Second Rate Chances (11 page)

             
“Yes and no. I don’t know a lot about their relationship. Once they started dating, he ditched us. We’re low-lifers, even though we are the ones who have kept Titan at the top. Chloe Miles wouldn’t be caught dead hanging around the basement.”

             
“Well, there was that one time I saw her down there when we were in a meeting. This was before you and Sam broke up.” Abe said to Lil.

             
“Let me get this straight then. Sam ditched his best friends for a girl?” Lil couldn’t believe Sam would do that. Kane and Abe had been his friends for years. What ever happened to bros-before-hos?

             
Kane shrugged. “And a promotion, I guess. Doesn’t matter. He moved out of our apartment and into a high-rise in the building Miles owns. Since then, we don’t talk. He holds meetings, we do what we’re supposed to do, and we go home. There aren’t any late nights pouring over secret passageways in games. No more drinks at the bar. There’s no more of the Sam we use to know.”

             
“He’s been replaced by this suit wearing corporate asshole who has a better selection of Italian leather shoes than Kane.”

             
Kane’s lip turned up into a sneer. “I hate him more for that than I do for ditching us.”

81

SECOND RATE CHANCES

CHAPTER 12

Sam arrived at his therapist’s office at eight o’clock on the dot, for his eight fifteen appointment. It was Monday morning and he was starting what he hoped would be a productive week.

             
He had plans with Lil on Wednesday. That gave him something to look forward to. He hoped that after their Christmas tree outing he’d have more dates lined up with her.

             
When the receptionist called Sam back, he followed her into a small dark office. He had only met Dr. Langdon once before at the hospital before he was released. The man seemed nice enough. Tall and thin with black rimmed glasses and a voice that let Sam know the man was intelligent.

             
“Sam,” Dr. Langdon said, standing from behind his massive oak desk. He offered his hand to Sam. When they released hands, Dr. Langdon indicated for Sam to have a seat in one of the burgundy leather chairs that sat in front of the desk.

             
“How have you been since I last saw you?” he asked, making notes on a yellow legal pad.

             
Sam wondered what he could be making notes about so early on in the session. All they had done was shake hands and exchange pleasantries.

             
“Good,” Sam answered.

             
“Good how?”

             
Sam wasn’t sure how to answer that. Good that he had spent time with his ex-girlfriend? Good that his current fiancée was out of town for God only knew how long? Sam’s hesitance to answer the question made Dr. Langdon set his pen aside. He looked at him, no smile on his face, through his glasses.

             
“There are no wrong answers here. Just be honest with me and I’ll be honest with you.”

             
Well, when he put it like that…

             
“I’m not sure how I can answer that.” It was the truth as far as Sam was concerned.

             
“Okay, let me try a different approach. Have you been sleeping? Did you take any of the pills I prescribed for you?”

             
“Nah. I’m not much of a pill-popper.”

             
“Those sleeping pills can aid you in recovery. I’m not telling you to abuse them, but if you lay down for the night and you feel like your mind is racing, take one. It’s not going to hurt anything.”

             
“All right, but I don’t need them. In fact, I’ve been sleeping pretty well the last few nights.”

             
“That’s good. Do you know what triggered this? When you were in the hospital the staff told me they had a sleeping aid running through your IV.”

             
“The first couple of nights after I was released were pretty rough. Maybe a few hours a night. I took your suggestion last Friday and decided to drive around to familiarize myself with the area.”

             
“And did it help?”

             
Yeah. It helped all right.

             
Sam decided not to answer the question directly. “I drove around the city and ended up in the Village. Before I knew it, I was parked in front of my old house.”

             
“The one you shared with Lil Harper?” Sam nodded. “Did you go in?”

             
“I hadn’t planned on it. You told me drive around to familiar places. Well, that’s the place I remember. I didn’t want to disturb her, especially after the way she left the hospital that day. Besides, she had company and I knew I wouldn’t be a welcome addition.

             
“Her best friend's boyfriend, Zach, came out and saw me sitting there. He invited me in and then he and Ellie ditched me there with Lil.”

             
“How did that go?”

             
Sam was really starting to get annoyed by the short and sweet, to-the-point questions. Not that he expected some in depth analysis on his feelings but it still would have been nice to hear at least a little bit of emotion in Dr. Langdon’s words.

             
“Fine, I suppose. We talked some, not about what happened to us, but about her helping me.”

             
Dr. Langdon had long ago picked up his pen and began writing again. He looked up from his pad, the pen still moving across the page. “She agreed to help you?”

             
“Yeah. Our old friends, Kane and Abe? I’ve done something to ruin that friendship. Lil offered to talk to them on my behalf.”

             
“So she still has a relationship with them?”

             
“No, that’s the weird thing. She hasn’t spoken to them in years either.”

             
“How does that feel knowing you don’t have a relationship anymore with your two best friends?” Dr. Langdon took off his spectacles and cleared them with a tiny towel he kept on the side of his desk. He placed them back over the bridge of his nose, and folded his hands together in front of him.

             
“Just as confusing as not having a relationship with Lil. The four of us were inseparable in college and afterward. Lil and I were there when Kane and Abe finally confessed their love for one another. They were there for us when we bought the house. If I was in the dog house with Lil, I went to them for guidance.” Sam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The three of us worked together. We were all hired at Titan at the same time. We had these dreams of designing our own game one day.”

             
Dr. Langdon nodded. “I can imagine this must be hard for you, realizing that the people you’ve loved for so long now have nothing to do with you.

             
“Tell me – on the drive to Lil’s – did you remember anything? When you were at the house, did something there trigger a memory?”

             
“No, but we did make plans to go buy a Christmas tree on Wednesday.” When Dr. Langdon furrowed his brow, a clear sign of confusion, Sam explained. “It was something we had done together since our freshman year in college. I’m hoping that doing something as familiar as that will help me.”

“
I see. Well, it sounds to me like you’re making good progress then. I’m assuming seeing the house, being as it’s where you remember living, is what helped you get some rest.”

Sam felt uncomfortable. He bit his bottom lip and looked away from Dr. Langdon. “I…uh…spent the night at Lil’s.”

             
The silence in the room that followed Sam’s news lingered for several minutes. Finally, Sam looked at Dr. Langdon who stared back at him with an unreadable expression. He really hated that this guy showed no emotions.

             
“You spent the night?” Dr. Langdon asked slowly like he was trying to process the information.

             
“Not spend the night, spend the night.” Sam tried to explain. “I slept on the couch and she slept in her room. There was no funny business.”

             
“I have to ask, what does Ms. Miles say about all of this? Surely your fiancée would be unhappy about you staying over at your ex-girlfriend’s house.”

             
“Chloe’s out of town,” Sam said. “I guess she’s giving me my space.”

             
“How does that make you feel, her being away and not seeing you through this ordeal?”

             
Sam sighed and threw his head back, his hands rubbing his now tired eyes. “I’ve never been that guy who cheated on his girlfriends. But I feel like my brain is split in two. There’s this one side that knows Lil as my girlfriend even though she’s not. I want to spend time with her because she’s what I know and hearing people say I’m going to marry Chloe makes me feel like I’m cheating on her.

             
“Then there’s the other side that apparently does know Chloe enough to love her and ask her to marry me, but I don’t know her. I feel like I’m betraying her too.”

             
Sam heard the scrape of Dr. Langdon’s chair against the wood floor. He lifted his head and followed the man as he moved around his desk and took a seat on the edge right in front of Sam.

             
“This is normal, Sam. Amnesia patients aren’t guaranteed results overnight. Your mind is in a tug of war between who you were and who you are now. It’s going to take time. Your memories may come back tomorrow; they may come back next week. It could even be six months from now. Stop beating yourself up about this and just be the you that you know. If that means spending time with Lil, then do that. If it means calling Chloe and getting to know her all over again, then do that. You need to do what you think is going to help you get better.”

             
When Dr. Langdon said it that way it made perfect sense to Sam. He had been beating himself up over everything. Between wanting to spend time with Lil and guilty that he didn’t care for a woman he obviously did care about. He needed to slow down and take things one day at a time. One woman at a time. Right now, his mind was telling him that woman was Lil.

             
Dr. Langdon had made his way back to his chair behind his desk.

             
“I think that’ll be all for today. I’d like to see you a week from tomorrow, same time.”

             
Sam nodded and stood. He took the reminder card Dr. Langdon had filled out for him and thanked him for the session. He smiled and said goodbye to the receptionist outside the door and made his way to the elevator. While waiting for the doors to open, Sam turned his cell phone back on and was immediately alerted of a new voice mail. His heart pounded, hoping it was from Lil, but it was Titan’s office asking him to call them back.

             
Sam rode down the elevator and waited until he was outside the building, before he called them back.

             
“Thank you for calling Titan Gaming, how may I direct your call?” the dispatcher asked.

             
“Mr. Miles please.”

             
“One moment.”

             
Sam waited for the call to be put through to Mr. Miles. He had a nervous feeling that whatever the man had to say couldn’t be good. Did he know he had spent the night with Lil? Yes, technically Sam was engaged to his daughter so he couldn’t imagine him being happy to hear that his ex-girlfriend was helping him through his recovery.

             
“Mr. Miles’ office. Heidi speaking.”

             
“Heidi, this is Sam Travers.”

             
“Oh, Mr. Travers. This is Heidi Nicholson, Mr. Miles’, CEO of Titan Gaming, personal assistant.”

             
Sam rolled his eyes. He figured that much was true. She could have saved herself from the spiel. He lost three years of his life, not all of it.

             
“Mr. Miles would like to speak with you this afternoon. Will four o’clock work for you?”

             
“That should be fine,” Sam said. “Do you know what this is about?”

             
“No, I can’t say that I do. I’ll let him know to expect you at four sharp. Have a great day Mr. Travers.”

             
The line disconnected before Sam could offer a proper goodbye. He looked at the time and wondered what he was going to do with his day. It was nine in the morning, so he had a good seven hours before he had to face whatever wrath he was sure he was going to get.

~~~~

Sam spent the next several hours in his condo. He had reacquainted himself with the staff downstairs. Cosmo was someone he sensed looked after him. They talked about the accident, Cosmo had told him in detail what had happened that morning, and he was starting to feel better about the place he now called home.

             
He kept his mind from wandering by doing mundane tasks he had neglected since coming home from the hospital. Laundry had piled up so he started several loads and ordered takeout for lunch.

             
It was later in the day, as he was putting away socks and boxers when his hand touched a soft velvet box in the back of his drawer. It was packed tight in the back, so he removed the drawer from the dresser to get a better grip on it.

             
The box was a deep red. It was a long skinny box that made Sam think there was a piece of jewelry inside. The hinges on the box creaked when he opened it, like it hadn’t been pried apart in a
longtime
. What lay inside made his breath hitch.

             
It was a stunning, thin silver bracelet with an infinity symbol in the middle. He lightly touched the cuff, afraid if he applied too much pressure it would tarnish. This was for Lil. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he did. For some reason, he had kept something he had meant to give to her, pushed away in the back of his underwear and sock drawer.