Short stories

Taxi Cab To Where?

The email title read "Saturday night, You and I." I groaned at the sight of who it came from. A distant friend of my mine named Bianca seems to think that after getting out of a long, serious relationship, that I need to jump back into the dating pool. My eyes scanned over the email and I picked up a few words such as "party" and "yolo". When I got to the end after a hoard of x's and o's, there was a link to a new nightclub that had sprung up three blocks from my apartment a few weeks ago. I was about to send this email, and all of her future ones, to spam, when I noticed the mountain of crumbs building up on my musty old sweatshirt from high school, the piles of food wrappers lying beside me, and the state of distress my hair was in. I reopened the email, typed a quick and adequate response and hesitantly clicked send.
Saturday Night, 2015:
    I did the finishing touches on my long thick hair which was clean and blow dried and slipped into some ridiculously high heels that I know I would soon regret very soon into the night. Afterwards, I sent a quick response to Bianca saying "be there soon :):):):)." I decided the theme of the night for me would to fake it till you make it and it was already proving to be a hassle. I rubbed my hands down my face forgetting that I had strategically applied layers of makeup to hide my tired and puffy face.  I was on the verge of a breakdown and almost considered staying in tonight and cleaning my fridge when I assembled the strength to take off all my makeup and go bare faced. Hey, if Alicia Keys can do it, so can I! It wasn't like I was ugly. I had striking blue eyes that drastically contrasted with my coarse dark hair and tan complexion. After that I stumbled, almost drunk with confidence, out onto the street and waved my hand about in the air in some desperate hope to hail a taxi at this time of night on a Saturday. Much to my amazement, a bright and steamy taxi rolled on to the curb and a woman from within shouted out "Jump on in darling, you have places to be!"
    I basically fell in, feeling almost pulled, and sat down upon the plush red velvet. I gladly sunk into the warm embrace and took a big breath of lavender before opening my eyes and realizing the taxi driver was staring directly at me with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes, expectantly waiting for me to respond.
"Tarmania Nightclub, it's just a few blocks down. Do you need the address?" I sleepily responded.
She raised one of her eyebrows at me as if questioning my intelligence and replied, "Jessica, I'll let you in on a secret about this cab. I takes you where you need to go, not where you want." Before I could object or question her, she reached over buckled me up and  put the cab in drive. I'm not sure why, but I had not a single worry in my head and let the smell of lavender and cushy seats lull me to sleep.
Sunday Morning, 2010:
    I wake up to a car alarm going off the distance and a lingering smell of lavender. Even though I'm slightly confused, I feel about my surroundings and look out the window to see familiar street signs and work papers of mine on the night table, but the sheets are different, like ones I used to own. I rolled over to reach for my phone which I usually chuck to the other side of my bed and come in contact with a hard bony chest. Immediately I retract my hand a way and come eye to eye... with Charley? Why is my ex boyfriend, in my bed, and he almost looks different, younger than the last time I saw him. He slowly opens his eyes with a small smile on his lips and reaches over me as if to pull me closer. But why would he do that, why would he be here? We broke up last month, after five years together, with me in tears and him in anger. He was always kind and loving, but I never really found him interesting. That may be because we really only see each other at work because we're both workaholics who work in the same office. I shrug his arm off of me and run out of the bed into the living room. I turn on the tv to distract myself while I pace the room. I subconsciously hear the reporter of Good Morning America say the date. Wait a minute, 2010? I rush back into the bed and lunge on Charley fully waking him up this time.
'What the heck Jess??" he slowly sits up rubbing his eyes and tilts his head at me, looking at me oddly.
"What's the date today?" I ask him eagerly hoping he'll respond and say it's some twisted joke. But instead he replies
"November 14, 2010, do we have an important meeting today or something. Please tell me I didn't forget something important"  I  look around my bedroom and see my old KISS t-shirt that I refused to toss until last year when I went through my clean freak phrase. And over in the corner is my soccer cleats from that time I did that adult soccer league which I ended up quitting. That's when it hit me. This is where I needed to go. The the taxi took me back in time to fix my relationship, and this is the day of the big fight that made me lose my trust in him. When It was all my fault in the end. I took one look at Charley and said to him,
"I cancelled all our meetings, today we are going to treat ourselves to whatever we want."
After the day was over, we hitched a cab back to the apartment. When it zoomed up to the curb, I knew immediately that it was this blessed cab that had taken me back in time and the driver gave me a little wink when we stepped in. She seemed to be a woman of few words because all she said was "Looks like today was a success" and then she quickly put the car in reverse. I leaned my head on Charley's shoulder for a quick nap and  knew in that moment everything was going to be all right.
Sunday Morning, 2015
When I awoke, I felt the familiar feel of my blankets but, the other side of the bed was warm from someone previously laying there. I heard my TV on in the distance and the smell of bacon floated from the kitchen. I winced as the sound of a loud crash that emitted from outside my room in the kitchen and I heard footsteps coming my way. Bianca appeared in the doorway with a broken glass in one hand and a look of embarrassment on her face.
"Jess, I was trying to unpack some of my stuff while you were still sleeping and surprise you with breakfast. But I screwed it all up"
She set the broken glass down and walked over to the bed and climbed in, attempting to snuggle with me. I quickly jumped out the bed bewildered with her actions and stuttered out a response.
"Bianca what happened last night?!"
"We stayed in because you weren't feeling well, and watched reruns of Friends together" she replied looking at me lovingly.
"But why did you sleep in my bed, what is going on!" I was in awe that she thought all of this was normal. Why is she moving in and what did I mess up when I went back in time?
"Jess you need to relax. Maybe your fever got worse, but we've been dating for 2 years ever since you broke up with Charley and we hung out. I'm going to get you some aspirin to hopefully lower your fever a bit babe"
What did I do?