Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

“Bugger, bugger, bugger.”

The coffee shop was not far enough from the office to use his bike, so he thought a fast walk would do it.

There was probably nowhere to chain his bike to anyway.

And then it was 12:35 pm and now Gabriel was running down the High Street.

He was just a few minutes away from the coffee shop, but he really didn’t want to upset Ginny. He didn’t even know the girl, but he wouldn’t want to make her cross with him. He could imagine her sitting there alone in the coffee shop, looking at her watch. It’s 12:40 pm, and the waitress has been over twice asking if she wants to order anything. Each time Ginny has pointed to her watch, giving that ‘he’ll be here in a minute’ look, but then finally, giving a wry smile to the waitress, she gets up to go.

12:42 pm and Gabriel gets to the door of the Golden Egg.

Ginny is sitting at a table for two, looking out of the window. She is smiling to him, and beckoning him to go in.

“I’ve already ordered myself a coffee. Sorry ... I didn’t know what you would like to drink.”

“Sorry I’m a bit late,” Gabriel muttered.

“Somebody wanted to take that chair,” Ginny said, pointing at the other chair at her table. “I said no. I told them you’d be here in a minute.”

Gabriel realised that he was feeling a bit hot and bothered from his dash down the High Street. He felt flushed and stupid. Not the entrance he was hoping to make.

“I’m glad you could make it,” she said. “I wondered if you might be too busy to meet me here.”

Gabriel smiled awkwardly.

“Or that you might have forgotten.”

Before Gabriel had the chance to say anything, Ginny called over to the waitress.

“Hi, Sally. Can we make an order?”

The waitress heard her and walked over.

“So, he turned up, eh?” the waitress said to Ginny. Obviously, they were friends.

“Just as good looking as you said, then, eh?” Sally continued.

Ginny looked back at her friend, with an expression that Gabriel could not decipher.

“Anyway, what do you guys want?” Sally asked. “Just a drink, or are you dining?”

“I wouldn’t mind a cup of tea and a cheese and onion sandwich on brown bread,” Gabriel said, and then stopped suddenly, looking very self-conscious.

“Sorry,” he spluttered. “Ladies first ... you order please Ginny.”

“Quite the gentleman, eh?” Sally said, smiling pointedly at Ginny.

Ginny turned to Gabriel and gave his left hand a pat, as if to soften his embarrassment.

Gabriel startled and almost pulled his hand away from the shock of her touch. He knew that his hand had shuddered, and he knew Ginny would have sensed it, but he rested it calmly back on the table.

Ginny re-settled her hand, leaving it resting lightly on his.“A cheese and pickle sandwich, please,” Ginny said to Sally.

“White, brown or granary?” Sally said, chuckling to herself.

Gabriel could see that Sally was amused about something, but he couldn’t make out what.

“Brown please,” said Ginny. “That would be nice. Thank you.”

“I’ve got it,” Sally said. “Be back soon. See you later Ginny.”

Ginny turned back to look at Gabriel, then, keeping hold of his left hand, she ran her fingers up his wrist.

“Isn’t that John’s old watch?” she asked.

“He gave it to me,” Gabriel said, perhaps a little too strongly. “Honestly ... he gave it to me the last time I saw him.”

“I know,” Ginny said, smiling. “I asked him where it had gone, and he said that someone else needed it.”

Gabriel nodded.

“Funny thing to say about an old watch, don’t you think?” she continued.

“How do you mean?”

“Well ... a watch is only used to tell the time but saying someone else needs it (she held her hands up as if to put quotes around the words ‘needs it’), well, that makes it sound like it does more than just tell the time.”

Gabriel looked both startled and awkward.

“Well, don’t you think so?” she asked.

“It’s just a watch,” he said unconvincingly.

She put her hand back on the old watch, running her fingers over it, as if she was caressing the case and the dial.

“It feels funny,” she said, “as if it’s not really that shape at all. You know, as if it is just pretending to look like that, but really it is something else.”

Gabriel looked at the watch. He felt foolish in her presence, as if she had outsmarted him on something that he should have known about.

Ginny let her right hand stay on Gabriel’s wrist, but with her left hand she leaned over and stroked the side of his face.

“I’m sorry, Gabriel. People say that I, well, that I sense things that aren’t there.”

Gabriel sat motionless. He didn’t want her to move her hand away.

“People also say that I’m too tactile,” she continued. “You know, touching things, touching people. You’ll let me know if I make you feel uncomfortable, won’t you?”

Gabriel felt her hand pressed lightly against his cheek. The warmth of her fingers seemed to be making his skin feel alive, feel vibrant. She smelled of a summer’s day; she smelled of apples and peaches.

“I’m sorry,” she said suddenly, taking her hands away from him. “I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I should learn not to do that.”

She put her hands palm down firmly on the table, as if to restrain them, in case they should try to touch him again.

“Put your hands on hers,” Vicky whispered.

Gabriel reached out his hands, gently enclosing each of hers within his own. He smiled at her, and she looked up and smiled back. The most joyous and welcoming smile he had ever seen.

“Well, this is nice, isn’t it?” said Sally, carrying a tray on which was a cup of tea and two plates of sandwiches.