“How?”
“After the accident, she cried for days about seeing you. We kept telling her she couldn’t because you were in a coma. When Piper finally told her you were awake and didn’t remember the last twelve years, and about Billie, she thought when you saw her, you would recognize her. She came to see you in the hospital, and you had no memory of her.”
“I don’t even remember that. I was on so much medication. What did I say to her?”
“You politely said, ‘I’m sorry, but I just don’t remember you,’ then you turned away and asked me about Billie.”
My gut drops. “Crap. I’m an asshole.”
Noah shakes his head. “You were on a lot of drugs still. We tried to get her to visit you again, but she kept asking if you were still searching for Billie. We didn’t want to lie to her. It’s why I asked you to go see her when you were still in New York.”
“You said we were only together a few times?”
Noah nods.
“I don’t understand why she’s so heartbroken, then. Or why I keep dreaming about her.”
Noah laughs. “Let’s just say after the first night you were together, you were praying she didn’t get a boyfriend before you moved here.”
“Howdid we meet?”
“You came to visit me. We were at Club D, and I saw Piper. Charlotte, Quinn, and Vivian were with Piper. You had just accepted the job in Chicago.”
“And that’s the first night I slept with her?”
Noah nods.
“Why was she in New York?”
“I was there for the First Responders Charity Date Auction with Piper. We were all in the back getting changed, and Piper texted the girls and Charlotte bid on you.”
“She bid on me?”
Noah smiles. “Yep. She paid over three grand for you.”
I gape at him. “Seriously?”
He laughs. “Yep. And she flew out to New York to surprise you for your date the night before you got into the crash.”
“But we’ve only seen each other a few times?”
Noah nods. “I think you were texting and talking a lot though.”
“I don’t understand this. If we only saw each other a few times...” I tilt my head in confusion. How can I feel what I felt when I saw her today?
Noah chuckles. “You’re trying to rationalize the heart, Xander. You can’t do that. The heart wants what the heart wants. I think whatever happened between you and Charlotte was intense.”
“But, I still love Billie.” It’s not making sense to me.
“You don’t love Billie,” Noah sternly says to me for the hundredth time over the last six months.
“I hear what you say, Noah, but my mind tells me otherwise.”
“You really remember nothing about the years between twenty-two and twenty-four when you and Billie were together?”
I shake my head.
“If you could remember those years, you would understand. You two fought all the time. Neither of you were happy, and you started to see less and less of each other.”
