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MONICA
After the embarrassing events yesterday at the QuikStop, the last thing I wanted to do was go into town. In a town like Minden, there was nothing more reliable than the rumor mill. Since there had been exactly one other person in the store when I’d fainted, naturally the entire town knew by now.
“Seriously, you and Dad just go. Bring me home some Cashew Chicken.” It was Linda’s monthly takeover at the B&J Bistro, cooking Thai and other Asian foods that were usually hard to come by except in larger towns.
“Okay, sweetie. You just rest and we’ll be back in a jiffy.”
I’d just settled in with a Korean drama and an old quilt when the doorbell rang.
I opened the door to find Jake standing there, holding a plastic bag, neatly tied with a brown paper bag tucked inside it—the signature of takeout places everywhere.
My eyes widened and I debated slamming the door again.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Jake. It was that the idea of seeing him kind of made me want to throw up. At least that was the best way I could think to describe the way he made my stomach somersault in my belly. Who wouldn’t be tempted to slam the door in his face and run back to her childhood bedroom like a thirteen-year-old girl?
Instead, I pushed open the storm door and ushered him inside. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “I ran into your parents at the bistro. They mentioned you were hiding at home, so I offered to be your delivery man while they enjoyed their dinner at the restaurant. Your dad was really eyeing the buffet.”
I smiled. Dad did love the Tom Kha Gai that Linda made.
“Well, thank you. I appreciate it.”
I took the bag from his hand and set it on the coffee table. I turned back to the door, expecting to say good-bye, but Jake was right behind me, his eyes on the TV.
“Oh, you’re watching this one again? You thought it was–”
He must have seen something on my face, because he cut off.
“I’ve…seen it?” I sounded pathetic, but my mind was grappling with the reminder of my amnesia. I’d been doing pretty well, as long as nothing came up in conversation.
Jake winced. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
I sighed. “It’s fine.” Then I paused. “How did you even know?” My love of Korean dramas wasn’t exactly something I shared with a lot of people. They usually thought it was strange that I liked the shows, even though I had to listen to dubbed audio or read the subtitles.
Jake cleared his throat. “Oh, I–uh. You told me,” he finally offered after all the stuttering.
I raised my eyebrow at him. “I did?”
He nodded, but I just kept staring. There was something he wasn’t telling me. I didn’t know exactly how I knew that. I just did.
Finally, he caved with a groan. “Okay, fine. Actually… we watched it together.”
I sat down on the couch, grateful it was directly behind me. “What?”
I couldn’t have been more surprised if the Kool-Aid man had crashed through the living room wall at that moment. Not only had I told Jake about my K-drama habit, but we’d actually watched one together?
Jake sat on the coffee table, his knees nearly touching mine as he faced me. “Monica… the truth is, we were dating–secretly–the last four months before your accident.”
I looked around. Surely, this time the walls were literally being knocked down. “We were?”
Jake nodded. “At first, I told you in the hospital, but then it freaked you out and your vital signs went all crazy. And then you didn’t remember me telling you. Everyone said I shouldn’t tell you. That it wasn’t fair to expect you to deal with an entire relationship you didn’t remember.”
I tried to process all the new information. Me and Jake. My brother’s best friend and right-hand man. We were dating? And not just once or twice, but four months? “Why?” I blurted the question without any context. I wasn’t even sure if I knew which part I was asking about.
“Well, at first we just wanted to see if it was going anywhere before we told anyone. Then it was just kind of nice to fly under the radar around town and at small group.”
“We lied to the small group?”
