It’s a rhetorical question. So, I don’t answer. She needs to be able to process, and understand the reason why she can’t get ahold of her parents. It isn’t that they weren’t here, it’s they couldn’t be. “But from what you have told me about them, I bet they are sitting in this hospital room right now, watching over you.”
Tears spring from her eyes, and so badly I want to console her, but I don’t. She didn’t know me. I’m not her boyfriend right now, but solely a stranger that can answer her questions. That hurt most of all.
Tessa shows up. As her friend, I know she must be hurting knowing Harper can’t remember her, but we will get through this together. We just need to be there for her and answer her questions as we can.
“Hey, sweetie. How you doin’?”
She eyes her. “Wishing I could remember. Just feel like a stranger in my own body. Like I’m in a sci-fi movie and been abducted by aliens and came back with my brain wiped.”
She rubs Harper’s shoulder. “I know, but we are here to help. What can we do?”
Most of the day is spent with Tessa and I answering questions for her. We are the only two people that are close to her, and even we didn’t know all the answers. We explained what we knew, that she came to Texas after her parents’ death and got a job at the High School waiting for a teacher position to come open. It seems like she doesn’t want to believe us. I can understand her hesitancy, hell if the roles were reversed, I probably wouldn’t be very receptive either having some strangers tell me all these things about my supposed life.
“How long have we been dating?” she asks.
From the outside, it sounds ridiculous. “Well, technically a little over a month. But two of those, you were unconscious..”
Her head turns. “Are you serious? You must really like me.”
“I do.” If only she could remember the first week we met. Then she would understand the connection I feel, even more so after being by her side for the last two weeks. How a week feels like a year to me.
“Have we...”
“Yes.”
The questions finally cease and she continues looking around the room.
“I think I’m done for the day. Can’t handle much more right now. You can come back tomorrow, but right now, I’d like to get some sleep.”
That’s her nice way of asking us to leave. I hesitate, because I didn’t want her to be left alone, but Scott isn’t going anywhere. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, Harper. Call me if you need anything at all.”
I look back at her before I shut the door behind me, leaving her overnight for the first time in two weeks. My hair is a mess and sleep deprivation is starting to set in. Yet, I didn’t know if I would even be able to fall asleep at this point. My mind is going over everything, trying to piece together a way to help her memory come back faster. I send a quick text to Damon.
Me: Are you up?
I keep looking back up at the hospital wondering if Harper will ever look at me the same way? Would she ever remember how that first week completely changed our lives for the better? Or would all those lost memories remain just that, lost?
As I jump in my truck and turn the engine on, my phone begins to ring.
“What do you want?”
“Damn, what a way to answer the phone. I’m at Damon’s and we were wondering if you want to meet up and grab a beer? You’re going through a lot and just figured you could use one.”
Aiden and I aren't close, but we’re brothers and try to be there for each other nonetheless. He has called to check in a couple times while Harper was unconscious, but not much. To be fair, he has been covering all my shifts for me, and I need to be thankful for that. Still no word if I have a job to go back to. “Why not. Meet you at Dixie’s in ten.”
The last two weeks have been hell, and to know that she might never get our memories back, scares the living shit out of me. Can this version of Harper fall in love with me? Will she even want anything to do with me once she gets out of the hospital? These are things I can’t stop contemplating, and it’s going to drive me insane.
My truck comes to a stop, and I park, jumping out to go inside Dixie’s. It’s a Thursday night, so the bar has some bodies inside but not too many. I take our usual booth and put my hand up for the bartender who knows my favorite beer by now. She just nods, and continues working without skipping a beat.
“You look rough, brother,” Aiden says, sliding in across from me.
“I take it today didn’t get any better?” Damon asks, sitting next to me.
My hands slid down my face. “It did not, but maybe tomorrow. Trying to stay positive because I can’t imagine what I’ll do if she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“She’ll get them back, just have to give her time. Be patient. Stressing yourself out over it isn’t going to help the situation,” Damon says, hand on my shoulder. “I can tell from dinner with her that she cares about you. Things like that don’t just go away. If she cared for you before, then you can make her care for you again.”
He says it like it’s so simple, but without any of her memories, she sees herself as a twenty-two year old college graduate, not a thirty-one year old Chemistry teacher. The woman that fell for me and the Harper that woke up are not the same person. So, I’m asking a new person to fall in love with me. Would the new Harper and I even be compatible? At twenty-two, I don’t think my need for a relationship or settling down was even understood.