God.Whois Liam? And since I have a list now, who the hell is Darcy? How, in this day and age, have I reached adulthood with no tattoos, no distinctive features to help the police, and no files anywhere that would allow facial recognition or fingerprint technology to decipher who I am?
“Oh, hey. You’re that chick, huh?”
I startle and spin, locking eyes with a woman with a striking blue stare and upturned red lips. She wears a knee-length coat, and beneath that, tight black jeans and a black shirt that has no other distinctive descriptive qualities. It’s just… black.
“Rose, right?” She strolls forward, sipping from a to-go cup of coffee. “You’re very pretty.”
“Um…”
She circles me like she’s taking stock. Studying. Judging.
Spinning, I try to keep her in front of me. “Hi.”
“You’re totally cute.” She flashes a devious smile and steps in on my left, scooping her arm around mine and forcing me forward until we’re walking side by side. “Are you lost, Rose, or just exploring? ‘Cos either way, I don’t mind walking with you.”
My heart thrums painfully in my chest. Thundering against my diaphragm. “N-not lost.”
“Just roaming then.” Completely at ease, she nods. “I so rarely take the time to do that these days. I’m always working, ya know? Locked away in my building seven days a week from sunup to sundown. I forget to take a breath and just…” She exhales. “Wander. And this town… I grew up here. For thirty years, I’ve called this place my home, where everyone knows everyone, and life is slower than everywhere else. Did you grow up in a town like Plainview?”
“I-I don’t know.”Let me go. Let me go. Let me go!“I don’t remember.”
“I heard that, too.” She looks down at me, her two-inch height difference may as well be twelve inches. That’s how small I feel compared to her. “I heard you got hurt and now you’ve forgotten everything. I’ve read about these cases, but I’ve never met anyone with retrograde amnesia before. What’s that like?”
“Uh…” I glance up desperately as we pass a bakery, and the scent of coffee pumps through the door like it was designed to draw customers in. I have no money, but sneaking in and sitting down for a little while is tempting.
“I mean… I suppose it wouldhaveto feel like you’ve lost a sense, right?” The woman tugs me along, callously robbing me of my chance toescape. “Like, if I covered my ears, I can still see, smell, and touch. But not being able to hear feels like a disadvantage. If I covered my eyes, I could still hear and taste and touch, but there’s no way I’m not bumping around and running into things. I imagine losing your memories feels a bit like that.”
“I…”God. I don’t know.
“You can see and hear and smell and touch. You can create new memories, and you remember how to do some things, like get dressed and whatnot. But if I ask about your childhood, your brain does…” She meets my eyes. “What?”
“It tries. But it’s like looking through a dirty glass window, where everything on the other side is blurry and dull and impossible to grab on to.”
“But everything you’ve experienced since waking up at the hospital? You remember all that?”
“Yeah… I…” I dig my heels in and bring us to a stop outside a bookstore. I don’t rip my arm from her grip, though I kind of want to. But I pull free with a firm, undeniable yank and dig my hands into my pockets. “Have we met before?”
She sips her coffee and smirks, shaking her head side to side. “No, we haven’t. But this is what happens when you live in a small town. Everyone knows everyone else’s business, whether you like it or not, and I heard you’re staying over at Doctor Darling’s place. I trust he’s been a good host?”
I narrow my eyes to suspicious slits, my temper bubbling and growing in my veins. “He’s been great. I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?”
“Eh.” She smiles behind the lip of her cup and taps perfect fire engine red fingernails against the outer shell. “I didn’t say. And since we’ve never met before, I figured no matter what name I gave you, it would lack context. Thus, I felt doing so would be useless. What are your plans after all this?”
I take a long step back, scowling at the beautiful blonde stranger.Could she hurt me? Possibly. Will I let her? Nope.“My plans?”
“Yeah. I mean, eventually you’ll want to move on, right? At the moment, things are still fresh and scary and confusing. You got hit by a car—Barbara’s a total bitch all the time, just so you know—and then you woke up in the hospital with a whopper headache. Now you’ve been discharged and you’re staying at Doctor Darling’s place. But that’s not a forever plan. You’ll get bored eventually, so I guess I was just wondering what your next step is?”
“Probably something I should discuss with my medical team,” Icounter. “Not a stranger in the street who technically hasn’t even introduced herself yet.”
Impressed, she points with her coffee-finger and laughs. “Ain’t no flies on you, Rose. I like the sass. I heard Doctor Darling blew his date off for Valentine’s Day and spent the evening with you instead.”
“Cool. Are you the date?” I challenge. “Is this some weird small-town razzing thing I’m forced to deal with because I’m the newbie, but it’s worse because you have a crush on Ollie, and my arrival at the ER messed with your plans? Because that’s something you could probably talk to him about directly.” I gesture along the street. “Hospital’s that way. He won’t be hard to find.”
Snickering, she ambles closer and twists me around until I’m pointing the opposite way. “Hospital’s that way, actually.”
Dammit.
“I heard you were afraid of everyone and everything. Folks so much as breathe a little too loud in your vicinity and you’d completely lose your shit.” She wrinkles her nose. “But you don’t seem afraid to me. Was it an act to secure Doctor Darling’s sympathies?”
