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“What was she like?”
“Who?”
“The me. On that other world. You said she gave you that terrible costume.”
“Oh,” Tim stretched back, slapping his fries down.
He’d taken her out to some diner near the cave at Happy Harbor. Stephanie had to admit, Rhode Island was nice. The food was greasy, and the sun was shining. She couldn’t ask for much more.
Tim was thinking.
“She was… blonde. Had piercings. Short hair, like in a proper mohawk. Edgy. And don’t make fun. I needed that suit. Aesthetics didn’t really come into it.”
The fact that Tim had gone to describe her physical appearance, despite knowing that the two women had the exact same face, made Stephanie’s eyes narrow. She didn’t care what other her looked like. She cared what she was like. A good person in a world of selfish pricks. It didn’t make sense.
“Hmm. Do you like that?”
Tim appeared to seriously consider the thought, then tugged at a strand of hair that curled halfway down her arm. “Nah. I like you just the way you are.”
She nodded, picking at her food. Tim’s fingers moved to her earlobe, pulling it gently. She moved with it, turning so could kiss his palm. It was a somewhat desperate move, one that was apparent enough to make Tim stand up and slide into the booth seat next to her.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I think I’m jealous. She was able to help you. Me. I… Hmm.”
Tim sighed heavily, then squeezed his arm around her shoulders. He always did that. Pressing her in tight like a weighted blanket.
He tried to explain, “You were all I could think about. Coming home to you. It was nearly driving me mad. One instance of multi-dimensional time hopping is enough, thank you. I didn’t need to do it twice. I’d just come home. I’d just remembered what had been taken from me. From us. Not just Conner and Bart and Cass, but everything. And the powers that be decided to take me away from it. God, I would have gone mad if not for the others.”
“I didn’t even know you’d been taken. I thought… I don’t know what I thought. You weren’t answering your phone. You had all these memories in your head that I’m still missing. What if…”
“She was jealous too, if that makes you feel better. Somehow.”
“What?” Stephanie asked.
Tim swallowed dryly, and took Stephanie’s hand, playing and rubbing with her knuckles. She let him, watching his expressions and every minute change they went through as he spoke.
“All I could blab about to her was you. She kept telling me ‘I’m not your Stephanie, I’m not your girl back home’ but I… well.”
Her eyes widened. “You didn’t do anything, did you?”
He immediately burned red, the tops of ears turning scarlet with embarrassment. “No! But, it was easy to mix the two of you up. Despite the mohawk. A whole world of villains and she was the only one trying to protect people. She just tried to send us home, saying that crap place wasn’t our responsibility, but right at the end, she asked if I was sure. If I really wanted to go.”
“And you said yes.”
He looked at her, eyes bright with honesty. “Of course I did.”
“I bet you broke her heart.”
“What makes you say that?”
“If it had been me - and I suppose in a way it is - I would be distraught. Like, here’s this handsome guy, who only wants to help, and all he can talk or think about is some other girl. Who’s me. But the wrong kind of me. Oh, that would drive me mad.”
Tim paused, then looked down. “Maybe. I think I reminded her of everything she didn’t have. I know my friends get annoyed by how much I talk about you sometimes, but it worked. The moment they realized it was you - her - they realized who she was - you are - to me, it… We were able to get stuff done. This is confusing.”
“It’s not a simple thing,” she soothed. “And… do they get annoyed? By me?”
Tim blinked, as if realizing the implications of his words. “No. God, no. They love you. It’s me they think is annoying. Running my mouth.”
Appetite slowly returning, Stephanie dragged Tim’s food over to their side of the table. She held up a fry for him to take, which he did, smiling cheekily as he chewed. She licked her fingers clean off the salt, and returned to picking at her pizza.
“They love you too,” she said. “Conner and Bart and Cassie. A blind man could see it. It’s a rare thing, you know, to be that loved.”
He nodded, pausing for thought, and sipped through a straw at his soda.
“That’s sweet, Steph. They still find me annoying though.”
“…Well, you are a little bit.”
Tim promptly snorted cola out his nose, much to the amusement of his girlfriend.