Okay, so he knew not to just kiss her.
“Hey, Zoë,” Geoff called out to Zoë, giving her a wave. His jaw hurt a little when he moved it to speak, but fortunately you couldn’t see a bruise.
Zoë looked up and stared at him for a few seconds. “Wait a minute,” she said, looking up and down at him. “Geoff?”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Geoff said, his voice quickening with impatience. “You’re wondering how it is I’m able to be here talking to you, when you’ve only just said goodbye to me a few seconds ago.”
Zoë opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.
Geoff stepped forward and smiled. “I know this looks weird, Zoë,” he said. “And I know I look different. But please—don’t be scared.”
“Your hair…” she said. “And your face…”
“I’ve scrubbed up,” Geoff said.
Zoë pointed behind her to where she had just said goodbye to the other Geoff.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “How did you get over here? And how did you change your clothes so quickly?”
“Listen, Zoë,” Geoff said, stepping forward. “I have something amazing to tell you, something that will explain all of this. But before I do, I want to ask you a question.”
“Y-yes?”
“Do you trust me?”
“What?”
“I said, do you trust me?”
Zoë looked him in the eyes as if to check whether this really was the Geoffrey Stamp she knew talking to her. He reached out and held her hands, and as he did so, he felt her relax. Somehow, despite however crazy this situation must have appeared, he could tell from her eyes that she knew it was him.
“Yes,” Zoë said, dropping her post bag to the ground. “Yes, I trust you.”
“Okay. That’s all I needed to know.”
Zoë smiled. “What is it you wanted to tell me?” she said.
Geoff let out a sigh.
“This is going to sound crazy,” he said, letting go of her hands and taking a step back, “but you have to promise to hear me out, okay?”
“Okay…”
“It’s like this. You know how I work as a holiday rep, showing tourists around London?”
Zoë nodded.
“Well, that’s only part of the story. You see, the tourists I show around London are very different from your regular tourists. They travel back in time from the future, visiting different historical periods for their vacation.”
Zoë narrowed her eyes.
Geoff knew this look. This was the first stage of her skeptical look. He needed to do something quickly before the look entered stage two, which involved tilting her head to the left slightly. Once that happened, he would be only a hairsbreadth from her pursing her lips, and then it would all be over. There would be no chance of convincing her that he was telling the truth.
“They travel back in time from the future,” she said.
“Yes.”
As Geoff had feared, she tilted her head. They were now at DEFCON 2.
“Visiting different historical periods for their vacation,” she said.
“Uh-huh. Like I said—I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. I’m not a holiday rep. I’m a Time Rep.” She untilted her head. Whatever he had just said must have intrigued her. “A Time Rep?”
“It’s like a holiday rep, only instead of being a tour guide for a certain country, I’m a tour guide for a certain time period. In my case, the early twenty-first century.”
“I see,” Zoë said, tilting her head again. It had only been a small reprieve. “And what year did you say these tourists are from?”
“They don’t measure time in Earth years where they’re from.”
“They don’t?”
Geoff could see Zoë’s lips beginning to purse. He needed to make sure that whatever he said next wasn’t too weird, otherwise he’d lose her.
“No, they use something called Outer Galactic Mean Time Spiral something something. I can’t remember exactly. But basically, they’re from the mid-thirty-first century.”
Geoff thought about what he had just said. If there was ever an award for the last thing you would want to say to someone to convince them you weren’t insane, that sentence probably would have won it.
But it was true.
“Okay, Geoff,” Zoë laughed. Somehow, his talk of Outer Galactic Mean Time had disarmed her. “Very funny.”
“What’s very funny?”
“This story,” she said, reaching to pick up her bag again. “It’s funny.”
“I’m not joking,” Geoff said.
“Yes, you are.”
“Okay—how else do you explain this?” he said, gesturing to himself. “How else do you think I was able to be standing here, just a few seconds after you said goodbye to me?”
“I have no idea,” Zoë said. “You have a twin brother. It’s magic. I’m dreaming.”
“No. It’s because that man you just spoke to was a past version of me. I was him a few hours ago, and now I’ve traveled back in time.”
“Geoff—I’m sorry, but…”
“Please, Zoë,” Geoff said. “You said you trusted me. Will you give me one chance to prove it to you?”
“I don’t know…”
“Oh—I should point out that you’ll need to drink this weird serum,” he said, taking the small bottle of red liquid out of his coat pocket and showing it to her. “But don’t worry—it’s totally safe. I had some a few moments ago, and as you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”
Zoë narrowed her eyes, tilted her head, and pursed her lips.
That was it.
DEFCON 1.
“No chance,” she said, and walked off.