Unforgettable (16 page)

 
Ethan looked angry. “Carrie, I don’t mean to be rude, but could you please leave. I think Juliet and I need to talk.”

Chapter Thirteen

 
He was
 
angry.
What did I do?

 
I jumped up. “Carrie, you don’t have to leave.” I didn’t even turn to look at Ethan. I knew he wasn’t going to be any happier than the last time I turned around.

 
Carrie looked from me to Ethan, this time I followed her gaze and saw Ethan giving her a very pointed look.

 
“Uh, Jules, I need to be getting home, anyway. You call me. Anytime.” She left. Left me with an angry man.

 
We stood there like two combatants, but I didn’t know what we were going to fight about.

 
“I am not going to go through all that again. It was hard enough the first time.”

 
I had no idea what he was talking about. What did we go through? I looked at him and waited for him to elaborate. When he didn’t I had to ask.

 
“Ethan, I don’t know what you are talking about. What have we gone through that was hard? I have amnesia, remember?”

 
He took a breath before answering me. “What just happened. You being embarrassed about me. I am not going to go through that again. I know you don’t realize how it hurts me, but it does, Juliet. I don’t want to be some dirty secret to you. I won’t be.”

 
I looked at him in horror. I didn’t think of him as a dirty secret. True, I was embarrassed just now in front of Carrie, but that was mainly from the memory itself, not Ethan’s part in it. Okay, it is partly because of him. What did he expect? He is my best friend’s brother. And he is younger. Five years younger than me. It wasn’t as big a deal as when he was a teenager, but I’ve still got that picture in my head. I can’t help it.

 
I shook my head. “It’s not like that. I promise. I was just thinking about her walking in on us. It
was
embarrassing, Ethan. You know that. I remember enough to know that. It wasn’t any better for you.”

 
He just looked at me. I could see a little of his anger was draining. “My age doesn’t have anything to do with it?” Ugh. He was asking me something that, if I answered truthfully, he wasn’t going to like. My only other option was to lie. I chose to tell him the truth. I had enough things going on with everything else right now; I didn’t need to add another layer on top.

 
“Okay, yes, your age does have something to do with it.” I could see he was trying to butt in, so I held my hands up. “Try to see things from my point of view, please.”

 
He leaned back on the cushion. He looked tired. “I’ve already done that. We have had this conversation before. Do you want me to give you a rehash of what happened?” He raised his eyebrows to me.

 
“What do you mean?”

 
“I mean look around. I live here. With you. You are my girlfriend. You got over it.” Hmm. He might have a point there, but it was still new to
this
me.
I
haven’t gotten over anything.

 
“I can’t help how I feel, Ethan. It’s not fair of you to make me feel bad about it. This is still new to me.” Ethan closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he looked at me again.

 
“I know. I’m sorry.” I waited for him to continue but he didn’t.

 
“I’m remembering things, please be patient. I don’t want to mess something up because I don’t know what may or may not have happened between us.”

 
He got up and walked over to me. “You’re right. I’m sorry but it’s a sore subject with me.” He paused and gave me a saucy grin. “So, what exactly did you remember just now?”

 
I could feel the blush blooming. I didn’t want to tell him, and when he started laughing I knew he didn’t need me to tell him anything. “How can you laugh? It was very humiliating.”

 
“Hey, you were laughing when you remembered. It’s only fair I can laugh now. Anyway, you’re right. It’s funny in retrospect, but at the time it was horrible. The look on Carrie’s face was priceless.” We chuckled as we thought about that moment and I felt the warm fuzzies in my stomach. We did have a shared history, even if I couldn’t fully remember it at the moment.

 
He was still standing directly in front of me and I thought about what we had been doing before Carrie showed up. That memory, combined with my dream from this morning, made my panties get wet. Well, wetter I should say. I looked down at my inside out shirt. Oh my god. I couldn’t remember feeling like this before. I think I might have become some kind of sex-crazed hussy. I think I like it. I had never been the kind of person who spent a lot of time thinking about sex, or seeking it out for that matter, but being around Ethan was turning me into that kind of girl. I didn’t have a problem with it at all.

 
“So, what do you want to do for the rest of the day?” Ethan’s voice interrupted my musings. I wanted to say “have sex,” but I didn’t think that’s what he had in mind.

 
“I don’t know. I picked the fish market earlier, why don’t you choose?”

 
I hoped he wouldn’t choose something outside. I didn’t want to leave the house. I felt comfortable here.

 
“Do you want to play a game?” My mind went straight to strip poker.

 
“What do you have in mind?” Strip poker, strip poker.

 
“Monopoly?” Strip Monopoly?

 
“What?”

 
Shit, did I just say that out loud? I tried to play it off. “Huh?”

 
He looked at me with a raised brow. “Did you just say strip Monopoly?”

 
I wracked my brain for any words that sounded like strip that I could pass off. Rip, grip, lip, snip. Nothing. They all sounded stupid. I had to fess up.

 
“Maybe.”

 
“Well, I was just thinking about playing it the regular way, but if you feel the need to be more comfortable…” He left off without finishing.

 
I shook my head; my tunic was working well for me today, except that it was inside out. Maybe a tee shirt was in order.

 
“Actually, I think I will go put something else on. You get out the game.” I went to my bedroom closet and looked through it. I grabbed a tee shirt at random and ripped off my tunic. My bra was still hanging on my shoulders but gaping open in the front, so I pulled it off and threw it on the bed before I pulled on the tee. It was a little big but it felt good so I left it on and went back into the living room. Ethan had the board out and was divvying up the money when I walked in.

 
“You want Leia, right? I’ll be Obi-Wan Kenobi.” He looked up while holding up the piece. My eyes shot down to the board. Freaking Star Wars Monopoly, of course. I wasn’t even surprised.

 
“Sure.” I actually sucked at Monopoly, always had, but maybe Princess Leia would lead me to victory.

 
He placed the pieces on the starting space and sat on the floor on one side of the coffee table. I took the side by the couch and sat down opposite him. This was kind of weird. A half hour ago I was on the cusp of getting lucky and now I was sitting on the floor playing a board game. A girl really couldn’t count on anything.

 
“Do you want to go first?” I thought it would be a nice touch to be charitable.

 
“Okay.” He picked up the dice and it was game on. I was totally caught up, feeling cutthroat and aggressive. It wasn’t the usual me at all. Unfortunately, I was still way behind. Ethan had the Death Star and a butt load of settlements while I was stuck with the ghetto spaces. On my next turn I landed on one of his cities, and it wiped me out.

 
“Suck that!” His gloating got my ire up.

 
“Uhg, next time we are playing Scrabble, I told you I wasn’t playing this with you anymore. It’s no fun to always lose.” I tossed my money onto the board and scooted up off the floor and onto the couch. Yeah, I know I’m a bad sport.

 
Ethan was up and at my side in an instant. “See Jules, it’s all coming back.” He plopped down next to me and pulled me into a hug. It took me a moment to understand what he meant.

 
“The game. We’ve played the game before.” I couldn’t actually remember playing Monopoly with Ethan, but I could remember being disgruntled. That’s something anyway. I let him hug me even though it was causing my loins to stir afresh. Who was I to turn down spontaneous affection from a hot guy?

 
My stomach growled and I looked at the clock. I couldn’t believe it was already after five. We must have been playing for hours. I pulled back and looked at Ethan’s face. I needed to eat something so that I could keep my hands and mouth occupied. It wasn’t safe to leave me to my own devices just yet. Maybe there was something to the whole smoking thing.

 
“How do you want your shrimp cooked?”

 
“Scampi. I want Scampi. Is that alright?”

 
“Sure. I love it.” He made no move to get up so I just sat there, too. I was feeling pretty relaxed, not tongue-tied or anything. It was kind of a big deal for me to be this smooth around a man. I leaned back onto the arm of the couch. I could see myself lounging around the house with Ethan. I knew him well enough to not have to try too hard. I still had that little feeling niggling inside me that there was something I was blocking, but it was being drowned out by other, better feelings. Maybe if I quit fighting my natural instincts, everything would snap back into place.

 
“Juliet, I love you. I just want you to know that.” He said the words as nonchalantly as if he were asking me to pass him the remote. He didn’t make any move to touch me and I was unsure of what to say to him. My mind wasn’t trying to fight his words like before. I knew now that he did, in fact, love me, and after my revelation on the sidewalk this morning, I knew I loved him even if I couldn’t feel it, presently. A part of me wanted to say it back, just so he could feel better, but I realized it wouldn’t be right. What could I do? I had a very limited skill set when it came to these situations. Things were complicated.

 
I was suddenly struck with inspiration. “Ethan, I’ve been having all these memories today and they all center around you. Do you think maybe you could just lean over here and kiss me or something?” The way I said it made it sound stupid. “I mean, maybe kissing you would help me to remember more. You know?” I couldn’t look at him when I asked him to kiss me so I looked at his crotch. After a second I noticed he hadn’t answered me so I looked into his face.

 
He wasn’t looking at me. Well, he was looking at me but not my face. He was staring at my boobs. “Ethan, did you hear me?” I was feeling empowered. He was looking at my boobs and he wasn’t even a pervert, not that I knew of anyway.

 
He didn’t answer me but he did lean over from his cushion and put his hands on both sides of my face. I took a deep breath because I knew he was about to kiss me and I didn’t want to interrupt things by having to gasp for air. His lips touched mine so lightly I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it at first. He pressed in a little harder and I knew it was real. My heart started beating hard again, just like it had the first time.

 
“I love you.” He whispered it when he changed position and I couldn’t help it, my legs parted on their own. “I love you so much.” Was he trying to kill me? My own hands went up to his arms and I grabbed on. We were just kissing, but it was hot. My leg came up and over his thigh and tried to anchor him to me. For once I didn’t feel clumsy or uncoordinated, I felt like a goddess. I wanted to feel like this every second of the day. I just wanted to remember. If this was how it felt to be with Ethan, I wanted to remember it.