Matt

“Maybe this was a mistake,” Dean says in the hall. “You’re being an asshole.”

“How? I didn’t say anything,” I reply incredulously.

“Exactly. You didn’t say a thing. Put yourself in her shoes. She doesn’t know you. She doesn’t even know herself. You could’ve at least pretended to be civil.”

“We’ve had enough pretending in our relationship, don’t you think?”

I swear, the man swells to seven feet tall. “My mistake. You are an asshole. Get out. I’d rather she be alone than with you.”

“I’m not an asshole,” I hiss, getting in his face. “This is all strange to me too, you know. I’m trying. I’m here.”

“Fine. One more chance, but if you don’t start to give me warm and fuzzy feelings, I’ll make sure you won’t be allowed to set foot inside this hospital or get close to April. Like I said, she would be better off alone.”

“Fine.” I scowl at him and walk back into the room. Since it’s late in the evening already, I get comfortable, unsure whether she’ll be waking up again. At some point Dean leaves and I doze off.

The sun is barely seeping through the shades when I wake up, cramped from sleeping in the uncomfortable chair. I see Dean walking in with coffee in his hand. “Morning,” he greets me. Then he walks over to April, brushes the hair off her face, and places a kiss on her forehead. “Hey there, April.”

“Hi,” she says to him. I don’t think she even knows I’m here.

“I have to leave for California today. I’ll be in touch, though. But don’t you worry. Matt is going to look after you, okay?”

“And Matt’s my friend, right?”

Dean glares at me over his shoulder and I remember the warning he gave me last night. So I get up and walk to her other side. “Good morning.”

“Oh, hi. I didn’t see you there,” she says, sounding surprised. “I’m sorry, but I just…I can’t remember anything. I know that’s a rude question, but I don’t know you.”

“I know. I get it. But yes, I am your friend,” I say softly, trying to soothe her.

“You both are?”

“Yes. We both are,” Dean reassures her, leaning a hip on the bed and reaching over to give her a big hug. “It’s going to be all right. I promise. I know you’re confused now, but you saw the papers. I’m your emergency contact person. You chose me for that ’cause we’re friends. So you have to trust me when I tell you Matt’s your friend too. He’ll be the one helping you when you leave the hospital.”

The sudden look of terror on her face makes me take a step back. She’s scared of me.

“I…I don’t know. Maybe I can just stay here in the hospital until I get my memory back.”

“Hopefully you’ll remember everything soon,” Dean says soothingly, “but if not, we have to plan, honey. And Matt here, he’s going to help out.”

She looks at me and then shakes her head. “No. He’s a stranger.” She glances at Dean. “You both are.”

“We’re not. It may seem like it, but we’re not. Have I done you wrong since you woke up?”

“No,” she says, and then eyes me carefully before averting her gaze.

“It’s me. You’re afraid of me,” I say in a quiet voice.

“No. I just don’t know you.”

“How ’bout this? I’ll bring you a complete criminal report on Matt,” Dean offers. “Hell, I’ll bring you one on myself. I’ll go to the precinct right now and get them for you. You’ll see he’s not a criminal, that he doesn’t have any unpaid parking tickets, whatever…you think that’ll set you at ease a little?”

Getting an idea, I add, “I have a license to practice law. Not that that makes much difference, but the Florida bar does extensive background checks. I even pay my taxes on time. I’ve never lifted a hand to a woman, no family history of mental illness…You’ll see, I’m just a normal guy.”

She slumps down a little, seeming defeated, and my hardened heart starts to crack, just a bit.

“I know how difficult this must be, April,” I tell her. “But I wouldn’t hurt you. Do you really want me to leave? Do you really prefer being here alone?”

Her eyes water a little, and she sniffs. “No.”

“Okay,” Dean says, “I’ll run down to the station. Be back in half an hour.”

April turns her body and closes her eyes. She’s not fooling me into thinking she’s asleep. But I let her have her time to think while Dean does his thing.

Forty minutes later, Dean’s back with a folder. “I’m in a rush, ’cause I have to catch that plane. But here’s a folder of all of me and all of Matt.” He hands it to her, and she sets it by the foot of her bed, not even opening it. “I’m a call away. I slipped into the folder the numbers of two detectives who can get ahold of me in an emergency. If I don’t pick up right away, you can call them anytime, to talk or even to reach me.”

“Okay.”

Dean gets up. “You need anything, anything at all, don’t hesitate.”

“Got it. Be safe, and thank you for all you’ve done for me.”

He winks at her, then leans close to me and hisses at me, “Don’t fuck her up even more.”

I balk at his insinuation. As if any of this is my fault. Absolutely none of this is my doing. Yet here I am, picking up the pieces and doing my best.

Once Dean leaves and the nurse finishes checking April over, I pull the chair over next to her bed and sit down. She’s been avoiding eye contact with me from the moment she saw me yesterday. It’s almost as if she knows we’re on the outs.

Is she lying? No, she can’t be.

“The nurse thinks you may be going home tomorrow,” I say, pasting on the smile I use at the club, the one that says everything’s cool.

“Yeah,” she says softly. “I don’t remember where that is. Dean left the address for me. I think it’s on the dresser over there.”

“Well, I’m thinking that maybe you should come and stay with me for a little while. The doctor said it could be days, maybe weeks before you get your memory back, and you have a broken arm.”

“The cast comes off in a few weeks.”

“Still, you need help, April.”

“The doctor also said I may never remember again.”

“But he said that would be rare,” I reminded her.

“How about you just take me home and I’ll figure it out?” she suggests nervously.

“Figure it out? You don’t even know where you live. Where the grocery store is. Anything.”

She closes her eyes and presses her thumbs against her temples. Both of us know she can’t be alone and that she has to come home with me. “I’m going to go get some of your things and take them to my house. I also need a shower and a change. I’ll be here later. I’m leaving you my phone number.”

She’s so hesitant—I see it in her body language, in the way she avoids looking at me. “What’s the matter?” I ask.

She let out a breath. “Honestly, I don’t know you. You’re asking me to go home with you. A stranger.”

“We’re not strangers.”

“I think I’d rather take the risk and go home. Alone.”

“Don’t be difficult, April. You are in no condition to go home alone. You need help. Let me help you.”

“And I really have no one? I mean, how is that possible? I’m not even sure how you and I know each other. Was I a terrible person? Why don’t I have more friends?”

“I don’t know the answer to that. Probably because you were so busy with work. Maybe it was hard to be friends with a police officer who’s always busy. I don’t know. But we’re friends.”

“Friends? Just friends?”

I can’t just keep lying to her. I need to give her something. “We dated for a while.”

“We dated? But not anymore?”

“No, not anymore.”

“What happened? Did you hurt me?”

Ironic she’d ask if I hurt her. It almost makes me tell her the entire truth. But I hold it in. It’s not time to be an asshole. “I would never hurt you. Not ever. I wouldn’t hurt anyone. We dated for five months and then you broke up with me and I was very hurt for a long time. That’s the truth. That’s why I seem a little distant.”

“And why would you help me? If I hurt you, why are you here?”

“April, you were beaten with a bat. Repeatedly. You’re not in any shape to be alone in your house and fend for yourself. I don’t even know how you can see with that swollen eye. You have to believe me when I tell you you’re safe with me. I’m your friend. What happened between you and me is the past. Right now, all you need to worry about is your recovery. I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“How do I know you aren’t some sort of psycho or that you didn’t abuse me or something? I mean, why did I break up with you?” Her concern was palpable and reasonable. But still, it was so completely and utterly off base, I was having a hard time not coming clean. Except coming clean would wreck her.

“Mostly it was work that kept us apart. You were busy and it just didn’t work out. Do you really think Dean would send you home with someone who was crazy? He gave you an entire dossier on me, for chrissake.” She looks like she wants to argue, so I rush on. “I have a spare room. I can keep an eye on you. Plus Katie, my brother’s girlfriend, lives with him a floor above me and can keep you company and help when I’m unavailable. You’ve met her before and you liked her.” I think she liked her—I’m not completely sure—but everyone likes Katie, so…

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay,” she concedes with a defeated shrug. And then she suddenly groans.

“What? Is it your head?”

“No. My stomach’s been hurting. All night and most of today. Probably just the painkillers and antibiotics they’re giving me. It’s fine.” She turns onto her side, closes her eyes, and goes back to pretending she’s asleep so that she doesn’t have to deal with me.