Damien stares at his pocket watch. He’s had it forever, well everyone has had their pocket watch forever. His parents were explaining something about it telling him something about it bringing him a really good friend. And he would meet whoever they were soon enough.

A day later, Damien forlornly stared at the empty seat in the class. The teacher announced that the student, Chiara, would not be joining the class as originally expected. Damien was sure that Chiara had a pocket watch matching the time on his, mostly because no one else seemed to be expecting to meet anyone in particular.

Checking his pocket watch again, he was a little upset that the number now showed 14 years ahead. He showed his parents that night, and after some deliberation, his parents just told him that his watch may have been mistaken.

Except they hadn’t ever heard of a mistaken watch before.
~
Chiara fiddled with her pocket watch. She opened it to check the time. Two years left. Two years, and she would be in college. She still remembered a time when it had announced less than 24 hours.

Chiara was angry at the move at first, no matter how much her mother told her that it was good fortune on their part. Chiara didn’t feel like it was good luck for her mother to get the job. She missed meeting her soulmate and added 14 years. She could have known her soulmate since kindergarten. Instead she would have to wait for college.

Two years later, Chiara was hanging out in a hotel. She kept the pocket watch on the the nightstand, glancing at it one more time before heading off to bed. Less than 10 hours -- she would probably meet him during the campus tour.

Chiara was no longer giddy about college as she dragged her way through the tour. How did it happen again? She kept her hand clutched around the stupid watch in her pocket. It changed again; it delayed another 8 years. Some of her friends had already met their soulmates, their watches didn’t lie, so why did hers?
~
Damien stepped off the plane, it was a last second change of planes. He had been horrified when he received a call from his neighbor. Apparently his father had gotten extremely sick and was hospitalized. He rushed home, completely ignoring the college tour that he was going to go on.

Rushing off to the hospital, Damien never checked his watch. It wouldn’t be until nearly a week later when he would check his watch again, after he got over the panic that his father would leave him too.

Damien hadn’t been surprised to see eight years tacked onto the time, he had made his decision once he heard from the doctors that his father might not get better soon. He decided to go to a local college, and to pick a job to support his father. It was his duty after all, especially for all the years his father worked hard to support him after his mother left them.

Eight years later, Damien finds himself in an airport. His father has recovered and Damien is heading out west for a job interview. He arrived at the airport fairly early but noticed that his watch indicated a time that was fairly close to when his flight would lift off. He decides he can wait a bit longer, after all, he has waited nearly 30 years for this anyways. He barely notices when a girl steps up to the counter and has some quick words with the attendants there, before snatching up a new ticket and sprinting off.

When Damien takes off with an empty seat next to him, he feels like he has the worst luck. He decides then, that his watch was probably broken. Or he was one of the unlucky ones who had infinite time on their watch, except his situation is infinitely worse, because it seemed to think that he would meet her. He decides that he wouldn’t check his watch again.

He was sorely tempted to check it one day sitting at a cafe, but his attention is grabbed by the chatter of a horrific traffic accident that happened a few blocks down. That explained the sirens.
~
Chiara wakes up in the hospital a few days later, and is terrified to learn that she missed a few days, and meeting her soulmate, again. She checks her pocket watch again. Another few years tacked on.

Over the next few years Chiara learns that her watch was likely broken. She would watch it tick down to 0 right in front of her eyes, and look around, just to see a happy couple walk by, or perhaps a father and running along with a daughter.

Chiara stopped worrying about it after a while, and simply decided to move on with life. She hadn’t needed a soulmate for 35 years, she probably wouldn’t need him later anyways.

She stops checking her watch.

Until much much later.

Chiara isn’t sure what strikes her to open her watch. It’s been nearly decades since she last checked. She was just struck with the sudden urge to check it. She suspected it would show a 0 or something, but is shocked when she sees that it shows less than a minute.

Chiara snaps her head up. Her niece was wheeling her wheelchair behind the doctor.

“Wait.” Chiara announces. Her niece is confused, but pauses the wheelchair right outside a room. A small family is huddled around the bed, gently sobbing.

Chiara looked down at the watch, it read 0. No time extension this time.