Page 18 of Only Time Will Tell

“Your wedding?” The man beside me spoke, his face paled as more tears came.

“Who is this?” Charlotte asked, no change in her demeanor whatsoever. Pleasantries weren’t part of her upbringing.

“This is Charlie,” I said without thinking. “What are you doing walking the streets at night, Charlotte? You know that’s not safe for a woman.”

“Well, I waited at your house as long as I could, but it was time to get home. I was just crossing the street when I spotted you.” She looked Charlie up and down. Evidently his appearance wasn’t up to her standards.

“Come, Charlotte, I’ll walk you home.” I nodded to Charlie then turned, grasping Charlotte’s elbow to guide her away from him.

“How do you know him?” she asked as we crossed the street.

“I’m not sure, we were just getting to that when you walked up.” I glanced back to where he stood, as he stared blankly back at me. Something about him called to me, and I felt badly for leaving him behind, but Charlotte beckoned and I wasn’t raised to leave a woman to fend for herself. I think…

“Well, I took the liberty of picking the food and finalizing the arrangements with the caterer. No thanks to you, of course.” She reached down, straightening her gloves.

With each passing moment, my dislike for this woman grew leaps and bounds. There was no way in hell I was marrying her, and I didn’t care if that meant I had to move into the forest and change my name to Tarzan.

“Goodnight, Charlotte,” I said, turning to make my way down the steps of the porch stoop.

“What, no goodnight kiss?” She pointed to her cheek.

I stepped back up, kissed her cheek and promptly retreated before being asked inside. As I crossed the street to cut through the alleyway, Charlie was waiting for me.

“How can you have a fiancée when you’ve only been here a couple of days?”

Was this disheveled man of sound mind? Should I call police assistance? “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. Charlotte and I have been together for some time now,” I assured him, straightening to my full height and hoping he didn’t ask exactly how long we’d been together, as I had no earthly idea. I must’ve really smacked my head hard.

He reached out to me, and I backed up before he could make contact, but was trapped as my backside met with the building’s brick wall.

“Alex, it’s me,” he pleaded, “Charlie. We’ve been together since we were kids. Don’t you remember me?”

“What, pray tell, do you mean by we’ve been together since we were kids?”

“We met in third grade. We were best friends and became boyfriends in high school.” His eyes once again welled up with tears as the last word left his lips, and he gripped my arm to steady himself. “We have a home together.”

“How can you preach such madness? Men do not lay with men, I’ll not hear any more of your lunatic ravings.” Grabbing his arm to remove it from mine, a jolt startled me. When I looked up, he was staring at me, mouth agape.

“You felt that too, didn’t you?” His words begged for my agreement.

Swallowing hard, I only managed to make a nod, still reeling from the tingling sensation.

“See, Alex, doesn’t that tell you something?” He clutched my shoulders, shaking them, undoubtedly hoping to jog my memory, but only bringing me back to the present. “We don’t belong here, this isn’t our home. Well, it kinda is but it’s not.”

I shook my head as I broke away. “No, this proves nothing. Men do not date other men, and you would be wise to keep your mouth shut and leave town before you get locked up for the madness you speak.” I turned and walked away, refusing to look back. Feeling that jolt was an anomaly, a one-off, a strange one-time occurrence that I was sure could be explained scientifically. But two men together? That was nonsense and highly illegal.

Thankfully, arriving home at such a late hour meant my parents were already in bed. After changing and washing up, I tried to do the same only to be met with a series of absurd dreams in which Charlie repeatedly called out to me. Taunting me with gentle caresses, tenderly kisses along neck, my ears, my lips…

Chapter Six

Charlie

I stalked back to my lonely little room, sad and fearful that I’d lost Alex forever. I didn’t dare try to follow him for fear of being arrested. He didn’t remember me. Didn’t remember us. And he was engaged to, from what I could see, quite the little bitch. Well, maybe I was merely projecting irrational thoughts of her, considering Alex was mine. But the way she treated him led me to believe I was not too far off the mark.

As I lay down on the lonely, thin cot, thoughts of a life without Alex consumed me. I was nothing without him. He was the yin to my yang, we balanced each other perfectly, and life without him wasn’t an option for me. I’d be reduced to nothing without his love. There must be a way to make him remember.

Springing upright, far too rapidly, I nearly emptied what little I had in my stomach. That was it. I needed to make Alex remember. I needed to make him fall in love with me all over again. But how could that be? The way he dressed, the way he acted, made me feel like a part of him belonged here, in this time. Was he not my Alex? Could there be another somewhere? The Alex that time-traveled with me? Have I found a distant relative of his?

The night was filled with nightmare after nightmare of Alex walking away from me and down the aisle toward that woman, replaying like a broken record in my fragile mind. I woke, drenched in sweat, but bound and determined to show Alex what we meant to each other.