Page 15 of It's a Date (Again)

I squint, looking at it closely. In the photo, I’m lying in the hospital bed, eyes closed and mouth partially open. “You posted that? There’s drool dribbling out of my mouth.”

“Is there?” She quickly glances at the picture and shrugs. “It’s pretty hard to get a cute shot when you’re all comatose. Filters can only do so much.”

“And what’s with the caption?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“You wrote that people could show their support by attending your comedy show.”

Maya smirks. “A.B.M., baby.”

I laugh while she pockets her phone.

“I just don’t know if I can go through with this, and I don’t want to string them along,” I say, looking to Maya.

She rests her hand on mine again. “You can do this, and you’re not stringing them along. They all know what they’re getting into. They clearly care about you, and they’re willing to take that risk. So should you.”

Maya’s right. She made it clear to them how this was going to work, so they know what to expect from me and whatever this dating-with-amnesia experiment or journey is. If I was really running to tell one of them I loved them right before the accident, it must have meant a lot to me. It must have been the most important thing because I put myself in danger just to tell someone how I feel.

I let out a sigh. “Okay.”

“Yes!” Maya jumps to her feet and does a little shimmy dance complete with finger guns. “This is going to be so much fun.”

I furrow my brow. “Wait, do you just want me to date these guys again for your own personal entertainment?”

She stops dancing. “Mine and others. This is going to be fantastic set material.” Maya laughs but quickly stifles it, getting serious again. “But really, Peyton, I want to see you happy. Your brain has always gotten in the way of that. You’re cautious to a fault, and you keep people at arm’s length. It’s like you’ve tried to protect yourself before you were ever in danger of being hurt. Aside from the accident, of course. But I think it’s kind of a blessing that your brain isn’t functioning properly, because it’ll give you a chance to open up and allow yourself to be truly happy for once.”

I wipe at my eyes because they’re filled with tears. It makes me sad hearing that I’ve lived my life that way, closed off and unwilling to let anyone in. Why did I do that? What made me so scared of love and loss? And why was I all of a sudden ready for it?

The door swings open and Robbie pops his head in.

“Sorry I took so long. What’d I miss?”

“The season premiere of the newBachelorette,” Maya says with a snort.

CHAPTER4

“You’re just going to date them all again when you’re suffering from amnesia and a traumatic head injury?” Robbie jumps from his seat and paces the room. He shakes his head like he’s trying to wake himself from a bad dream. “This is a terrible idea. I should have never gone to my meeting. I could have stopped this rather than encouraged it.” He tightens his eyes at Maya, but his face softens when he looks to me. “Peyton, this is a lot of stress to put on yourself when you’re supposed to be recovering. You shouldn’t do this.”

Maya places her hands on her hips. “She loves one of them. What is she supposed to do, just throw that away because she can’t remember?”

“Yes,” he says with a firm nod. “If any of them really loved her, they would wait until she was better and of sound mind.”

I’m not sure where these strong reactions are coming from. Robbie has a point. Dating is stressful. It’s emotional. It’s time-consuming. And it rarely ends well. Especially in my experience, or so I’ve learned.

But Maya has a point too. This was obviously so important to me that I risked my own safety and ended up here. And from how Maya talks about me before the accident, I never took risks. I never opened up. I never let anyone in. But for the first time, I was going to. That has to count for something.

“What if her memory never comes back?” Maya asks.

“It’s going to.”

“You’re an apiary, not a doctor.”

Robbie rolls his eyes. “I’m an actuary. An apiary handles bees.”

“Whatever.” Maya crosses her arms in front of her chest.

“Was I the only one listening to Dr.Hersh? He said it was extremely rare that her memories would never return.”

---