“I’m sorry I bothered you at work…”
“It’s no bother! You sounded so upset on the phone! I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. And I knew it would be a comfort for you to hear my voice.”
She’s right. Lucy and I were roommates in college, then again for several years after college until I moved in with Harry. She is my closest friend in the entire world. I’m even closer to her than I am to my father, who still hasn’t returned my phone calls. Getting to talk to somebody I remember from my old life feels like a return to sanity.
“I can’t believe you work for My Home Spa.” I shake my head, thinking of all the years that have gone by since my last retrievable memory. “Lucy, are you… are you married? Do you have children?”
It feels strange to ask my best friend those questions, especially since I probably spoke to her yesterday. But I’m dying to know the answer.
“No, haven’t taken the plunge yet,” Lucy says in that flippant way of hers. “Men are just… You know how it is. Nice guys are too intimidated to approach me—they assume they don’t have a chance. So the only guys who hit on me are the smarmy jerks… or the married guys.”
She has a point. Lucy is gorgeous, but she never seems to have a boyfriend. Although Harry used to say about her, She’s not as pretty as she seems to think she is. Nobody could be.
“So what’s going on, Tess?” Lucy asks. “I’m assuming Graham filled you in on everything. You read the letter, right?”
“You know about the letter?”
“Of course I do. We thought it was better if you heard about the accident in your own words. It was an idea we came up with to help you feel more comfortable when you first woke up. Did it work?”
I chew on my lower lip. “Sort of.”
“So what was rough about the day then?”
I debate if I should tell Lucy about the text messages. I hear the words in my head and it makes me sound so crazy. I can’t even bring myself to say it.
“Did you have to go to a doctor’s appointment?” she asks in a low voice.
“No, nothing like that.” Lucy knows all about my phobia about doctors and hospitals, stemming from my mother’s terminal cancer. She knows I have a panic attack every time I need to visit the doctor. “I’m fine. It was just so strange to wake up next to Graham when…”
“You couldn’t remember him?”
“Yes…”
“I can’t even imagine…” Lucy lets out a long sigh. “But you should know, Tess… Graham is a good guy. He loves you a lot.”
“I guess…”
“And he’s hot, right?”
“Yes…” I can’t deny Graham is hot.
“Honestly, Tess, he’s so much better than Harry.”
A tear cascades from my right eye at the mention of Harry Finch, and I brush it away. “Lucy, where is Harry?”
There’s a sharp inhale of breath on the other line. “Tess…”
“Please tell me. Please.”
“I… I don’t know. Before your accident, you hadn’t mentioned him in years. But now…”
“Why did I break up with him?”
She’s quiet on the other line. “You just grew apart.”
“Grew apart? Lucy, we were engaged!”
“I don’t know.” There’s a vagueness to her voice that makes me think she’s lying to me. “You called it off.”
“When?”
“Maybe six months after you got engaged? I can’t remember. You just said you were glad you decided not to marry him before the wedding invitations went out.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know, sweetie. He was just sort of a loser, you know? And you were so much better off without him. You were way too good for Harry Finch.”
I wince at her comment. Harry and Lucy didn’t particularly like each other, but they both tried to be civil around each other for my sake. And Lucy promised to keep the negative comments to a minimum. This isn’t the first time she’s informed me I was too good for Harry.
“And then you started seeing Graham…” she adds.
“Yeah…”
“And he’s great. An all-around wonderful guy.”
“He seems nice.” I chew on my thumbnail. “He’s been so kind to me today. And it’s such a great story about how we met. The way he saved my life…”