Time Loops & Meet Cutes

by Jackie Lau

Today is the longest day of the year, the summer solstice,

I wonder if anyone else is stuck in this loop with us?”

oh no what if one of them escapes and the other doesn't and then she doesn't remember her anymore oh that would be so sad and lonely. man I get maudlin when I'm tired.

I got a speech about how celebrating your birthday when you’re over twenty-five is childish and embarrassing.”

fuck that guy

the great thing about a time loop is that I can eat the same food in my apartment over and over again.

But a few hours later, I wonder if that conversation with my sister will help get me out of the loop.

what else can I doooooo 🎵🎶

I also teach myself to crochet—something

crochet=piano? lol love the Groundhog Day beats

it’s like my sister—my own sister—is a non-player character in my life, a character fully run by the game’s software. Avery is the only other real player.

“The Corktown Hefeweizen.” I take a tentative sip. The beer is a bit cloudy and has a slightly odd taste—I don’t have the words to describe it—but it quickly grows on me. “I like it.”

I know right? hefeweizen is better than IPA!

I add Cam’s number to my contacts,

memorize it too!!

Avery isn’t here, as expected. It’s June 20. Again.

ah dare. I was hopeful. I hope she didn't smother him lol

“It’s always my period.”

😱

“If I knew how much longer the loop would last, it would be easier to enjoy. Like, another twenty or thirty days? Fine. I’d spend it watching shows and eating good food and trying different hair colors. But when you worry it might go on forever, it’s hard to live in the moment.”

this is kind of what the pandemic felt like. there were actually some really great things about it that I should have appreciated more but it was really hard to at the time lol

I seem to think that last time you had the Corktown.”

ahhh he IS remembering! just, like, impressions, not full memories

He never remembers my name, though. I’ve now told him my name forty-seven times. He does remember my preferred beer and how to kiss me. Once he learned those things, he never forgot them, even if he doesn’t have clear memories of who I am.

“It’s the longest day of the year,” Cam says. He doesn’t realize how right he is,

The woman said that after the thirtieth time, it simply ended, and it never happened again. She thinks it was supposed to repeat for a fixed number of days.

He knows exactly what we were up to, and if he’d remember tomorrow, the embarrassment might cause me to flee.

I'm kind of concerned that Cam i's apparently the kind of guy that sleeps with a girl he just met in his work office lol. kinda sketchy.

There’s snow on the ground.

I have the strangest sense that I’ve disappointed her.

you didn't tell her she looks familiar

A second date. We’ve never had a proper second date before.

don’t want him to think that I was stalking him,

I think you should tell him. he believed you in the loop. but i guess you had proof then.

he cut raw meat on the same cutting board as the vegetables for the salad.”

man, Joe just gets worse and worse lol