Page 75 of Timeless
“A toast?” she suggested.
“To what?” Abby laughed.
“I don’t know.” Quinn chuckled a little. “Figuring this out together? You came here, Abby. You said you needed time, but then you showed up. We’re talking. I told you something about me and the wine from a while ago, and we’re getting to know each other, I think.”
“Why were you crying before I got here?”
Quinn decided it was foolish to wait for Abby to clank her bottle against her own, so she pulled her beer bottle back and took a drink.
“You needed time,” she said. “I can’t explain any of this in a way you seem to want me to. You want to investigate it as if this is some science and there’s something explainableabout it, but there’s not. Most likely, at some point in history, two women met and fell in love, and that love was so strong that they keep finding each other over and over again, and you and I are just the next iteration in a long line of those women meeting. Two women will be after us, and then after them, until maybe the end of time, or maybe only until they can’t find each other for some reason.”
“Like what?” Abby asked and took a drink of her beer.
“I don’t know. What if they’re reborn literally into babies, but those babies end up not meeting? What if Harriet, or whoever started this whole thing off, hops into someone, and that someone takes their… flying car to go meet their version of you and all the other women before you, but there’s an accident and she dies or something?”
“Flying car?” Abby laughed.
“In the future, therewillbe flying cars.”
“Oh, God,” Abby said, still laughing.
“What?” Quinn let out a little laugh, too.
“You believe in reincarnationandflying cars?”
“Abby, flying cars already exist. They’re a thing. They’re just expensive, so ordinary people can’t get them yet, but eventually, and probably in our lifetime, I’ll fly home from work, and you’ll be there writing from your brain because you no longer have to type with your hands.” Quinn realized what she’d just said, but only a second too late.
“Quinn…”
“Look.” Quinn set her bottle down. “I get it, okay? I get that we feel things from previous versions of us and that it’s not actually us. You even thought I didn’t like wine because of something in your mind telling you that, butIdo. I’m Quinn Jordan, and as much as I might also be those women, I’m alsome.”
“But where dotheystop andyoubegin?”
“I don’t know that there’s an answer to that. All I know is that five years ago, when I visited this place, it was like there was glue trying to hold me down. Then, about a year ago, I felt something else, but when you walked into the shop, thatwas it, Abby. That rush hit me. And I know it hit you, too.”
“I didn’t see anyone, though. No Deb or Cheryl or anyone who came before or after her, I guess.”
“Maybe it doesn’t always work like that. Maybe you and I were born this way.”
Abby laughed and said, “Lady Gaga would agree with you.”
“I’m serious,” Quinn replied but chuckled all the same. “I don’t understand all of it, but maybe sometimes, they float around, and maybe other times, when they die, they end up going right into someone else, like you and me, when they are born. Maybe we saw Deb and Harriet first because of the picture, but maybe it was also because we were like them, born into this thing or something. I have no idea. All I know is that I wasn’t happy.”
“What do you mean?”
“My whole life, Abby, I’ve never been happy. I have a wonderful family. They love me. My mom’s a little annoying sometimes, but I think that’s just a mom’s way. I had friends. I had girlfriends, even. But I’ve never been in love before. I’ve never really been happy. I only chose nursing school because a few other girls in my class were doing the same thing, and I didn’t actually know what I wanted to do. I’d never felt that pull toward a career like other people seem to. I had a small apartment that was falling apart, with a landlord who didn’t care, and my friends all pulled away as their lives in school got busier and they found boyfriends and girlfriends to love. All I wanted to do was leave it all behind. I’m not complaining. I don’t want you to think that I’m an ungrateful person. But I got into my car one day, and I felt a little bit better for a reason I didn’t understand. Then, I drove, and when I landed here, I felt it: this was meant to be my home.” She paused to try to gauge Abby’s unreadable expression. “I had no idea why, but all I wanted to do was go to that damn antique shop every day, even though I knew I’d have no one walking in and that I could pack and ship antiques from home and save a lot of money. The day I met you, I opened a few minutesearly. Did I tell you that?”
“No. Why?”
“I have no idea.” Quinn shook her head. “I can guess now, though. And usually, I’m just wrapping something up in the back, so I don’t even bother to change the sign. I’m often late unlocking the door, too, but that day, something told me to open early, and that realtor guy walked right in, telling me about this box of stuff he had and that he’d had it for a minute and was about to throw it out if I wasn’t open or interested in taking it.”
“He did?”
Quinn nodded in confirmation and said, “And if he’d done that, I don’t know what might have happened. Maybe the photos were meant to make things happen sooner for us, but you still would’ve walked into the shop, and I would’ve gotten that feeling that there was something about you that I needed to pay attention to. I know that when I saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I hated that the phone rang and that I told you I needed to answer it, because I never wanted you to leave. I never want you to leave, Abby. That’s why I was crying. I’m sure part of it had to do with me feeling Deb and Harriet’s death earlier and thinking about Paul, who feels like my son, even though he’s not and I’ve never really wanted kids, but I worried that you’d go. You have options. You can leave this town today and go back to LA or find some other place to move to and leave me here, and maybe we’d be the end of the line. Maybe not, but I’d… I’d be heartbroken.”
“Quinn, I’m not leaving town. I just don’t do well with stuff like this.”
“Whodoes?”