Unforgettable (20 page)

 
“Ethan, do we spend a lot of time together?”

 
“Well, I think so. We spend most evenings together, is that what you mean?”

 
 
“Yes, but what do we do? Do we hang out around the house or what? I guess I just want to know how we spend our time together.”

 
He looked at me and smiled. “We pretty much hang around the house all of the time. We aren’t lame though.” I raised my eyebrow at him. It sounded like we might be a little bit lame. “Really, we go out to eat and stuff. Sometimes we’ll have people over, too. Mostly just Carrie and Nigel, but still, we’re not shut-ins. I think we’re pretty cool.”
Says the Star Wars geek.
Maybe Ethan was cool, but I had never been “cool” in my life. I was slightly bookish in school and then in college I didn’t go out much until I met Carrie. However, if I was able to land a hot guy like Ethan, maybe I was cool. I suddenly remembered that I have a web show and a cookbook in the works. I
am
cool. I had to keep that in mind. Whatever transformation had taken place in my life in the last two years turned me into someone cool and it was great.

 
“I wish I could remember.” I looked into his eyes and they were full of sadness, but also something else.

 
“Me too.” I turned back to the pan of shrimp. “Do you want to listen to some music?”

 
“Yeah.” He went into the living room and a few seconds later I could hear “
Electric Avenue
” coming through the speakers. I confess a weakness for cheesy Eighties music. When Ethan came back in I was singing along and dancing in front of the stove. He just smiled and joined in. I wasn’t even embarrassed of my singing.

 
Ethan had grabbed the bottle of wine while I plated the food and slid it across the island.

 
“Mmm. This is great.” Ethan ate a shrimp and gave me a thumbs up.

 
I tried a bite and had to agree with him. We ate in silence for a few minutes, until my phone rang. I got up to get it out of the living room.

 
“Let it ring,” Ethan told me between bites.

 
“It might be my mom. She probably hasn’t left yet.” I jogged to grab it but it stopped ringing before I got to it. Elisa again. Maybe Ethan knew who this was.

 
I walked back to my seat with the phone. “Who is Elisa?”

 
“She works with me, she’s your friend.” He used air quotes around “friend” so I could tell that he didn’t like her, but she’d already called me twice so we were probably pretty close.

 
“She called yesterday, too. I haven’t listened to the voicemail yet.” Ethan’s face froze for a moment but almost instantly smoothed.

 
“I’m sure it’s nothing important.” He went back to eating so I put my phone down wondering what his change of facial expression meant. Was he cheating on me? No, that didn’t make sense. He was too attentive, and he was trying hard to help me get my memory back. I tried to shrug it off but something about her name was niggling at my brain. We finished the shrimp and I stood up to grab the mousse from the refrigerator.

 
I pulled two out and set them down. Ethan looked up at me and smiled. I just about melted. All I wanted was to walk over to him and give him a kiss, but I couldn’t make myself do it. It was still too early. I know we had just had sex a few hours ago, but this was different. Now that my mind wasn’t clouded with lust something else was filling it. Tenderness. I just smiled back and sat back down.

 
My first bite of the chocolate mousse made something short circuit in my mind. Well, it was that or the Pet Shop Boys song that had just started playing. Perhaps it was a combination of both, but I knew immediately what Ethan had done.

 
“This is just like our first date.” His eyes widened and I knew I was right. He nodded and grabbed my hand.

 
“I can’t believe it actually worked and that you remembered.” He was practically bursting at the seams.

 
“My god, I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner. Monopoly? You were pulling out all the stops.” I shook my head but left my hand in his.

 
“I didn’t mention the mousse; you did that all by yourself.” That’s right. I remembered craving it when I was thinking about what to serve with the scampi.

 
“Thank you, Ethan.” I leaned forward at the same time he did. We didn’t stop until we were touching noses.

 
“My pleasure. I’ll recreate every day until you remember everything, if you want.” A chill went up my spine and I took a breath full of Ethan. I touched my lips to his and I tasted the chocolate. I was just about to really get into it when I heard Lucy yelp from the other room. I jerked my head back and we both bolted into the living room. Lucy was cowering in the corner near the bookshelves and Sparkles was standing in front of her trying to look innocent. I had forgotten the beast was here.

 
Ethan reached down and picked up Lucy. I checked her for blood but she was unmarked. Lucky for Sparkles.

 
“I don’t like this cat, Ethan.”

 
“Believe me, I don’t either.” He handed Lucy to me. “Stupid cat ruined our date night.” What? He was going to let the cat defeat him. I. Don’t. Think. So.

Chapter Seventeen

 
“Oh no she didn’t,” I told Ethan as he turned to face off with Sparkles. “We are going to finish our date.” On this point I was standing firm. I was starting to remember now and I wasn’t going to let my mother’s cat derail something good.

 
“Jules, I have to concentrate right now. This is serious business.” He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Sparkles. “Could you please go over there and open her crate for me? I need it to be ready.”

 
He was going to crate her? I felt guilty. My mom was entrusting me with her most precious thing. And, no, the irony that the cat was more precious than me did not escape me.

 
“Ethan, I don’t think we should put her in the crate. My mom wouldn’t like that.” Boy, talk about understatements.

 
“Babe, you don’t know the full situation. This cat doesn’t like me.”

 
Does this cat like anyone? “She doesn’t like me either, but we can’t just keep her locked up.”

 
“Jules, she attacks me at every opportunity. She draws blood. I’m not putting up with her for a week. I’m sorry; I know I should have said something earlier.” He’s not putting up with her? Excuse me, but isn’t this
my
house? Okay, so I realize he lives here, too, even if I don’t fully remember that little gem yet, but I’m not going to have him putting the cat in a small crate for who knows how long.

 
“I’m sorry, Ethan, but I can’t let you do that. My mother is counting on me.”

 
“I’m not going to crate her for a week; I’m just going to use it to carry her to the laundry room so that I can shut her in there for tonight. I think we are going to have to consider boarding her.”

 
Maybe now was the time to find out what his problem with Sparkles was.

 
“Why? I know she’s kind of a pain and she doesn’t get along with Lucy, but really, she isn’t that bad.”

 
He just looked at me like I was slow and shook his head. “She’s out to get me, Jules. She
attacks
me. Do you understand what I’m saying? She wants to
destroy
me.” Who is this drama queen? Where was the sexy and protective Ethan from before? I was almost embarrassed for him. She wants to
destroy
him? Where does he get this stuff?

 
“Look, she hasn’t done anything to you, yet. Let’s just give her a chance. She might have mellowed since you last saw her.”

 
I could tell he didn’t want to let it go, but he sighed and backed away from Sparkles, taking my arm and pulling me away, too.

 
“Let’s just eat our mousse and relax. We have a date to get back to, right? Come on, we’ll take them to the couch and watch something on TV, okay?” He nodded and grabbed our dishes since I was still holding Lucy. Ethan walked over to the stereo and turned it off with his elbow before coming to sit with me on the couch. I made sure Lucy was sandwiched between us. He handed me my mousse and I started eating. It really was delicious. Ethan turned on the TV and there was some show on with some guys on a boat.

 
“Shark Week.” Ethan looked over and gave me a grin. Okay, he might be scared of a cat, but his grin could get me every time. Dammit! I just want to remember him fully. The snatches I’ve been getting had all made me feel better, but there was still just a little bit of weirdness there. Even after having mind-blowing sex. Maybe because of the sex, I didn’t know anymore. All I was sure of was that Ethan and I were together and he was, quite possibly, the most romantic guy ever. Reenacting our first date was awesome. Even if I had my memory, that would be romantic. Ahh.

 
I nodded and took another bite. Maybe I should do a web show on mousse. Maybe I had. I needed to know these kinds of things. That was going to be on my to-do list for tomorrow. I needed to know how to do my job.

 
“Ethan, have I done a show about mousse yet?”

 
“No, but for the next series of recipes that would be a good addition.”

 
“What do you mean series? Don’t I just do a show and post it?”

 
“Uh uh. It’s more complicated than that. We don’t just film you and post it. We have to do repeat shots sometimes and then there’s the lighting and sound to set up, not to mention the editing involved before we can post it.” Wow. It sounded almost like a real TV show, or what I knew about a TV show.

 
“Who does all of that?” Surely the two of us couldn’t do everything.

 
“My friend Riley from work actually helps on days when we tape. He’s a photographer and a videographer. He brings his stuff over and we try to do at least three segments at a time. It really saves a lot of time that way.”

 
Hmm. This sounded like a professional operation we had going here. I felt a surge of pride. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would actually be able to do a cooking show, but here I was with a show and a book coming out. This was fantastic.

 
I settled back into the couch feeling happy. Really happy. Look at me, Juliet Taylor, sitting on the couch with an incredibly sexy man who had just rocked my world, eating chocolate and thinking about my awesome career. It really didn’t get much better than this. Well, besides the amnesia. But Ethan was even helping me take care of that.

 
I couldn’t bask in the glow of happiness long because, out of the corner of my eye, I could see a flash of black and white fur. Sparkles had climbed up the back of the couch when we had least expected it. Ethan screamed and threw his cup of mousse into the air as he jumped up with Sparkles attached to his head.

 
“Aaaah!”

 
I looked and jumped up too. Sparkles was holding on with what I knew must be her claws and Ethan was flailing around trying to peel her off of his scalp.

 
“Help me!” I was already trying to get to him but it was hard since he was moving around so much.

 
“Hold still and I’ll get her.” He paused with his hands covering his eyes and I grabbed Sparkles by the front legs. Wow, she was really in deep. It took me a moment to pull her off of him.

 
I had her in my hands and Lucy was barking at all of the frantic activity as Ethan lunged for the crate and I shoved her inside before she could turn on me. What the hell just happened?