Camila said that after she was done upstairs, we could walk Ziggy to the dog park together. I look down at my watch—it’s ten-thirty. She’s probably almost done up there. So I compose my response:
Meet at dog park at 11.
The reply comes almost instantly:
I’ll be there.
And then a few seconds later: Delete these messages.
I do as he tells me.
Chapter 21
At five minutes till eleven, Camila and I set off in the direction of the dog park.
I put Ziggy on a leash, and he is almost deliriously happy to be going out with us. I wish I could feel as much happiness over anything as my dog feels over going to the park. You would have thought having memory problems might help me to live in the moment, but it doesn’t.
Although to be fair, I was a lot happier a minute before I got that text with the price of the air fryer.
“How long have you been working at our house?” I ask Camila as we fall into step together on the sidewalk.
Camila blinks up at me. She is beautiful—the kind of woman men write poetry about. She has these big brown eyes with the longest eyelashes I’ve ever seen, and big pouty lips. She was obviously born with these features—no fake lashes or lip filler. And the worst part is she doesn’t even seem aware of how gorgeous she is. “About a year. Since your accident.”
“So you probably know just about everything about me, huh?”
She flashes me a smile that shows just a bit too many teeth, but it’s strangely endearing. “Try me.”
I bite on my thumbnail, trying to think of a fact about myself that could not have changed in the last seven years. “When is my birthday?”
“Easy! February fourteenth—Valentine’s Day. You said you always get shafted on presents.”
That’s true. Before I met Harry, every guy I ever dated combined my birthday gift and my Valentine’s gift into one uber-gift. But Harry made a thing out of insisting both occasions needed to be celebrated separately. So he would give me my birthday present at one minute after midnight on my birthday, then a Valentine’s Day present the next evening.
I wonder what Graham does.
“What’s my favorite movie?” I ask.
She tuts. “You don’t think much of me, do you? It’s The Princess Bride. Obviously!”
“Favorite song?”
“Trick question.” She flashes that toothy grin again. “It’s a tie. Between ‘Unchained Melody’ and ‘Hey Jude.’”
At some point, I must have shared all these little tidbits with Camila. But it’s strange that even though I’ve only met her this morning, she knows everything there is to know about me. It also seems a bit unfair.
“Now it’s your turn,” I say, as Ziggy bounds forward, causing my body to jerk. “I want to know about you.”
She shoves her hands into her jacket pockets. “My favorite movie is Do the Right Thing. My birthday is March second. Don’t worry—I programmed it into your phone since I know you won’t remember.”
I shake my head. “No, not that stuff. I want to know something about you that nobody else knows.”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “That’s a little personal, isn’t it? Especially considering that in your head, you only just met me this morning.”
“That’s true,” I acknowledge. “But you’ve been with me day in and day out for an entire year. And also, who is the better person to tell your secrets to than somebody who won’t remember it tomorrow?”
She puts her hands on her hips. “You’re very persuasive, aren’t you?”
“I’ve been told I’m a successful businesswoman.”
Her expression is amused. “Okay, I’ve got one. This is something I’ve never told anyone before. Ever.”
I clutch my free hand to my chest. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“So when I was in kindergarten, my teacher took off her wedding ring to go wash her hands at the sink in the back of the classroom. And while she was washing her hands, I took her wedding ring and…” She takes a deep breath. “I ate it.”
It’s the last thing I expected her to say. Despite everything, I burst out laughing.
“It’s not funny!” Camila cries, although she’s laughing too. “I’ve been carrying this burden around for twenty years! I felt terrible about it! She was looking everywhere for it. She left school crying!”
“Why did you eat it then?”
“I don’t know! I was five!”