Jen put her hands up. “No, I mean yes, I am... and I know I’m supposed to be the sensible one, but honestly, Cooper, I met him at the hospital and talked to him here last night when he had to stay. He seems really nice. This is not as crazy as it sounds, though I am kinda surprised he’s still here. This is not epically dumb.”
“See?” I turned to Cooper. “She agrees. I know it seems crazy, and it wasn’t every night, but he honestly doesn’t have anywhere else to go.” I took a sip of my beer. “Besides I had your gun, I was safe.”
His eyes got even wider. “Mygun?”
“Yeah, I was armed when I talked to him.”
“Holy shit, Lexi, that’s so irresponsible! What if you had gotten shot or worse, shot someone?”
“But I didn’t— and how is that worse?”
“Because of the trouble it causes! What you know about that guy isliterallyzero, and you’re waving my gun around?”
I bit my lips. “I think you’re kind of missing the point, the point was that you having a gun here kept me safe. I tookcare of myself, and made a decision that helped someone who desperately needed it.”
“He’s homeless, you found him in your yard…” He ran his hands up and down on his face, “Do you know anything about this guy?”
I glanced at Jen.
She said, “We know tons about him!”
“Like what?”
“Like... he’s from Scotland!” Then she pulled her phone from her pocket. “But also, I hate it when people I love argue, can I help in some other way?” She looked at me. “You invited Andrew and the boys, right? How about I text them and tell them the big celebration is not happening, we’ll do it later.”
Cooper said, “That would be good, this has already been a lot.”
She started texting.
He said to me, “Well, out with it, what do you know about him?”
“Lots, um... Scotland, as Jen said, but the rest is not going to be easy to explain.”
Cooper shook his head. “Lexi, do you understand how absurd this sounds? This is the last thing I wanted to think about today, a homeless guy living here, while I’m just trying to unwind after a real shit few days.”
I patted the back of his hand. “I get you, I really do, I wish this hadn’t turned out this way, and I don’t know how to explain it but… he’s a time traveler.”
“Um… say what…?”
He looked at Jen, she shrugged, continuing to text.
He looked at me, then huffed. “I need to go take my stuff upstairs, I need to cool off, I need to take a break.”
He slid his chair from the table and stalked out of the room, grabbed his suitcase, and clomped up the stairs.
“Whoa Nelly,” I said to Jen, “that was not good, not at all good.”
She watched the door. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Coop so upset.” Her phone beeped.
She read her texts. “Everyone has been called off. Andrew says you owe him a meal.”
“Tell him next weekend, definitely.”
I watched her text, then stood and lifted the lid on the pasta pot, almost boiling. “I just don’t even know how to explain this. I get that this sounds so irresponsible and now I have to explain how time travel is real?—”
“This is going to require some epic explaining skills.”
I opened the oven and checked the sauce, it was sizzling hot. “Exactly! I don’t have those skills. So what I’m thinking is, you’re his friend too, maybe you could do it.”
