She
couldn’t help herself. Allen told himself so every day; he
still couldn’t help feeling like it was some sick revenge for
the last thing he’d said to her before he left the apartment
that day. He would take it back if he could, she had to know that.
But he couldn’t even discuss it with her since she didn’t
remember shit. Allen wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a
curse.
“ Where
do I live?” she asked him when he went to visit the next day.
“ With
me!” he cried. “You live with me.”
“ Oh,”
she said seemingly surprised. “So we’re…”
“ Together.
Yeah,” he finished for her.
“ Oh,”
she said again looking down. Her delicate honey complexion was
glowing with embarrassment, “I’m sorry I don’t
remember you.”
“ Yeah
I got that,” Allen couldn’t quite keep the resentment out
of his tone.
There
was a small silence.
“ The
doctors said I could go home tomorrow, that’s why I asked,”
she said softly.
“ Uh
huh? They didn’t tell me,” Allen said.
“ Well…that’s
what they said.”
“ That’s
good then. Do you need anything in particular; a wheelchair or
whatever?” he asked.
Frances
smiled wryly. “My head is broken, not my body,” she said
reminding Allen so poignantly of his Frances that he almost burst into tears.
“ What?”
she asked curiously on seeing his expression.
Allen
shook his head, “Nothing. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
“ Yeah,”
Frances replied non-committally. “About that…you do know
we won’t be er…” she asked uncomfortably.
“ No,
yeah, I got that with the whole ‘you don’t remember me’
thing,” he said, sounding a tad bitter.
“ I’m
sorry,” she said sounding irritable herself.
Allen
shook his head. “It's not your fault. I’ll…be
going. Gotta tidy up and what not,” he said with a sheepish
smile. Frances nodded wondering what he was really going to do. Maybe he’d had some other woman stashed in their
house that he had to go get rid of.
*****
Allen
went running in Central Park. He needed to clear his head and decide
what was the best way forward. For one thing, they had not been doing
well before her accident, and now she couldn’t even remember
him. Was it some kind of sign that they should call it quits? And
what if Frances wasn’t interested in being with him anymore?
Like…ever? It wasn’t like they had much in common beyond
their shared history. He was all about people and she lived inside
her head. She was all book smart and long talks about abstract
concepts while he was all about sports and music and parties. It
didn’t bode well for their future together if she didn’t
remember why they even got together in the first place. It was a cluster fuck any
way he looked at it and he didn’t know if he wanted to stick
around for the blow back. Still, she had nowhere else to go for now,
and nobody else to turn to; so he guessed he would just have to do.
*****
She
was impressed by the size of their house. She knew he was rich
because she had a private room in the hospital and the staff treated
her special. She knew it wasn’t her because there was no way
she’d gone from Karl’s collector to a multimillionaire in
such a short time. She’d looked at herself in the mirror and
she didn’t look any older than 25. She didn’t ask what
the date was though, or the year. It was too much to think about,
missing all those years of her life. It was like waking up after
being roofied in a strange bed, with no idea if you were there
voluntarily or without consent. Of course if someone had roofied her,
it was unlikely that she was there voluntarily. But no one had
roofied her; she’d been in an accident, hit her head, and lost
her memory. Clearly, that Allen guy cared enough for her to hang out
at the hospital while she was out cold, and he’d been to see
her every day since. There was just something about him…she
didn’t know what but she guessed he was mad at her for some
reason. Or