After My Nemesis Faked Amnesia, I Could Hear His Thoughts

My nemesis had "lost his memory" in a car accident.

He saw me. His brow creased. The blank look was measured to the inch.

"Who... are you?"

I turned to go. A voice blew open in my head.

*Baby, don't go. I'm begging you. I'll drop the act. The System won't let me.*

He said, "You should go. I don't need you looking after me."

In his head: *Bullshit. The tomato braised beef my baby makes. I've wanted it for thirteen years.*

He said, "I don't remember you."

*I actually got that out of my mouth?! Junior year she wrote some other guy a love letter and I took it. She chased me down three hallways with a broom. And I said I don't remember?!*

I didn't change my face. I placed the call right in front of him.

"Mr. Adler? That date you mentioned. I'm in."

He shot upright. His pupils blew.

*?!?!*

Out loud: "...Who did you call?"

I smiled. "You're the one with no memory. What, jealous?"

Callum Reed had lost his memory.

The call came while I was stitching a patient. My hands didn't so much as twitch.

A nurse leaned in. "Dr. Ward. ER just took a car accident. Nothing serious. He's fuzzy, and he can't give us a family number. They went through his phone. You're the first emergency contact. You should come look."

I peeled my gloves off and went out.

First emergency contact: Lena Ward.

I didn't even know when he'd put that in.

I pushed open the door to observation. Callum was on the bed. Gauze at his temple. A rip in the suit jacket. A little wrecked. That face still looked like it needed a slap.

Especially when he saw me. Brow creased. A blank look, measured to the inch.

"You are...?"

My hand stayed on the handle. I stopped.

We had known each other twenty-eight years. Since we fought over gold stars in kindergarten.

He took class president from me. I tore up the form that would have skipped him past the exam. At his company gala last year, in front of two thousand people, he said if I died single, I had it coming.

Now he was asking who I was.

I opened my mouth to curse him out. A voice blew open in my head.

Not through my ears. Right in the meat of my brain. Loud. Wrecked. A sob pressed under it.

*She's here, she's here, she's here. Hold, Callum. Stage one, blank. Stage two, weak. When she walks in, three words. Who are you.*

*...Why isn't she talking? The playbook says this is when her eyes go red and she throws herself at me!*

I looked down at the chart in my hand. Looked up at the man on the bed. Innocent face. Unfocused eyes.

Mild concussion. One night of observation.

I walked over, leaned down, and looked him in the eye. One word at a time.

"Callum. I'm Lena."

His pupils slipped. He shook his head. "No idea."

The voice roared.

*I actually got that out?! Junior year she wrote some other guy a love letter and I took it. She chased me down three hallways with a broom. And I said no idea?!*

*Hold. You have no memory. A man with no memory stays calm.*

I straightened. Face flat.

"Oh. No idea. Perfect. Then I don't remember you either. Pay your own bill. Goodbye."

I turned and walked.

Behind me, thin as a sick man: "Wait— Miss. Wait."

Fireworks in his head.

*She left?! She actually left?! Where is stage three, she can't bear it and stays to look after me?! This garbage playbook screwed me!*

I stopped in the doorway. I didn't look back. "Something else?"

He was quiet for two seconds. When he spoke, the voice was light as a feather. Measured just right.

"I can't remember anyone. Only you..." He paused. "Looking at you, you feel familiar. I don't know why."

Observation went still.

Said to anyone who didn't know, that line would have landed.

Too bad I could hear the monologue, looping at a scream.

*It worked! Playbook rule one. The amnesiac gets attached to the only person who feels familiar. She froze. She actually froze. Lena Ward, so this day came for you too!*

I turned, slow.

Callum was against the head of the bed. Morning light on his face. The shadow of his lashes ran long. That look was so fragile... forget it. I got goosebumps just lining the picture up.

I looked at him, and I smiled.

"Fine," I said. "Since Mr. Reed lost his memory and nobody's looking after him—"

His eyes lit.

"—then he can figure it out himself."

I opened the door and walked out through the noise in his head, which had gone to stone.

*Lena!!!*

*You have no heart! You're a doctor! How do you walk out and not save him!*

*...But she smiled. Did she just smile at me?*

*I'm finished. The second she smiles, I think I lose this round.*