I want to tell Camila to stay away from me, but it’s obvious she has other ideas in her head. After a beat of hesitation, she crosses the room to the window and comes right up to me. And before I can stop her, she wraps her arms around me.
For a moment, I am completely rigid, but gradually, I feel myself melt. I can’t help it. Even though she is a stranger, there is something comforting about the way she holds me. Something familiar. I sob into her shoulder and her hand rubs my back.
“It’s okay, Tess,” she murmurs. “You’re going to be okay. I promise. I’m here. It’s okay.”
“It’s not!” Snot from my nose stains her shirt, and she doesn’t seem to be the slightest bit bothered. “It’s not okay! I miss my life. I miss Harry. Please…”
Her hand moves in wide circles on my back. My mother used to do that when I was a kid and I was upset about something. She used to hold me and rub circles on my back with her palm. After she died, I never quite felt that anyone could comfort me the way she could, even Harry. But as Camila holds me and rubs my back, it’s like I’m achild again… and maybe everything is going to be okay.
“You’re going to be okay,” she says again. “I know it can be scary not to remember anything, but I promise you, you’re going to calm down. And also, I have a surprise for you.”
I pull away from her, wiping my swollen eyes with the back of my hands. “A surprise?”
She smiles at me. “Lucy is visiting this afternoon.”
For the first time since I woke up this morning, I feel a seed of happiness. Lucy is coming. My best friend is going to visit me. And I might not trust my husband, but I can trust Lucy. She would never do anything to hurt me.
Chapter 29
At just after three, the doorbell rings.
I’ve been sitting on the couch most of the afternoon with Ziggy. After my meltdown this morning, Camila took me and Ziggy on a walk around the neighborhood. I was already feeling better after finding out that Lucy would be visiting, but the fresh air did wonders. After a walk around the block with my dog, I didn’t feel as much like a prisoner anymore.
And now Ziggy is sitting next to me on the couch, his chin on my lap as I stroke his head absently. I don’t feel like doing much. After all, what can I do? I can’t start reading a book because if I don’t finish it by the end of the evening, I’ll have forgotten everything about it. I mentioned to Camila that I might want to try cooking something for dinner, but she acted like I might burn the whole house down if I tried to do it alone. The only way she would consent to it is if she were with me the whole time.
And that brings me back to the issue of the doorbell. I can’t open the door because of that pesky lock. Even though I know my best friend is on the other side of the door, and I desperately want to see her.
“Camila!” I call out.
Camila sprints down the stairs, wiping her hands on her skin-tight blue jeans. “What’s up, Tess?”
“Can you open the door?” I ask her.
Camila digs around in the pocket of her jeans for a set of keys. She fits them in the lock to the front door. When I see Lucy’s familiar face, I almost burst into tears. I run over to her and throw my arms around her. I can’t stop hugging her. And then I really am crying. I’m quite the waterfall today.
“Lucy!” I sob. “It’s been the worst day ever!”
I take a step back to look at my gorgeous best friend. Like her eponymous namesake inI Love Lucy, Lucy has shockingly red hair—it’s her signature color. She had more freckles in college, but she’s careful about staying out of the sun, so they’ve faded. But if you squint at her face, you can still see the pale dots all over her skin. And if she goes in the sun, forget it. Freckle city.
Lucy and I met on our first day of college. I had been nervous about leaving home for the first time, and my father’s lack of emotion over this momentous event didn’t make me feel any better.
But Lucy was the opposite. The second I walked into the room we were assigned to share, with the matching beds and dressers at either side, she ran over to me and enveloped me in a big hug.I’m so excited we’re roommates!And I was excited too. It was wonderful to live with somebody who I could laugh with, have fun with, and even occasionally study with. (Very occasionally—neither of us were stellar students.)
Okay, Lucy isn’t perfect. Like if you meet her for lunch or coffee, she’s guaranteed to be anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes late. And occasionally, forty-five minutes to an hour late. And she never believed in me when I mentioned starting up my company. But in her defense, she was just trying to protect me from what she believed was a bad business venture. It’s not her fault she was dead wrong.
Lucy looks fantastic today. Her red hair is glossy, she has maintained her trim figure, and the eyeliner she’s wearing makes her eyes pop. Harry used to sometimes make comments about the amount of makeup she always wore, which always stood out in comparison to my bare face.D’you think she owns stock in a cosmetics company?he’d say, just before I would elbow him in the ribs.
The fact that Lucy looks like somebody who came right out of the pages of the fashion magazine makes me feel all the more self-conscious about my own appearance. I smooth out my too-short hair and my fingers linger on the scar, as I wonder if it’s visible to her.
“Tess, sweetie.” She grabs my shoulders tightly. “You look so pale. What’s going on?”
“I…” I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand, gulping for air. “Can we sit down?”
Ziggy has vacated the sofa to make room for Lucy. I don’t understand what Graham was talking about when he said Ziggy chews up the furniture. Ziggy is like the mostwell-behaved dog ever. Sometimes I feel like he knows me better than anyone else in this house. He certainly wouldn’t have offered mepomegranate juiceto drink. Lucy ruffles Ziggy’s fur, and he licks her hand.
“I just don’t understand how this happened to me.” I touch the scar on my scalp again—it feels so strange, like it’s not quite my skin. “I know there was a car accident…”
Lucy crosses her legs and I notice her shoes—Manolo Blahnik. She’s always wanted a pair of those. “Yes, last year. And ever since then, you’ve been having so much trouble with your memory. Graham has had to take over at My Home Spa. And I’ve been stepping up as much as I can.”
