Unforgettable (14 page)

 
“Let’s go home, I want to look at pictures and see if I remember anything else.” I tugged him along to the car, and when we got there he paused before opening my door for me.

 
“One thing first.” He paused and pulled his hand from mine and moved it up to my face. “I love you, Jules.” He didn’t try to kiss me, but I was too happy to care. I was
remembering
.

 
I didn’t know if I was supposed to say it back. Technically, I wasn’t feeling love toward him right now. I felt grateful, even extra friendly, but I don’t think the lust from this morning would really count as love. I stood there mute. He opened my car door still smiling. I guess he wasn’t feeling too slighted.

 
He went around to his side while I sat there trying to dredge up something else. Dammit, I couldn’t remember on demand. That’s okay, though. I had already remembered two things today and it wasn’t even noon. He put the shrimp on the floor in the back seat and got in. He looked happy. Really happy.

 
“I’m glad we came here,” I said as we pulled out.
 
I was, too. Not only did I spend a few hours perusing the offerings, but I had to admit I had a good time with Ethan. He didn’t even complain once.

 
“Me too. I told you I had good memories from here.” That’s right, he had. I’m glad I didn’t know what they were earlier; the pressure probably would have prevented me from remembering a thing.

 
We drove home without talking, just like before, but this time I was feeling positive.

Chapter Eleven

 
During the ride home I sat in happy silence. I was happy because, well duh, I’m finally remembering some things. Ethan was happy, I could only assume, because I remembered where I had told him I loved him for the first time. I wasn’t entirely sure how I was feeling about that. I remembered saying the words, but I couldn’t feel the emotion behind it. That really sucked. I hadn’t remembered anything else about my life, but I had already remembered two things regarding Ethan.

 
For the first time since waking up in the hospital, I really wanted to remember my relationship with him. I wanted to remember
being
with him. Age really wasn’t coming in to play as the deal breaker I thought it would be. He didn’t seem that young to me anymore. He was twenty seven, that’s not too young unless you’re like fifty. Shoot, even someone fifty years old would find Ethan hot. I hadn’t thought of him as Carrie’s brother, either, which helped matters immensely.

 
“Do you want to stop for some lunch?” His voice interrupted my thoughts. Did I want to eat? Hell yes. I would never turn down food.
 

 
I was feeling so good about this morning that, for the first time, I didn’t feel a moment’s hesitation about spending time with Ethan. We were friends after all. There was no harm in two friends grabbing food. I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t also thinking about sex with him. I had been thinking about it quite a lot since I woke up this morning. It was unusual, honestly. I really didn’t think about sex all that much. I mean, I liked having it and all; it just wasn’t something I spent too much time worrying about. I had a feeling sex with Ethan was going to be something worth thinking about.

 
“Well?” Ethan’s impatient voice broke into my musings. I realized that I hadn’t answered him out loud.

 
“Oh, yeah. I could eat something.” I wanted to scarf down a few tacos or a burger, that usually made me feel good, but I didn’t want to look like a pig in front of Ethan. I wanted to appear dainty. I saw a Wendy’s up ahead—they served salads! “Why don’t we just drive through at Wendy’s?”

 
“Uh, okay.” I guess Ethan had somewhere else in mind, but I was anxious to get home and look through my pictures. He pulled in and got in line. I looked at the menu board. Mmm, the burgers and fries were calling me, but I was strong.

 
“I’ll take a plain baked potato and a side salad, please,” I told him, proud of myself for sounding sensible and healthful.

 
He looked at me as if I had grown two heads. “Don’t you want the double?”

 
The double patty cheeseburger sounded divine, but I didn’t want him to know that. He did know my eating preferences, though. I was wavering in my convictions. I didn’t want the salad. Well, that’s not true; I wanted the cheeseburger and the salad. Decisions, decisions. Hunger beat dignity.

 
“Yeah, I guess I’ll take the double.” I tried to make it sound as if I was only getting it to humor him. “Oh, and a Coke.”

 
He ordered two double cheeseburger meals and drove up to the window to pay. I was faced again with my lack of funds, but I did have my fourteen dollars.

 
“Here, I’ll pay for this.” I pulled my wallet out of my purse and grabbed my cash. He looked like he was going to say something but he took the money and paid for the food. He handed me the change and then took the bag from the teenaged boy in the window. “Get extra ketchup,” I told him before it was too late and we drove away. He put the drinks in the cup holders and handed me a huge wad of ketchup packets.

 
“Thanks for buying me lunch,” he said as he pulled out of the parking lot.

 
“No problem, anyway, you bought the shrimp,” I reminded him as he drove the last mile to my house.

 
The smell of food was permeating the car, so, by the time he parked and we gathered the food and the shrimp and carried it in, I was ravenous. We walked in and I set the drinks and burgers on the island while Ethan carried the shrimp to the refrigerator. He grabbed some plates while I separated the junk food feast between the two of us.

 
I politely waited until he sat down before tearing into my food. I was trying to eat slowly but I was so hungry I was shoving fries smothered in ketchup in my mouth as fast as I could swallow. I slowed down once I noticed I had eaten most of my fries and I moved on to my burger at a ladylike pace. That’s when I remembered my money situation. I had to know if I was on the brink of bankruptcy or if I was finally financially comfortable.

 
“Um Ethan, do I have any money?” He finished his bite before answering me.

 
“What do you mean, exactly?”

 
I was embarrassed to have to ask, but it was vitally important to me to know what I was dealing with. “I need to know how much money I have available. Do you know?”

 
“Well, not down to the penny, but yeah, I have a pretty good idea. Do you need something? You should have told me.”

 
“I was just wondering. I only had fourteen dollars in my wallet, and I wasn’t sure if I had any money in the bank or anything.” I didn’t want to admit to Ethan that ever since Carrie moved out and I bought the house, money had been tight. I always managed to pay the mortgage and keep the electricity on, but often I was glad to be able to eat at the restaurant.
 

 
“I’m pretty sure you are quite comfortable. Your website is very popular. If you want, you can check online.”

 
“Right.” I hadn’t even thought about checking online. I could have saved myself a lot of embarrassment. “Thanks.” We finished eating and I threw all the trash away. I wanted to look through my photo albums, but I needed to know my financial picture.

 
I left Ethan in the kitchen and went straight to the office computer. I was jarred by the furnishings again, but I had to focus. I pulled up my bank online, but it didn’t let me into my account. I tried again. Denied. I was getting frustrated. I typed in my information one more time. It sent me to a page that told me I was being locked out for security reasons. Great, now I was on some kind of a hackers list or something. I banged my fist down on the keyboard. Ethan picked that moment to walk in.

 
“What’s wrong?” He came and looked over my shoulder. “What did you do?”

 
“I don’t know. It wouldn’t accept my information.” I was feeling angry and embarrassed, all my happiness from earlier had evaporated with my money and technology problems.

 
He leaned over me and looked closer. “This isn’t even your bank, Juliet.”

 
“Yes it is. I’ve always banked here.” I think I know my own bank.

 
“Not anymore. You bank at First National now. You have for the past six months. We both have. They opened a branch right around the corner.”

 
It stuck me again that he knew things I had no idea about. “Can you help me check?”

 
“Sure.” I hopped up and he took the chair. He opened the desk drawer and pulled out a check book. I looked closely at it, it was mine. He typed in the account numbers and password.

 
“How do you know my password?”

 
He smirked at me. “You told me. It’s sexyethan1.”

 
I felt my face flame. I felt like I was in middle school and the cute boy I had a crush on found a note I wrote about him.

 
“Don’t worry, I picked something equally cheesy.”

 
 
“Hmm.” I waited while my information popped up. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There, right before my eyes was $7,344.19. That was impossible.

 
“What is this?” Ethan must have typed in his own information.

 
“Your checking account.” No way, there was no way that was correct.

 
“That can’t be right. That’s too much.”

 
“It is. I told you your website is popular. I wasn’t exaggerating. You are doing very well. Once you get the advance for the cookbook, you’ll be doing even better.” Oh my god. I’m
rich
. Well, maybe other people wouldn’t think seven thousand dollars was much, but as far as I was concerned, I was loaded.

 
“Anything else you need to know?” I knew I was grinning like a fool. I just shook my head. Wow. Not only am I kind of famous, I’m rich, too. Oh yeah, and I have a hot boyfriend. The only downside was that I couldn’t remember any of this. But hey, on the upside I was now one of
those
people. The kind of person that other people envy.

 
I took a moment to glory in my newfound awesomeness. I didn’t know what I should do next. I wanted to go look at some pictures or something, but I also wanted to laze around and think about how good things were going in my life.

 
“Nah, I’m good.” Dang right I’m good. I’ve finally arrived. I thought of the pictures. I wasn’t sure where we kept them.

 
“Do we have some photos I could look at? I already looked at the book beside the bed. I was hoping something would click, but unfortunately nothing did.”

 
He nodded. “There are some on here.” He motioned to the computer. “Plus, I think you have a bunch on your phone.” Oh yeah, I had forgotten my phone, I probably have some cool stuff on there.

 
“Well, let’s look at them. You can tell me when and where and everything.”

 
“Okay.” He opened a folder marked “Pictures.” Hmm, you’d think I would have noticed that since it was on the desktop and all.

 
I pulled his stool from his drafting table and perched on it right next to him. He started going through the pictures one by one. There were a lot of shots with no humans, just mountains and snow.

 
“These are from when we went skiing in Colorado.” I went skiing? Who is this new me? I must not be as clumsy as I remember. Nice.

 
I sat in silence as other pictures came up. Me alone, Ethan alone, the two of us together at some party. Oh, those are from Carrie’s house. I placed my hand on top of Ethan’s to make him pause. I got that same jolt as earlier, but I didn’t have a new flash of memory. I looked closer at the picture. It was obviously taken by someone else because Ethan and I were looking at each other with what can only be described as heat. I got a tingle in my belly. I wanted to remember that moment. It looked hot. I realized I still had my hand on Ethan’s so I pulled it away.