A Chance for Redemption

"Did you forget who you're talking to?" asked Barry with a subtle laugh. "You still have three more moments to do over. And guess what?"

"What?"

"We just arrived at moment number three. And this time, you don't want to wait until your junior year to start talking to her."

I shook my head. "It wouldn't do any good," I replied angrily. "Don't you think I would've tried if she was available? She had a boyfriend, Tony, during those early years of college until she became single during junior year. Not that it was good from what I heard. Tony was a dickhead."

"Then I guess you're just going to have to get in there before Tony can," suggested Barry.

"But how am I supposed to time that? How do I know when Tony comes into the picture?"

Barry grinned. "Don't you worry about timing. Leave that to me. Just don't drag your feet this time until junior year." He snapped his fingers. "Don't fuck it up this time, Romeo."

Before I could so much as get out a response, I was back in time once more. I landed on my feet in the same lecture hall where I took the midterm. Looking around the room, I noticed the same faces from before, including the perfectly oval-shaped one that I had just described to Barry. She noticed my attention and smiled shyly, holding eye contact for just a moment too long before she looked away in embarrassment. I felt my heart stab at receiving those affections once again, innocent as they might be. It had been a long time since Nicole looked at me with those vulnerable eyes. I'd almost forgotten what it was like and how powerful it was.

I didn't figure out the date until the professor at the front of the class started speaking. "Okay, folks, that wraps up today's class. Now I know you're all anxious to see how you did on last week's midterm. I have the results posted up here by the podium. You can see your grade by your student ID number. If you have any questions, please let me know during office hours."

There was a slow and then a sudden rush to see the grades. Since I already knew I passed thanks to Barry, I took my time gathering my things and waited for the rest of the class to see their scores. Many of the faces were jubilant at having passed. Several of them though would probably soon drop the class. Once the room had thinned out, I made my way up to the podium and searched for my student number. It took me a moment longer to remember it, having to look through a decade's worth of memories, but I saw the final number just like Barry said—92 percent.

"I really did ace it," I muttered out loud. "Barry wasn't shitting me."

"Excuse me, you aced the midterm?" came a soft voice from behind me. I spun around and found myself looking into my favorite pair of honey-brown eyes. I felt goosebumps all over my body at being this close to Nicole again, and I couldn't help that I stammered in my response.

"Sorry," she said with a laugh. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you. I just heard you say something out loud, and it made me remember how badly I suck in this class."

I managed a smile. "Define suck. How bad was your midterm?"

Nicole's cheek flinched. "Does a 78 qualify as sucking?"

"Not at all," I replied with a chuckle. "That sounds like getting by just swimmingly if you would look at my other grades."

Nicole giggled, a wonderful sound that couldn't help but make me focus in on her lovely features. "Yeah, unfortunately, my parents don't quite see it that way. If I had gotten a 78 in high school, I probably would've been grounded for a week."

I laughed along with her, trying to picture her parent's faces again. Her mother was always a ballbuster of the highest order. She fit every mother-in-law joke that was ever written. I suspect she never thought I was good enough for Nicole, and perhaps she was right, but it didn't keep her from sparing any jokes at my expense. Her father was decent enough but always checked out. He cared more about what game was on than what the rest of the family was doing. A disciplinarian for sure, but only when the Steelers weren't playing.

At that point, I realized I hadn't responded to Nicole's last statement. I could hardly tell her I already knew what her parents' reaction would be so I picked safer ground for my response.

"Maybe you just need a tutor or something?" I replied. "A little bit of work could easily bring that grade up another letter."

Nicole smiled like she'd just been asked to prom. I knew what was going to come out of her mouth before she even opened it. "So maybe I can find someone to tutor me. Maybe someone who aced the midterm, something like that?"

I grinned. "It's just one midterm though. Maybe I'm a crappy student all around and I'll only bring your grades down instead of up?"

Nicole laughed and reached out to touch my arm. "Please? I'd really appreciate the help. I don't really have any friends in this class, and I know you know the material. Would you do it for me?"

Back then, I would have crossed the ocean using a cardboard box if Nicole asked me to. There wasn't any way I could resist that smile or the soft touch of her hand. Things were so much easier between us back in college. None of the other problems of our relationship had developed yet.

"Oh, come on," she persisted. "You have to get coffee some time right? What if we grab coffee together? I'll even pay."

I started to chuckle. "You don't have to do that honestly."

She gave me a hopeful look. "Does that mean you'll say yes?"

"Well, how am I going to be your tutor if I don't even know your name?" I asked with an easy smile on my lips.

She lit up like a Christmas tree. "Nicole Damico," she said while extending her hand. "Freshman."

"Derek Warren," I replied, shaking her hand in return and letting our fingers touch for just a second too long. "Freshman too."

"Here, let me get your number," she said while fishing into her purse for her phone. We exchanged contact information before giving each other a semi-awkward goodbye. I found myself walking out of the lecture hall with a prominent grin on my lips and it definitely wasn't because of the midterm.

I had to wait two days before Nicole and I were able to get together for that coffee. The strangest part about the whole thing was that I was able to relive my life at that time for those few days without Barry bringing me back. Once again, I played my vintage Xbox 360 with my roommate Blake, ate bad-tasting cafeteria food at the dining hall, and even got the chance to hang out with friends I hadn't seen in nearly a decade.

The entire time I was with them though, I thought about Nicole. In this sequence, I'd met her more than a year and a half before my first timeline. Originally, she dated her ex, Tony, for most of her second freshman semester and all of sophomore year before they finally split up when we were juniors. We only ended up being introduced to each other by accident, thanks to a mutual friend when we both happened to be at the same party. Of course, the introduction was only cursory at that point. I knew who she was and she remembered me from that freshman class. The timing couldn't have been better—she was finally over Tony and I'd thought she was cute for years.

Now though, I had the chance to change all of that and that thought was prominent in my brain as I stepped into that coffee shop.

She saw me immediately and waved to get my attention. She looked stunning as always, wearing a simple gray shirt with the name of our university blazoned across the front and a tight pair of dark blue jeans. Even dressed down, she could still make my heart beat faster without even trying.

"Hey, Derek, you made it," she said with a warm smile as she waved a second cup of coffee in front of my face. "This is for you."

I took a sip and made a satisfied face. "That's just the way I like it. How'd you know?"

She shrugged and gave me a toothy grin. "Intuition, I guess."

Inwardly, I wondered if there was some cosmic sense of irony playing out here. In our original life, Nicole had made me countless cups of coffee. She knew I liked it with a heavy splash of creamer and two sugars. This Nicole would have no way of knowing that just yet, but I had to wonder if the universe was having a joke at my expense.

"So what did you want to study? Any chapter in particular?" I asked, waving my textbook before setting it down on the table.

Nicole looked embarrassed. "You know, I was thinking about it, and I'm not sure how much studying we should do right now. I mean, the next exam isn't for another three weeks, and it'll probably be on material we haven't learned yet. It might be premature to start studying just yet."

I made a disappointed face. "Oh, I see," I said.

"Anyway, let's just talk a little," said Nicole, putting her hand on my wrist after seeing my disappointment. "Besides, we don't always have to study, right?" She put her book away and rested her chin on both hands.

"I suppose we can take a break," I said while cracking a smile. "All this studying has made me thirsty."

I took a drink of my coffee and thankfully, Nicole found my poor attempt at humor funny. She started to giggle but kept her eyes trained on me. "So tell me a little about you, Derek. Where are you from?"

I told her all about my life, my background, my hometown, and my family. I even told her about my father, who had been dead for three years at this point. Nicole nearly teared up as well when I told her about my last conversation with him. I realized how extraordinary it was that I told her, nearly a stranger at that point in my life, about such an intimate topic. But that's how talking with Nicole had always been—she had a habit of making you feel comfortable enough to talk about anything.

"At least he had you in his last moments," she said consolingly. "That had to help when it came to processing it."

"Yeah, I almost screwed that one up big time," I said, knowing she wouldn't get the reference. We eventually drifted back to lighter topics and she told me all about her life. I knew she had two sisters, one older and one younger. She told me about her parents including her mother, the same one I never really got along with. Her hometown was only about an hour from mine, and I also knew she was currently single.

"I mean not by choice or anything," said a flustered Nicole as she stammered through her answer. "I just haven't met the right person yet. My cousin, Melissa, wants to introduce me to this guy in her class, Tony. She's a sophomore here, and she says he's really nice but I don't know about it. I know she's just trying to help but the last thing I want is to get set up on a blind date."

"What do you want?" I asked, finally seeing the path that led her to Tony.

Nicole smiled coyly. "I just want to meet someone the regular way. Like through class or something." She left her statement dramatically open but it wasn't hard to tell by the way she was looking at me that she was feeling me out.

"I like that," I replied. "I'd always hoped I'd meet someone nice through class too."

Nicole rewarded me with a beaming smile and the rest of that coffee date flew by as we talked about our common interests and our lives up until that point. It went so well that we did it again two days later. On the third date, we went to Movie Night, a sponsored event at the student center every Tuesday evening. The flick was some comedy with Will Ferrell but at that point, I couldn't care less what was on the screen. The only thing I wanted to watch was Nicole's eyes.

She must have felt the same way because we sat in the back part of the student center by ourselves. Twenty minutes into the movie, neither of us were paying attention to it any longer. Those honey-brown eyes were focused on me, and it was clear we both wanted the same thing.

I remembered our first kiss from our original timeline. We'd both been drinking that night and it was sloppy and a little forced. The same adjectives could be carried over for the rest of our relationship.

The second time around, I did things a little better. Neither one of us had been drinking that night but we were intoxicated on each other. Nicole's lips parted slightly when she saw me coming in and her eyes closed in anticipation. The moment my lips touched hers, I knew I never wanted to kiss another pair of lips for the rest of my life. Hers were so soft and tender, inviting yet chaste at the same time. I got the impression she hadn't done much kissing at that point in her life, a different and more innocent version of the junior year Nicole I met in my original life.

She supplemented inexperience for enthusiasm and I truly had no complaints. My tongue danced with hers like we'd been doing it for a lifetime and when I pulled away, I saw nothing but adoration in her eyes.

"Can we do that again?" she whispered causing both of us to laugh.

We spent more time lip-locked than we did watching the movie that night, and for the first time in a long while, I was truly happy once more.

For the next couple weeks, Nicole and I were nearly inseparable. After having that first kiss, the proverbial floodgates opened completely. We did everything in our power to be alone together, and that often involved the total removal of clothing. That didn't mean that we went all the way just yet though. In our original timeline, sex with Nicole was always enjoyable and frequent but in this one, she still had her virginity. That meant we did a lot of kissing, petting, and rubbing together but we never actually had penetration (at least not yet).

One evening I was able to round up enough blood plasma money in order to afford to take Nicole to a nice place to eat. I already knew that she loved Japanese food from all the years we spent together, and there was a really upscale hibachi place in the city we lived in. It nearly broke the bank when I got the final check but by the end of the night, the only place that Nicole wanted to look was in my eyes.

Right before we left, she excused herself to go to the restroom while I looked around the now empty table that surrounded the grill.

"Having fun?"

I jumped at the shock of hearing such a close voice and turned to see Barry looking at me. He was dressed as a busser this time around, and he set a tray of dirty dishes on the counter while he sat down next to me.

"You scared the shit out of me," I said before looking him over. "Your wardrobe selections keep going worse if you ask me."

Barry laughed. "I wouldn't stick out so bad here with this little uniform on. But enough about me. How's it going by the way?"

I swallowed heavily before a small smile filled my lips. "It's going really good. Great, actually. Getting a chance to relive these days is nothing short of incredible. It feels so much better being with Nicole this time than in my original life."

"That's because you made the right move in dating her while you were both freshmen," he explained. "In your original timeline, you and Nicole got together after a few sloppy dates and house parties. This time around, you did it in a much more pure way. She also wasn't jaded by her relationship with Tony and more willing to invest in this relationship with you without the fear of getting hurt."

"I feel like there's got to be a catch somewhere in all of that," I said. "Is it truly this easy? Nicole and I had our share of problems so I'm waiting for this fun ride to turn sour at some point."

Barry patted my shoulder. "We still have two more moments to redo so we'll get to those. But for now, there's no catch. You've made the right decision and she's infatuated with you. If we're being honest, at this very moment she's looking in the mirror in the bathroom, and she fully intends to take you back to her empty apartment and lose her virginity to you."

I gulped heavily. "Tonight? Her first time having sex will be with me? Right now?"

Barry laughed and then nodded. "Not right this second but in an hour or so. There's no Tony in this timeline. He was her first in your real life but they were never introduced by her cousin because she was already seeing you. Which means, by the way, that you better be ready for tonight. Be patient and gentle with her. Also, try to last longer than few minutes, okay?"

I let that subtle shade pass while I remembered just how sexy Nicole could be in the bedroom. For some reason, the image I had in my mind was a slightly more vulnerable version of her on the cusp of losing her virginity. In that instant, my pants became so much tighter. It wasn't just at the thought of having sex but at crossing the final intimacy barrier with a woman that I was falling in love with all over again.

"Wait a minute," I said with a panicked look forming on my face. "You're not going to pull me back to real life now, are you?"

Barry tilted his head back and forth as if he were truly contemplating it. "Well, technically your job here is done. You did what you were supposed to do. So I really could bring you back now."

I grabbed his sleeve in desperation. "Please, Barry, let me stay. At least until morning? Come on, man, I'll do anything."

Barry rubbed his chin. "I suppose I can let you stay the night. You're a little rough around the edges but you're a good person, Derek." He patted my shoulder. "Have fun tonight."

Barry got up from the table and took his tray with him. He looked back suddenly. "And remember—be gentle!"

I was still grinning by the time that Nicole got back to the table.

"What are you smiling about?" she asked as her hand sought out mine.

I looked deeply into her eyes, seeing the emotion she obviously felt for me. I squeezed her hand. "Nothing at all. Just really happy that I met you."

Nicole beamed with a smile before she leaned forward to kiss me. "So listen, I'm not ready to call it a night yet. Do you want to come back to my apartment?" There was a hint of mischief in her eyes that caused some twitching in my pants.

"I'd love to."

The ten minutes it took to walk back to her apartment were quite possibly the longest in human history. The funny thing was that we both knew what was going to happen when we got there but neither of us was ready to admit it out loud to the other just yet. On the way home, Nicole clutched my arm as we walked, suggesting she just wanted to curl up in her bed and watch a movie while I agreed without asking any questions. To do so was to break the majesty of the situation and I wasn't about to do that.

No sooner was the door closed inside her apartment than I had Nicole pressed against the wall. My sweet and vulnerable virgin disappeared temporarily while her lips attacked mine, passion consuming us beyond any rational thoughts. Our lips ached from the intensity of our kissing, and when they needed a break, I traveled lower and nibbled at her neck while she moaned at the feeling.

"I love the way your lips feel on me," she whispered in a breathless tone that had me aching for relief.

"I've wanted to do this all night," I said in-between kisses. "You looked so gorgeous tonight that it was a struggle just to be in public without touching you."

Nicole grinned. "We're not in public anymore, Derek. So what exactly would you like to do?"

I gulped. "Still want to watch that movie?"

She shook her head while maintaining that smile. "I don't know how much movie-watching we'll be able to do with the plans I have for you."

With those words, she took me by the hand and led me to her bedroom. She locked the bedroom door behind us and pushed me on the bed teasingly. Nicole wasn't very tall so her standing was only barely higher than me sitting but it was one facet about her that I always found adorable.

Adorable wasn't the way to describe the way she was dressed tonight though. The only word that could do her justice right now was sexy. Since it had been warming up for spring, she was wearing a black dress that went just below the knee and was colored by floral print across the entire breadth of it. It was chaste enough in the front to not show too much but enticing enough to hint at what was underneath. Over top of it, she wore a simple blue jean jacket that was never buttoned. Her long dark hair was loose and flowing and the look in her honey-brown eyes was one of heat.