Chances Aren't (30 page)

"I did." I say breathlessly, my erection ready to blast off through my shorts.

I kiss her again, sliding my tongue into her mouth before pulling away from her to check the clock again. "Shit, we really need to go if we're going to make it."

"Okay." Her eyelids flutter as she brushes the hair from her face and exhales deeply.

"I do have to leave tomorrow. But can we come back here after the bar and pick this back up? I promise, after that, I'll be out of your life forever."

"Yes."

"Really?"

She frowns. "Yes, really. Now don't ask me again, or I might change my mind."

"Okay, okay."

Turning back to the closet, she pushes shirts around on hangers. "What the hell am I going to wear?"

"Wear that first thing you had on. That looked great."

She scoffs. "But you said it looked awful."

"I just wanted to see you take it off."

She throws a pair of short shorts at my head. I duck and shrug my shoulders. "Can you blame me?"

"You're a real asshole, you know that?"

Laura drives toward Baltimore and more than thirty minutes fly by with me doing nothing more than gaze at her legs and fantasize about what's going to happen later. I figure we only need to stay in the bar for maybe an hour then we can drive back home and have sex like it's the last day of our lives. Unfortunately for me, it is my last day with this younger body, stamina and energy. My last day cuddling up with a gorgeous, young, twenty year old. I could never score a twenty year old with my old falling apart— My eyes widen with the realization— that is unless I somehow become rich— those guys get to date whoever they want...
shit,
I completely forgot to tell young Ben all about how to get rich.

Shit, we two horny idiots have been so focused on thinking with our little brains instead of our slightly larger, slightly higher up one, that we completely forgot to talk about getting sickeningly wealthy by putting to use my somewhat inexact, but still valuable knowledge of the future. I really should have paid better attention to things.

If this decade wasn't super lame, I could send him an email. After taking one last look at her mini skirt, I adjust uncomfortably in my seat and consider asking her for a piece of paper and a pen. The condition of this beaten up car has me doubtful, she can supply them. My eyes brighten with the realization I have my phone. I can type myself a note, transcribe it later then have Laura mail it for me.

Pulling out my modern marvel, I bring it to life, cringing when the 20% battery warning flashes on the screen. I quickly type my instructions about the timing of stock, real estate and gold purchases and when I'm done, I smile in the knowledge that life just got so much easier for young Ben. He won't need to take that job at the beauty supply company or that crappy job at the consulting company. Yes, I just redesigned my future. Although, he will need some seed money to get his investing off the ground, so we'll need to figure out how to do that. Glancing back to Laura legs, I sigh pushing those thoughts from my mind. Young Ben can figure out that part on his own— he's a big boy and I can't do everything for him.

"You know..." I smile. "If we were together you could bring girls home too. I wouldn't mind."

"Oh, really."

"I could watch you two. I wouldn’t need to get involved at all."

"Uh-huh." She flashes me a smile.

"I am a very giving partner, if you don't already realize this."

"Oh, I do."

"I'm not sure I was really at my best that night." Raising my hands up, I frown. "I had just traveled back in time and hadn't been sleeping all that well. You know, time travel takes a lot out of you."

"I can imagine." She gives me a serious look, before letting a smile escape from her lips.

"You think I'm kidding."

"Oh, no... I, uh—"

"I'm going to show you later. Don't you worry."

"Okay." She giggles.

"And, uh..." Turning to face her, I shoot her a sexy smile. "I'm going to be rich, you know, so maybe you should really be nice to me."

"How?"

"I know what's going to happen with stocks and gold and all that crap."

"That's right." She glances over to me and smiles. "Tell me."

"I don't know."

"Please."

I frown, rubbing my chin. "Let's just see how tonight goes and if you're let's call it... enthusiastic, then maybe, just maybe I'll tell you a thing or two."

"Oh, I'll be enthusiastic. I was planning on being that way before you sweetened the pot, now imagine how enthusiastic I'm going to be."

Sighing, I turn and look out the passenger side window and start to imagine. Watching the trees fly by as we motor down the highway, I imagine a whole hell of a lot.

Inside The Turtle, we make our way to the bar and I order two beers. The bartender drops them off and I reach for my wallet and stop, cringing. Shit, I gave it all to Alan. I whisper to Laura, "Um, do you have any money? I'm kinda—"

"When are you going to be rich again?"

"Soon. Very soon."

She smiles and hands me a ten dollar bill, which I hand over to the scowling bartender. I'm sure he's wondering how exactly I'm here with someone as attractive as Laura and how the hell I'm getting her to pay.

When I try to hand her the beer, I find she's looking across the room and smiling. I follow her gaze to a girl who's waving her over.

She asks, "Do we have any time?"

"About fifteen minutes."

"I'll be right back."

"Sure, I'll find the best place for us to setup."

Laura heads off while I move to the side of the bar just in front of the hallway leading to the bathrooms and survey the angle to the door. It's perfect. I go to work on my beer and a few minutes later make eye contact with Laura and wave her over.

She returns to stand beside me and sighs. "This is it, huh?"

"Yeah, I think this location works well."

"That was my friend Mary. I haven't seen her in months."

"You can hang out with her for a while when we're done if you want."

"No, that's okay." She takes a sip of her beer. "She's on a first date with some guy and they seem to be hitting it off."

I check the time and it's five minutes until Emily is due to arrive. We go over my simple plan one last time, polishing off a second beer each while we wait.

When Emily enters the crowded bar I lean toward Laura and whisper, "She's here." I adjust Laura's position to shield Emily's view of me. Emily glances around the room smiling in that cute, innocent way that she used to whenever she was looking for me at the store or the mall or wherever we happen to be together. I loved watching her do this— it was the anticipation of waiting for her to light up when she finally found me that made it such an extraordinary experience. My heart pounds, I'm breaking into a sweat. Can I really do this to her? Taking a deep breath, I steady myself. I know I need to do this for her, for me, for both of us.

"Wait. Almost," I say to my co-conspirator.

Emily is just a few feet from us now, so I nod to Laura, lean in and kiss her. We're going at it pretty heavy as I wait for Emily to stumble upon us. It seems like forever and it feels more than awkward, but it finally happens.

"Ben?"

Pulling my lips from Laura, I look in manufactured shock to Emily. "Emily, what are you doing here?"

"What am I... you told me to meet you here." Emily looks at me, devastated.

"Tonight?" I glance to Laura then back to my future ex-wife with my eyes narrowed. "Um, I thought that was tomorrow."

"What? Who is this?"

"Oh, sorry." I take a pull from my beer before continuing matter-of-factly, "Emily this is Laura. Laura— Emily."

Emily glances at her with a scowl before returning her attention to me. "Who is she?"

"We work together."

"And you're seeing her?"

"Sometimes."

"Sometimes?" She scoffs.

I shrug. "You want a beer?"

"You're an asshole."

"What are you talking about?"

"What am I..." Emily shutters. "You ask me to meet you here and when I get here you've got your tongue down some skank’s throat."

"Hey," Laura says staring down the much shorter Emily.

"Hold on." I step between them and gently pull Emily toward me. "Look, I'm sorry I got the days mixed up, but I really thought we were seeing each other tomorrow."

"Uh-huh."

Raising my hands up, I plead. "And we never said we couldn't see other people."

She sneers at me. "You... I thought..." A tear streams down her face and my heart breaks. I remind myself again why I'm doing this. She turns away and covers her mouth with her hand.

"I'm sorry, I'm just not ready for anything serious right now." I put my hand on her shoulder and she pulls away from me and heads toward the bar. Closing my eyes, I rub my forehead and turn toward the wall fighting back my own tears.

Laura says, "Wow, that was mean."

"I know. I just had to." I down the rest of my beer. "She's better off. She'll get what she wants now. I'm sure of it."

Laura puts her hand on my arm and gives me a comforting smile.

I sigh and place my bottle on a table. "Let's get out of here."

I head toward the door with Laura following behind me and spot Emily standing in the corner of the bar speaking with some guy. We head out the door and I'm walking faster now with my pulse racing, feeling like I could pass out at any moment. I stop, grab onto a lamp post and close my eyes.

When Laura reaches me, she asks, "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I think I just drank too much and I haven't eaten."

Pointing to a bench, she says, "Why don't we sit for a minute."

I sit down, lean back and let out a long slow breath.

She says, "I'll get you a hot dog."

"Okay. Thanks."

She heads off to the hot dog cart on the corner. I lean forward supporting my head in my hands as I play back my conversation with Emily in my head.

Suddenly someone rushes past me. Looking up, I see it's Laura's friend. She reaches Laura at the hot dog cart and I can't hear what they're saying, but Mary doesn't seem happy and Laura gives her a sympathetic look.

Together they head back to me munching on hot dogs.

"I need to give Mary a ride home," Laura says

I shrug. "Okay, sure."

"Mary, this is Ben." Laura hands me my hot dog.

"Nice to meet you," I say before taking a huge bite.

We head to the car with the girls enjoying their dogs. Holding what's left of her hot dog out for us, Mary says, "I'll bet he didn’t even have one this size."

Laura chuckles. "Who was the chick?"

"Just some bitch," Mary replies.

"What happened?" Laura asks.

"When I came back from the bathroom I found him talking to this girl he said he knew from Towson. He sent me to the bar to get beers and when I turned around I saw them heading out the door together. Her name was… Emily something."

I ask, "Was she short, dark hair—"

"Yeah, brown skirt." Mary replies.

"That's my Emily."

"You know her?"

"Yeah, she my, um… She's my ex-girlfriend."

We reach the car and climb in. I sit in the backseat and let Mary ride shotgun. We pull out onto the street and I ask, "So, this guy how well did you know him?"

"Not very well. We met here last week and he asked me out."

"But he seems like an okay guy, right?"

"The only thing I know about him is he's cute."

I relax back and close my eyes as Laura turns right merging onto the highway. I find myself falling asleep and wake when I hear Mary say, "I guess I should have agreed to go to the reservoir with him."

I groggily lean forward in my seat. "What?"

"He wanted me to go swimming with him tonight."

"Swimming." Suddenly my eyes shoot open with concern. "Mary what's your last name?"

"Lynn."

"Mary Lynn is your name?" I ask, my voice loud with concern.

Turning back to me, she gives me a look like I'm out of my mind. "Yeah, it's Mary Lynn. Why?"

"Oh, shit."

"What is it?" Laura asks.

I pull the cell phone from my pocket and hit the button to bring it to life. The 11% power warning flashes on screen. "Shit."

Mary cranes her neck back. "That's cool, what the heck is it?"

Ignoring the question, I locate the video and hit play.

The body was discovered just around six a.m. floating in the water. The two hikers reported the sighting to police. The suspect Jordan Clarke was found sleeping in his car at the entrance of the Loch Raven Reservoir and was found to have a blood alcohol level of .09.