Page 32 of Falling for the Enemy

Jeremy agreed and then told me that at one point, they were supposed to get married. She had gotten cold feet; he had declared that he didn't want to be with her anyway and they had broken up. I had never heard that story before, but I believed it just because I thought I was seeing Jeremy more emotional than he’d probably been the whole time I had known him.

It made me start thinking that he could possibly be right, even though he wasn’t right about much, but he had put the thought in my head. What happened when she remembered me, and then I wasn’t there? I had planned to stay in Ohio for a while. I’d just needed a breather. Now, I was worried that something was going to happen while I was here, and I would never forgive myself. Why had I been so easy to give up? I waited all this time to see if she was going to wake up, because there was a time when we weren't really sure.

It was one of the worst times of my life and I thought all of the buildup, waiting for the moment that she’d opened her eyes, was offset by the fact that she hadn't remembered me. It had stung my ego and instead of giving her some time, which she obviously needed, I just left, running back home with my tail between my legs.

Jeremy was right, even if he was an idiot about everything else. We’d talked a bit longer, but my mind was no longer into it. I was thinking about Amber and everything that was going on.

“I lost you, didn’t I?”

I agreed that he had, and he wanted to know when I was going back. I knew the answer, even if I didn’t have the ticket yet.

“I will be getting on the next plane back.”

I didn't know how many times in the last three months I had wished that I had asked her to marry me and told her that I loved her. I’d imagined for the last three months that I might not ever get the chance. It was really eating away at me, the idea that Amber would never know.

The doctors had been quite clear that her memory would come back most likely. It could come back at any time, especially if she was around familiar things that would help jump start it.

I should be there now, instead of with Jeremy, instead of drinking my worries away. I'd never been one to drown my sorrows, I was the type who did something about it. Now was the time to do something and even though I had just gotten home, I knew that I needed to get back to the airport and back to Amber. She didn't remember me right now, that was fine. I would figure out a way to make sure that what happened between us was never forgotten.

* * *

I tookthe red eye back to Ohio, back to her parents, and I didn't know why, but I was so worried that I was going to be too late. When I got in the hospital and saw Robert in the waiting room, that fear grew. What the hell was he doing there? Amber still thought she was married to him, but I'll be damned if that was going to happen. Amber had told me how he had misused her and treated her badly. There was no way that I was going to sit by and let him get another chance. He didn't deserve one, he had messed it up, and now it was my turn.

The jealousy silently started to take over and I knew that Amber didn't like when I acted this way, but I honestly didn't know how to act any other way. She was a lot to think about, a lot to lose, and Robert would not be the one who got her, I’d be damned. It had taken me a moment to realize it, but I realized it now and I refused to give up. I could never give up on her.

I walked into the waiting room and saw Amber’s mom. I asked her if everything was okay. She looked intense. As much as her daughter might not remember me, I had gotten close with her mother in all this time. She did not like Robert, and I knew without a doubt that she was on my side.

“What is going on?”

“He is insisting on seeing Amber. I don't know how, but he found out that she was awake and that she still thinks they’re married. I think he's here, trying to get back in good with my daughter, but I’m not going to let that happen. Not after what he did to her.”

I was so happy to hear her say that. I could have literally kissed her. I didn't want him sniffing around Amber, especially when her memory was so fuzzy. She really didn't remember her divorce, or why they had split up. I didn't know what she said to her mother, but Amber had been quite upset to find out that she was divorced. She said something about it being a failure and I wanted to disagree with her. It wasn't a failure, because if it would have worked between them, she never would have moved to Ohio and met me in the first place.

That would have been a bigger tragedy than what was going on right now. What was going on now was miscommunication that was quickly going to be solved. Jeremy might not know it, Robert might not know it yet, but he was about to get the hell out of the hospital and away from my child and Amber. Amber was going to be my wife soon and it was better for him to know it right off the bat.

I looked over at Amber's mom and told her that I was going to go talk to Amber and straighten it all out.

“But she doesn't remember you, Frank. I know that you're trying to help, everybody knows that your heart is in the right place, but you can't force her to remember.”

I told her not to be too sure about that. I was convinced that I could. All I had to do was make her remember. I needed to give her memories to pull from, jump-start them so that we could go back to being together, like we were supposed to be.

I just didn't need Robert around when I did it. Once she remembered me, she would remember him and why they weren't together anymore. At the moment, Amber’s memory was my only focus.

29

Amber

“Oh, it's you again.”

The handsome man that confusingly I was supposed to be pregnant by, strode into the room and shut the door behind him. It was not like I was nervous to be around him, scared or anything, but I was a bit uncomfortable. The idea that we had been together was hard to imagine, because he was not my type, but also because it was hard to believe that I had been with somebody I actually cared about and forgot about them. The baby was easier to understand. I hadn't even known I was pregnant when I got hurt, but how could I forget a whole man? How could I forget a man like him?

The more I thought about it, the more impossible that it seemed. He would try to convince me otherwise, but it would be hard. I had no recollection of him at all.

He started off by asking how I was and telling me that he was glad to see me, sorry for how he had acted before. He told me stories about things that we had done together. He told me that I worked in a factory and that seemed far too unlikely to believe. All of it was actually. The problem was when he started mentioning things we’d talked about. I knew that it was stuff that he could have gotten from my mother without her knowing it. I told him as much and he frowned.

“How about the fact that you deep down wanted children all this time?”

That made me pause and I kind of looked at him, because it definitely wasn't something that I had talked about with pretty much anybody. “How do you know that?”

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