Say You'll Remember Me(71)

“He leaves at least twice a week,” he said, pursing his lips.

I pulled my face back. “He does?”

“Yeah. I’m in the fucking basement, I see the driveway from the window. You owe me a tattoo by the way.”

I groaned. “I know. Just make the appointment and Venmo request me.”

“I will. Thanks.” He took a handful of the shredded cheese for Jeneva’s salad and left.

My sister paused to shake her head at him as he disappeared back down to his basement lair.

“As if…” she mumbled.

Mom was the love of Dad’s life. They’d been together for over thirty years. Even the idea of him cheating was ridiculous.

“Why is he like that?” I whispered.

“Who knows. I literally don’t have the energy for it.”

I heard the back door open. Xavier walked in.

“How’s the dog?” I asked.

“He’s fine. Resting.” He nodded at my sister. “Hi. Nice seeing you again.”

Then he leaned over and gave me a quick kiss. “Do you want help with this?” he asked, nodding at the dishes.

“I would love help, thank you.”

Xavier took over for me while I went down to ask Tristan for access to the wine cellar for a bottle of white to go with the starters. He opened the door, said: “You shall not pass.” And then shut it again.

When the appetizers were done, I sent out the dinner is ready text. I could feel the inhabitants of the house activate.

The boys came first, bursting through the kitchen, chasing each other and yelling. While my sister scolded them for running, Grandma made her way in and smiled when she saw my boyfriend. “Xavier, the penis that flew in from Minnesota. Nice to meet you.” She shuffled to the fridge to get a beer.

Xavier blanched and I leaned into him. “That comment was taken very out of context,” I whispered.

“I can’t wait to hear the explanation,” he whispered back, amused.

Dad came in next leading Mom. She stopped in the doorway, noticing the fancy setup. “Is it New Year’s Eve?” she asked.

She looked blankly around the kitchen, no recognition for me or the man who’d patched her up that night—or any of us really. But I’d done her makeup this morning while Xavier was sleeping and Tristan did her hair and Dad dressed her in a pretty red dress. She looked amazing. She looked the closest to her old self that she ever would.

If you didn’t talk to her, if you didn’t already know that the dementia had taken hold, you wouldn’t know just looking at her. Not tonight.

I was glad I had so many memories of her from before so I could superimpose them onto who she was now. It let me pretend, even just for a second, that none of who she was today was real.

I pictured her bursting into animation. Putting her hands over her mouth to smile at the setup. She would comment on the flowers we’d gotten her and make a joke with Dad about the jalape?os not being the hottest thing in the room.

She’d grab her own plate and serve herself and ask Xavier about what he does for a living while she ate without anyone helping her. She’d nod in understanding and ask follow-up questions because she’d remember his answers, telling her own little stories. Then she’d reapply her own lipstick and take pictures with her kids and insist that Xavier scoot into one because she’d know that he wasn’t just some guy.

But the facade could only last a second. The image in my mind blurred as Dad snapped a bib on her. The color faded and she went back to gray.

Dad sat her down and then put a hand out to Xavier. “Hi, I’m Dan. I think you’ve already met my wife, Lisa.”

“Yes, we met a few months ago.” He shook Dad’s hand and looked at Mom. “Good seeing you again,” Xavier said, smiling at her.

She said hello. That’s all. And only because it was an ingrained response, not because she was being social or even that she realized she was being introduced to someone. It was just the echo.

I felt the ache in my chest.

“I want to thank you for your help that night,” Dad said. “I had to run to the pharmacy and I left the back door unlocked, and well—You know what happened.”

“It’s no problem.”

Tristan appeared right as Jeneva set her salad down.

He completely ignored all of us. He grabbed a mixing bowl and shoveled half the salad into it. Then he took six of the jalape?o poppers and dropped them on top, Salt Baed the bowl with raisins, stabbed the middle of this slop pile with a fork, and plopped onto a stool. “By the way, your boyfriend is in a viral video,” he said. Then he started eating.

Xavier and I blinked at each other.

“What?” I said.

Jeneva looked back and forth between us. “What is he talking about?”

“What viral video?” I asked.

Tristan rolled his eyes. “Google is free?”

I picked up my phone.

I had a text from Becca. She’d sent it to me and Xavier in a group chat with a bunch of numbers I didn’t have in my phone:

Omg the comments



There was a link.

“Xavier, check your phone,” I said.

I clicked on the attachment and a video with almost one hundred thousand views on it popped up.

It was the parking lot earlier. The caption read, “hot veterinarian saves dog #glendale #animalrescue #thirsttrap.”