Page 29 of Catching Camila

Camila had cleared off the kitchen dinette and put water on to boil for macaroni and cheese. She’d also changed into a thin pink tank top and black yoga pants. And had she put on lipstick? He watched her move, hands gracefully setting the table. The symmetry of her body, the way her clothes hugged every curve. And they were alone. Heat traveled up his chest.

Stop it, he told himself. Don't get carried away.

Suddenly a memory gripped him. A hand on his. Tender. Loving. Then someone was calling his name, but it wasn’t John. She was calling something else. Jo? Joseph? She was calling and calling, but he couldn’t answer. He was running in the opposite direction. He was late and he couldn’t even say goodbye.

“John.” Camila was starting at him, concern wrinkling her forehead.

He shook his head. The memory was gone. “Sorry.”

“Do you want to eat? I have a granola bar you can have while we wait for the macaroni.”

His stomach grumble. “Yes, please.”

She handed him the granola bar and then sat across from him at the dinette where she could watch the pot boiling on the stove.

John unwrapped the granola bar. It smelled amazing. “So, you like your job?”

She shrugged. “It’s okay. I mean, I love working with Fer, but a lot of creeps hang around. Like that Gage guy.”

John nodded. “That asshole.”

“That’s a good description of him, yeah.”

He took a bite from the granola bar she’d given him and his stomach rumbled.

“Do you have family somewhere? Someone you’d like me to call?” She combed through her damp hair with her fingers and watched his face.

John chewed slowly, giving himself a chance to think. How much should he tell her? He looked at her wide, understanding eyes. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

He swallowed. “I don’t… remember.”

She placed both hands on the tabletop and cocked her head. “You don’t remember?”

“I woke up two days ago with no memory.” He knocked on his head. “Nothing.”

Her jaw dropped. “No kidding?”

He nodded. “No kidding.”

“Jesus.” She whistled. “It’s like a frickin’ Lifetime movie.”

The water on the stove began to bubble. Camila got up and slid the yellow noodles from the box into the pot. He could tell she was deep in thought by the crooked set of her mouth.

She stopped and fixed her eyes on him. “We gotta figure out who you are.”

John shrugged.

Camila sat down in front of him, still fixing him with that look. A look that said this is serious business, mister. She squinted her eyes and pointed a finger. “I’m going to help you find your family.”

“Who says I’ve got a family?”

Camila’s brow furrowed. “Everybody’s got a family. Even if it’s really messed up.”

John nodded in agreement, but a cold sliver had sunk into his heart. No one had come for him. No one cared but this short, scrappy girl with a big heart. And right now no one else seemed to matter.

But what about the memory? Someone had to be out there worried about him.

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