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“Wow. That’s good, right? You want your memories back. What did you remember?”
Willow falls silent and her cheeks flush pink.Fuck, is she remembering our kiss?
“Just us hanging out and a moment between Jade and me.”
“Jesus.” My lips pull into a smile. “That’s great progress and…” I trail off when Willow frowns. “Isn’t it?”
“I don’t know. It’s definitely not helping me move on.”
“I’m not sure this is something you move on from. For me, it was something I learned to live with.”
Willow nods. “That may be true, but I can’t decide if it’s a good thing or not.”
She sounds terrified of either prospect and it breaks me. All this time I’ve been trying to hide the truth, worried about hurting her, while she’s been stuck in this limbo. I still think she was better off not knowing, but now that she does, the rest should be up to her.
Running my hands down my face, I contemplate what I’m about to offer but easily decide it’s the right thing.
“Let me help you.”
Her beautiful face scrunches as her brow furrows. “What?” she asks and it takes a lot of willpower for me not to reach out and smooth the worry lines.
“I want to help. In whatever way I can. If that means giving you more time, I’ll do it, but I think you might need the opposite.”
Willow’s shoulders drop and she mumbles something I can’t understand. “You think spending time with you might bring my memory back?” she asks with some sass to her tone that wasn’t there before. “So did Sara.”
Hope swells within me but I don’t show it.
“As friends?” she asks, and my face drops. I knew that’s where this was going, but hearing it out loud sucks.
“Nothing has changed, Jesse,” she says as she studies my expression. “I’m still not ready to forgive and forget. I’m not even sure I’ll ever be.”
“I don’t want you to forget. But someday, I want you to see that I did it for you.”
“I do—”
“No,” I cut her off. “I want you to truly understand why I did it. Because hurting you is the last thing I ever want to do. And that hasn’t changed since I was sixteen.”
Willow’s breath hitches as she bites her quivering lip. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I want to try.”
“Try to get back to us? Or just try to remember?”
“I’m not sure yet. Everything between us happened so quickly, and your feelings are so strong…and I…I’m just trying to process it all.”
“And that’s okay. You don’t need to know yet. One step at a time.”I’ll take it. It’s good enough for now.
“What do we do?” Willow asks, a shyness coming over her.
“What do you mean?”
“I…um…don’t really have many friends. I don’t really know the protocol. Sara and I spend time together at work and just kind of make plans naturally. Do we make plans ahead of time?”
Jesus.My chest aches. I did that. Jade’s accident and her not knowing did that.“We can make a plan,” I say, hoping to ease her mind. “How about tomorrow? Could I take you to lunch?”
“Yes, great. Lunch is easy. Perfect.”
