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Sixteen
Vic paced the floor in front of her for the count of ten. He stopped in front of her, put his hands on his hips and looked her dead in the eye. Then he said the last thing in the world she expected him to say.
“We haven’t been a couple for ten years.”
She opened her mouth to ask what the hell he was talking about, but he lifted his hand to stay her interruption.
“In fact, we’ve barely spoken during the last ten years.” He pushed a hand through his hair and watched her carefully.
What followed were a number of things that sounded foreign but felt true. He mentioned proposing to her at her graduation party in front of her family. She immediately called up the exact spot in her parents’ house where she’d been standing. He brought up the time they’d argued about her going to graduate school, which matched the random memory she’d had the other morning. And, finally, he slid together the pieces of the night they’d shared before her accident.
“At the bar, I asked you to come home with me for old times’ sake. I promised to make you forget your name. I swore you’d never have to see me again after if you said yes to one last time.” He swallowed thickly, the picture of remorse, while her blood pressure rose higher and higher. “You forgot that part, believing instead that us sleeping together was evidence that I was currently in your life. But I wasn’t, Aubrey. Not before that night.”
“We shared cannoli,” she said, the words sounding like they were coming from someone else. She pictured him that night, smug and grinning, offering her a cherry stem he’d tied into a knot with his tongue. The edges of that memory were sharp and clear, in full focus for the first time since her accident. He’d promised her a wicked, delicious time in the sack. She’d forgotten that part until now. She’d forgotten how he’d charmed his way into her pants.
Anger pushed her to her feet like a shot. She was surprised she didn’t go rocketing straight through the roof.
“You fell the next day,” he continued, hands out as if begging her to hear him out. “Your parents tried to keep me away, but I was at the hospital, in the waiting room, the entire time. I swore not to leave until they let me see you. Your doctor agreed it was a good idea to bring me back into your life. At least until your memory returned.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “You all lied to me.”
“Your doctor was worried that if your memory returned too fast, you’d suffer a setback. None of us wanted that. We could have lost you once, and we weren’t willing to risk it again.”
His tender tone wasn’t comforting her, it was infuriating her.
“I stopped by your parents’ house a few days ago, when you went shopping with Elise. I told them I couldn’t keep this from you any longer. Your mom called your doctor and explained the situation. Everyone agreed it was the right time for you to know the truth.”
“Everyone except for me. Also, I’m questioning the validity of my doctor’s medical degree right about now.”
“I never meant to hurt you, Aub. I was trying to help.”
“You strung me along. You treated me to dinners and dates. You took me to bed.” Her voice shook in a way that scared her. Had she ever been this angry in her life? But then she recalled, vividly, the moment she’d unceremoniously returned Vic’s engagement ring and decided that yes, once before, she’d been this goddamn angry. “You let me believe in a future for us when you had no intention...” Her voice trailed off as she backed away from him, thoroughly disgusted.
“I didn’t intend for it to go this far, I swear. I thought—”
“I told you I loved you.” She swept her hair behind her ears while staring at him in disbelief. Could she have been stupider? “You let me believe we were in love this entire time.”
“We were. We are.” He took a step closer to her, but she lifted an arm, warning him not to come closer. “I told your parents how much I love you. I still love you, Aub. I never stopped. If it hadn’t been for your accident, we might never have had a second chance.”
“A second chance?” Memories flooded over her like a bucket of ice water. She remembered. She remembered everything. The proposal. Showing off the ring to friends and family. Her decision to attend graduate school and the argument that followed.
“You told me I’d come crawling back.”
“Aubrey—”
“Was this a twisted revenge plot? Were you retaliating because I broke your precious pride? Did you buy this house out of spite? Did you bring me here to show me what I could have if I allow you back into my life?”
He opened his mouth to respond, but she kept right on talking.
“You accused me of cheating on you with a faceless, nameless college guy.”
“I asked. I didn’t accuse.”
“Same thing.”
“Can you—For just a second, can you imagine what it was like for me back then? How hurt I was hearing you didn’t want to marry me?”
“Oh, are you the victim here? I’m sorry. Here I thought I was the one with a traumatic brain injury causing me to forget the most important part of my life!” She was yelling now, and forced to grip her head as pain shot through both temples. There was too much to process. Too many old memories to reconcile with the new.
