Page 39 of Forget Me Not

After what feels like a small lifetime, I’m finally back to the same spot I stood this morning. Front steps to her building. My fingers grasp the door handle, and I take a moment to just stand here and let it all sink in. The last time I stood here, my entire life changed. Or maybe, it just changed back. All the missing pieces I’ve been struggling with all this time, no longer matter. Because I’m working on a completely different puzzle now and I’ve got Cooper to help me put it all back together.

I take a deep breath and use my free hand to reach for the buzzer. Her voice finds me through the intercom a few seconds later.

“Reed?”

“Yeah, babe. It’s me.” I’m home.

I can hear the hum of the door being unlocked and it clicks as I push it open. Right before the line goes dead, I catch the distinct sound of giggles. Someone’s with her. I smile. I smile because she’s got a friend who isn’t Gun. And I smile because she’s spent the evening with someone who’s happy for her. Happy for us.

I take two and three steps at a time just to get upstairs. She’s standing in the open doorframe waiting for me when I reach the top floor. Her long strawberry blonde hair is tied up in a loose bun and she’s wearing nothing but a tank top and sweats. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone more beautiful. I don’t even say hi, I just keep moving until she’s in my arms and my mouth is crushing hers, allowing me to taste her sweet lips while I cradle my entire world against my chest, close to my heart.

“I missed you,” she whispers. “Promise you won’t leave me again.”

“I promise.” From now on, everything we do, we do together.

She smiles and I can feel the motion on my own lips as she does. “Good.” She softly grazes her mouth over mine once more before she pulls away, tugging me by the hand over the threshold into her apartment. “Come on, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

I must have heard those words a hundred times over the last few years, and more often than not I was being introduced to someone who already knew me. It got to the point I dreaded the sound of that simple statement. It all changes tonight. This is Cooper’s world. Her friends. Her life. I want to know all there is to know.

“So, you’re the mysterious Reed,” a young woman says as soon as I’m inside. It’s not until I turn toward the living room that I see her. She looks about our age. Maybe a little younger. She’s got bright amber colored eyes, smiling almost as wildly as her mouth is. She’s got a great smile. And I’m not just thinking that because the last friend of Cooper’s I met was scowling at me the whole time we were stuck together.

She’s petite, smaller than Coop with purple streaks twisted into her black braids which reach all the way down to her butt. There’s something very fresh and carefree about her. I like her already. Whoever she is.

“The mysterious Reed?” I ask. “I didn’t know I had a reputation worthy of a title.”

“Oh, you have so much more than just a title.” She chuckles. “You have an entire legend to go with it. Or, would it be considered a fairy tale?” She tips her head toward Coop, who’s blushing so intensely, I think it’s turning her soft ginger colored hair a deeper shade of red.

“You’ll have to excuse Cammie,” Cooper replies, giving her friend a haughty glare she can barely keep going long enough to finish her sentence. Then she’s grinning again. “She spends a lot of her time hanging around the medieval realm. She can’t help herself.”

I step forward to take her outstretched hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Cammie.”

“Nice to meet you, too. And about time!” She shakes my hand. She’s got a firm grip for someone so tiny.

“How long have you two known each other?” I ask. Even if I’m fairly certain after her last statement that this is in fact our first meeting, I’d like to be sure.

“We met about six years ago.” She says, exchanging a glance with Cooper which I make a mental note to ask about later.

“Is that how long you’ve lived here?” I turn my attention toward Cooper now. I might as well make the most of this conversation because I don’t plan on talking much once Cammie says goodnight.

She shakes her head. “No.” She pauses and I don’t know if she’s waiting for me to actually verbalize my next question in spite of both of us knowing what it is, or hoping I won’t ask it all. Before I can decide whether to change course or not, she answers, “Cammie and I met through her brother, Ed. He went to school with us,” her voice trails off quietly. “You knew him.”

“He was a friend of mine?” I don’t have any friends named Ed now.

“No.” Cooper shakes her head, but doesn’t expound on her answer.

“My brother and Gun have been best friends since they lived in the same group home when they were seventeen,” Cammie fills me in. She’s very matter of fact about the whole thing and I kind of appreciate that she just laid it out for me. No emotions. No sugar coating. Just, the facts.

“Group home?”

Cooper pries her eyes away from Cammie who may have just been petrified by the dangerous glare sent in her direction, and turns back to me, looking slightly confused. “Yeah. That’s how Gun and I know each other. We both grew up in the system.”

Damn. That’s not the sort of thing I should have to be told a second time. But I’m hearing it like it’s brand new information, so now I have questions. Questions she’s probably already answered for me. Questions that probably dig up all sorts of painful memories for her, but questions I definitely need answers to.

“I’m sorry, Cooper. I...don’t remember.”

Her expression softens with a kind understanding and she lifts up onto her toes to gently press her lips to mine. “It’s okay, Reed. We have all the time in the world for me to remind you.”

“On that note,” Cammie says, slinking her way past us toward the door. “You two sound like you have some catching up to do. And me, I’ve got about ten hours of Netflix to get caught up on.” She winks at Cooper. “See you two lovebirds later.” She pulls the door shut behind her and then, finally, it’s just us.

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