, along with the chill, he could also see curiosity in her eyes. He was counting on that scientist’s need to know to keep her from simply walking away.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” She said coldly, standing up. What the fuck?!?!?! How the hell did Brian know about her work? Even her own sister was totally unaware of what she did.

Brian stood, pacing back and forth. “You’re not going to believe this----but then again, if anyone’s going to believe it, it’s going to have to be you…”

“Sometime within the next five years, those time-travel theories you’re working on will become reality and the Wells Project will be born. You’re theories will work, Jennifer, but some very bad people from an organization called Merlin will want to get their hands on your time-travel device---you call it the Enterprise. They’ll use it to go back in time and plant a bomb that will kill hundreds, and then they’ll try to kill you too. But you’ll escape, and you’ll use a prototype to come back in time to try to set things right.”

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