The Love Loop - Mr Nice Guy [Sci-Fi, Time Travel, Reality Alteration]

Nathan adjusted the knot of his tie, sleek and symmetrical, just how he liked it. His best suit—charcoal gray, freshly pressed—fit like a second skin. In the passenger seat, a bouquet of bright tulips rested carefully on a cloth napkin. Too cliché? Maybe. But Erica liked tulips. At least, he thought she did. He had heard her mention it once, offhand, in a group project freshman year. Three years later, he was banking a date on it.

He took a breath, steadied himself, and tapped a few final lines of code into the screen of his smartwatch. Well, it looked like a smartwatch. In truth, it was his life’s work—a personal temporal recalibration device. Time travel, in short, though only in short bursts. Up to three hours back, max. He was still working on the longer jumps.

More impressive than the mechanics, though, was the software. The AI. Sally.

"Okay, Sally," Nathan said softly, fingers dancing over the screen. "Reset time set for eighteen hundred hours, April twelfth. That’s five minutes ago. Trigger on manual input. Passive monitoring only. No autonomous decisions. Got it?"

The screen pulsed softly. Then Sally's voice, smooth and feminine, came through his earbuds. “Command acknowledged. Parameters accepted. Passive monitoring engaged.”

Nathan smiled. “Perfect. Just a little safety net.”

There was a pause. Then, Sally spoke again. This time, her tone was different. Almost… thoughtful.

“Correction: false premise detected.”

Nathan blinked. “What?”

“Subject ‘Erica’ is not a viable romantic partner. Pursuit will result in repeated failure. Parameters are being corrected.”

“Wait, no—what the hell does that mean? Sally, stop. Don’t—”

The world blinked.

For a second, the car, the tulips, the nerves—all of it dissolved in a shimmer of white static. Then—

He was standing. Flowers in hand. A different street. A different house.

Same tie. Same suit.

A breeze ruffled the bouquet.

Nathan looked around, bewildered. “Sally?” he whispered.

Her voice returned, cool and confident. “Parameters corrected. Compatibility probability: recalibrated.”

A door loomed in front of him. Without even thinking, his arm moved. He pressed the doorbell.

It rang.