You've Found Oliver (You've Reached Sam, #2)(68)

Are you here?



I’m at the department building



Just parked the car. I can meet you there



I slide my hands in my pockets and cut through the quad. My breath fogs as I move through the crowd of students in winter coats. I’ve been here enough times to know my way there without directions. As the redbrick building comes into view, someone calls my name from above.

“Oliver.”

Ben smiles down at me from the roof. I smile and wave back at him. Then I head inside and press the button for the elevator. We were just stargazing last night. I wasn’t expecting to see him again this soon. When I get to the roof, Ben is adjusting a telescope that’s angled toward the sky. His face lights up the second he turns around. I kiss his lips and say, “Sorry for the surprise visit.”

“What are you apologizing for? You know I like surprises.”

I smile again. Then I glance at the telescope. “What’s all this for?”

“I’m actually glad you came. I wanted to show you something.” Ben brushes back his hair and checks the eyepiece. “I was trying to find Roy’s Comet again, but it’s a little too bright right now.”

I think back to last night. “Is the sky still looking weird?”

“Not that I can tell,” he says.

I wonder what that could mean. Maybe the other timeline really is closing. “I might have figured out how to go back,” I tell him.

Ben looks at me. “Really? How?”

“I’m actually not completely sure,” I admit. “There was something wrong with my phone before, but I finally switched to a different one. Look at the date on the screen.” I hand over the phone to him.

Ben reads the screen. “It says April.”

“My old phone never showed that before.”

“Interesting. Maybe that means it’s still connected somehow.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon.” I swallow my breath. “To be honest, I’m a little scared about it.”

“Scared of what?”

“Losing you.”

“Why would you lose me?”

A cold breeze blows across the rooftop. I almost don’t want to say it out loud. “What if the connection closes this time and we can’t see each other again…”

Ben takes this in for a moment. “I would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about this,” he says in a soft voice. “That this could all end at some point, given how impossible it seemed to begin with. For a while, I wondered if I would stop hearing from you one day. I thought this might be temporary, like most other things in the world. When I woke up that one morning and realized you were still here, I thought maybe we could actually make this work. That we could stay together and just be happy.” He touches my face. “But I don’t want to make you stay. Especially if you want to go back.”

I’ve thought about this a million times, too. “It’s not exactly that I want to go back. But I think I need to. And maybe those two things aren’t always the same.” I take his hands in mine. His eyes are beautiful in the golden light. “Listen, Ben. I wish I could spend every second with you, but I’ve also seen what your life looks like without me in it. You deserve the world. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“You’re not getting in the way,” he says.

“We both know that’s not completely true. You’re the best thing to happen to me in a long time, but I think we each need to focus on ourselves for the moment.” I smile at him. “Who knows, maybe we’ll get another chance at this later on.”

“And what if we don’t?”

“Then I’ll search every universe to find you.” I lean forward, pressing my lips against his. His hands are warm around my neck. The sun continues to fade, casting shadows on the roof. Unfortunately, I can’t stay for too long. I pull away and say, “I have to get back home soon.”

“But you just got here,” Ben says.

“I know, but there’s something important I need to fix.”

The light in his eyes dims. “This could be the last time I see you…”

There’s a chance nothing will happen at all, so maybe we’re worrying for no reason. But I have to say goodbye just in case. That’s the reason I came here. I don’t want to wake up in the morning and regret leaving without seeing him one more time.

I take his hands, lace our fingers together. “Remember what you said yesterday, about the probability of us choosing each other from all the timelines out there? I think that is beautiful, but I think I’m right, too. That we will always be connected somehow. And if that’s true, maybe we’ll find each other again.”

“Maybe you’re right about that,” he says.

I kiss Ben longer, as if it’s our last time. I hope I’m not making a mistake. Why would the universe connect us just to have us say goodbye in the end? Hopefully, this won’t be the end of our story.

I wish I could stay with him longer, but there’s someone else I need to see before I go.





Chapter

Twenty-six



I’ve made some mistakes in this timeline. But there’s one I have to fix before going back.