Remember Us

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

When I woke up there was a pair of arms wrapped around me. I shift a little and adjust to the darkness. How long was I out for? I sigh and close my eyes again.

Wait. A pair of arms around me?! My eyes shoot open and I roughly turn in my bed to come face to face with Adam.

Instinctively, I kick him off the bed and he lands with a loud 'oomph.'

this, in turn, woke Katie up who started calling for me. “nice going.” I hiss at Adam and look at the clock next to me. It was only eleven at night, so not too late.

“me? You're the one who pushed me!” he whisper-yells back. I ignore him and walk into Katies room where she stops calling for me.

I seriously wish and think that I'm sleeping. Why is Katie here? “hey baby,” I say, sitting next to her on the bed, “everything's okay. I just fell out of bed.”

“you okay mommy?” she asks kindly.

“of course I am. Now you go back to sleep, you need your rest.” she nods, tiredly, and closes her eyes. After a couple more minutes she was asleep and I went back into my room.

Adam was back on the bed but just sitting there, not under the covers or anything. He looked exhausted.

I close the door so that we could actually talk in normal voices. “what are you doing here?” I ask, crossing my arms in front of me.

“you told me on the phone you weren't mad at me.” he says.

“I'm not.”

“then please at least sit down and stop glaring at me.”

I sit down on the edge of the bed, farthest away from him, and only soften my look a little. “what do you want Adam? Better yet, what were you doing in my bed?”

he looks at me, searching my eyes for something I assume he didn't find. “there was an accident on the off-ramp.” he tells me like this would make sense. Though I was as lost as ever.

“okay...?”

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I did chase after you Juliana.”

I laugh, “could have fooled me.”

another sigh escaped his lips. I knew I wasn't making this easy for him but I didn't care. I didn't want it to be easy. “there was an accident on the off ramp to the airport. An over turned semi, or, well, a big truck. I was right behind, or I guess close behind, to it and they stopped traffic for two hours. By then your flight had already left.”

“and I'm supposed to believe you?” I ask. I mean really, this story wouldn't be so hard to make-up.

A small smile plays on his lips as he bends over and grabs something from, what I'm guessing is, his bag. When he sits back up I see that it's a newspaper and he hands it to me. Right there on the front page of an Italian Sunday newspaper was a picture of Adam Edwin DiGerlando, giving his report on what happened. “I knew you were going to ask that so I came prepared.” I nod and hand the paper back to him. “when I knew I missed the flight I went back home and packed up a few clothes. Now I know you're going to ask why I didn't just call you but I literally ran out of the house the instant I got the note, so there wasn't anytime to pick stuff up.” he tells me, practically reading my mind. “I had called Greg and told him to meet you at the airport, figuring he'd be better than Jon. Then I called Blake and made sure he came here and fast as he could. I booked two tickets for the next flight to Italy and packed Katie up and we left.” he closes his eyes for a moment and then opens them again, meeting mine. “I. Chased. After.” he says clearly.

For some reason I didn't care anymore. Having him not chase after me... I don't know, it just changed me somehow.

“you know what I did last night? I went out and got drunk.” I randomly tell him.

“you what?!”

I laugh, “yeah. And it wasn't too terrible.”

“but you don't drink.”

“I didn't drink. I think I may start now.”

“no.”

“no?”

“you're not going to start drinking Juliana,” Adam tells me, “I know you and drinking just isn't something you do.”

I laugh again, “you never knew me Adam. We only dated for seven months.”

He didn't say anything in reply but another voice did. “But I know you.” I look behind me and find Blake standing there with his arms folded. He takes a couple steps into the room, “what you did last night was not and is not you Julie.”

I raise my eyebrows, “what? Are you on his side now?”

“Adam made sure that you were taken care of when you got home because he knew you'd be a mess if he didn't show up. Let's just say that when he called me, crying, I knew he'd never do something to purposefully hurt you.”

“I don't care. I'm done with this on again off again crap. It's over.”

Blake gave Adam one of those 'I tried' looks and then left the room. I was hoping Adam would follow, but he didn't. Instead, he sat there, looking pissed at me.

“dammit Julie! I didn't come here for you to pull this!” I decide to just let him continue instead of interrupting. “I quit my job for you, lost my apartment, my mom officially hates me, and I just basically stole a multimillion dollar jet just to get here. And you're saying that you don't care?!?!!”

my eyes widen, “you stole a jet?”

“yes, actually, I did. So please, just get through this stupid phase of yours so that this move of mine doesn't seem like a waste.”

I sigh. He stole a jet for me, who does that? Someone who cares. “you really hurt me Adam.”

“I know. This whole relationship has been crappy, huh?”

“actually, I think the relationship end of it has been pretty good.” he cracks a smile. “you really quit your job?”

“yeah.”

“okay, I'm only going to say this because I really do love you and we have a kid together. Got it?”

“yes.”

“their looking for a marketing manager at your old office. Your boss, Thomas, comes in every now and then to the bakery and asked me if I had heard from you because they had wanted to hire you for the position.” I inform him, “so you have a job. You can stay at Finn and Dakota's though, just between us, they're trying to have a kid. So, you know, you might want to find your own place as quickly as you can. I can't exactly fix your mom hating you, I'm sure she hates me too. And I guess if you get sent to jail or prison or whatever for the jet I can bail you out. And-” I stop, taking a breather to sort out my thoughts. I look up at Adam and he looks at me.

“And...?” he says, hopeful.

I bite my lip for a moment and let out the breath I had been holding, “and we can start dating again. Totally starting over from the beginning, well, except we have a kid.”

he looked like a kid in candy store, that's how much his face brightened up, “really?”

I laugh at his reaction, “really. You can stay here tonight or leave, I don't care. But you'll be sleeping on the couch. I need to sleep now though, I've got a client at nine tomorrow before the shop opens.”

he gets up and leaves then, but not without telling me goodnight.