Page 59 of Help Me Remember
SPENCER
“Hit me,” Emmett says as he taps the green felt.
“You’re going to bust,” Holden warns.
“I’m going to bust your lip if you don’t shut up.”
Tonight is Holden’s last night in town. He decided to head back home after his call with Dr. Girardo, which he’s been tight-lipped about.
“Let him lose, it’s his money,” I say, dealing the card he asked for.
Emmett curses. “Damn it. I needed a three.”
“You need to learn how to play,” Holden notes. “You don’t hit when you need a three. It’s like you can’t count.”
“I can count the number of times you’ve irritated me.”
I snort. “You can count that high?”
Emmett flips us both off.
I look over to the screen, which shows a live stream of Brielle’s door, wondering if she’s okay. She came home about three hours ago and hasn’t left since.
My mind has been a mess all day. I keep seeing her on that beach, blonde hair flowing down her back and the sun on her beautiful face. My mind burned the images of those shorts and the tank top that showed every curve on her perfect body. I wanted to haul her in my arms and kiss her until she could do nothing but remember us, but I can’t do that.
No, instead I have to stare at a photo in my dresser, tracing her face with my finger through the glass.
“What about you, Spence?” Emmett asks.
“What?”
Holden laughs. “He tunes us out like my ex-wife did.”
“Speaking of ex,” I take the opening. “Did you see Jenna today?”
We all know he did. Jenna’s office is next to the only place in town that serves lunch. She is there every day at the same time, which happens to be the same time he was meeting with Dr. Girardo.
“I don’t remember if I did.”
Emmett chuckles. “Sure, you don’t.”
“She looks great.”
He rolls his eyes. “She always has. That was never an issue.”
“What was the issue?”
“I don’t know, maybe it was that we were twenty, stupid, and thought we knew what we were getting into and then realized we didn’t. Besides, she’s not the only person I ever dated. I’m not a monk.”
No, but he doesn’t talk about them. Well, other than that one chick he hooked up with when he was visiting his aunt. That was a fun night.
He has only ever talked about what happened with Jenna once, and he was drunk as hell. He said it was the week before he left for med school, and he came home after studying until three a.m. in the library to find her with her bags packed. The way he tells it, she claimed she was miserable, and he loved her too much to be the reason for her unhappiness.
So, they got divorced and have been civil since.
Although we all know he has struggled with not being enough for her.
“You’re almost forty and still stupid,” I helpfully contribute.
