The Time Capsule

James

At about midnight I slip out of my room and walk towards Selena’s. I must admit that, even though it’s hard to act like I hate her; it’s entertaining to see Amber’s reaction to it. Both of them obviously dislike the fact that Selena and I aren’t together yet.

I quietly open the door and step inside her room, not surprised when I saw her awake in bed. We’d both gotten so used to sleeping in the bed, that it had become near impossible for either of us to get any sleep alone. “Hey,” I whisper when I notice she didn’t see me.

Selena jumps at the sudden sound of my voice, “freaking hell James! Don’t scare me like that.”

I give her a sheepish grin and slip under the covers next to her, “sorry, you’re the one spacing out.”

She curls up against me, resting her head on my shoulder, “what took you so long?”

“Two love-birds wouldn’t close their damn door.”

“right, that’s a poor excuse.”

I smile and kiss her forehead, “go to sleep love.”

“mmm, what if I don’t want to sleep?”

“have fun with that. I’m exhausted so I’m going to sleep.”
Selena turns around in my arms so that she’s facing me, “Amber and Greg are getting married.” She whispers, as if the information just hit her.

“yeah, they are.”

“did you ever think that would happen? I mean when we were younger and all hung out. I don’t know, I knew they were really good friends but I just didn’t see it.”

I nod my head a little, “not when we were all friends. But in high school I definitely would catch one of them looking at the other at like lunch and all. Never in my imagination did I think they’d get married.” I lean in and give her a kiss, keeping it short and sweet. “I love you, Selena.”

She smiles, “I love you too, James.”
With that we fall asleep in each other’s arms and I can’t say I’d like it any other way. The next morning my phone alarm goes off. Selena and I decided that, to keep up this act we were doing, I couldn’t be seen walking out of her room. So, we decided 5 a.m. was earlier enough for me to sneak back into my room.

But it turns out that we didn’t know about the crazy schedule our two friends had. Just as I’m about to quietly close her door there’s a cough behind me. Slowly, I turn around, knowing that I was caught. Greg and Amber were standing there, Amber with her hands on her hips glaring at me. “What are you doing up so early, James?” She asks, a hint of humor in her voice.

“Uh, just going to the bathroom, so many doors I guess I got lost.”

“You were about to open the door to Selena’s room. I highly doubt you were oblivious to that.” Greg comments.

I hesitate, not knowing how to handle the situation. “She doesn’t want you guys to know yet.” I say, making up a random excuse.

They both chuckle, “really? You’re going to stick to that. It’s so obviously a lie, James. As was your outburst about how you’re mad because she said ‘no’.”

Okay, so I’m not the best actor out there. I could get women into bed and honestly, prior to this year, that’s all I really wanted. Before I could respond to Greg’s accusations, Selena’s door opens. I’m sure she heard what was going on right outside her door. “I was just going to apologize for my actions, Greg.” I tell him, which was only partially a lie. I could tell that Greg was actually buying my words this time and was about to let me off without a lecture.

That is until my oh-so-wonderful girlfriend had to speak up with a groan, “again? I thought we went over-” She stops mid-sentence and takes in her surroundings, “oh shit.”

“aw, you guys made up when we left last night, didn’t you?” Amber squeals, obviously excited for the two of us.

“uh, sure.” Selena says, stepping closer to my side, “something like that.”

Amber searches Selena’s face for something, any hint to the truth. A grin bigger than before spreads across her face as she turns to Greg, “I win. I totally win.”

“No, they showed up at the same time.” Greg complains. What were they talking about? I turn to Selena for any clue but she just shrugged.

“Come on Selena, tell us what really happened.” Amber says, “or James. Either one works.”

A sigh comes out of Selena as she leans into my side, “we’ve been living together for about two weeks now?” she pauses, counting the days in her head, “yeah, two weeks.”

“living together? In Florida?” Greg asks, excitement obvious in his voice.

“In New York actually, or just outside of it,” I mention.

“ha!” Amber screeches, “ha, ha, ha, ha. I told you so.”

Greg rolls her eyes, “it’s like I’m marrying a seven year old,” he jokes, earning a slap from Amber.

“Well, as entertaining as it is to watch you two bicker back and forth, we’re going to go eat breakfast.” Selena says, grabbing my hand and dragging me downstairs. When we were out of sight she stops and slaps me up-side the head. “you idiot! Why didn’t you check before leaving?”

“What was I supposed to do? Peek my head out to see if the coast was clear? And who in their right mind goes running before 5 in the morning?”

“Think about their schedules James! She has to be at work early, so of course their mornings start early. And what was that whole ‘I told you so,’ thing?”

“don’t look at me, I don’t know. It was like they had a bet going on or something.” Her eyes widen with realization and mine copy that look. “Do you really think they’d bet on it?”

“It’s Amber and Greg. I’m sure they started discussing it the instant they got on that plane.”

“Now I’m curious about what they thought was going to happen. But bringing up the topic of plane…”

“James, please don’t. I don’t want to talk about it yet.”

“What happened to us talking about everything, Selena? Why didn’t you tell me you stayed behind?”

She was silent and just wrapped her arms around my waist, holding on tightly, “I knew you’d somehow convince me otherwise.”

“of course I would! That bastard shouldn’t have been anywhere near you.”

“I know for a fact that you think the same thing about yourself, but here you are.”

“I’m not good for you Selena. I mean look at what I made you do? You ran to your terrible ex-boyfriend because of a stupid letter I never sent.”

“Stupid or not, that letter was the most honest thing I’ve read. Even after knowing most of the story, it brought me to tears. I left because I knew you’d chase after this time and you did. I’m sorry for scaring you that day, but it was just something I felt like I needed to do.” Her voice wasn’t much above a whisper, but I could still hear every word. I just held her closer, letting her know I wasn’t going anywhere. “I stayed because I needed closure. What he did to me…what he was doing to his son. I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I’ve done a lot of cases over the years and most of them I have won. But none of those successes add up to what I felt in that courtroom when he was put away. It was like a weight was being lifted off my shoulders.”

“Now that that’s out, can we go eat breakfast?”

She laughs her adorable laugh, “I’m tired. Why don’t we go back to bed for a little bit and then come get food?”

I kiss her cheek, “whatever you want dear, whatever you want.”