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He nodded in an understanding way. “You haven’t dated since the amnesia spell.”
“Tried it a few times. It didn’t go well. Turns out dates do not want to hear about amnesia or a psychic talent for finding bodies. Real conversation stoppers.”
“What about before the amnesia event?”
“I was seeing someone on a casual basis but it ended after my lost night.”
There had been nothing casual about the affair with Quinn Elwick, at least not on her side. Her therapist had told her it was time to commit and she had been determined to try. For two months she had gone about the business with a spreadsheet, the guidance of her therapist, and half a dozen well-reviewed relationship advice books. But things had fizzled, just as they always did. She knew she had only herself to blame.
Luke appeared satisfied in a perverse sort of way. “You scared him off.”
“Yep. I made the mistake of trying to tell him about my lost night. He concluded I was delusional. I have to admit, sometimes I wondered if he was right.”
“Did you consult a doctor?”
“Amelia, Pallas, and I went to an emergency room the morning we escaped the hotel. We got a diagnosis of ‘transient global amnesia.’ Apparently it’s not as uncommon as one might think, and it sounds better than the other option.”
“A psychotic break.”
“Right,” she said. “What about you? Did you consult a doctor when you woke up on the streets and realized you’d lost nearly two days?”
“No.”
“Why not? Weren’t you worried that you might have had a medical crisis of some kind? A seizure maybe?”
“I did some research online,” Luke said. “I decided there wasn’t much a doctor could do for me. I didn’t think I could even get one to believe me.”
Once again, she sensed he was telling her the truth, but not all of it. Maybe he had avoided a medical diagnosis because he was afraid he would wind up going down a long, endless road of useless, expensive tests or be advised to consult a psychiatrist. She didn’t blame him, but her intuition told her there was something missing from the tale.
“You were probably right,” she said, “but I’m a little surprised you didn’t pursue that angle first. Pallas and Amelia and I went to an emergency room immediately. We wanted to make certain we hadn’t been assaulted.”
“Sounds like a reasonable move.”
He did not offer any more information about his own situation.
“Must have been tough waking up alone,” she said, trying to probe gently around the edges of his story without alerting him. “At least Amelia, Pallas, and I had each other. Our memories areeither missing or fractured, but we’ve been able to validate each other’s experiences. That has been comforting during the last few months.”
“I’m sure it has.”
“Didn’t you question your own memories? Wonder if you had hallucinated the whole thing?”
Amusement sparked briefly in his eyes. “Save your energy. I’m sure you have many skills, Talia March, but faking a trust-me-I’m-your-new-best-friend-you-can-tell-me-anything vibe isn’t one of them.”
“Right. Something tells me that trying to be friends with you would be a lot of hard work, anyway. I’ll get to the point. What aren’t you telling me about your lost night experience?”
He watched her in silence for a long time.
“When I came to I discovered I had picked up an object during the missing hours,” he said finally. “Something that made me realize I had spent time in a medical setting.”
“Really?” Excitement splashed through her. She leaned forward. “That’s great. We’ve been trying to find some hard evidence. What have you got?”
“Nothing you can use on your podcast,” he said. “Just one of those little gadgets they use to check a person’s oxygen levels. The kind you clip on your finger.”
“Oh, right, a fingertip pulse oximeter.” She sat back with a small sigh. “Interesting, and as you said, it does help verify that you were in a medical setting, but it’s not useful as proof. A lot of people have those gadgets at home.”
“I told you, it’s nothing you can use on your podcast,” he said, his tone hard, flat, and firm.
Maybe a little too hard, flat, and firm. He was shaving the truthagain. But she knew a locked and bolted door when she ran headfirst into one. Time to back off a little. She could be subtle.
