We Meet Again

When two "ships passing in the night" crash into each other after years apart in another chance encounter.

Enjoy this romantic second-chance sci-fi story for the Valentine’s Day prompt of Flash Fiction February! Hopefully you’re not sick of love stories yet.

Source: Pexels

For a moment, time stopped. The music was pulsing to a beat my heart couldn’t quite match, and I was dancing like I wanted to shake all my thoughts loose, and then I turned and locked eyes with him. For a moment, I half-believed my brain may have conjured him. Then, I saw the spark of recognition in his eyes, and it was as if all the air was sucked from the room. There was no more music, no other people, just the shifting rave lights across his face.

My brain was a bit fuzzy from the alcohol, but I don’t remember walking up to him. It was more like I snapped into his field of gravity. Or he mine. But all of a sudden, we were together. Again.

“Hi,” we said in unison, both a bit breathless.

“It’s Dane,” he shouted over the music. His smile was as devastating as I remembered, and I offered a quick kudos to my subconscious for the accuracy of my dreams. Gods, I was embarrassing. “Do you remember me? From the wedding on Zola Prime?”

“Rings a bell,” I yelled back, fixing him with my own shy smile. “You were crashing that wedding, if I recall.”

It was hard to tell under the colored lights, but I was almost positive his cheeks flared red. The same way they had all those years ago when I’d called him out. The poor guy had stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the Zolans and their traditional dress.

“I really thought it was a public festival,” he laughed, and I felt my chest squeeze. Then, his expression shifted to something more serious. “I looked for you, you know. After.”

The urge to touch him was strong, and I didn’t resist it. In a moment of clarity, I decided not to hold back this time. So I grabbed him by the arm and tugged him out onto a balcony. The fresh air was cool on my skin, and helped me sober up just a touch. Hover cars kept speeding by, but it was a vast improvement from shouting in a room full of sweaty bodies.

“I did,” he said again. “I looked for you, Stara.”

Something about hearing my name in his voice drove me wild, and so I did what I’d been dreaming about since we parted. I grabbed him by the shirt collar and crashed into him mouth-first. His lips were soft and warm, and I was a pile of Spidra goo in his hands. Gods, his hands. He knew what to do with them as he allowed them to wander my body, and in that moment every nerve in me was so alight I thought I might go supernova.

Instead, I started to cry. And laugh a little. And Dane, bless him, pulled back immediately. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

I snorted and wiped at my cheeks, avoiding his gaze. “I’m so sorry, this is so embarrassing.”

Ever so gently, he touched a finger to my chin and tilted it up so that we were looking at each other again. His eyes were this beautiful shade of golden brown that had an unexpected ring of green in them. I could gaze at them forever.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi,” I sniffled.

And just like that, the tension melted. Dane was like that, even when we first met. He just had this endearing way of breaking down walls. The wedding he had crashed happened to be my best friend’s wedding to the love of his life, which was a hard day for me considering I thought he was the love of mine. I had been drinking my sorrows and holding back tears at the bar when Dane sauntered through, looking like a tourist and completely unbothered. For a few hours, he made me forget what day it was altogether. And then I was carted away for some bridal party nonsense. Just like that we were strangers once more, and I had no way to find him because he wasn’t on the guest list.

That I’d bumped into him again on a completely different planet in a completely different system felt like fate. It’s also completely overwhelming. After the wedding, I stopped thinking about love as something I could have. It didn’t lead to the best string of life choices, but hey, depression can’t hit a moving target.

“Why are you crying?” he asked, and I was snapped back to the present moment.

“It’s silly, really,” I whispered. “I just thought maybe I had made you up, and now you’re here and it’s better than I even imagined.”

His eyes softened and he leaned in so our noses were practically touching. “I thought I’d dreamed you, too.”

“So, what now?”

The silence between us lingered with dozens of unspoken questions. We were all but strangers to each other, despite the incredible connection we made all those years ago. Sure, there was chemistry, but it takes a lot more than that for… well I didn’t even know what I wanted.

“Let me take you on a date,” Dane said, and I couldn’t help but tilt my head so our lips were touching once more. I smiled into his kiss, and he smiled back. This time, I wasn’t letting love slip away.

I thought I’d include a musical pairing. I actually thought of this song AFTER writing the story, but it really fits well, I think.