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Challenge #3: A Scenario

The Scenario: Your character suspects their husband or partner is having an affair and decides to spy on them. What your character discovers is not what they expected...

It's 2036. Times are changing. Things that were not previously accepted 10, 20 years ago are fast becoming normal, ordinary ways of living. Not that they weren't in the first place. Asexuals are free to express themselves. Positive transgender attitudes has increased. Male/ female equality in the workplace is almost evened out. Naturally, there are some places which you could say are "behind the times", as it always is. 

I am Andie and my partner is somewhat asexual. He told me on the second time we met up with each other. And we enjoy a wonderful but relatively simple companionship. Physical relationships don't particularly matter to me anyway, well not in this wonderful relationship they don't. We are able to enjoy spending time with each other without it getting overly... "touchy- feely". 

We live together in a retro 2000s apartment in London. It's perfectly adequate for our needs (and the needs of our perky pug, Churchill). Cosmo and I (that's his name) get by OK. On the outside, the facade we present couldn't seem to be anything other than perfect. We've been together for just over a year now. 

But lately... 

Cosmo's starting to seem different somewhat. Like when you have a nightmare and wake up, looking around suspiciously. Maybe everything's alright, maybe it's not. How could I know? 

"Andie." He said to me one night over dinner. "I have to leave early tomorrow morning." 

I looked up briefly, curious as a kitten but trying not to show it. "Any particular reason why?"

Cosmo sighed and played with his food. Kinda like a child with a problem he didn't know how to explain. "I was given a big workload today and never got to finish it all."

I kept quiet, nodding slowly, as I steadily made my way through tonight's dinner (Spaghetti, if you're wondering). "They need to go easy on you. Spread the workload out a bit better."

"Yeah..." Cosmo took a sip of vitamin water and ate a little more. Was he ill? Was he mentally okay? I began to think irrationally. Surely it wasn't- 

He couldn't be cheating. We cared for each other as equals, I respected his wishes and decisions, there was nothing outwardly wrong that would cause him to stray. Or, not from my point of view. Some people never gave a good enough reason. 

"Would you like me to clear up?" I offered, hoping it would comfort him a little. He nodded, smiling gratefully, his pewter grey eyes thanking me silently. Now that I noticed it, as I Auto- Washed the dirty dishes, he wasn't talking as much as he normally did. Something had to be eating him up... 

By the next morning, I had resolved to find out what was going on. Cosmo left for work and I began my covert operations. I checked our mail for the past week. We never hid our post from each other, such was the level of trust. Hopping upstairs like a conspirator, I gently opened his bedside drawer and took a look. Nothing out of the ordinary, except- what was that key for? I had never seen it before. True, it was a pretty standard, old- style, nondescript key, but it was on a chain and there nonetheless. Did he have a secret storage facility perhaps? Was it the key to a different home, or someone else's place? My mind ran with worry. 

Today was my day off, so I briefly considered following him to his work, making some kind of excuse if I found him there. But no, that was entirely unreasonable. I had to be more adult about this, more civilised. No matter whether he'd done anything or not, confronting him now was not the tactical thing to do. 

*

When Cosmo came home that evening, he was carrying our favourite Chinese takeaway, and looked a little brighter. "Thought I'd give us a treat," he beamed, setting the food out on the dinner table and inviting me over with a waggle of his fingers. 

This threw me off a little. If he had indeed strayed, would he still be treating me like this? Had his physical or mental problem been resolved? I decided to carefully broach the subject as we ate. 

"You're looking upbeat tonight." I smiled wryly as I took a seat. "Won the lottery have we?"

Cosmo shook his head. "Mmpf," he mumbled through a heroic mouthful of Chow Mein. He swallowed and continued, apparently rather amused. "No, I'm just... Feeling great. Everything's okay, it's all fixed, I'm... fantastic." He grinned like the Cheshire Cat and took another bite. 

I slowly set down my cutlery and leaned towards him. "Okay, come on mister, what's up? You know you can tell me, Cosmo."

His mood sobered up a little. "Not to sound all cheesy, but I really think it's better if I show you." He stifled a chuckle. "Oh God, that sounded really corny. Our life's not a cliched teen movie, is it?"

"No," I frowned slightly, although I wanted to laugh. "We're both grown adults, 23 and-" I stopped, a little niggle weeding itself into prominence in my brain. Had I ever even found out Cosmo's AGE? I couldn't for the life of me remember a time when he'd told me. Why the random brain fart, or did I never even know? "-and however old you are." I finished, waving a hand dismissively. 

Cosmo gave a shouting laugh, leaning back on his chair. "I bet I'm older than you think I am."

I pushed away my finished sweet- and- sour and some half- eaten noodles. "Well I'm too curious and worked up to eat now. How about you show me why you're happy as a pig in shit and we eat the rest of this later?"

"No time like the present," he conceded, amused as ever by the situation. "Get ready then." He disappeared to the bedroom momentarily and came back with "that" key in his hand. Now I was even more curious. 

*

Well I was sort of right. After a lengthy drive in the fully electric car we owned (Powered up by the sun when it was parked outside), we arrived at a storage facility. This was getting stranger by the minute. 

But the key wasn't to the storage container. The company operated a card system for that; it was much more advanced. One card for the small side door and one for the entire sliding door. Cosmo swiftly opened the side door and led me inside. The door shut with a definitive clunk behind us. 

What I was greeted with was definitely not what I had been expecting. I was half wondering if another person would be there to confirm "those" suspicions, or perhaps provide another reason. But no. 

Standing there, harshly illuminated by the overhead container light, was a small collection of those building site porta- loos. One in particular stood away from the rest. I might have been crazy, but it looked almost glowing. I was brought here for THIS? 

I began to laugh, backing away towards the door as I turned to Cosmo. "You'd better have a good reason for showing me fucking porta- loos, or I swear-"

He'd already started walking over to them as I'd started to speak. I noticed for the first time that there was a lock in the front-most one. Cosmo unlocked it using the key from the drawer, and disappeared inside. I laughed to myself. Was he just really protective of his own shit?

Seconds later his head popped round the door again. "Come inside," he giggled mischievously, as if at a personal joke. 

"I'm not having sex with you in THERE." I said, walking over slowly. 

He laughed even harder. "I'm not even a "sex" person, Andie, why would I bring you here for that!?"

Good point. In the confusion, I'd momentarily forgotten his asexuality. Shrugging, I took a brisk step inside.

My jaw dropped. 

I was now standing in a huge room, domed like the ceiling of a cathedral (or a really grand toilet, I thought). In the very centre was a technical- looking column which seemed to be humming and pulsating lightly, emanating an oddly soothing gentle blue glow. Grouped around this column were several "whatd'youcallits", knicknacks and odd bits and bobs, alongside some very high- tech looking stuff. Stairs and doors around the place led to what must have been more rooms- I wonder if any of them were actually toilets? 

The porta- loo's bigger on the inside? I laughed to myself. 

"It's a time machine," Cosmo said eagerly, before I had the chance to ask any questions. "Goes anywhere in time and space. Pretty darn big, too, as you can see." 

Woah. Scientists hadn't even developed the correct formula yet, let alone the power. How the-? 

"How in the name of pugs did you-?" I blustered. "This hasn't even been invented yet! WHERE did you get it!?"

Cosmo gave a chuckle. "Astonishment is obviously understandable..." He walked around the central... thing, his eyes flickering over all the crap on there. "I'm... An alien," he finished eventually. 

"No shit, sherlock!!" I shouted slightly, gesturing around at this time machine. "Otherwise it'd be a bloody miracle as to how you even got this!!" 

"Calm down, I know you're shocked," Cosmo said gently. "I still care about you, you know. That's why I had to tell you. I'm what you'd call... a time lord."

"Okay..." I said slowly, strolling suspiciously around the place. "And does the government or army know about you... people?"

Cosmo gave me a "neither here- nor- there" expression. "Not all of them. People high up and special divisions and stuff. I'm sort of top secret." He giggled again. 

"And why didn't you tell me before now? Wait, how even OLD are you?"

"I needed to make absolutely sure everything was ready for me to explain. So I could show you who I was, what my life was really about." He smiled, walking over to me. "As for age, well I'm three hundred and ninety four this June." 

"THREE HUNDRED AND-" I spluttered, suddenly feeling like the lost kid in the shopping centre. 

"It equates to about twenty- five in your years and aging cycle," he explained hastily. "I'm positively a sprightly young thing in Time Lord terms." 

"Riiiight..." I nodded slowly. "So you're totally not some intergalactic peadophile?"

"Nope." Cosmo shook his head, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Now, do you want to go for a ride? Will you travel the universe with me?" 

It felt rather like a marriage proposal. I wasn't a traditional person at all. Briefly considering going back for our takeaway, but deciding I'd probably discover better food wherever I was going, I nodded. 

Cosmo grinned as if I'd just given him the best gift ever. "I can show you the world..." He started to sing mockingly. 

"Shut up and take me somewhere, Space boy. I want to see this thing work." 

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