Trudi savoured his presence there for a while, and then gulped again. He was carried down to her stomache in a wave of mutual ecstasy.

From Murray’s perspective he was back on the couch with her towards the end of the afternoon, after they’d finished their last board game and been talking for a while. He suddenly saw an unusual expression come into Trudi’s eyes.

“We’ve done it. It worked!” she said, “I’ve started a new timeline.”

“So you ate me okay then,” said Murray.

“Yes! Oh darling, you were wonderful in there. You’re brilliant!” she said.

“How long did you let the old timeline progress, before you came back?” asked Murray.

“I swallowed you, put the dishes away, watched a movie and went to bed. When I woke up in the morning, I felt hungry again. So I knew that you’d been well and truly digested in the night. Then I time travelled back to just now, and here we are. It looks like round two of tonight’s dinner will be pork for two,” said Trudi.

“Can I have some licks that I will remember first?”

“By all means,” said Trudi.

She held him in front of her mouth, put out her tongue and slid it over his sholders and neck and face a number of times.

“Do you want to go in there for a while?” she asked him.

“I’d love to,” said Murray, “And you know how to bring time back again, if the urge to gulp me down again overwhelms you.”

“It just might,” said Trudi.

She let him climb into her mouth and lie down in comfort on her tongue.

With the memories of having eaten him on the previous timeline still fresh in her memory, and the current pleasing taste of him lying on her tongue, she decided to continue this timeline without swallowing him. She opened her mouth and beckoned him out with a wave of her finger, took him to the kitchen, prepared their dinner, and sat and ate with him.

It was finally the best of both worlds for both partners.

The next time she ate him, he asked her about the last events of the previous timeline. It had become a subject of fascination for him, to hear about what she’d been doing while he’d been digested in her stomach, or to hear about having been brought back the moment he’d reached her stomach.

“So how long was I gone this time?” he asked.

“Nine years,” said Trudi.

“Nine ... years. Do you mean that you ate me that time, planning to live the whole nine years out with me long since digested, and then time travel back and live those nine years out again, after you brought me back?” asked Murray.

“It could be the secret of perpetual youth,” said Trudi, “But I won’t do that again. It would get rather boring to keep living the same nine years, over and over,” said Trudi.

“And you wouldn’t have my company then either,” said Murray.

“No, I wouldn’t,” said Trudi.