“Addy is upset,” she repeats.
I close my eyes, letting myself drift a fraction closer as my heart thunders against my ribs. I can’t do this. I can’t kiss her. Not now and not like this. I shift back, hating myself for wanting it so much.
As soon as I do, the warmth is gone and a cool breeze kisses my skin.
Immediately, Brielle’s eyes fly open and she’s pushing upright. “It’s gone! No! It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?”
“Everything!” she cries out and throws her arms around me. I clutch her tight, feeling the panic radiating through her. Brielle starts to cry, her body shaking with each sob. “It’s gone. I can’t remember anything more.”
“It’s okay. This is going to happen.”
She pulls back, scrambling to her feet with her arms around her middle. “It’s not okay. I was seeing it. I think it was real, but I don’t know.”
“It was real. Isaac did get a red car, he didn’t let you drive it, and Addy wasn’t happy.”
A mix of relief and then pain flashes in her blue eyes. “I remembered, and then . . . it just stopped. I wanted to remember what happened next, but whatever it was, it just disappeared. I could see something in my periphery, and then it was just . . . gone. Why? Why did it go away? What was there that my mind won’t allow me to see?”
Me. That’s what she isn’t remembering. The memories that include me. There have been small glimmers and all of them fade as soon as I step into the picture.
I stand, pushing down my own frustrations, and go to her. “I’m sorry, Brie.”
She shakes her head. “No, you don’t get it. Henry said something to me, and I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Again with fucking Henry. Henry, the douchebag who always put her last. The guy who had a second chance with the most beautiful and incredible woman but threw it away because work was more of a priority. I don’t give a flying fuck about anything that piece of shit has to say.
Anger boils, and I step back.
Brie continues. “He said that whatever I’m forgetting is something my mind is protecting me from. As though my head knows that I need to forget it. It’s why he thought that maybe it was our breakup, which turned out to be completely incorrect.”
The air is pushed from my lungs as though I’ve been punched. “You really think this person that you forgot is bad?”
“How can I not when he’s nowhere to be found? I mean, I can’t dismiss it as a possibility. I mean, I don’t even have any idea how long he and I were together.”
Nine months.
“I have no idea if we started dating after Henry and I broke up or if I ended things with Henry because of this new guy.”
No. You didn’t.
“I . . . can’t stop wondering if maybe that’s who did this to me? That when he came into my life, he ruined it.”
I would never hurt you.
I can’t tell her that. I can’t tell her anything. We weren’t together at that time, and I can’t even correct her.
“Maybe that’s true.” It wouldn’t be the first time a woman said that to me. My mother said it daily. I came around and ruined everything.
“I know you’re angry at all of this. You have every reason to be worried, but take a second to realize what just happened.”
Her blue eyes stare up into mine. “What?”
“You remembered something. You could see things, remember them, and feel what was going on. This wasn’t the taste of a cigar or finding a ring. It was anactualmemory.”
I have to hold on to that. No matter what, she did remember something. It may not be what I wanted, but this is about her.
A tear falls down her cheek, leaving a black track behind it. “I just wish it was the right one.”