Page 12 of Forgotten
“And?” I check with her.
“Done better. Oestrogen couldn’t have given me such a head of hair, could it?” Morgan is staring directly at me and I grin in response. Morgan is gorgeous, and everyone knows she likes to hear it.
“You’re-”
“Oh, piss off. I’m done here. Getting a coffee.” She concludes, leaving Ash and Erik to deal with her mess.
After the floor has been swept and the bedsheets cleared of hair, Erik disappears with Lindsey the nurse down the hospital corridor and I’m left alone with Ash.
“I love it when I can see your dimples,” he says, examining my shaved cheeks.
“You once told me you didn’t know the word dimples until you saw them on my face,” I joke, knowing it will make him blush. When it does, I tell myself this is how it’s always been between us. I tease Ash and he teases back, and it ends there. But now there’s something else in Ash’s gaze that I cannot place. And maybe it’s that we came close to dying and losing each other.
Or maybe, it’s what he says next.
“I didn’t know anything before I met you.”
???
The second week I learn a series of facts.
I have been in a coma for fifteen days, I’m still a vegetarian and my closet consists of 99% black. Yes, I still play cricket in summer but not much rugby. I still own my first guitar and my viola. Yes, Ashley and I go to the cinema every second weekend and he still dislikes every single Batman film ever made.
No, I’m not a famous songwriter (yet), I didn’t get a dog and no, Ashley is not with Jonathan anymore.
This last bit, I don’t need to ask.
The last puzzle piece comes with my lunch tray about a week after I have woken up from a nap. There’s a new nurse making the round, someone I have never seen before.
“I’ve been told you don’t eat meat. Apologies. As usual, just eat whatever you feel like. I’ll be back in thirty to take you to the bathroom.” The nurse sends me a smile and then turns to wink at Ashley. “I’ll leave you and your boyfriend alone.”
I don’t say anything, don’t ask any questions. But I see the way Ashley tilts his head to the side in guilt.
Pushing food down my throat is painful, but I try. There’s fewer cables attached to my arms, and somebody put a thick blanket on my legs.Your boyfriend, I keep thinking. But no matter how long I linger on the words, they don’t strike a chord. Ash and I? Boyfriends? Maybe the nurse meant it in a platonic way. Like friends who are boys, boy-friends.
The look on Ash’s face tells another story. When did he stop seeing me as ‘Ford the Best Friend,’ and when did I become ‘Ford the Non-Platonic Partner?’
I eat in silence.
Every time I make a pause, Ashley hands me a bottle of water. “Stay hydrated,” he says over and over again, and doesn’t add much more.
“So, we…?” I finally ask after taking a small sip. Meeting Ashley’s eyes, I don’t really need confirmation.
Ashley is petrified, ready to flee the room—the country. But he doesn’t move, surprisingly. He shoots me one of his blinding smiles. “Hilarious, right? Bet 2022-you didn’t see it coming.”
I simply duck my head, inexplicably flustered. “How long?”
Relaxing his shoulders, Ashley inhales deeply. “Just over two years.”
“Over two years?”
“Two years, one month and eight days.” Ash is staring at me, challenging. He’s about to add something, when his phone rings.
It takes me by surprise. It’s the first time since I woke up. I must have a phone, too, right? I wonder where it is.
“Fuck. Shit, fuck.” Ash exclaims, hands gripping the device as he reads a message over and over. “I gotta go.”
“What?” I frown. Ash has never left my side for more than a night, and I suddenly have so many more questions, so much energy.
