Rachel's Accident (9 page)

“Such an asshole.
I’m so going to bust him up. You just wait. I’m going over there and he’s gonna get an earful from me.”

“No, just let it
go
.” I didn’t want her to go to the trouble when I knew she didn’t have the time for such shenanigans. She had to get up in the morning. I just wanted to forget about him
and move on. Jess relented and sent me off to bed to sleep off my stress.

“Everything will look different in the morning,” she said.

Of course, such things were easier said than done. I was too depressed to fall asleep that night. I also couldn’t stop thinking about him. At one in the morning
I’ve
had enough and borrowed Jess’ car to drive around for a bit and get my mind off things.

All of a sudden there were bright lights
shining directly in my eyes
and I couldn't see anything
anymore
.
Completely blinded
I jerked
the
steering wheel to the side, trying to avoid a head on collision with
whoever
had driven into
my
lane.

It didn't help anything, though. I felt the impact as the other car collided with the side of mine. I was jerked around in my seat and my car skidded
off the road and into the ditch.
As the grill collided with a tree trunk my head banged against the steering wheel and I was out cold.

I could hear distant shouting. My head was a single throbbing ache. Couldn't the person shouting my name just shut up? I was trying to sleep here and with the constant throbbing and shouting, which was getting louder by the
second, that
was a task nowhere near possible to accomplish.

"Rachel," I heard the voice shout. I
t sounded vaguely familiar
, but I couldn't for the life of me tell who it belonged to.

"Please, Rachel, wake up. Come on. Please, don't leave me."

The voice sounded agitated and panicked. I wanted to soothe it and tell it that everything was going to be okay. But I couldn't figure out how to move my lips.

The voice came again. "Can you hear me, Rachel? Please, wake up," it begged me.

I was trying. But my body wouldn't listen to me. The heavy throbbing in my head wasn't helping things either. I tried as hard as I could to open my eyes.

A halo of light framed the figure standing above me. I could only make out shadows and outlines, but the figure seemed distinctly masculine as did his voice now that I thought about it.

"Rachel," the voice breathed
with relief
.

Before I could answer my body was overtaken with exhaustion alone from the strength I needed to open my eyes. As the voice faded away my eyes fell shut and I was taken back to the land of unconsciousness.

I jerked out of sleep in the middle of the night. All around me monitors started beeping and a few seconds later a woman came into my room and checked me over. She asked me questions and I tried to answer them as best as I could. But I was a little preoccupied with my own thoughts.

Why was this woman in my room? I looked her over. She had on hospital scrubs, which could only mean one thing. I was back in the hospital and this was a nurse. But why was I here? Then it hit me. I'd had an accident and there had been a voice calling to me.

The nurse was friendly and answered all my questions in return when she was finished with hers. Apparently, I had been driving in my friend's car when I steered into the wrong lane. At the last second I had jerked the car around and my side had collided with the oncoming car's front. Then my car had spun off the road and into a tree. That was as far as I'd already known

The interesting part came then. The driver of the other car had helped me out of my car and had called for an ambulance. He had then come with me to the hospital and had been there with me ever since. And that had been a week ago. I had been kept in an induced coma for a whole god damn week.

I asked the nurse about the man and she gestured to the corner of the room. There he sat in a chair, sleeping and snoring. I thanked the nurse quietly, not wanting to wake my hero. She nodded at me and walked out, quietly closing the door behind her.

I turned back to the man in the chair. He looked a little rough and unkempt. Somehow I had a strong sense of déjà vu, but I couldn't quite place it. I disregarded it for the moment and relaxed back into the bed. Under all the hair and beard he looked nice, though. He must not have shaved or combed his hair for at least a week. I wondered what he would look like in broad daylight and what color his eyes probably had. I had a feeling they were a brilliant green. Why I would know that I had no idea.

Still quite
worn out I went back to sleep and left all the remaining questions whirling around my head to be worried about tomorrow.

The next morning I woke up refreshed and well rested. As I looked around my hospital room my gaze fell on the lump of clothing that occupied the chair in the corner. On a snort it jerked awake and straightened up to its full height.

The man stared at me as he realized that I was fully awake and looking at him. His eyes were a beautiful, deep forest-green.

“Rachel,” he breathed and rushed over to me. He hugged me and I could clearly smell that he hadn’t taken the time to shower.

“I’m so sorry,” he told me over and over again.

“Don’t worry. It wasn’t your fault, Mister…?”

I waited for him to fill in the blank, but he only looked at me as if I might have lost my mind.

“Don’t you remember me?” He asked me in an almost pleading tone.

“I’m sorry, no.” I didn’t know anything about this man except that he had probably saved my life.

He finally pulled away to really look at me. As I looked back t him he cursed and called for the doctor. He told her I didn’t remember anything about the last…two months? I had amnesia came
the diagnose
.
But since the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with my brain I was released.

It wa
sn’t only the last two months that was
missing, though, but the last half year. When
he
asked
me
what the last date was I remembered I said January 5
^th
, but apparently today was July 12
^th
. What all had I forgotten?

I hoped the gorgeous hunk of a man was my boyfriend and not just some stranger who I knew by
accident. Even in his completely disheveled state he looked good enough to eat and my body urged me to take a nibble out of him.

I was going to be cautious, though. Right now I didn’t know him. He could tell me anything he wanted about who he was and I had no way to confirm it. He started doing just then when I stopped him.

“Do you know Jess?” I asked
,
a little bit testing how much he really knew about me and genuinely interested in his response.

“Your roommate, yes.”
Good answer.

“I want to go home and have her listen to what you have to say, so she can confirm the story. I really don’t know you right now.” I gave him an apologetic look.

He looked a little hurt at that.
“That’s fine with me,” he answered eas
ily
, though
, “whatever makes you comfort
able.”
He turned to walk out, but stopped and turned back around. “Since you don’t know me anymore I need to reintroduce myself. My name is Ethan.” He stuck out his hand for me to shake. It had some ugly scars on the palm that looked very recent.

I didn’t shy away, though. I had never been afraid of scars. Firmly, I took his hand and a pleasant bolt of warmth shot up my arm as we shook.

He
let go and
stepped out for a few minutes to give me privacy to change
. T
hen he guided me through the maze of hospit
al corridors outside to his car; his Porsche to be exact.

“Man, you’re loaded,” I said with only a little derision in my voice. I hated rich guys flouncing around in their expensive cars to show off. As I walked around the front to the passenger side I could see where Jess’ car hadn’t even left a dent in the hood. There were just enough scratches to indicate there might have been an accident, but nothing more than that.
Damn rich kids with their rich kid cars.

The ride to Jess’ and my apartment was silent. When we arrived I got out and was up the stairs in no time. He was right behind me and I could only think about the car that would probably be gone when he got back down again. He would deserve it.

Okay, maybe he didn’t deserve it. Again, I didn’t know him and as Jess always said I shouldn’t be so quick to judge. He had saved my life and paid for the hospital bills…wait, when did I let that happen? Did he do it when I had my back turned?
Sneaky bastard.

I shook my head and as soon as I unlocked the doors I had another pair of arms around me, squeezing me tightly.

“Jess,” I wheezed, “you’re killing me.”

“You have to stop getting into all these accidents. You have me constantly worried about. I think I started losing hair from all the stress.”

I only looked at her uncomprehending. I imagined I must have had the same blank look on my face as Ethan had had before in the hospital.

“She doesn’t remember the past half year,” he jumped in, ever the helpful one. “She has amnesia caused by the accident.”

“Well, shit,” was all Jess said.

“We actually came here, so that you can confirm for her
what happened the past two months since she doesn’t really know me right now. And it would help for you to fill in the blanks.”

She nodded. “That’s a good idea. But that still doesn’t get you off the hook, you know?” She shot him a stern look.

He frowned. “What did I do?”

“You know exactly what you did,” she snapped back.

This was really interesting to watch. I just needed popcorn and I would have my own personal soap opera. I smiled a little, relaxed onto our small, worn-out couch and kept watching as the scene unfolded further. They were fighting like an old, married couple. At that I felt a slight pinch in my chest, but I ignored it.

“No, I don’t,” he shot back.

“Well, then think about it. You should know best.” She huffed and sat beside me on the couch.

Ethan shook his head and sat down on my other side. It was getting a little bit cramped. I didn’t think this couch was made for three people.

As if they only just remembered I was there too they both looked at me. I watched them expectantly, anticipating what was coming next.
Jess talked first.

“What is the last date you remember?”

I answered her the same way I had Ethan earlier and from there she told me everything that had happened the last six months. For the last two Ethan took over and Jess filled in what was missing from his point of view.

The whole time I just sat there and listened. It all sounded like the story of someone completely different. This couldn’t be what had happened, right?

More to the point, “We really are some unlucky people, aren’t we?”
I commented to Ethan. “What are the chances of running into, or more like over, each other twice like that?” I shook my head disbelievingly and laughed. You had to find some humor there.

They finished with a very peculiar ending I didn’t much like.

“You came home in a complete daze and when I asked what was wrong you started crying. You told me that you couldn’t work at his house anymore and you were really upset about it all. You said you couldn’t stand it being ignored by him like that and being practically alone in that huge house of his.
After taking care of him 24/7 I understand why you would feel that way.” With that she glared over my head at Ethan. “Why the hell did you ignore her?”

“I didn’t,” he defended himself.

“You must have or Rachel wouldn’t have said that.”

They talked on as if I wasn’t even there.

“I hugged her and she said it was inappropriate since we were employer and employee, so I let go and apologized immediately. But it was just awkward after that and I couldn’t look at her. I took my dinner to my office and ate there. When I came back down she was gone and left this note.”

He showed us the piece of paper, which said ‘I quit’ in my cursive hand writing.

I snorted a laugh. “I’m sorry, but this all just sounds so damn ridiculous. I would never do such things. And I certainly wouldn’t cry because some guy was ignoring me. I mean, come on, Jess. You know me. I’m not like that.”

“You didn’t used to be like that a half a year ago, yes. But people change, Rachel. We do, too.”

“Ugh, I’m just going to ask my former bosses
to give me my jobs back
and everything’s fine.”

“Oh, hell no,” Ethan said emphatically. “I got in the car as soon as I saw your note to get you back
and apologize
. I’m not going to let you work for less than minimum wage anymore. I know it was a little harsh of me to react like that, but I didn’t mean it like you told Jess. Please,
come
work for me again.”

“I don’t even know you,” I tried to protest, but it fell on deaf ears.

“Then we’ll just get to know each other
all over
again.” He sounded so enthusiastic. “And I really miss your cooking.”
He had a look of real longing on his face as he said that last part.