No. It was simple and had a quiet quality that didn’t seem like a negative. Perhaps before he’d lost his memory, Jake didn’t spend much time here.
From the front door, Beryl noted that his bedroom door was wide open and that she could see a large section of the room from where she stood at the entry.
“Do you always leave your bedroom door open?” she asked. “You know, if you closed it, then you wouldn’t have to make your bed every day.”
“Excellent point,” he said. “However, it bothers me to walk in and see that door closed. No idea why, but it has since the day I came back from the hospital. That’s why I keep the door open with the genuine Maxwell the Martian doorstop I got from the Big Bang Truck Stop. And I don’t mind making my bed every day. I don’t even think about anymore, I just do it.”
That made Beryl smile. “There’s something we have in common, then. I make my bed every day, too. Makes me feellike I’ve accomplished something meaningful first thing every morning.”
Jake took her on a tour of the place, which included two more bedrooms, two bathrooms and a dated but clean and functional kitchen.
He also showed her the backyard, which had a gate in the fence that opened onto a state-owned forest, so he’d never have to worry about neighbors behind him.
Looking out at his backyard, the wordlonelypopped up in her thoughts once more.
Beryl wished she’d met Jake before he lost his memories. She reminded herself that if she had, he wouldn’t have remembered her and they’d have had to start all over again.
Jake ordered Chinese food from Beryl’s favorite restaurant, Luna Wok. “How did you know this was my favorite Chinese food?”
He chuckled. “I didn’t know. I ordered it because it’s Frederick’s favorite Chinese food in town. I was still making my way through casseroles from neighbors until a few days ago.”
When the food arrived, they spread the containers out on the small, square dining room table that was situated between the L-shaped kitchen and the modest living room. They loaded up their plates and dug in.
“Are you ever going to try to discover what happened in your past?” Beryl asked as they ate the dinner he’d had delivered.
Jake tilted his head and stared blankly at the wall before lowering his gaze to hers.
“You know, when I got out of the hospital, that was the first thing I thought about doing. I looked around my house for any information that would help give me a place to start or at least point me in the right direction, but I didn’t find anything. Then I figured that maybe I didn’t spend much time here, so theanswers might be where Ididspend a lot of time. I searched my workshop at Dark Matter Metal & Leather and found absolutely nothing. In fact, you’re the one who found a hidden space in my workshop and it was filled with stuff that’s not even mine.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t your secret stash?” Beryl said with a laugh.
“Pretty sure. I know for certain my initials are not LR. I guess I feel like if those things really were mine, I would’ve recognized them. Like a deep-down feeling or something. Like how I knew that all the half-finished projects in my workshop were mine. It was intuition or maybe a gut feeling, you know?”
She nodded and put her hand on top of his on the table. “I know. And if I ever think of anything that might help you retrieve any part of your past, I will do it.”
They finished their dinner, cleaned up the dishes and put the leftovers in the fridge before moving into the living room to sit on his sofa to chat.
As expected, Beryl really enjoyed talking to Jake. It was easy. It wasn’t that they had so many common interests or anything, because he was low on memories and they had nothing to compare. They did have a few, though, such as eating lunch outside in the park and their appreciation of all things metal and leather. She really did love his style of art.
Beryl thought the ease of conversation between them had more to do with their personalities. Jake was the epitome of an easygoing artistic type who was not a fan of arguing. Beryl appreciated not having to fight over every topic while out with someone. She had been on enough dates like that on Alpha-Prime.
It wasn’t uncommon for an Alpha to date other people casually before settling down with the spouse their family had arranged for them. Several of Beryl’s friends had invited her to dinner or out to an art gallery and blindsided her with whatthey considered the perfect temporary guy for her. Even if Beryl was interested in that—she didn’t think she was a casual type of person—they were never the perfect guy for her. None of them even came close.
It was no surprise to Beryl when her conversation with Jake wound around to her being left at the altar. Perhaps Beryl subconsciously wanted to bring it up again to ensure that, as much as they clicked, Jake understood their relationship was likely not going to be permanent.
She couldn’t tell him the reason for that was he was human and she was Alpha. This was at least something her sorry relationship history was good for—it made it easy for her to put the brakes on any serious intent for their budding relationship.
“Being jilted that way in front of everyone I knew was mortifying. I may never want to get engaged again,” she said honestly. She needed for Jake to hear that, because she wanted to be upfront about it.
“Understandable,” he said with a nod. “Not to mention, I don’t know anything about my past. There might be skeletons.”
“I’m not worried about skeletons. Most folks have them to varying degrees.” She considered that and added, “A wife tucked away would be a problem for me.”
Jake’s eyes widened. “Frederick assured me that I told him when I hired him that not only wasn’t I married, I didn’t have any girlfriends and was too busy with work to date.”
“Until I asked you out.”
“Yes. I’m so glad you did. Even though I would have made a move if you hadn’t.”
