9:58 PM It was the same rainy night as had been for the past 1000 times. I know there will be a knock on the door in just about two minutes from now. It is supposed to happen and yet here I was pacing in my living room. I know that person shall come barging through my front door. I have lived this moment so many times but I am still getting butterflies in my stomach. I have this universe to roam and here I am trying to live this moment again and again hoping in some version the outcome is different. Maybe I should end it. 10:00:43PM There is that knock on the door, I know who is there. I want to jump from my chair and rush to open the door, but I won’t do that. I will take my time to not give the impression that I was waiting for the arrival. There is the second knock, I will make a small announcement ask to spare a min, just to give an impression that I was sleeping and the noise woke me up. 10:01 PM I pretended to drag myself to the door and giving the best impression of being woken up abruptly. I opened the door. There she is standing perturbed, all drenched in rain. Her soaked pink dress sticking to her body and I can’t control myself but notice her shape and her natural curves. Just like that, the thought of ending this time loop vanished. A sudden surge of grabbing and kissing her rushed through my mind. Like I was only welcoming her home after a tiresome working day. I can’t do that because for her we are still strangers unlike me who knows she is going to hug me tightly just about any moment now. She took few steps inside, stood very close to me waited for a second. I was ready, I was ready to be hugged tightly for the 1000th of the time. She wrapped her arms around me and pressed me deeply. I have felt her body so many times and each time it was a new feeling. She was crying despite her best effort to hide that I could still feel her. We kept standing, wrapped onto each other for a minute. 10:02 PM I felt her sobbing heartbeat and out of nowhere I said to her – “Don’t cry everything will be alright”. “Why did I do that” – thought to myself. In all of these nights, I have always pretended to be the stranger who loves her just never had the guts to admit it. Not this time, this night was going to be different I could feel that. She wiped her tears and looked at me with a question in her eyes. I was in uncharted waters now, didn’t know what was going to happen next. She looked at me and said – “What do you mean everything will be alright? How do you know what happened?” I was speechless, I stuttered – “I … I mean I thought …”. She said – “I don’t know why I am here, I just thought I want to be with you right now, my parents met an accident.” I thought – “Ahh! That’s something I know, maybe I can still steer the night to its usual routine.” I said – “Don’t worry they will be fine” She said – “you are not a good liar” and hugged me tightly again. I knew they will not be seeing the light of day, but I can’t break her heart. “I don’t want you to say anything, just be with me” – she whispered I was getting anxious now, this is not how the night usually goes, by this time she should be telling me that she knew that I glanced at her at every possible occasion but when she noticed I would flee. I held her, not saying anything just absorbing the moment, but could take the silence anymore. 10:04 PM “So, you always knew.” – I blurted “Yes, I knew” – She replied with her face buried in my chest. “I am sorry for your parents. I wish I could do something.” – I said. She gave me a puzzled look. I don’t know why, but I thought I should tell her that she won’t see her parents in the morning. Maybe it's time to give a new direction to this night and I did that. “Maybe I could do something about them” – I said. You fool – I cursed myself, why did I have to say that. Her eyebrows squirmed and that puzzled look became inquisitive. “What do you mean you could do something about them?” – she said I looked into her eyes and said - “There might be a chance you won’t see them in the morning. They will be no more.” She loosened her grip on me and took a step back. “How can you say something like this? I thought I could come to you and have some peace. How are you so sure I won’t see them in the morning, you don’t even know what has happened.” – she said. I took a deep breath and narrated everything that happened to her parents like it was an eyewitness account. I told her why it was nobody’s fault neither her father’s nor the truck drivers who crashed into their car. I tried to convince her how I have lived every possible scenario but couldn’t save them in any of them. I tried to explain to her how I could do that. I tried to convince her by showing things that I stole, which she thought had mysteriously disappeared. A nose pin, an ear stud even an eraser which she had when she was in school. I was risking everything, what would she think of me, some lunatic. I tried hard to make her believe that I can travel through time. She stood there listening to everything, looking at me in disbelief. 10:15 PM After a minute of silence, which felt like an eternity, she said- “My parents won’t make it through the night?” I nodded. “And you say you can prevent this.” – she continued. I nodded again. “So why aren’t you? Don’t you love me? It seems like you are stalking me forever.” “Tell me, has this happened before, this night, me and you, here standing and talking.” – She shouted. “Yes” – I said in a fearful voice I didn’t know what was going to happen next, never had the guts to live this scenario before. “Exactly how many times and how many times have you been manipulating me, taking advantage of me?” – She said, her voice became angrier. “1000 times and I have never taken advantage of you, not even once” – I said. I think she felt the disappointment in my voice. “Come here you fool!” – she said and hugged me again. “We have been doing this for 1000 nights. What happens at dawn?” – she asked with an astonished look. “It starts all over again.” – I replied. “But why to repeat it over and over, why not just let it flow?” - she asked “Because I don’t want to lose you” – I said. “So, you keep living this, with utter disregard towards my feelings.” – She said in a firm voice. I kept silent. She raised herself on her toes and kissed me. I got confused, didn’t know what to do. She grabbed my hands, which until then were firmly apart from each other taking every precaution to not touch her, and placed them on her rear. She did the same with mine and started pressing them towards herself. I still didn’t know what to make of it, but said to myself, what the hell just go with the flow. Gradually both of us were pressed against each other, she was still on her toes. I was hard and she could feel it. She slipped her right hand between us and felt my organ in its full length, which made me even harder. I felt the light rubbings over my underpants. My eyes rolled over or at least I thought they did. I press my mouth hardly over her, the gentle kiss turned into a passionate lip lock. I gently caressed her tongue with mine just to check if she was willing to be part of this pleasure. She responded with the same enthusiasm. We played with our tongues for few seconds with our eyes closed and lips locked. It was time for me to show some courage. I picked her up, she wrapped her legs around my waist and I held her butts to support her weight. I took a sneak look around and found my kitchen island top empty. Took 5 steps and gently placed her on top of the island. We looked at each other, she realized her grip on me and placed her had hands on the cold granite of the island top. Meanwhile, I stole a kiss from her and then started moving downwards gently biting her here and there. Her drenched dress was a bit difficult to handle but I carried on until I reached her thighs. I glanced for her permission, kept raising her dress until I could see her black lingerie. She bit her lower lip and gave me a mischievous smile. My inhibitions went away and I started kissing her, with each kiss I went deeper. I could hear her soft moans clearly and wondered if the neighbors could hear it as well. Eventually, I planted my lips on her panty which was all wet. I felt her lips under the fabric and started biting them gently. “Take me to your room.”- She said. I picked her up in my arms, she grabbed some tissues placed nearby wiped my mouth, and kissed me again. I took her to the room and laid on the bed softly and started reaching for her breasts. “Take me, do what you want, just save my parents.” – she whispered A chill ran down my spine, my hands froze. I slowly tore away my face from her bosom and looked at her. Her closed eyes and clinched eyebrows said everything. I hurriedly picked myself up and sat at the other side of the bed feeling like an unwelcome guest. She had a single tear rolling down her left eye, upon realizing what was going on she crouched her knees and lay her sobbing face over them. I gathered my mental strength approached and asked her to stop crying and sit beside me. She sat up and turned her face away from me. There was an awkward silence between us. Then she looked at me with a straight face and said – “What should I give you to help my parents? You want me! You want my body, here I am do what you want. Just save them.” I was so ashamed. I couldn’t look at her and with my eyes staring at her feet I said – “I love you and I don’t want to have you this way.” “Huh, some love.” She shrugged off. “People would do anything for each other when they are in love, I don’t know what kind of love you believe in, which justifies stalking a person but not helping her in need”, she said. Her angry face made those words hurt even more. “There is a price to pay for everything.” My meek voice was hardly audible to me but she heard it well. “I don’t care, I am ready to pay any price, and if you love me, you would do it.” The firm resolve of her voice sounded like an ultimatum. “Really, any price?” – my tone got serious. “Yes, any anything” – she said firmly, her back straightened, her breasts wiggled and her posture suggested that I can do whatever I wanted with her. I looked at her and said - “I wish I had more such nights to spend with you.” I brought my wrist closer to my lips and murmured – “Code 555. Exit Loop. Resume 10A23 stream.” “It’s Done!” I said to her. “What? They will be saved?” She exclaimed and I nodded. I kept my gaze focused on her face. She was so happy. “Thank You! Thank You!” “God, I love you so much!” She couldn’t contain her excitement. Very quickly her excitement turned to a skeptical look because she didn’t find the same excitement in me or maybe because there was no price tag attached to what just happened. I was sitting there staring at her with teary eyes. “No!” “No! No! No!” She leaped and hugged me. “No! No! not this, that’s too much to pay.” I wrapped my arms around her. “I am sorry I was being selfish should have done this sooner.” It’s my guess, at that moment, she realized the price was too high for to me pay. She locked her lips onto mine, we kept sitting there wrapped and locked onto each other for about a minute. Thereafter the reality morphed and gradually became transparent, unfazed by this development we kept looking at each other until everything was dissolved, a new timeline established and I vanished into thin air.