22. Talia
Talia
Talia needed to talk to someone about the kiss, but then she’d have to explain the watch.
She also realized again that there was no one she was close enough to these days anyway.
Whenever her old friends from grad school had wanted to grab drinks after work, she hadn’t been able to, because the end of the workday for them was only two-thirds through a regular workday for her.
If they wanted to get together on the weekends for a hike or a day trip to Napa for wine tasting, that was out, too.
Talia’s weekends were spent at Ideal Life, other than Sunday Lunch with Sam.
She knew she owed Libby a call back, but it was morning here in California, which meant the middle of the night in Japan. So Talia reached out to the only other person she could talk to about this—her mom.
This was suboptimal because (a) Vera was going to be over the moon about the kiss, and her hopes and dreams would probably run off in the complete opposite direction of where Talia needed things to go, and (b) Vera had an aqua aerobics class at the senior center this morning.
Which is how Talia found herself in the shallow end of an indoor pool with a bunch of sixty-to-eighty-year-olds.
“Ladies! So great to see you bright and early!” the perky blond coach, Didi, said from the pool deck. “And it looks like Vera has brought a special guest to Aquarobics today.”
Vera beamed. “This is my oldest, Talia. She’s the CEO of a very successful startup that’s about to be bought by Omni.”
“Ooh!”
“My goodness!”
“What is an Omni?” the oldest of the women asked.
“It’s a very big technology company, dear,” Vera said. “Ask your grandkids. I’m sure they know all about it. Talia is going to be famous soon.”
“Oh god, Mom.” Talia considered sinking down into the bottom of the pool and not coming back up until Aquarobics was over.
“What?” Vera said. “You’re such a smart and accomplished person—you should be proud. Men brag all the time and think nothing of it. Women should shout their achievements, too. Right, everyone?”
“Your mother is right, sweetheart.”
“We are so proud of you, and we just met you!”
“Are you single?” the oldest woman asked. “My grandson is a very nice boy, and—”
“Okay, ladies,” Didi said from the pool deck. “I know we all love to chitchat, but we’re here to do some aquarobics, right?”
Talia had never been more grateful for a phys ed instructor in her life.
“Let’s begin with some gentle water stretches to wake up our muscles.”
The group fell into what must have been their standard formation, with three women in each row. Talia and Vera were in the back.
“Arms up, ladies. Let’s salute the sun.”
There was a lot of splashing as everyone raised their arms. Didi turned on a portable speaker, and slow instrumental music began to play.
The women all swayed from left to right, not in unison, but they tried.
Talia had been worried about keeping up because she’d never done a pool calisthenics class before, but it was apparent now that wouldn’t be a problem.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Vera asked, as Didi led them through some arm rotations.
“Er…” Talia didn’t want to shout, so she lowered her arms into the water and inched closer to her mom.
“Talia, keep those arms up,” Didi said. “You’re not going to quit on us so early, are you?”
The women in the two rows in front turned to look at Talia.
“You can do it, dear.”
“If you get tired, just think about something else to distract your mind.”
“Embrace the burn,” the oldest of the women growled with an intensity that made Talia yank her arms up from the water and straight out to her sides again.
“Wow, zealous crowd,” Talia said under her breath.
Vera snorted. “You have no idea.”
After the warm-up, Didi told them to march in place. “Lift your knees up if you can!” The water in the pool sloshed against the sides.
Talia took the opportunity to march over to Vera, keeping her knees high so Didi couldn’t find any fault to call her out again.
“Something happened yesterday,” Talia said.
Vera arched a brow. “Something good or something bad?”
Talia rubbed her face with her hands, forgetting that they were wet. She flinched as chlorine got in her eyes.
“Something bad… I kissed Sam.”
“Hallelujah!” Vera yelled, practically leaping out of the water.
All of the women turned again to look at them.
“Focus, ladies,” Didi said. She gave Talia the side-eye, no longer as welcoming about the miscreant addition to her class.
Sorry, sorry, Talia mouthed.
Vera continued marching in place but couldn’t wipe the grin off her face. “It’s finally happening! I always knew you two were perfect for each other. Tell me everything—where did it happen, how did it happen, and when am I getting beautiful grandbabies?”
“Ugh, Mom, no grandbabies because it was a mistake and I undid it all.”
“What?”
Talia looked around. The other women were clearly trying to eavesdrop, although she was pretty sure they couldn’t hear her over the churning of the water.
But then she remembered, So what? She might not have the watch right now (she hadn’t known if it was waterproof), but the instant class was over, Talia could go to the locker room and rewind all this. None of the women would remember anything Talia said.
“All right, it’s Aqua Zumba time!” Didi declared as she switched to a new playlist, this one like salsa music at 0.25x speed. “Let’s move those hips, ladies, and get sultry!”
The women whooped as they started to dance very slowly in the pool.
The movements were languid in real time but felt fast and sexy to them, which put a smile on Talia’s face despite the conversation she was smack in the middle of.
Making people’s lives better was what drove her, and she had a heightened appreciation now for what Didi did with aquarobics.
Vera sashayed with the class, but her attention was all on Talia. “What do you mean you undid it all? And how could kissing Sam be a mistake? You’re destined for each other.”
Talia took a deep breath. “Okay, what I’m about to tell you is going to sound a little nutty, but bear with me. I have a watch that can rewind time.”
Her mom blinked. “I don’t understand what that means. Is this a new Ideal Life product?”
“No, it’s not new technology… I’m not sure it’s tech at all. I have no idea how it works. It just does.”
She explained everything—when the watch had first appeared after an 11:11 p.m. wish, how it allowed her to go back up to twenty-four hours to redo things, and how she’d used it to improve her meeting at Omni and to buy stock before it quintupled.
“But then yesterday, I kissed Sam at his bookstore. He didn’t kiss me back, and I panicked and spun the knob on my watch to undo it, so he doesn’t know, but I can’t forget it. So… what do I do?”
“Oh, baby.” Vera stopped water dancing and hugged Talia. “I don’t understand about the watch, but as for Sam, I’m sure you just caught him off guard. He loves you.”
“He doesn’t, Mom. Not like that. I threw myself at him, and he just went rigid. It was humiliating. And the other thing is, Sam knows about the watch, but he’d made me promise that I would never change his life with it. But now I have. I broke that promise, and I can’t tell him.”
“Are you sure about that? I think Sam would understand.”
Talia shook her head. Maybe he would. But maybe he wouldn’t.
She didn’t want to risk their friendship, and telling him would expose her on two fronts: breaking the promise and making a move on him that he had no interest in reciprocating. Any scientist worth her salt would see that the results of the kissing experiment were negative.
Didi shot both Talia and Vera an I don’t see you Aqua Zumbaing look. Vera immediately started sashaying again. Talia did so with a lot less enthusiasm.
“I guess it is what it is,” Talia said of the whole kissing failure. “Thanks for listening, though. And for believing me about the bizarre watch. It did feel better to think through the situation out loud.”
“Of course, sweetie,” Vera said. “But, um…”
“Yeah?”
Vera puffed out her lips in the kind of frowny smile that moms give their kids when they’re in tough positions and the moms want to—but can’t—help.
“I know you’re usually private and keep your feelings close to your chest. So it’s okay with me if you rewind this conversation once we’re out of the pool.
I’m aware that means I’ll forget about it, and I’ll also lose this really lovely time I got to spend with you.
But you don’t have to feel bad on my account for erasing this, okay? ”
Talia thought of the watch in the locker room. “Rewind this? Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Talia power-water-walked over and hugged her.
From the pool deck, Didi shook her head; she’d given up on Talia as an unteachable student.
Vera squeezed Talia back. “Just one favor, honey.”
“Anything.”
“The next time you decide to rewind, do you mind buying some good stock for your dad and me?”