“My mother could’ve gone a different route. It would’ve worked out.”
I figured she was referring to the police. “She could’ve, yes. She didn’t.”
“Why?” Laikyn pointed at me with her fork. “That’s what I don’t understand. What else is she hiding that she felt the need to … call you?”
Her mother had a lot of skeletons in her closet. I wouldn’t even know where to begin if I was open to sharing them. I wasn’t. I didn’t want to see Laikyn hurt any more than she had been already. I simply wanted to get her through this in one piece. Once she came out the other side, she could move on with her life. There were bigger and better things waiting for her. Things she wasn’t even aware of yet.
Laikyn laughed. “You know you’re the worst first date in the history of first dates.”
“I thought this was our honeymoon.”
Her smile was sweet and shy, and I forced myself to look away. This woman … I wanted her in a way I knew I shouldn’t. I was not a nice guy. I did not do nice things. She deserved a man who would walk through fire on the right side of the line to protect her. I would protect her, but I would do it through any means necessary. It wouldn’t matter if I traumatized her in the process.
“Do you remember any of your first dates?” she asked, casually moving on.
“All of them,” I admitted.
Laikyn sat up and leaned back. “All of them? Seriously?”
I didn’t bother telling her every single one of my dates had been the first and the last. “Yes.”
“Who was your very firstfirst datewith?”
“Margot Freeman,” I answered. “She was a sophomore in high school. I was a junior. I drove her dad’s car. We went to the movie theater. She wanted to seeMean Girls. I talked her intoHellboy. We made out when I took her home. Third base.”
Her eyes were wide. “You remember all of that? About your first date?”
“I remember everything about everything.”
Her expression sobered, and I could feel her studying me. “Eidetic memory?”
“Hyperthymesia,” I corrected.
“Not the same thing?”
I shook my head. “I remember more than images.”
“So similar in theory? But you also recallwhat? Sounds and smells?”
I nodded.
“How far back?”
I glanced at her, then to the table, and back to her again. “I remember being left in that police station. The officer who picked me up and frowned like she didn’t know what she was looking at?”
“Oh, God.”
I’d never told anyone that before.
“So it’s not this great phenomenon that people make it out to be?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if you can recall things with vivid clarity, it wouldn’t only be the good things.”
No one who knew about my enhanced memory had ever made that acknowledgment. Most people were in awe, wishing they had the same ability. What they didn’t realize was exactly what Laikyn said—bad memories were as ingrained as good. Although I could recite a book verbatim after reading it once or twice, those weren’t the only things lodged in my brain. Life experiences were stored there as well, and most of them with vivid clarity.
“It’s not, no.”
