There was something in his voice. I didn’t think I was imagining it.

He was remembering me now.

He had to be.

I was remembering too. It was all right there, like it was happening again. Without my permission, my hand went sliding up his back. Heat was rising off his skin from his exertion and his scent was everywhere. Under my fingers, the muscles in his back coiled and stretched. My brain was short-circuiting as I traced those muscles so defined he was like a living anatomy textbook. Latissimus dorsi, I mentally recited. Levator scapulae, splenius capitis. I found myself wondering hysterically if he could help me study for my boards this way.

“You’re okay now,” I whispered to him. I wasn’t sure why I was whispering other than it felt right. “You can stand on your own.”

But he didn’t move. And neither did I. We stayed there in this strange embrace that made the impersonal space of the therapy room seem completely intimate. All we needed was for the lights to go out and it would be like that night again.

Though his hands were still, a kind of radiation spiraled off them. I could feel his touch in places his hands had never been, raising goosebumps on my skin in twining trails all through my body.

If presented with these symptoms by a patient I would start treating for a fever, but I felt completely healthy. I felt more than healthy, I felt...

Fucking wonderful.

He inhaled again and I felt his chest hitch, hold, and then relax again as he exhaled. Like he was about to say something, but thought better of it. I waited for him to realize he could stand on his own and let go of me, even though I didn’t actually want him to. I waited for him to mention the kiss.

Instead he pulled me ever so slightly closer. My leg brushed against his and I was acutely aware of heat gathering in my belly as my head spun dizzily.

Presented with these symptoms, I would start treating for sunstroke. Administer clear liquids. Apply a cold compress to back of neck...

Gabe’s lip brushed down and I felt his breath against my ear, which made me shiver. For hypothermia, warm the body’s core temperature slowly. “I remember you,” he said.

All of my studying flew out of my head and I couldn’t think of anything but the way his breath tickled my neck. “Everly Foster. From next door.”

He chuckled, a low and thrilling sound that made my toes dig into my shoes. “You probably thought I didn’t remember you, but I do.”

I opened my mouth, and then closed it. Then blinked as warmth traveled up from my belly and right up to the space behind my eyes. Shit. I was not going to cry. Why the fuck did I feel like I wanted to cry? For panic attacks encourage the patient to take slow, deep breaths...

I pulled back and looked at him. His arms tightened like he wasn’t ready to let me go. I had the strangest feeling of surreality, like I’d stepped into someone else’s life. Someone interesting. Someone far more fascinating than boring old me. The way he was looking at me now had me wondering if this was all a delusion and I was about to wake up and find that I’d fallen and hit my head.

“Right,” he said, nodding. “You’d come over with your parents to those barbecues my parents always had, right? And you have a sister too, don’t you?”

My lips were still parted, the “yes” still on my tongue. I stared at him and swallowed it back down before I could blurt out what I thought he was going to say. My stomach twisted and I felt nauseous. And once again an anger I had no business feeling took hold of me, making my heart start racing. I settled my hand on his arm and gently untangled myself from his embrace.

“I remember you too!” Kristyn piped up. She appeared at our side and I realized that while it had felt like a lifetime standing there wrapped in Gabe’s arms, in reality it had only been a few seconds at best. She was holding Gabe’s crutches for him, but she was looking at me. “Your sister was in my class!” she burst out. “We were lab partners! Oh my god, how is Abby doing? I hear she’s like traveling the world now, right?” She shook her head like we all were the best of friends. “I thought your name sounded familiar!” She screwed up her nose. “But you said Everly, right? Why do I remember it being Beverly?”

For nausea, first determine if the patient has consumed anything poisonous that would require a trip to the emergency department.

I pulled back from Gabe, taking the crutches from Kristyn and shoving them at him in one smooth motion. “It’s Everly,” I told Kristyn, already a million miles away from this conversation. “Common mistake.” I looked at Gabe. “Ready to go? I’ll grab your coat.”

His tongue flicked out to wet his lips. He was looking at me as if something had him completely confused.

But Kristyn was still stuck on her trip down memory lane. “Funny,” she mused. “I must have gone over to Abriella’s house a million times, but I never remember seeing you.” She looked up from her chart at me with a big smile on her face. “Did you hide in your room a lot?”

I pressed my lips together. Abriella had a zillion friends, all of them blonde and perfect like Kristyn. Petite, pretty girls who understood social rules on a level I never could. When I was younger I used to hang out on the landing and watch them through the banister, trying to decode the mysteries of their popularity, but one afternoon Abby caught me spying on her and threatened to tell mom I was being weird again. So I never spied again.

I also never managed to learn the rules either. “I don’t know,” I said, shoving Gabe’s coat at him. “Maybe.”

Kristyn turned her mouth down in an exaggerated frown. “Weird. It’s like... you weren’t even there.” She looked at me for a moment while I held my breath. It felt like my feet were nailed to the floor.

Then she smiled and shook her head. “Well, tell Abby I said hello, okay? Next time she’s in town I want to hear all about her adventures.”

“Sure,” I said. I didn’t look at her. I didn’t look at Gabe. I kept my eyes in front of me the whole ride home, so I didn’t notice how many people just plain didn’t notice me at all.