Remember This (12 page)

He must hear me put my clutch on the coffee table because he turns his gaze from the window to me. He starts at my feet and I can feel his eyes move slowly up my body until he meets my stare. I start to fidget as he continues to stare at me still talking on the phone. I look away trying to calm myself but when I turn to look at him again he is smiling at me.

“Ok, mom I will call you later,” he says as he presses the end button on his phone and slips it into his pocket. His eyes haven’t moved from me but I am trying to look anywhere but at him.

“Well, I’m ready. Where are we going?” I try to distract him from his penetrating gaze.

“You look beautiful, Luce,” he says walking towards me slowly. He used to call me Luce all the time but he hasn’t since the accident. When he says it this time, it makes my heart thud. “Almost as beautiful as you did in the tub,” he laughs. I glare at him, grab my purse and head for the door. He sure knows how to ruin the moment.

“Hey, I was just joking,” he says catching up with me and grabbing my arm. “And you smell really nice too.” That would be the vanilla bath soap, again highlighting my graceful afternoon.

“Thank you. Where are we going?” I’m still a little irritated with him.

“Roberto’s.”

“Oh yum,” I say and then I pause. We go to Roberto’s regularly but there is no way Mason remembers that and I haven’t mentioned it to him. He can tell that I am thinking about something and he removes his hand from my arm and lets it fall to his side.

“What is it?” he asks.

“How do you know about Roberto’s?” He pauses for a second and then responds.

“I drove past it today before I went to the gym. It has a beautiful park right next to it and I thought it might be a nice place to go. Have we been there before?”

“Yes, we go all the time,” I admit. Oh, so his memory isn’t back. I’m surprisingly relieved.

“Well, then we must have good taste because it looks delicious. I’ll drive.”

The restaurant is packed but Mason, being the charmer that he is, gets us a private booth near the back of the restaurant. I order wine and Mason gets a beer as we look over the menu.

“What are you having?” he asks pondering the menu options.

“The usual,” I say casually. He looks up at me like he doesn’t understand and I remember that he wouldn’t know what my usual at Roberto’s is. “Alfredo,” I clarify with an apologetic smile.

“I think I will get the lasagna,” he declares and I have to laugh because I remember him ordering it before and absolutely hating the sauce they put on top.

“What?” he asks eyeing me and my laughter suspiciously.

“You won’t like it. You usually get the ravioli.”

“Thanks. Ravioli it is then.” We sit eating bread and the conversation flows smoothly. He has a lot of questions about his childhood that I try to answer. I fill him in on what his favorite movies are and what music he listens to. We laugh about the fact that he found a Kesha Pandora station on his iPhone because it is so out of character for him. “I kind of like it,” he says as he starts on his dinner.

We share tiramisu for dessert and then Mason pays for dinner. “Do you want to go for a walk around the park?” he asks as we make our way out of the packed restaurant. I hesitate and look down at my shoes. He notices my reaction. “We don’t have to I just thought it was a nice night out.”

“Let’s do it. I will just take off my shoes.” I clamber out of my pumps and hold them in one hand with my clutch in the other. The cobblestone path weaves around giant trees and patches of landscaped grass. Mason is still asking me questions but now he is focusing more on his teenage years. I can only tell him the stories I have heard but that seems to satisfy his needs. We laugh about his awful prom when his date canceled at the last minute and he wound up going with his nerdy lab partner. He asks about my high school days and I tell him about my theatre experiences and how I played Tweedle Dee in my last play. He thought that was really amusing.

We make our way on the path until we are standing in front of a large, round fountain. The water cascades down the tiers of marble and the sound it makes is very pleasant. There are four street lamps forming a large square around the fountain and there are lights strung between the poles.

“Wow,” I whisper. “It is beautiful here. I can’t believe that we have never walked over here before.” I risk a glance in his direction and he is smiling and gazing at the fountain. “Can I ask you something?” He turns his smiling face towards me.

“Shoot,” he says.

“Why did you want to do dinner tonight?” He just looks at me for a moment, standing about three feet away.

“Well, I don’t remember our previous relationship, the one where we hated each other enough to be separated. I know we had our differences in Mexico…” he pauses for a second as though he is trying to figure out his wording. He steps closer to me so there is only a foot between us. My breathing accelerates and I pray that I don’t have alfredo breath. It’s a good thing I ate that mint after dinner. “Lucy, I don’t see all the drama from our past. All I see is a beautiful, hard working, strong willed woman cooking dinner for herself every night and sleeping in the bedroom next to me alone. I may have lost my memory but I’m still a man. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t find you extremely intriguing.”

All I can do is concentrate on not falling over. While I know I am looking at Mason, I know it’s not him behind those piercing blue eyes. He is sort of a mix between the Mason I met years ago and a new man that I know nothing about. Whoever he is, he is blowing my socks off right now.

“So, I guess you could say that I wanted to take you out on a date,” he finished his confession staring at me, willing me to say something. My look is one of suspicion I’m sure but I can hear the sincerity in his voice. All I can think is that I wish Henry and his friends would take their party elsewhere. I can’t think of anything to say so I just smile. That smile turns into a giggle and then full out laughter. It’s a damn good thing I took my shoes off or I would have fallen to the ground right here by the fountain.

“Am I amusing you?” he says looking a little hurt.

“I’m sorry. I’m just at a loss for words.” I stop laughing. His face turns serious, but gentle.

“Then don’t say anything,” he says as he steps away from me and holds out his hand. I look from his face to his outstretched hand and place my hand gently in his. He laces his fingers in between mine and we continue on our walk through the park.

He continues to hammer me with questions. Now he wants to know about college and our early dating years. I tell him about our first trip to the beach and how a wave splashed up around my ankles and sea weed tangled around my legs. I freaked out and threw myself at him screaming and that was the first time he kissed me.

He parks his car in the driveway and we get out, heading for the front door. He can’t park in the garage because I parked crooked today. I must have been really out of it.

I am digging in my clutch for my keys, my shoes still in my other hand, when he grabs my hand and stops me. He is standing inches from my face and staring intently into my eyes. We stand like this for a few seconds and a million things run through my head. What is he doing? I wonder how my breath is. Did I lock the car?
Focus
, I think to myself.

My breath hitches as he leans in closing the small gap between us and presses his lips against mine. I close my eyes but in an instant the kiss is over and he pulls away. I open my eyes and find him staring at me with a lopsided grin on his face. He looks breathtakingly gorgeous. He shakes his head and then grabs his keys out of his pocket and unlocks the door. I can see that he is still smiling.

He disappears inside and I find I can’t move my feet. I am stuck to the spot where he kissed me. I sigh and then take a step towards the door. That’s when I realize that one of my feet is literally stuck to the sidewalk. I pull hard to lift it up and there it is; I must have stepped on a piece of gum on our walk because the sticky substance is stretching between my foot and the pavement. “Shit!” I whisper as I try to get into the grass to wipe it off. My foot finally comes free of the pavement but the gum is all over the bottom of my foot.

“What are you doing out there?” I hear Mason yell from inside.

“Oh, nothing, just enjoying the…grass.” I spout out the first thing that I see.
The grass?
Honestly, Lucy.

“Um, ok. I’m going to take a shower,” he says a little skeptical of my behavior.

“Ok, I’ll be in in a minute…not in the shower but you know, inside.” Cheese and rice! What in the world is wrong with me?

“Ok,” he laughs.

I collapse on the grass and find a leaf to use to get the gum off my foot. I finally get it all off but my foot still feels a little sticky. I get up off the grass and scoot inside trying not to let the sticky part of my foot touch the carpet. I make it to the kitchen and get the remaining grime off. I go into my bedroom and plop down on my bed completely exhausted. I run through this evenings events in my mind and I can’t believe everything that has happened. Mason, well this new Mason, actually likes me and I think I like him too. When he kissed me tonight, it was like the time in Mexico all over again. I feel giddy with excitement but exhausted at the same time. I pass out on my bed with my clothes on.

I wake up suddenly. It is light outside. I look at my alarm clock and I see that I am going to be late for work. It’s finally Friday. I hear the door bell ring and know that must have been what woke me up. I put on my robe and answer the door.

“Flowers for…Lucy,” the man says reading the envelope attached to the wicker basket.

“That’s me.” I grab the basket of roses and take it inside. These must be from Mason, I think. I rip open the envelope excited that he has sent me flowers. The card inside reads:

For my beautiful girl,

Love Eli

I smile as I smell the flowers and then blanch. Eli! Why is he sending me flowers at home? I panic not wanting Mason to see the flowers. I quickly stuff the roses and the basket in a garbage bag, looking around to make sure Mason doesn’t see what I am up to. His bedroom door is open and I don’t hear him so he must have already left for the day. I tighten the belt on my robe and I head outside to dump the flowers in our garbage can at the end of the driveway. “I can’t believe he did that,” I say out loud to myself. “What is he thinking?” I shake my head and lifting the lid to the garbage can. When I put the lid down I scream. Mason is standing on the other side of the garbage can. He was obviously on a run and here he stands glistening with sweat looking like a Greek god. At least he has his shirt on today.

“Who were you talking to?” he asks chuckling at me.

“No one, I was just singing,” I say a little too quickly. He eyes me skeptically and then smiles and I know he is just going to move on. “Go on a run with me?”

“Right now?”

“Yeah, it’s the perfect time for it.”

“I don’t think so. I don’t run.” I turn and head towards the house.

“Well you used to,” he says watching me walk away.

“What do you mean?” I never mentioned anything about running to Mason.

“I found an old scrapbook that your mom made.”

Oh shit. My face falls and I know exactly the scrapbook he is talking about. Not more damned pictures! Freshman year of high school, my mom thought it would be good for me to do track and field. I thought hurdles would be fun, forgetting about my lack of gracefulness. It was a disaster. The picture he is referring to is probably the one of me in my orange and black spandex running suit tripping over a hurdle. My hair is in pig tails and I am screaming, which shows off my braces.

“That was a long time ago, Mason and I don’t run anymore.”

“Come on we can go slow. It is really good for clearing your mind.” I can tell he isn’t going to give up on this and I am already beyond late for work so I guess it couldn’t hurt. I will just go in after lunch. I haven’t run in a long time and it might feel good. Besides, it means I get to spend some time with Mason. This is such a new concept for me to embrace.

“Fine, let me go get changed.” I roll my eyes and go put on some shorts and an old college t-shirt. I come back outside and Mason is waiting for me. “I guess I’m ready.”

“We can just run to the park and back. It will only take like 30 minutes.” 30 minutes? I can’t run for 30 minutes. I have no time to think because he has already taken off. I sprint to catch up with him and then slow to his jogging pace. I really start to breath in the morning air.

“It feels good doesn’t it?” he says glancing sideways at me.

“It’s not so bad.” I’m actually enjoying myself. The breeze feels good I like to look at our neighbor’s yards as we whiz past them. After what feels like forever I start to get pretty winded. “Are we getting close?” I ask, the anticipation audible in my voice.

“Are you kidding, Luce? It’s only been like three minutes.”

“Oh…right,” I say shrugging it off. “I was kidding, you were right.” I’m not kidding. I’m not even close to kidding. My side is starting to cramp up and I’m sweating. My lungs are on fire and my legs feel like Jell-o. This sucks but what is worse is that Mason keeps trying to talk to me. I can’t form sentences so I give him one word answers. I feel like I am dying.

After I have run as far as I am going to make it, I find myself turning in a small semi-circle and jogging in the direction we just came from. I keep jogging at my own slow pace hoping that maybe Mason won’t notice that I disappeared. I feel a little relief when I realize that a few seconds have passed and I haven’t heard him yell for me yet.
I escaped his tortuous run
, I think in my head but I get a weird feeling like someone is watching me. I look to the right towards Karl Carter’s house but no one is there. I must just be paranoid.

“Whatcha doin’?” Mason says as he walks to my left. I jump and let out a little squeal. I keep jogging and he continues to keep pace with me as he walks beside me.

“I decided I don’t like running.” I can see his smile out of the corner of my eye.