“Yeah? I wish you didn’t have to go,” Sage says, brushing the hair from my cheek to kiss it, making me melt and debate my decision.
“I know. I wish I didn’t have to either, but I really do need to go to my place to pick up some clean clothes and make sure the office is running smoothly without me.”
“I’ll miss you,” Sage says, pulling me to him tighter for a hug. “Will you come back tonight?”
“Ah, yeah, I’ll be back tonight,” I promise even though I’m not sure I’ll stay.
“Okay, good,” Sage says, kissing me hard and making it nearly impossible to leave his bed. I’m so scared that when I walk out the door Sage will get his memories back and then it’ll be over.
We’ll be over again.
Chapter Twelve
Sage
“How’s it going?” I ask Tal when I flop down on the opposite side of the sofa where he’s sitting, his fingers banging on the game controller in his hands.
“Fine,” he says without even looking at me. “Where’s Eden?”
“She had to go back to her house to grab a few things and then check on shit at work. She’ll be back tonight.”
“You remember anything yet?” he asks.
“A little bit,” I reply.
“Yeah?” he asks, finally cutting his eyes over to look at me a second before his attention is back on the television screen. I watch him play for a few seconds, until the Viking on screen cuts off someone’s head, and Tal quits hammering on the controller.
“I think I’m going to ask her to marry me,” I say. Tal doesn’t say anything, but his on-screen Viking suddenly gets run through by a spear and ‘Game Over’ appears.
Tossing his remote down on the empty cushion between us, he says, “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are! You’re moving way too fast with Eden.”
“I love her,” I tell him. “And if she loves me, then why shouldn’t I ask her to marry me?”
“Because it’s too much, too soon and you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. That’s not what you wanted before – not Eden and certainly not marriage. This is just the amnesia messing with your head,” he declares confidently.
I would probably believe him if not for the diamond ring I found.
“If I wasn’t serious about asking her to be my wife, then why do I have an engagement ring in my pajama drawer?”
“You what?” Tal asks.
“I bought a ring before my head got fucked up,” I explain. “I’m not sure when I got it, but I do remember buying it! I found it in my drawer when I came home from the hospital.”
Tal gets to his feet and shoves his fingers through his hair as he paces. “So, you’ve had an engagement ring for Eden for eight years? I don’t fucking believe it.”
“Then I’ll show it to you,” I say, getting up from the sofa and heading to my bedroom. Tal follows behind me, too impatient to wait for me to get it and bring it back.
I retrieve the ring box from my pajama drawer, then pop it open to show it to him. “See?”
“Holy shit,” he says, taking the box from me and even removing the ring to hold it up to the light. “It looks like a real diamond.”
“Of course it’s a real diamond. I’m not a cheap bastard. At least I hope I wasn’t…”
“You spent your savings, your fight purses, on an engagement ring right after our high school graduation? That’s why you lived with mom and dad instead of getting your own place back then?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Holy shit,” Tal says again when he lowers himself to the foot of the bed still holding the ring, staring at it in awe, or maybe something else… “You wanted to marry her.”
“Yeah, I did. I think I still do,” I reply.
“Then why the fuck didn’t you say something after she left for college?” Tal asks, offering the ring back to me.
“Hell if I know. Maybe I’ll never know what I was thinking. All I’m certain of is that I loved her before, and I love her now. What could’ve happened in between?”
Tal opens his mouth to say something and then closes it again. Finally, he stands up and starts to the door. “I guess we’ll find out when you get your memory back.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I agree.
Reaching a hand out on the door frame, he stops and says, “I can’t believe you never told me you bought her a ring. After she left and you didn’t go after her, I knew you would regret torching what you had with her. You were a fucking idiot.”
“Yeah, maybe I was,” I agree. “But what the fuck would you know about relationships? You’ve never even had a girlfriend, have you? I haven’t forgotten that you couldn’t keep one around for more than a night when we were in high school.”
“You’re right. I’ve never had a girlfriend and probably never will,” Tal agrees before he finally leaves.
Eden
The longer I’m away from Sage, the more I realize what an absolute fantasy I was living in thinking we could actually be together again.
I want to go back to him, but at the same time I keep checking my phone, waiting for Tal to text me and say that Sage’s memories are back.
“Everything is fine here, boss, really,” Mary says when she comes into my office. “You don’t have to worry.”
“Oh, I know. I’m not worried about this place,” I tell her. She was the first employee I hired and knows how to handle the marketing accounts as well as I can. “It’s just, being here reminds me that I’m an adult and no longer a lovesick teenager.”
“Huh?” Mary asks.
“It’s so hard to forget your first love, you know?” I explain. “How they made you feel like you were on top of the world and nothing
