“We need to keep up appearances,” Logan replied. “Time travel 101: you need to fit in, no matter where you go. If we showed up at the restaurant in the middle of winter without a coat, someone might find it strange.”
That actually made sense.
Logan led the way from the windows and to the elevator. I wasn’t exactly sure what building we were in, but it did feel familiar. There were too many buildings in Chicago for me to know them all, but I was certain that at some point I had been in this one. Logan pushed the button to the ninety-fifth floor, and I knew then. We were going to the Signature Room, located in one of the highest floors of the Hancock Building. I knew why it was very familiar. It had been the restaurant of our first date years ago. Now everything was falling back together. I hadn’t really been paying attention as I got dressed, as I really didn’t care to be dating Logan. But I knew now. The dress and the necklace were both similar to those I wore on that night. Possibly they were exactly the same. I looked over at Logan as the elevator progressed. He could see me getting what was going on, and he smiled at my recollection. His face told me everything. I was sure they weren’t just similar. They were the exact same. I touched the jewel at my neck. It was given to me by my mother. Why didn’t I recognize it earlier? I really must have been out of it. It wasn’t long after Logan and I broke up that it went missing. My mother fretted over it, but eventually gave up looking for it.
“I went back and borrowed everything for tonight,” Logan explained sheepishly. “I promise I’ll return them.”
I touched the necklace. “Mind if I keep this?” I asked. “It goes missing in a week or so anyways in the past.”
Logan laughed. “I’d take a guess that this might be the reason it goes missing.”
I never thought of that. If I kept it now, it would for sure go missing, but if I let him take it back, would it still go missing? Did I want to take the chance? My mother got it for me when I was really young, but it was on this first date that she allowed me to wear it for the first time. I didn’t want to take the chance it would disappear again. What harm would it do to keep it now?
I shrugged. “Probably is the reason,” I replied. “But I want to keep it anyway.”
The elevator slowed down and stopped. The doors opened, and Logan stepped forward before he held out his hand. I looked at him. The moment was too surreal. I felt like I had lived it before, but it wasn’t a messed-with memory. Logan had planned everything. I had lived this same moment before. I remembered that night perfectly. It was my first date. Logan was handsome. He was the cutest guy I had ever met, and he was asking me out. Me, of all people. He had his pick of any girl, and he had asked me. I spent hours trying to find the perfect dress with my friends. After I did, my mother gave me the necklace to wear. She said she had been keeping it safe until I grew up. My first real date was her sign that I was growing up.
Logan arrived at my house and spoke with both my mother and grandfather before taking me to this exact building. I don’t think I said more than a few words to him on the ride because I was too nervous. Everything about Logan made me nervous: the way he looked in his freshly pressed suit, the glances he stole as he drove, the smile on his face when he didn’t know I was looking. Now he was waiting with his hand outstretched. I took it in mine and felt the warmth from it spread into my arm. As much as I didn’t want to be connected to Logan, I was and always would be. There was too much history.
My stomach fluttered with nerves as he tucked my hand into the crook of his arm. Confidently, he walked us to the maître de. I didn’t listen as they talked, and tried to ignore the flutter in my stomach. From where we stood I could already see the expansive floor-to-ceiling windows that displayed the city. All the blinking lights were a good distraction. At least until the memories came rushing back again. It was too similar. Being with Logan in the exact place of our first date was just like I remembered. It was the one and only time he didn’t cut out and leave me in the middle of a date. It was the one date where we were just the two of us, alone, no time travel interference, no excuses. It was the one time he was honest with me, and was really completely there. I had nothing but happy memories of that date, but everything else was still hard to look back at nicely.
“Earth to Mari,” Logan said softly into my ear. His breath tickled, and I couldn’t help the little giggle that came out.
Logan grinned and led me behind the older man that was taking us to our seats. Pulling out my chair, Logan waited for me to sit before he sat himself. I took the napkin and placed it across my lap while a waiter magically appeared and handed me a menu.
I began to look through the options. Logan reached across the closed my menu.
“We’d like the beef filet and sautéed salmon,” Logan informed the waiter. The man nodded to Logan and walked briskly away. I wanted to complain, but Logan was choosing correctly. Salmon had always been my favorite.
Without the waiter as a distraction, or a menu to read, I turned and looked out the window we were seated by. We had the best seats in the house, but I’d expected no less from Logan. I always felt uncomfortable spending money like him, but if you were a prince in another life I guess it was normal. Our beach house at college had to be like a shack to him after how he’d lived in all his different times.
Logan’s eyes were upon me, but I continued to stare outside. The bright lights twinkled all around us and the skyline was laid out perfectly for me to see. I wanted to look past Logan to the lake, but I kept my eyes on the city. Light snowflakes were falling. It was magical.
“It’s beautiful,” I commented as the snow picked up a bit.
“Sure is,” Logan replied, continuing to stare at me.
I finally looked at him. He didn’t even try to look away, or pretend like he wasn’t staring.
“If you’d give me a chance,” Logan began. I wanted to look away, but as soon as I began to turn my head, Logan’s hand shot forward and stopped me. His warm hand caressed my face as he kept me looking at him. “I can make you happy again. I made you happy once; and I still can. You just need to let go of Seth. He’s not your soulmate. I am.”
I didn’t know how to respond, and was relieved when the waiter returned with bread and our salads. Logan took his hand back, but he was still staring intensely at me. He was waiting for some sort of response, but I had none. Logan wasn’t my soulmate and never would be. You didn’t get to choose your soulmate. It just happened. Seth, with or without me, was the only one I was ever going to love like that. Logan wouldn’t understand, and I couldn’t tell him because I feared losing his help to save everyone I cared for.
I concentrated on my salad, and kept my mouth full to avoid talking. Logan was much slower with his own salad, and he was clearly thinking about something. The waiter returned with more food. I was happy to have something else to keep me quiet. Before I met Seth, I didn’t want to be quiet with Logan. We had, at one time, had a lot of fun together; I just didn’t know what to say now. Logan wasn’t the person I remembered. I was beginning to think he never was.
As we finished our meal in silence, Logan sighed loudly to get my attention.
“You still don’t like this lifestyle, do you?” he asked.
I was surprised he even noticed. I had never liked the rich, posh life he lived. His house was amazing, and I loved to walk through it, but it was never someplace I felt comfortable in. It never felt like a home. It was like walking around in a museum. Logan didn’t seem to see it that way, but it was. When we were out and he was spending money like water, I was also uncomfortable. The stares that went along with Logan Jones were nothing I had ever gotten used to. With flashy cars and even flashier clothing, he was always noticed. He wanted to be noticed. I was fine being overlooked. In our past, he could understand me about as well as I understood him. That he saw how uncomfortable the restaurant was to me was a bit of a surprise. He never noticed that much before.
Logan signed the bill and stood up. I didn’t even realize he h
ad the check in his hand. I really was spacing out as I stared out the windows. He offered me his hand to help me up.
As we entered the elevator, he shook his head. I looked at him quizzically. What did that mean?
“Some things never change, do they?” he asked. I had no idea what he was talking about. “I remember our first date years ago. You were so shy that I didn’t notice that you weren’t having fun. You’re still not having fun. This doesn’t impress you, or make you happy. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on everything. I didn’t understand you. I didn’t try to understand you. I’ll do better this time if you let me.”
I had no idea how to respond. I had just broken Seth’s heart not even a week ago, and my own in the process. I couldn’t imagine just moving on. My heart wasn’t ready to love again, and I doubted it ever would be. I didn’t want a new boyfriend, but it seemed like Logan wasn’t about to give up. To finally hear that Logan actually cared about me was a shock as well. I had spent the last few months of our relationship wondering why he kept breaking promise after promise and leaving me stranded. I felt like he cared nothing for me. Even after learning that he had been time traveling, I still got the feeling he cared more for his job than our relationship. Now he was the exact opposite, and I didn’t know what to make of all of it.
Luckily Logan wasn’t looking for a reply this time. He stayed silent during our quick descent back to the first floor, and let me ponder what he had said. As we neared the bottom, he turned to me.
“There’s still something between us,” Logan said quietly, as he reached up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
The door dinged, and he took my hand in his as he led us back out to the front door of the building. He stopped by the glass doors and looked at the magical snow. As beautiful as it was up above, it was even better down where it was collecting on various objects like the signs and stoplights that lined the street. I reached down to button my woolen coat and went to let go of Logan’s hand to do so when he tightened his grip.
“No need for that,” he replied, loosening his hand now that I wasn’t letting go. “Now that you know my secret, we can travel in an instant. It’s much easier and much warmer.”
It took me a moment to orient myself after we instantly appeared in a new location. I had practiced the time traveling thing a lot over the last semester and I was getting used to it, but it was different with him controlling it. I felt a bit wobbly, and he placed a hand on my back to steady me as I got my bearings. I cautiously looked once when moving my head wouldn’t tip me over. I immediately recognized the polished marble floors and two-story columns lining the walls around us. We were in the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History.
I looked around the dimly lit museum. It was closed and completely empty. We didn’t walk up its polished white steps. Instead, he just popped us right inside next to the bones of the T-rex, Sue. In the lowered ceiling lights, Sue loomed over us with lit spotlights still on her. I had been in many museums over my lifetime, but never alone after one was closed. It was strange to be standing there, just Logan and me, but it was also very magical. The lights on the exhibits were still on, but there were no bright ceiling lights, no parents pulling kids around, no bored-looking teenage workers waiting for their shift to be done. The floors shone like they had just been cleaned, and the ridge around the open staircase was lit enough for us to both see. Logan was watching me, not making a sound.
“Mr. Jones, I didn’t hear you enter,” a security guard said, coming up beside us, his shoes clicking on the waxed marble floors.
“Sorry about that, Miller,” Logan replied, looping his arm around me. “I couldn’t keep my lady out in the cold.” Logan leaned down and kissed the top of my head.
The man that had once kept the house together for Seth, Dee, and Ty was standing there now, looking at me. A flash of recognition crossed his face, but he hid it quickly while Logan was kissing my head.
“Not a problem,” Miller said. “All the exhibits are turned on, like you requested. Take your time and enjoy.” Miller tipped his hat to us, catching my eye one last time before he turned to leave. What did that mean? Was Miller a time traveler? Was he another one of those Logan had trapped? He moved on too fast for me to look for any clues.
“Animals or people?” Logan asked, pointing to the left and then the right and distracting me from my thoughts.
I had been to the museum what felt like over a hundred times. With my grandfather’s line of business in antiques, the museum was always a favorite destination of ours. Starting out when I was very little, my grandfather instilled the love of history in me. I loved to walk among the models of everything from animals to ancient cultures. I wanted to be able to picture being there, and I especially loved the Egyptian section of the museum. I wondered about that now, but had to let it go. It was very possible Logan was right, and my father wouldn’t be happy to see me or my mother.
“Animals,” I replied, not intentionally going that direction, but finding myself wandering to the pyramid that leads down to the Egypt exhibit. I meant to make our way through the birds following along the back corridor to the lions of Tsavo, but my feet had another idea.
“I could have guessed this was the direction you were going,” Logan replied a bit dryly, but covered up his sarcasm with a charming smile.
I shrugged. I hadn’t meant to upset him. There was something about the exhibit that always drew me in that direction. I had a better feeling why now, but I was unsure how much Logan knew of my family. His anger suggested jealousy that I was wandering around the Egypt exhibit just to remember Seth. I got the feeling he didn’t know my father was Egyptian. For now, until my mother told me more, I wanted to keep it to myself.
“I kind of have a thing for dioramas,” I added. And, strangely enough, I did. It was always one of my favorite things to do growing up. I loved to make displays like the ones I saw in the museum. Something about looking at those little people posed in a display case made me wonder more about their culture. It made those ancient artifacts seem more real, but not as much as time traveling did now for me.
Logan laughed. “You’re such a dork.”
“Gosh, Logan, don’t you know the way to a woman’s heart?” I teased back. Logan laughed again. It was strange to be teasing him, but it felt natural, like we had done it a hundred times, and in our good moments together we probably had.
Logan was in a better mood now, and he stayed beside me as I looked at the pyramid entrance. I remembered my first time walking through it with my grandfather. I couldn’t have been more than five or six years old. It was strange how I felt very connected to everything in the exhibit then. I didn’t understand then, but now I did. Part of me was that past I was about to see. Who knew, maybe even one of my relatives was a mummy on the floor below.
“You always did like this place,” Logan said as he slowed.
I could feel him watching me, but I couldn’t help but focus on the stone walls around me. They were marked with hieroglyphs, and it made me want to travel to Egypt to get to be able to read them like I could speak and read ancient Nahrin and Assyrian languages. I kept my hands curled into fists to avoid walking around, touching everything like a small child. It called to me when I was younger, but the pull was even stronger now. I had to find my way to Egypt, and I had to meet my father, no matter if he wanted my mother back or not. I needed to see him.
“I was a little kid when King Tut came through, and even now I can still remember seeing that golden tomb. I wondered what sort of man could have his resting place paved with gold. It mesmerized me from the moment I first saw the picture. Once I saw it in person, my grandfather couldn’t get me to move. I spent over an hour staring at that golden tomb,” I explained as we climbed downstairs to the full exhibit.
“I might need to go back in time and see that,” Logan replied, keeping a few feet behind me. That sounded strange, but I was getting used to the time travel thing. He didn’t sound half as weird as he sh
ould have sounded saying that.
I stopped at the first set of figures depicting how the dead were prepared. The little Egyptian people wore the same little white skirt as Seth. My heart ached to see it. These were his people depicted below, tanned men in little skirts preparing a body for burial. They were my people. It was strange to think that.
I took a few more steps, but stopped. I didn’t have it in me to go forward and see the mummies. It used to be my favorite part, but now I couldn’t. They were much more real to me since I could go back in time and talk to any one of those people lying in the next room. Logan waited beside me. I don’t know if he understood my dilemma or not, but I couldn’t get my feet to move forward.
“I guess I really do like dioramas better,” I answered, wishing there were more on other parts of Egyptian life. What was life like for my father? It couldn’t have been all military campaigns all the time. He had to have a home. Probably even a wife and kids by now. I would have siblings.
“What are you thinking inside that head of yours?” Logan asked, stepping closer to me and peering at my face curiously.
I shrugged. “I wish there were more dioramas of Egypt that I could see. Really, I’m just a dorky girl wanting to see more models of the past.”
Logan laughed and stepped in closer to me. He took my arms, and we were once again in a new location. I closed my eyes and let the travel dizzies settle before I looked to see where we were. It was vaguely familiar, but I really couldn’t place it. We were in some sort of museum again, but I didn’t know the name. I had been to many around the world, and with Logan’s powers, I had no clue where we were now.
“Are you just going to whiz me all over the world to look at museums in the dark?” I asked.
“If it would make you happy,” Logan replied. He reached down and took my hand in his. “Best not to let go of me in case we need to make a quick exit.”
“So we’re going to break into museums then?” I asked with a laugh. It was funny to think that we would be breaking in just to walk around.