Page 41 of The Déjà Glitch
He stayed silent long enough to make her look up.
“Well, if it’s any consolation, I looked at you like this the first time I saw you too.”
A piece of seedy whole-grain toast tried to wedge in her throat. She gulped her mimosa to wash it down.
The bald flattery was not something she was used to. Nor was the feeling of someone so intently gazing at her like she was the only person in the room. It filled her with warmth and insecurity at the same time.
“Well, you should dial it back a few notches unless you want me to combust from embarrassment,” she said with a half smile and eyes back on her toast.
Jack quietly laughed. “You’ve never combusted, don’t worry.”
Gemma chewed a bite and thought of a question she had been wondering about. “How does it vary so much within any given day? You said sometimes I do certain things, little things, and other times I don’t. How does that work if it’s all the same day over and over?”
“That’s a great question. Truthfully, I don’t know. I guess it’s little changes in your mood or experiences that slightly alter your behavior.”
Gemma considered it. In normal circumstances, her life did follow a pretty standard routine. There were no wild variations in walking Rex, going to work, coming home, walking Rex again, and then reading a book or streaming something before bed so she could get up and do it all over again. But even within that routine, on any given day a slight shift in her mood could lead her to make different decisions and change up the repetition while keeping it along the same general track. Like someone switching their customary coffee order because they felt like it. It made sense then that she would sometimes do certain things and other times not while living the same day on repeat.
“What would Dr. Woods have to say about it?”
“Oh, he’d probably draw you a diagram and try to explain it with one of his gadgets,” Jack said, and warmly smiled.
Gemma thought of the purple spinning globe with golden axes. She couldn’t help but wonder about all the different ways she had behaved within the same day.
“How am I different every day? What’s, like, the meanest I’ve been to you?”
Jack laughed. “I don’t think you’re capable of being truly mean, but there was one day where you didn’t apologize after the coffee incident. You scowled at me and stomped away. I didn’t try to chase after you that day.”
“Yikes. Sorry.” She wondered what else had happened that morning to make her so impolite. “What’s the nicest?”
Jack sipped his tea and smiled. “Well, that kiss at the bar was pretty great, but you’re always nice. Like, unduly nice to some idiot who crashed into you because he was texting.”
Their collision already felt like months ago.
“Aside from yesterday when you were testing your theory, have you evernotcrashed into me to see what happens?”
He nodded. “Several times. Your favorite shirt does make it through the day every once in a while, believe it or not.”
“Good to know she is spared. What else happens?”
“It’s pretty uneventful. You go to work free of coffee stains, the interview gets canceled, Patrick never makes it home, you don’t go see your father, then you go to Lila’s birthday party in a pretty sour mood from it all.”
She frowned at him. “That sounds like a terrible day.”
“Yeah, not too hot for you all in all.”
Gemma took another bite of toast and mulled it over.“So, then it seems like I’m better off on the days we crash because then I at least get to meet you, even if all that other stuff still happens.”
Jack softly smiled, crinkling the corners of his eyes. “That’s kind of you. If only you could remember me from day to day.”
Gemma thought about what it would be like to remember Jack. How she would undeniably wake up looking forward to seeing his smile and the shine in his eyes. She would probably have a budding addiction to kissing him and think about their lips touching all day, perhaps even count down the hours until she could make it happen. She would know his voice and his laugh and miss him when he wasn’t there. She would want to be near him and make memories together.
The warmth bubbling in her chest reminded her of a feeling she hadn’t had in a long time. At the same time that her heart was cartwheeling, her head was reminding her to be cautious. She had fallen head-over-heels for Nick, and it had left her broken and alone.
But she hadn’t met Nick on a day cosmically designed to bring them together, so she told her head to shut up since there was no logic to be had about whatever was blossoming between her and Jack.
“How did you first notice you were stuck?” she asked him, realizing they hadn’t yet broached the topic.
“As soon as I crashed into you for a second time,” he said with certainty. “I told you: it feels like the earth tilts, so when it happened twice in a row, it was a serious wake-up call.”