New York City, New York, 2025

December 30th, 8:30 AM

The sound of my alarm buzzed in my head. I groaned and reached out to hit the snooze button, since I had forgotten to turn it off Friday night. Today was Sunday. Despite having shut off the alarm, I couldn't seem to go back to sleep, so I ended up lying in my bed, staring at the ceiling of my apartment, thinking about Daphne. As soon as I remembered the way she kissed me on the cheek last night, I felt my face heat up and I began to smile. It led me to imagine what it must be like to kiss her on the lips. The thought was so pleasant that I ended up giggling and covering my face with my hands.

I sighed.

"She sure is amazing," I told myself.

I literally couldn't wait to tell Lucas that we're dating, so I decided to call him. He answered after the phone rang three times.

"Stephen? What's up?" he greeted, his voice low and rough.

"Hey Lucas. Did I wake you?"

"Just a bit."

"Listen, I have news. You'll never guess what happened between Daphne and I last night."

"Don't tell me you told her about your feelings."

"I know you said it's dangerous because it might ruin the present if we hit it off, but you should've seen her. She looked gorgeous. I just felt like the time was right."

"Stephen, I'm really glad you've found someone who makes you happy, but this just doesn't sound like a good idea. Not to overthink things, but if you two end up getting together and making a future together, you'll prevent her descendants from existing. Who knows what that could lead to."

"You really think she'd want to make a family with me?" I asked hopefully. It was a good thing Lucas wasn't next to me, or else he would've seen how red my face was.

I heard him sigh.

"The point is, I don't want you making a mess of things. That's the only thing that happened, right? You just talked about your feelings?"

"Well. . ."

"Stephen."

"We're sort of secretly dating now."

"Stephen! I warned you about this!"

"You don't understand, Lucas. I feel so happy when I'm with her. And in the moment, I wanted to tell her that and when she felt the same way, I got so excited. I knew that I wanted to be her boyfriend."

"I don't want you getting hurt again, Stephen. If this goes on further, it will have bad effects. Sooner or later, you'll have to end things with her. I'd rather have it be now while your relationship is barely starting."

"But I've been happier since knowing her. Please, don't make me end it so soon."

"Listen, I can't make your decisions. If you want to keep dating her, that's all you. I'm just worried that either you'll end up making infinite branches of realities or you'll end up getting hurt."

"I appreciate your concern, but I want to at least get to know her better."

"Fine. It's up to you. I have to go, Stephen."

"Alright. Bye."

"Bye."

I sighed and stood up to make myself breakfast. As I poured some cereal into a bowl, I wondered if Lucas was right. I desperately wanted a happy solution, but either way, someone would end up getting hurt. I would rather have it be me than a whole line of Daphne's descendants, though. Then again, if things worked out between us two, we could make a whole other line of descendants. Was that too crazy to think about? I figured that jumping to conclusions about our future would give me more of a headache than physical time travel, so I just watched TV while eating my Corn Flakes.

Sundays were always hard for me. I was so used to going to uni all week and studying at the lab after my classes for hours, that when the campus and labs were closed every Sunday, I didn't know what to do with myself.

Just as I finished my bowl of cereal, it occurred to me that I didn't have anything to wear for Saturday's concert. I didn't even know what wealthy people wore to events like that. My guess was that I would need something even fancier than what I usually wore to see Daphne. Last time I needed some new eighteenth century clothes, I went to various mens' warehouses and costume stores and bought whatever looked the most authentic. Something was telling me that wouldn't work this time, though. The only way I could get something worthy of my first date with Daphne was in Vienna itself. I had to time travel.

Just as I had showered and changed and was ready to go, I remembered that the machine was in my lab room, which was closed. I groaned and facepalmed at my forgetfulness. Still wanting to go find some clothes, I sat on my couch and pondered whether I knew anyone who could get me in. Just as I was about to give up, I remembered that I got a key when I first started using the lab. I shook my head in disappointment as I frantically looked through the drawers in my room.

"I could've been doing research on Sundays this whole time," I mumbled.

Once I found the key after disorganizing a good portion of my clothes, I rushed out and drove to the lab. I decided it was a shame I was leaving, because the weather today was really nice. The entire sky was grey and little drops of rain began to fall on my car windows and the pavement of the sidewalk. Rainy days had been my favorite ever since I was a kid. I always went outside and played in the puddles with my friends, and whenever there was school on a rainy day, we spent the day reading or watching a movie. Of course, I always got sick afterwards because I never wore warm enough clothes. Still though, the rain always had a way of making me happy.

My time machine was waiting for me when I got to my lab. On my desk was an eighteenth century outfit that I had put there in order to avoid having to go to my lab already dressed up. I quickly changed into the outfit consisting of a white dress shirt, a navy blue tailcoat, a cravat, black breeches, and black boots.

"Eighteenth century here we go," I said as I stepped into the machine. 

Vienna, Austria, 1798

December 30th, 11:12 AM

I showed up in the same alley as always. When I walked out onto the street, I noticed that some construction workers were finally rebuilding the flower shop I had crashed into. Seeing the debris made me think back to when the accident happened, which in turn made me remember the first time I ever saw Daphne. Thinking of her made me realize that she shouldn't see me here, so I had to hurry and find some nice symphony concert clothes.

The warehouse I found had a collection of nothing but the finest looking attire. Rows of tailcoats adorned in gold and silver lace greeted me when I walked in. In the corner of the room was a middle aged man hunched over a wooden head mannequin, attempting to make the wig on it look good.

"Good morning," he greeted without looking up from the mannequin.

"Hello," I responded.

After a few awkward moments of silence, he turned and smiled at me.

"How can I help you, sir?" he asked.

"I'm going to see a symphony concert this weekend. Do you have anything that would, uhh, be appropriate for that sort of event?"

"Why, of course! You look like a young man worthy of my most expensive attire. Some gold lace decorations would suit you very well. Care to look at some tailcoats first?"

"Of course."

The man scoffed and shook his head.

"Forgive me, I seem to have forgotten my manners. My name is Maximilian."

"Forgive me, sir, I'm Stephen."

Maximilian smiled and made his way to the tailcoats displayed on the back wall of the shop. As he skimmed the collection and felt each of the fabrics, I looked at them from where I was standing. There was a black one with gold embellishments on the cuffs of the sleeves and on the collar that caught my eye in particular. I was just about to ask Maximilian if I could try it on, but when I turned around to look for a pair of breeches, I saw Daphne looking at the window of the building across from me. My heart nearly jumped into my throat when I saw her, not only because of how beautiful she was, but because she was holding hands with another man. I could only assume he was her fiance. Even though I couldn't hear their conversation, I could tell that her fiance liked her by the way he gazed at her and smiled as he did so. Seeing them together like that made my heart sink. It reminded me that no matter how much we liked each other, our relationship would have to end. One way or another. Sooner or later. As I observed Daphne's fiance, I talked to him through my mind, as if he could hear me.

You have no idea how lucky you are to spend the rest of your life with Daphne, I told him.

Just as I thought it couldn't hurt more, he stroked her hair and kissed her cheek.

"Sir?" I heard Maximilian call from behind me.

I turned around, clearing my throat in an attempt to compose myself.

"Yes? Sorry about that."

"No matter. It is a lovely day today, isn't it? The sunny weather is exquisite."

"It sure is."

"I found three tailcoats that I thought would suit you well. Why don't you try them on? The dressing rooms are just through that back door."

After trying on the three tailcoats I decided on the second one, which was the black one with gold lace embellishments on the sleeves and collar. Looking in the mirror, I could see myself holding hands with Daphne in whatever stunning dress she would decide to wear. All of them were beautiful.

At last, I purchased the rest of my outfit and looked outside to make sure Daphne had left. I saw that the coast was clear and made my way back to the alley where I had arrived. There was no doubt I was beyond excited to see Daphne on Saturday.