Wonder finished eating her sandwich, emptied her cappuccino cup, and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“What now?”

Anandur shifted on the stool. “Do you want a pastry?”

Why did she have a feeling that he was stalling? Maybe he was not in the mood to start his workday?

Or did he want a few more moments with her?

She certainly wanted more time with him. Anandur was fun to be with, perhaps because he didn’t take anything seriously, himself included. His sunny attitude was the perfect antidote to her serious one.

“I’m full, thank you.” But if he wanted to take her out again, she was all for it. “Do you get breaks? Can we meet for lunch?”

“I’ll see what I can do. It depends on Kian’s plans for today.” Anandur scratched his beard. “I’m going to take you to see Bridget, the clan’s doctor. Well, she was until Julian came back, that’s her son who is also a doctor. But he is away at some conference. Kian thinks it’s a good idea for her to check you out and make sure your injury is healing all right. Maybe she can also find out why you can’t remember anything.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Anandur scratched the back of his head. “He also wants Vanessa to talk to you. She is a therapist who specializes in trauma.”

For some reason, he seemed very uncomfortable with Kian’s commands.

Wonder put a hand on his thigh. “It's okay. I don’t mind. In fact, I would love to talk to them. I’m open to anything that might help restore my memories or at least explain why I lost them.”

Anandur expelled a relieved breath. “I’m glad you have no problem with that. I was afraid you wouldn’t want to talk to strangers and answer a bunch of intrusive questions, especially not on your first day here. But the boss insisted.”

“I have nothing to hide.” Wonder rose to her feet and picked up her paper plate and cup. “What do I do with these?”

“I’ll take them to the trash.”

“Wait.” Wonder wiped the table with a paper napkin and added it to the pile.

Observing Carol running around and fulfilling orders, she realized that the blond had no one helping her and was doing everything herself. The least Wonder could do was wipe the table clean.

“Thanks for breakfast.” She waved at Carol.

“Come back for lunch. But I’m afraid the selection here is the same for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sandwiches and more sandwiches and pastries.”

“It was very good.”

“Come on,” Anandur said. “The clinic is right over there.” He pointed at a one-story building recessed a little from the rest of the communal facilities surrounding the village square.

As they entered, a woman with a wild head of hair that was even redder than Anandur’s beckoned them into her office. “Come right in.”

“Wonder, this is Bridget, the doctor. Bridget, this is Wonder.”

The doctor offered Wonder her hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“Same here.” The doctor’s small hand had a surprisingly firm grip.

“I’ll leave you two to talk,” Anandur said. “Can you find your way back to the house?”

“Of course. But I don’t have a key.”

“There is no need. No one locks their doors in the village.” He leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “I’ll see if I can get a break for lunch and come check up on you.”

He was so confusing. One moment he was kissing her, even if only on her cheek, and the next he was sounding like a parent saying goodbye to a kid who was afraid to be left alone with a stranger.

It was embarrassing.

Wonder rolled her eyes and waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

Still, he didn’t move from his spot.

“Go already. I want to talk to Bridget in private.” She gave him a slight push.

“I’ll see you later.” Anandur pivoted on his heel and walked out without looking back.

Wonder sighed. Pretending to be just friends was going to be tough. It was easier when he was keeping his distance, but then he did things like giving her a kiss or taking her hand, which implied intimacy.

“Take a seat, Wonder,” Bridget said. “Tell me about your coma.”

“All I can tell you is what happened after I woke up. I have no memory of how it happened or of the life I had before it. I don’t even know my real name. I chose Wonder because it sounded nice.”

The doctor smiled. “I heard the story. You have no idea how fast rumors spread over here. I was told you woke up in Egypt.”

“Yes.”

“Was it in a hospital?”

“No. It was on a construction site. Someone must have dumped me there without checking whether I had a pulse. They probably thought I was dead.”

Bridget narrowed her eyes. “Were you very thin when you woke up?”

“How did you know? I was skeletal.”

“Your body must’ve gone into stasis. A severe injury might do that to an immortal, and after several weeks in that state a bare minimum of the original musculature remains.”

“I see. Anandur told me what stasis was, but I didn’t make the connection.”

Over the next several hours, the doctor asked many more questions, took a lot of blood samples, and put Wonder inside a weird machine that scanned her brain and another one that scanned her heart.

“There is nothing wrong with you physically, Wonder,” she declared after all the tests were done. “If you suffered head trauma, your body repaired itself beautifully. There is no sign of anything. Your heart is perfectly mended as well. You’re healing very fast even for an immortal.”

“What does it mean? Are there different kinds of immortals?”

Bridget put her tablet down and steepled her fingers. “The theory is that the closer you are to the source, the stronger you are as far as your special immortal capabilities. This is especially true in the case of healing. Your mother must have been a very old immortal. Someone whose blood wasn’t diluted by generations of humans.”

“Maybe I’m a very old immortal myself?” Wonder would have loved nothing more than to stick it to Anandur and tell him that she was older than him.

Bridget shook her head. “You’re a very young immortal. I estimate that you are between eighteen and twenty-one years old.”

Disappointing. “Are you sure?”

Bridget nodded. “I’m very sure.”

Well, if she was indeed so young, then there was no shame in asking the question that had been bothering her for a while. “Is there any way to know if I was ever intimate with a male?” She bit on her lower lip. “I don’t remember anything, and I would like to know.”

Bridget smiled. “That’s perfectly understandable. I can check if your hymen is still intact, but that’s not conclusive proof. Some girls don’t have them, and still others tear it other than via intercourse. But in any case, I will have to perform an internal exam, which means that I will have to put my fingers inside your vagina. Are you okay with that?”

Wonder blushed profusely. Not because of the internal exam Bridget had suggested, but because the doctor assumed she was so utterly ignorant that an explanation was needed.

“I know what a gynecological exam is. I never had one, but I know what to expect.” Between television and YouTube, one could learn anything.

“Good. So is it a yes?”

Wonder nodded. “I want to know.”