Remember Me Tomorrow

TWENTY-EIGHT

D o you mind closing the door before someone sees me?” Jay says. “I need to lay low for a bit.”

I stare at him, mouth agape. This is a dream, right? Should I pinch myself? How is Jay here?

“Aleeza? The door?” he says again.

I’m not used to hearing his voice ... but when he says my name, it sounds like he says it all the time. It sounds so normal that it snaps me out of my daze. I kick my things fully into the room, hoping my laptop and phone are okay, and close the door. Then I latch the chain lock so no one can come in.

I turn back around and he’s still there. It’s really him. I haven’t seen Jay in person for months ... since that party two days before Halloween. I didn’t see his face then, but I still know it well. From all those newspaper articles. And from seeing him all over campus before he disappeared. Bumping into him at the library, seeing him outside West Hall, and all those random encounters that turned out to be not so random after all.

But because I know his face so well, I can see that he’s changed in the last five months. He’s thinner. Skin a bit paler. His chest isn’t as broad, and the wavy black hair pushed behind his ears is almost to his shoulders. He’s wearing glasses I didn’t know he had. There’s a scruff on his chin and dark circles under his eyes.

He looks tired. But he looks beautiful too. Alive.

“Are you going to say anything, or just look at me like a shocked walleye?” Jay asks, the hint of a smirk on his face. It’s the same one I imagined when he teased me in texts. “I met Ted. He’s bigger than I expected. And ... oranger.”

“You’re supposed to be dead,” I say. It’s the only thing I can think of to say.

He chuckles, and the small laugh on his face makes him look ... well, hot . Really, really good-looking. Jay’s here. My Jay. “Yeah, about that,” he says, “I can explain everything ... but first.” He holds up the papers. It’s my printed-out screenshots of our conversations. Pages and pages of it. “You printed our chats?”

I still have no idea what to say, so I nod, then slowly walk closer until I’m standing right in front of my bed. We’re only a few feet apart. My heart races in my chest.

“Why didn’t you message me on Instagram earlier?” I ask.

“It’s a long story. Partly because the password was saved on my phone, which, if you’ll recall, spent a few months at the bottom of Lake Ontario. I got it back from the cops, but it’s dead.”

“ You’re supposed to be at the bottom of Lake Ontario.”

He laughs, then motions for me to sit. I do, on my own bed, directly across from him.

“I’ve been waiting here for you for an hour,” he says, “so I cross-checked your chats against my screenshots. Guess the percentage in common?”

“Eighty-five percent?” I ask. Every test we did showed about 85 percent similarities between our timelines. All those sporting events and news stories. Our universes were 85 percent the same.

He shakes his head. “No, 100 percent.”

“Really?” But when I think about it, it makes sense, because the Jay I’m looking at now is the Jay from my timeline. From my universe. Not the Jay I talked to from the five-months-ago universe.

But it doesn’t make sense because the Jay from my timeline and I didn’t know each other before he disappeared. Didn’t have all those conversations for the last few weeks. But if he’s here now, and he knows me, doesn’t that mean that the two Jays are the same person?

Maybe there’s no point in looking for the logic here. Kegan is wrong—it’s not a tech glitch. It is magic.

Jay’s still smiling at me—that smile that looks too big for his face. We stare at each other like that, just smiling. I wonder if he’s thinking the same thing, that this is amazing, and exceptional, and miraculous, and it feels so right to be here on the same plane of existence for the first time. It feels ... normal.

He shakes his head. “You’re not what I was expecting in person. I thought you’d talk more. Look how much you talked in our chat.” He holds up the papers again. “And you were talkative at the Halloween party too.”

I frown, remembering that party. “Why didn’t you tell me that was you in the mask?”

He shrugs. “I was going to. But then you told me I was dead, and that kind of, I don’t know. Screwed up the vibe. By the way, you looked adorable in that suit. I didn’t realize I had a thing for girls in Victorian menswear, but that might be my origin story. Do you still have it?” He wags his brows suggestively.

My eyes widen. This isn’t happening. Now he’s flirting? He just came back from the dead, and now he’s flirting?

I take a breath. “Jay, what the hell are you even doing here? How is this possible? Lance was arrested for your murder last week, and his dad practically admitted to killing your father. He was being investigated for money laundering or fraud or something, and Taylor’s boyfriend turned out to be an undercover cop, and there was a big fight at a yacht club and your uncle punched Jack and he has a concussion, and you’re here talking about my Dr. Watson suit? Do you even know that Lance and Taylor are your cousins? Their mom is your father’s sister. Their father had a long-standing beef with your father and probably killed him in the Cayman Islands five years ago ... Wait, I’m sorry, if you didn’t know, that’s a lot to spring on you at once, and—”

“There you are.” He smiles.

I tilt my head. “Jay, you’re dead . You’re supposed to be dead.”

He shakes his head, still smiling. “But I’m not. I’m here because of you, my little octopus. You and your ragtag group of friends figured it all out and saved me. I have no doubt I would be dead if you hadn’t got that message to me.”

I frown. “What are you talking about? What message?”

He hands me a phone, which has an open text on the screen. It’s a picture—a screenshot of Jack’s Instagram post of the photograph of Andrew, Denise, Stephen, and Salma at the yacht club more than two decades ago.

“When Jack sent it,” Jay explains, “I called him asking where he got the picture and why he was sending it to me now. He was drunk out of his mind. But he said John told him to send it.”

“Who’s John?” I ask. There’s no John in all this, is there?

“ You’re John , Roomie. Dr. John Watson. I knew right away the message was from you.” Jay shakes his head. “Did you really ask him to send it?”

I nod. “Yes, last Monday.”

Jay looks confused. I don’t blame him. Jack said it started with a text and a picture ... and it did. A text that I asked him to send. I want to call Jack and tell him it worked, but I don’t want to stop looking at the person sitting in front of me.

I take a breath. “Okay, Jay. Tell me everything . What happened when you went to your mother’s that day? And where have you been for the last five months?”

He nods. And then explains what happened. Basically, when he got to Scarborough that Sunday, the first thing he did was get shawarma, which was when he talked to Ausma about me. Then he went home. But soon after he got there, he got the text from Jack. Jay had no idea why his mother was in that picture, but he recognized some of the other people—Denise Murray and Stephen Everett. He knew them as the children of his mother’s boss, Helen Grant. He did not know that his mother knew Denise and Stephen that long ago. He showed it to his mother, and Salma finally admitted that Stephen Everett was Jay’s father.

“So your mother knew who her boss really was?”

“Yeah, apparently way back, Helen arranged for a big lump-sum payment to Mom—basically prepaying for eighteen years of child support at once. Mom planned to have no contact with the family after that. But Helen kept in touch, checking on her every once in a while when I was a baby. Eventually she offered to pay for Mom to go to college and then hired her to work in her law firm.”

“But your mother never saw Stephen? Your father?”

Jay shakes his head. “Barely. She never wanted to. I still don’t know what happened between them. But Helen, I don’t know, she actually liked Mom. It wasn’t just that she felt obligated to help the woman her son knocked up. She even helped me get that scholarship. Anyway, when I showed Mom the picture, I also told her that I thought I might be in danger—that someone had been following me and could be trying to hurt me, and that this picture had something to do with it. Mom turned white as a ghost and called Helen. Soon a car showed up and took us to Helen’s house.” He chuckles, shaking his head. “It was wild . The house is as big as Jack’s. Couldn’t believe that was my family. Taylor showed up soon with Cameron, an undercover cop.”

“Wait, what? Taylor was helping you? I thought she kidnapped you! Why didn’t she say she was on your side? She was being terrible at the yacht club.”

“Yeah, Taylor’s technically a good guy here, but that’s debatable. Anyway, they all explained that it’s true: I was in danger because Taylor’s dad was, like, obsessed with me. Apparently, years ago, when they set up a company together, my father and Andrew Murray each set up trusts for their kids—or future kids—to pay for school. They put in clauses that if they didn’t have children, the money would go to each other’s kids. When Andrew sold his half of the company to Stephen, he dissolved his kids’ trusts because he wanted to keep the money for himself, and he figured his kids would get Stephen’s trust since Stephen didn’t have kids.”

“Andrew didn’t know about you?”

Jay shakes his head. “Nope. Only Stephen and Helen knew about me. Until Stephen and Andrew were arguing in the Caribbean, and Stephen told Andrew that his trust would go to me. Salma’s son.”

“And Stephen was killed for it.”

“Andrew thought he deserved all of Stephen’s money—not just the trust—since he started the company with him. But yeah, learning that I would be getting the trust instead of Lance and Taylor pissed him off. Apparently, Andrew hated that Stephen was dating a Brown girl all those years ago. Anyway, when Helen explained it all to me, I didn’t tell anyone that I already knew about the trust. I did say I thought someone was going to do something to me that night at the yacht club. I assume they thought Jack tipped me off. Cameron was concerned that even if they were able to keep me safe that night, I would continue to be in danger. Andrew was the one following me in the Corolla, by the way.”

This is ridiculous. “For the love of god, if they knew you were in danger, why didn’t anyone tell you until then?”

He nods, also annoyed. “I know . My mother let them have it about that. Mostly Cameron was afraid of doing anything that could sabotage his fraud and money-laundering case. Andrew was the linchpin, but they really needed to get the names of the others involved. They thought I’d be fine. The police were following Andrew when he was following me.”

“He really wanted to kill you so his kids could get your trust fund?”

“Yup. Their original plan was to bully me until I dropped out of school. Because then I couldn’t claim the money since the trust required me to be enrolled. But that plan failed because I didn’t care about the gossip.”

“Oh my god, Lance was the Birdwatcher?”

“Lance and Taylor did that together.”

I shake my head. “I don’t get it. I thought Taylor was on your side?”

He chuckles. “Lance and Taylor are on Lance and Taylor’s side. Their dad told them for years that Andrew’s trust would go to them. They were also pissed when they discovered I existed.”

“So they figured they’d get you to drop out of school so they could have your money.”

“Yep. It’s why they befriended me in first year. But their grandmother discovered what they were doing when my mom had a lawyer from her firm write that cease-and-desist letter to the Birdwatcher. Lance and Taylor’s mother apparently tore them a new one and threatened to cut them off financially if they didn’t stop bullying me. And when their father became obsessed with killing me instead for the trust, Lance and Taylor told their mother what Daddy was planning. When they went to the police, they found out about the fraud investigation, and the kids officially joined the sting operation against their own father so their mother wouldn’t cut off their gravy train.”

I snort. “That’s wild.”

“I know.” He shakes his head. “These people are messed up . You wouldn’t believe the drama. Helen’s cool, but the rest ... I cannot believe I’m related to them.”

I cringe. “It had to suck to discover you have a whole other family at the same time as learning they want to either bully you out of school or kill you to steal your trust fund. And then learn your father died before you knew him.”

Jay shrugs. “It did suck. But it was five months ago. I’ve come to terms with it. Besides, he wasn’t my father. Just a sperm donor. He never wanted to be my father. He figured giving me his money was enough.”

I shake my head. “But why does Andrew Murray think Lance killed you?”

“That was my idea. See, I knew what was supposed to happen that night—I was supposed to end up in the lake. So I made the suggestion to Cameron: What if we let Andrew think his son killed me in the same way he killed my father? Then he’ll stop trying to murder me, and the cops could concentrate on the fraud case. So Lance called Jack and snagged an invite to his boat that night. Lance told his father he was going to take the opportunity to do to me what Andrew did to my father. I boarded the boat wearing an inflatable life jacket under my coat, and I deleted anything I didn’t want anyone to see on my phone. Should have written down my Instagram password, though. I’d been saving our screenshots to a cloud drive by then anyway. I had a submersible GPS tracker pinned to my pants. Cameron trailed me in a dinghy after I went over.”

“Why do it on Jack’s boat, then? Why didn’t Lance just tell his dad he was taking you out on the water and not actually do it?”

“Andrew is a paranoid ass. He insisted on being on the boat too.”

I snort. “Ha! I knew Andrew was on the boat! He drugged Jack with GHB!”

He frowns. “Holy shit, seriously? I thought it was strange Jack was so tanked. I’ll bet Andrew drugs girls in bars with that.” He cringes. “Anyway, when we reached open water, I discreetly took off my boots, then Lance picked a fake fight with me and pushed me off the boat. He pushed me hard ... I think he really wanted to hurt me. I don’t think he would have been the slightest bit upset if he actually did kill me.

“As soon as I hit the water, I pulled my coat off and inflated my life jacket. Lance sped away so Andrew wouldn’t see me. I can tread water forever because of water polo, but the water was fucking cold. Cameron showed up after about three minutes, and I thought I was going to die. Once we got back to shore, Helen and my mom were waiting with dry clothes and all the stuff I was able to get out of my dorm room using the secret stairs. Cameron drove me straight to Helen’s cottage that night. They said I wouldn’t be there long—just until they wrapped up the fraud case and arrested Andrew. They said a week or two, max. But I knew I’d be there at least five months because, well, I wasn’t back in your time.” He exhales.

“Holy shit. You’ve been in hiding for five months?”

He nods. “I was lonely as fuck.”

“Who knew you were there?”

“Only Helen and my mom. Mom moved in with me three months ago to keep me company. Oh, and of course Taylor and Lance knew. It’s a miracle they didn’t say anything. We couldn’t even tell my aunt, uncle, or cousins.”

I shake my head, amazed. “What have you been doing this whole time?”

“Netflix, mostly. I saved anything time travel related for us to watch together, though. I also read a lot . I did leave the cottage sometimes, just not often. I stayed in the area and wore a face mask and hat.”

I laugh when I realize something. “Wait, you told me your mother’s boss’s cottage is near Alderville! You’ve been twenty minutes from my hometown this whole time?”

He nods, grinning. “I mean, the Instagram post I left you did say Wednesday was taking me home .”

I laugh. “I didn’t think you meant my home!” I realize something else. “Holy shit, you went to the Alderville library, didn’t you? My mother told me about you.”

He chuckles, turning a little bit pink. It’s adorable. “ Busted. It wasn’t hard to find the science fiction–obsessed Indian librarian. What did she tell you about me?”

“She was delighted with you. She wanted to set me up with you.”

He laughs. “Really?” He lowers his eyes with a smoldering yet playful look. “So that means your mom would already approve of me asking you out?”

I can’t believe this is happening. I raise one brow. “Do you think I need my mother’s approval?”

He chuckles again, then slowly moves the computer and papers aside and stands. He’s taller than I remember. And so real . Seeing him standing so close to me, I’m now sure that he’s the same person who made me feel like less of a disaster at the Halloween party. I remember that picture of us sitting together—me with my head on his shoulder. I want to be that close again.

He takes one step toward my bed and stops. I know this guy. I’m an expert on Jay Hoque. But I’m not an expert on his body language yet. So I wait for him to speak.

“Can I sit with you?” He indicates the bed I’m on.

I nod.

He sits. I can feel the warmth of his body. Smell his scent. It’s what sleeping in his bed smelled like. I’m aching to touch him, feel him really here instead of the ghostly sensation I felt sleeping in his bed. I lean toward him.

“So?” he says, looking into my eyes.

I squeeze my lips together. “So what?”

“Will you go out with me?”

“After everything, that’s all you want? Just a date?” I move closer to him. I can’t help it. He’s like a magnet. I decide this is my favorite moment ever . Right now beats everything else.

He chuckles and leans even closer, and I can feel his breath on my face. “Well, no. I want a lot more than just a date. How about we start with this.” He puts a hand on my cheek, and my whole body tingles with the touch. I slip my hand in his hair, wanting to feel those dark waves between my fingers.

And finally, our lips touch. And it’s ... amazing. His lips are soft, and his arms wrap around me. I move closer, and it’s complete magic.

We fit here, in this physical space, as well as we fit together on ResConnect. He pulls me closer, and soon we’re half reclining on my bed. Soft kisses. Getting to know each other’s lips. I clutch him tight. This is Jay. My Jay that I’m kissing.

I could kiss him like this forever.

We almost do kiss like that forever, but eventually slow down. We end up lying on my bed with my head resting on his chest and his arm around me. My T-shirt is riding up a bit, and his fingers trail lightly across my skin, giving me goose bumps.

“Does that mean you will go out with me?” he says. I can feel his voice through me louder than I can actually hear it.

I smile. “Of course I will. I’m delighted you’re not dead.” I scoot up so I can lean into his neck and inhale. “I can’t believe this is real,” I whisper.

His hand moves to rub my back. “For five months, all I wanted was to talk to you,” he says softly. “Watch movies with you. Laugh with you. But mostly, I wanted to hold you. Like I used to when you were sleeping.”

He shifts so we’re face-to-face, and reaches out and puts his hand on my cheek. It’s warm, real, and alive. “Me too,” I say. “Except ... not the five-months part. The part I still don’t get is ... why are you here now? Why are you out of hiding?”

“Yesterday was my birthday. I’m twenty.”

“I know. Happy birthday.” I give him a happy-birthday kiss.

“Thank you,” he says, smiling. “And because of you, Roomie, I’m not in danger anymore. Andrew is behind bars. I came out of hiding, and we went to the lawyer to claim my trust. I suspect Lance and Taylor were secretly sabotaging the fraud case so I’d have to stay in hiding until it was too late to claim it, because the deal I made with them was to pretend I was dead until Andrew was arrested. You sped up the process a bit. So I got my money, and I’m free.”

I laugh. “These people are all loaded, though. Why do they care about an education savings account?”

He shakes his head. “Because that’s not all it is. This was set up when their company was just incorporated, and it included some shares in the company. Shares that have since exploded. Also, Stephen’s will left a bunch of money to the trust too. It’s a lot more than an education savings account.”

My eyes widen. “Holy shit. Seriously?”

He nods. “I know you said that you have no interest in rich people, but ... would you date a millionaire?”

I pretend to think about it. “Maybe. Lance and Mia broke up. Is he available?”

He laughs and clutches me tighter. And it all feels so good. Just laughing and being myself with him. This could be the beginning of something. But ... I still have questions.

“Why did you leave Manal’s painting on the bulletin board?”

“Taylor and Cameron were driving me to the yacht club, but I insisted we come here first. I told them it was to collect stuff I’d need while in hiding, but really it was so I could message you and tell you the plan. But you weren’t here. I stalled them and waited two hours for you, but you never came. I knew you wouldn’t abandon me because you had Jack send me that message, so something must have happened. What’s that about, anyway? How did you tell Jack last Monday to send me a picture five months ago?”

“Oh, Jack can talk to his future self when he’s high,” I explain. That might be the most believable part of this story.

Jay snorts. “Of course he can. Anyway, when you didn’t show up, I put the painting on the bulletin board. I thought I was so slick to use the anonymous Instagram account, but then I was a dumbass and forgot to get the password off my phone. Why weren’t you here that day?”

I shake my head. “I was here. I was freaking out that you didn’t show up. I found out later that Kegan severed the link between us on ResConnect.”

That makes Jay laugh. “Damn it, Kegan!”

“I mean, you can’t be that mad at Kegan. He’s the one who placed me in your room in the first place.”

“Yeah, but only because I had my mom call the school and unenroll me that morning so my room would be vacant when you went to Kegan looking for a room.”

I frown. So Jay is the one who masterminded me ending up in his room in the first place? “None of this makes sense.”

Grinning, he shakes his head. “Not a lick of sense. But here we are.”

“I’m realizing that almost everything that’s happened to me since I started school was because of you .”

“No. Only since October 29. The day we met. And you can’t be mad. I masterminded all those things so you could save my life.”

I shake my head. “Oh, I’m not mad. Okay another question ... what’s 58008? From the note you left me, and your secret Keanu Instagram account?”

He looks at me like I should know this. “58008 is boobs upside down on a calculator.”

I snort. Jay always seemed wise and mature, but he’s still a teenage boy. Or he was ... until yesterday. “Why didn’t you find another way to tell me you were okay? You let me think you were dead.”

“I couldn’t tell you. You didn’t know me when I went into hiding, remember? And I was practically in witness protection—the cops were monitoring all my communication. But I did intend to convince them to let me contact you once we passed the day we met on your timeline. But ...” His voice trails off. He has an intense look in his eyes. Is he always like this in person? Like ... there’s more Jay in this person than should be possible. He’s filling all my senses. He’s here .

“But what?” I ask.

He runs his hand over my skin. “Remember all those movies, with all those time anomalies? Like time machines, and time loops, and all that other stuff. I had months to think, and I decided that our anomaly was the best one. I didn’t want to do anything that could mess up what we had. I had to wait for you. Just like Keanu Reeves had to wait for the lady from Speed in that bonkers Lake House movie.”

I smile. “Sandra Bullock. Keanu Reeves was also in Speed . Why don’t we call him ‘the guy from Speed ’?”

“Because he’s Keanu Reeves.”

Good point. “So, what happens now?”

He sighs, staring up at the ceiling. “A lot happens. Helen found me a lawyer to help me officially come out of hiding. Technically, I may be charged with mischief for faking my death, but since some police were aware of it, that seems unlikely. I was able to claim my trust even though I’m not technically enrolled in the school anymore, because they agreed being afraid for my life was a good extenuating circumstance. I am going to reenroll, though, and figure out what to do about the months I missed. I’ll have to figure out how to be around people again. And I really want a burrito. And good pizza. I love my mom’s cooking, but I’m ready for something other than desi food.” He looks back at me. “Why is there no shawarma in Alderville? I did try that roast beef and gouda sandwich on sourdough from that tea shop you told me about. Life changing.”

“Bennington’s,” I say. It’s my favorite restaurant in Alderville. This is all so ... strange. And amazing.

He nods. “We should go together one day.”

I don’t say anything to that. I don’t know what to say. Can we just ... fall into a relationship? I mean, now he’s here with me, and I know without a doubt that I’m in love with him. But ... we’ve been apart so long—for him, at least. He needs to adjust to living in the world again.

We stare at each other for several long seconds. There are only inches between us, and I have so much more I want to say, but I don’t know how.

“I thought about you a lot while I was waiting,” he says quietly. “First a week went by ... then a month, then a few months ... it was ... surreal. I felt like maybe I imagined it all. Like I imagined you. I reread those chats so many times. Then, to feel closer to you, I started reading all those mystery books you love. Ironically, with your mother’s help, I didn’t let myself forget you. But it’s been a long time.”

It had been about a week and a half for me. But five months for him.

“University has, as a whole, been hell for me,” he continues. “Now I realize it’s because people were trying to kill me. And others were trying to bully me to make me drop out. I expected to make amazing friends and connect with cool people. But I never felt really happy, really comfortable , until you showed up on my ResConnect. You were like ... this illusion. This weird, brilliant, octopus-obsessed mirage.”

“Weird?”

He leans forward and kisses me briefly. “Weird in the best possible way. But you were always ahead of me. Always out of reach. I didn’t mind waiting to catch up to you.”

“I’m not out of reach anymore.”

He hugs me tighter to him. “No, you’re not. We’re both here now.”

“And I don’t even have a fake mustache like I did the last time you saw me.”

“Which is good,” he says. “Because I don’t want to kiss mustache glue.” He leans forward and kisses me, and then his lips trail down my neck. “Wow, you taste delicious. You should know ... I think I’m in love with you, Aleeza.”

“That’s what you wrote on the watercolor octopus,” I say. His lips are still on my neck.

He chuckles. “So I did. It’s true.”

“How can you be in love with someone you’ve never met?”

“We have met. Many, many times.” He kisses my lips again, like he can’t stop.

“Just so you know,” I say when he pulls away, “I’m definitely in love with you. I’m so glad you caught up with me.”

“Me too.” He kisses me again. And I feel like I always knew that this is how it would end.