The Story Of Us

7. Dance

Lucy woke up and rubbed at her tired eyes when she felt cool metal brush against her skin. Blinking away the remnants of sleep, she saw a ring on her finger.

Her dream engagement ring.

She panicked as she wondered when she got engaged to JOHN? Surely, she would remember that? Lucy's eyes found something unexpected in the distance, and she shot out of bed to get a closer look at the blonde haired man in the photos on the dresser. Who is THAT?

In search of answers, she tip toed out of the bedroom to look around the unfamiliar house when she heard sounds coming from downstairs. Lucy descended the stairs and followed the noises until she reached the edge of a kitchen and gasped.

The same man from the pictures she had just seen was standing in the kitchen in a tight white t shirt and grey sweatpants making coffee.

"Morning, Luce," he said and raked a hand through his hair while yawning.

She looked for something to defend herself with and lunged for the tea kettle on the stove top. "How do you know my name? Who are you?" She asked with the tea kettle raised, ready to strike if necessary.

His shoulders slumped forward and tried not to look pained by her questions. Putting his hands out with his palms open and facing her, he kept his voice even and calm, "You're having some memory issues right now. I'm Tim. I'm your fiancée. Did you read the folder on your nightstand?"

"What folder?"

"There's a folder that explains your memory condition and everything you need to know about your life to fill in the gaps of what you don't remember, like who I am."

"You said you're my fiancée?"

"Mhm," he hummed and looked up at how she still was holding the tea kettle above her head.

Lucy released one hand from the tea kettle to outstretch her right hand and show him the engagement ring. "So...this ring...YOU gave it to me not John?"

"Not Nolan," he grounded out through gritted teeth.

"And this is your house?"

"Our house," he corrected, "How else do you explain that tea kettle in your hand? Do I look like a tea drinker?"

"Tea has a lot of mental and physical healing properties."

Tim smiled at her fondly, "You've mentioned that a few times."

"And you don't believe me?"

"I do. You're very convincing," he smirked despite the way she was ready to wield the kettle as a weapon, and his eyes flickered up at it for a moment before looking back into her eyes. "Please go upstairs and look in the folder, okay? I'll stay right here while you read the papers, and then maybe you won't feel the need to hit me with that thing." Her gaze was still scrutinizing, still not completely convinced, so he added another calm "Please," and watched her slowly lower her arm but still tightly gripped the tea kettle just in case.

She backed away and up the stairs, retracing her steps to return to the bedroom where she saw the folder on her nightstand with big letters that read: LUCY! READ ME!

Obeying the written command, Lucy read about how she lost 5 years of memories and her short term memory loss added another layer of complexity to the issue. The last 5 years had been quite eventful it seemed. She had an entirely new family who also happened to be her colleagues. She also had a fiancée. But then she shuffled the stack to the last page that's stood out as the only one with her handwriting on it. Lucy smiled at the 4 bullet points of loving words she had written about Tim. "Tim!" She blurted out as she stuffed the pages back into the file folder. Hustling out of the room and down the stairs, Lucy found him still standing in the exact same spot she left him. He kept his word. "I'm so sorry," she apologized with a sigh.