Chapter 47
Emily’s heart went thundering behind her chest, hair tucked behind her ears and a slow blush creeping unto her cheeks but safely hidden behind the large sunglasses she wore, and a scarf around her face as she slid into the passenger seat of Jackson’s car.
Jackson had a puzzled look on his face as he studied and she read it immediately
“Word on the street is that I’m famous” she answered to his unspoken question “So where are we going?” she strapped her seat belt in place.
“Wherever you want to” he said to her “What do you feel like doing?”
Emily thought for a moment, purposely causing the wheels to spiral in her head, what did she want to do? No one has ever really asked her that before, her heart melted, she felt seen and by this man she wasn’t really sure how she was involved with him. She had tried so hard to fill his face now with the gaps in her memories but it didn’t fit, it didn’t feel real and Ethan being distant wasn’t helping at all. He had left that morning without even word just a flimsy note on her dressing mirror that he’ll be gone for a few days.
“How about a picnic?” Jackson chimed in when she saw she was having a hard time deciding, whichever the outcome was he had come prepared.
“I’d love that” she said with a smile as Jackson started the car, the electric buzz of the engine whirring in her ears.
“Do you dance?” Jackson asked casually, when they arrived at a secluded park.
“Not so much” she said, the brush of her shoulders against his sending a shiver down his spine “Though I haven’t danced in a while.
Somehow to Emily, their connection felt electric, a current running beneath the surface of casual interaction. She felt drawn to him, in ways she couldn’t explain so why couldn’t she remember him. It was in the way she let his hand rest at the small of her back as they walked, a touch so familiar yet impossible for her to understand.
Lunch was a picnic in the park. They sat on a blanket spread beneath the sprawling branched of an ancient oak tree. As Jackson unpacked the hamper, Emily watched him, the elegance of his movement, how he stopped to look at her occasionally, how he poured the wine with a precision that felt like a dance on its own. He was dreamy, the lushness of his ginger hair that she wanted to run through her fingers but held herself back, his dark eyes that softened whenever he looked at her.
“Were we close?” she asked out of the blue “In a time where there wasn’t any gap in my memories, and maybe all was right with the word”
“I know for sure you weren’t this witty and sarcastic” Jackson said, a soft smile playing at the corner of his lips as he took the glass of wine to his lips, sipping slowly but his eyes never leaving hers.
“So a bad memory and a personality change” she laughed and he mirrored her honey voice while she bit off a small chunk of jam doughnuts, the jam staining the corner of her lips.
“It doesn’t matter either ways” he stretched out his hands to wipe the corner of her lips, his fingers grazing her lips and send electric waves through her, she felt the goose bumps rise on her skin immediately, she shivered.
“Are you cold?” he asked
After lunch, Jackson led her to a secluded part of the park where a string quartet filled the air with the sweet strains of a lifting melody.
“May I have this dance?” he stretched out his hands to her, his voice mingling with the music, stirring something dormant inside her.
She accepted, they began to move to the rhythm of the music as he took the lead, the gentle firmness of his hand in hers, sparked a comforting warmth, one she had failed to feel from Ethan since the accident. As they danced, his hand at her waist felt like a ghost touch from another life, a whisper of deja vu that left her breathless, but still bore the whispers of confusion within her.
As the music reached its crescendo, Jackson drew her close, their bodies fitting together in a way that felt strange but yet so familiar and so right. In that embrace, she caught a whiff of his cologne, a scent that tugged at the corners of her mind, beckoning for a memory to awaken.
The dance ended but the moment lingered as Jackson still held unto her tightly, his breath fanning her neck while he refused to let go.
“Emily” he called softly, looking into her eyes, holding her stare, he gaze metered out with such intensity, Emily felt that familiar shiver overwhelm her suddenly. His face felt so close to hers, their shared breath drawing them closer. The air felt thick with anticipation, a longing so far it felt impossible to grasp.
Just when Jackson’s lips were about to graze her, a memory flashed through her head and another from two different scenarios it was impossible to place them. She heard the yelling.
“She’s my wife!!”
A face blurred in her memories and while she tried to recall, it wiped away despite her desperate attempts to grasp at it.
“Emily can hear, please stop!!” another voice came through and suddenly she pulled away from Jackson and walking away from him, a dull ache festering at her forehead.
“Emily!” he called out, running after her but she quickened her pace until finally he caught up with her, pulling her by her arms till she was facing him, his eyes searched hers, a hint of hurt and pain hiding beneath them.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his hands cupping her face, willing her to speak even though she tried to look away from him.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.
“I don’t know” she confessed, she really had no idea.
“What happened?” she went on “What happened before my accident?”