The Romance Revival(42)

Crash’s smile slowly melts away. “What the fuck?” He looks over at Luca. “So he’s like—a zombie now?”

Luca barks out a laugh at this and then stops. “Wait, am I?”

“No,” I say forcefully.

“What about superpowers?” Crash asks. Luca looks at me with a hopeful expression, and I regretfully shake my head.

“That sucks,” Crash says.

“From what we can tell, he’s basically the same as before. With some minor side effects,” Annie says. “Such as reduced coordination and…” She clears her throat. “Memory loss.”

“Amnesia?” Crash asks. “So—what? He doesn’t remember his name?”

“Or yours,” Luca says, finally joining in. “Or anyone’s. Or anything about my life before three days ago.”

“So, like, if someone owed you five hundred dollars, you wouldn’t remember?”

Luca laughs again, and I see that these two were destined to be best friends.

“What if they made out with your sister in eleventh grade? Would you want to know? Hypothetically, of course.”

“Hypothetically,” Luca tells him, “I’d tell them to keep that secret to themselves.”

“You’re a real one,” Crash says, and then frowns. “Will you forget me as soon as I leave?”

“No,” I tell him, and explain how Luca doesn’t have any issue creating new memories, and that he can remember implicit and certain explicit memories. And that, hopefully, his memory will come back.

“The brain is fucking wild, man.”

“That is the theme of the week,” Luca agrees.

“So why is it such a secret?” Crash asks. “Seems like the world would love to know that zombies are real and still hot.”

“Because I broke… a lot of rules,” I tell him.

“Yeah, they’d only ever done it on dogs and cats before.” I am thrilled to see that Luca actually seems proud to share this.

“No shit.” Crash nods, impressed. “I’m coming to you if Leo ever gets sick. I love that cat, and you never know when having a mad scientist around will come in handy.”

At this, even Annie’s expression softens. Something tells me he just might win her over yet. “Deal,” she says.

“Excellent,” Crash says, but then his expression clears and he looks at Luca. “Wait. You mean to tell me you don’t remember the Evil Tree?” Luca shakes his head. “Rotting Hill?” Another head shake. Crash lowers his voice: “The Magic Twins?” Once more, Luca shakes his head. “Oh shit,” says Crash quietly, looking down to his lap, and my stomach twists in guilt all over again.

So much shared history—ours, theirs—simply gone. Luca’s relationship with Crash is deep and meaningful to both of them, and I ache not only for what I’ve potentially lost, but for what the two of them have, too. I am desperate to help Luca get his memory back.

But seemingly thrilled by the challenge, Crash turns his face up to us, grinning and rubbing his hands together. “Man, have I got some stories for you.”





20 EMERY




In the kitchen with Annie, I move straight to the cupboard and start to make coffee. A solid night of sleep did me good, but I’m still ready to drop.

Leaning against the counter, Annie starts the process of unpackaging and turning on Luca’s new phone. “He seems to be doing well,” she says quietly.

“Remarkably so.” At the sink, I fill the carafe with water. “Vitals are stable. I haven’t asked about everything, but major body systems seem to be functioning. He’s already walking and you should see his bruises. Mostly gone.”

“It’s crazy,” she says, a hint of excitement in her voice. It’s not the appropriate time, but despite the lingering guilt, I’ve got the thrum of adrenaline, too, the sense that we’re on the edge of something that will change the world. “How’s everything else? Like, between you two?”

Pouring water into the machine, I add the coffee and set it to brew. “Weird, but we’ve had some good talks,” I say, and lean against the counter next to her. “I haven’t been a very good wife to him.”

“He loves you, Emery. It’s in there, I promise.”

“I’m not so sure—” I start, jumping when Annie smacks my hand from where I’m gnawing on my fingernails. “Rude.”

“Then knock it off,” she says. “Tell me what happened.”

Annie knows how much I’d started to struggle with lying to Luca, and how terrified I was of the repercussions if he found out. Every lie started to feel like a stone I was carrying around in my pocket, waiting for the combined weight to eventually drown me. Now it’s like each admission lets me breathe a little easier. “I told him everything. Do you know how many times I’ve imagined doing that?”

“That must have been a relief.”

I nod, unable to articulate how much.

“And? Was he upset?” she says, looking up from where Luca’s phone is powering on.

“I wouldn’t say upset. How could he be? It’s like secondhand information about two people he doesn’t even know. He tried to ease the tension with a joke, but I can tell it made him wary. Well, warier,” I add with a sigh. “He asked if I could find life balance outside of work.”