Rainbow Shorts ( my LGBT Short Story Collection)

A Mammoth Adventure

(Author's Note - my entry for the  Bad Romance contest (I won joint second prize!) and the Rainbow Choice Awards.  The challenge was to write a  short story where a romance turns into a fullblown disaster!  In less than 2000 words. 

Word count 1990 - not counting this note)

A Mammoth Adventure

"Welcome to TimeLabs, Mr Shaw, and congratulations! We here at TimeLabs are the premier time travel company and I can assure you our guides are highly trained. Anything you want, anywhere you want to go... The possibilities are very nearly endless..."

Martyn beamed with excitement. Ever since he'd heard about time travel holidays he'd wanted to take one. However, they weren't cheap. Although he'd started a special savings account that very day, he was still a long way from being able to afford one—until he'd won that competition.

"Why I want to travel through time," in twenty-five words or less. He must have written nearly 500 entries, by the time he'd finished.

Nervously, he'd waited for the winning entry to be drawn out of the antique barrel.

"And the winner is..." the beautiful, bio-sculptured young woman with white teeth, paused dramatically, "Martyn Shaw! With his winning entry 'I want to watch my lover's beautiful face when he sees snow and ice, a mammoth, and a sabre-tooth tiger, for the very first time.'" She beamed at the invisible audience. "How sweet is that? Mr Shaw, our sponsors, TimeLabs Inc where adventures last lifetimes, will be in touch with you shortly to arrange the details of your wonderful holiday. Now for..."

And here he was, in the offices of TimeLabs Inc itself, about to choose his very own journey through time. He wished Rory had been able to come with him, but he'd had another commitment.

Martyn turned his attention back to what the salesman was saying. "Your win entitles you to the package of your choice for two, from our Budget range." He waved his hand and a hologram of a Neanderthal family sitting in a cave appeared in the centre of the room.

"The First People—one of our most popular. Or maybe the building of the Great Pyramid?" Another hologram appeared. "We have six exciting tours for you to choose from."

"Um, I was really hoping to go on the Last Ice Age tour, the one with the mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers," interjected Martyn when the salesman paused for breath. "That was the one I wrote the winning entry about." He smiled hopefully at the salesman.

The salesman's face fell. "I'm terribly sorry, but that one is not included in our Budget range. Animals, eh? Perhaps our Colonial Australian tour would suit? It includes a sighting of the now extinct Tasmanian tiger..."

Martyn interrupted, disappointment churning in his stomach. He knew Rory had his heart set on the Ice Age tour. "What about if I paid the difference myself? Would that be possible?"

A few minutes and several hundred credits later, Martyn had signed up for The Last Ice Age Tour, starting the very next week.

"As I said, the package is for two people. Have you got someone special in mind?" asked the salesman chattily.

"Oh yes," said Martyn, happily. "I'm taking my new boyfriend. It will be our first real date together, a romantic getaway."

"A lovely idea," smiled the salesman. "He's a lucky man."

Martyn was running late for his appointment at TimeLabs. Everything had gone wrong that morning. He'd slept through his alarm and then the milk he'd poured on his cereal had turned rather unpleasantly lumpy during the night. Ugh. Not to mention the small fact that Rory had been supposed to be with him, sleeping over so they could go in together.