Like during the terrifying moments after I'd asked her to marry me but before she'd answered, time seemed to slow, to stop. I didn't have any idea how long our act of love continued, how long I slid in and out of her tightness, how long we sweated and groaned, joined at the crotch. At one point she moaned and bucked uncontrollably beneath me, her legs tightening, her fingers scratching, her voice becoming the high-pitched whine I was starting to be familiar with. I continued to buck against her until her orgasm passed, her body relaxed and then I felt my own impending release coming on strong.
"Nina…" I groaned against her sweaty neck, her damp hair.
"Yesss!" she encouraged, thrusting back harder against me. She already knew the signs to look for. "Come for me Bill, come IN me."
It hit me like a freight train, starting in my pubic area and exploding outward like seismic waves from an epicenter. Pure pleasure assaulted me, had its way with me. My hips began to pound more forcefully, with less control. My mouth opened, my head arched backward. And suddenly I was pouring myself into her, feeling spurt after spurt of my hot seed blasting from my body and into hers. It went on and on, much longer than what I considered to be normal. But at last I dropped atop her, spent, exhausted, feeling the cooling wetness our juices, feeling the sharp cold of excited sweat beginning to dry on my flesh.
We kissed softly, just touching tongues, playful kisses. We held each other tightly, my softening cock still nestled in her warmth. Nina looked at me.
"I never knew it could be like that," she said.
"Me either," I answered. "Me either."
I would have expected her to express disbelief with this statement since she knew of my past history. I suppose it sounds phony as hell, what someone would say in the moment after bagging a virgin but before he slipped out the door, never to be seen again. But it wasn't phony. It was the truth and I meant it with all my heart. Nina didn't question it. She knew I spoke the truth, she knew it. She simply pulled me tight to her and kissed me.
"I love you so much Bill," she said, tears from her eyes wetting my face.
"I know Nina," I said, tears of happiness coming from my own eyes. "And I love you."
And so it was Ron who became the first of our Spokane friends or relatives to find out officially that Nina and I were engaged. She proudly displayed the engagement ring for him as we climbed into the plane for the return trip. He offered congratulations to us both, giving us warm friendly hugs. I was glad that we'd had time to utilize the large Jacuzzi in the hotel room before we left in order to wash the smell of our act of love from our bodies (of course the Jacuzzi itself led to another act of love that was shorter in duration but no less passionate). Though Ron probably suspected what we'd done, after all, he had to know it didn't take three and a half hours to simply eat dinner and propose, I didn't want him to confirm any theories he had by catching a whiff of us in the cramped space of the plane.
It was just after ten-thirty when we lifted off, heading east for Spokane. Nina sat in the back and fell quickly asleep, her soft snores reaching my ears even before we leveled off. Ron and I sat in silence, him monitoring his gauges and instruments, me looking out the side window, seeing the lights of Seattle slipping behind us. We would touch down a little after midnight, be home a little before one. I didn't think that our houses would be darkened when we got there. In fact, I imagined that both the Blackmores and the Stevens were anxiously awaiting the official word on the night's activity.
I was lost in my own thoughts as we flew, thinking of all the things that I'd done since my return from 1999. Had I made the most of my gift? Maybe, maybe not. Had I abused my gift? Definitely, but that was human nature I supposed. Had I chosen my gift wisely when it was offered to me?
I thought long and hard on that one, considering everything that I might have asked for at the moment that Mr. Li enquired as to what my greatest wish was. Had I chosen wisely? Was there anything else I could have said that would have made things easier?
I looked back at my sleeping fiance, at her lovely face, at her gentle form. I had found love because of what I'd said. I thought of Tracy, of my sister still being alive more than a year after she'd been fated to die. Tracy was alive because of what I'd said. I thought of Mike, my loser best friend. Mike was now on a career path, had a girlfriend, had every indicator of developing a normal, happy, productive life. Mike was matured and respectable because of what I'd said.
Sure, I hadn't been able to save the marines in Beirut. I probably wouldn't be able to stop the Persian Gulf War or the Challenger disaster or the Oklahoma City bombing. But what of that? Those things would happen anyway, with or without my interference.
My former life had been filled with stress, irresponsibility, uncertainty, grief, and occasional despair. I would probably not escape all of these things in my new life but I could not believe that they would be as deep seated, as constant. Mr. Li had given me a chance to correct my past mistakes, to put things into a new order, to change fate on a small scale.
Had I chosen wisely?
I'd been feeling stressed that day, the day I encountered him. That was why I said what I did to the old man. In retrospect I had to conclude that it was perhaps the wisest thing I'd ever said.
Epilogue
If Nina and I hadn't been such good friends, if we hadn't been so deeply in love, I don't believe our relationship would have made it through our first few years in Seattle. There was no conflict between us during this time, don't let me lead you to believe there was, but we simply had a very limited amount of time together. We spent our first year there in the college dorms; seeing each other only on nights that I didn't have to work and on the occasional weekend. When we did get to see each other we were usually tired and confined to public places. Nina was carrying twenty-one units, I was carrying eighteen. Our days went by in a haze of lectures, notes, homework, stolen kisses between classes, and the occasional date to a cheap restaurant.
We were drawn closer together during this period by the fact that we were unable to establish any real friendships with other students. Neither of us developed any sense of camaraderie with those that shared our majors. I was majoring in International Business because that was the subject that would prepare me to take the greatest advantage of my pre-knowledge. Unfortunately the only people that majored in this subject, beside myself, were aspiring future businessmen of the type that represented everything I always found distasteful about capitalism. They were all clean-cut, conservative, right wing spouting members of the young republicans. They were the people who would one day make the sorts of decisions that would destroy the lives of thousands and then go on to a three-martini lunch to celebrate. They all wanted to be millionaires by thirty and would stop at nothing to achieve this goal. They were young men and women in the process of selling their souls.
Nina's classmates were of two different varieties. There were the rich elite, those that had had their money handed to them all of their lives, who had gone to private academies and had grown up in the lap of luxury. They were the sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters of plastic surgeons, cardiac surgeons, and family practitioners to the elite. Their snobbery, Nina complained, was so entrenched within their personalities that they wouldn't even talk to you unless you had a last name that they could recognize. The second group was the super-smart nerds, the kids that had damn near aced their SATs but that had been scarred by persecution in grammar and high school. They were the kids that used to have their books knocked out of their hands, that used to be the favorite victims of the Richie Fairviews. They were better than the elite was but not much. Many of them had an inferiority complex a mile high and were so competitive that they were incapable of friendship. Nina spoke sadly of them in her discussions, not even realizing that she had been fated to be one of them.