A Love Lost

Gabriel

I didn't want to leave Ana, especially with Sebastian, but I was committed to lunch with my mother. Who knows what Sebastian had up his sleeve. When he came up to us in the cafeteria and called Ana his girlfriend, it took everything in me not to bash his face into the wall. However, I knew that he was a jealous person. Ana didn't want him. She wanted me. It drove him mad. So mad that he used her brain injury to play with her memory. He used her memory loss to build a fake relationship. I had to pray that Ana was as good at detecting bullshit as she was before.

I pulled up to the yacht club where I told my mother I would meet her for lunch. Inside the restaurant, I found her seated at the furthest table from the front.

"Hello Rebeca." I greeted her.

"You're late." she chastised me. "I bet it was that thing's fault." She hadn't gotten it out of her system last night. "What was her name? I can't remember." I knew she could.

"I'm late because Ana is in the hospital. After your childish tantrum the other night, she ended up in the hospital with a brain bleed and three cracked ribs." It was none of her business, yet it was entirely her fault. I knew she didn't care. "She has memory loss. She doesn't remember her mother."

"Does she remember you?" she asked, highly intrigued.

"Yes. She knows I'm her boyfriend."

"Since you are her boyfriend, do you think I could visit her?" She seemed like she genuinely wanted to see Ana. It was weird. She didn't like her last night. Now she cares about her? "How long is she in the hospital?"

"She is discharged tomorrow, pending any setbacks. After that, she is going back to my place. Well, I guess your place. The doctors think that being around people or places that she was near before the accident is a good method of helping her memory come back." I explained the plan. Once more.

That was the end of the conversation for then. We spent the rest of lunch talking about my schooling, Antonio and his sons, and Mary.

At the end of the meal, before saying goodbye, she asked me if I would take her to the hospital.

"I don't think that is a good idea," I said. "Sebastian, Antonio, and Mary are all there telling her stories of how they know her. Trying to rebuild the connections. I should just return by myself. Maybe later at the house."

"Will she stay there with you permanently?" my mother asked. Again, genuinely interested.

I hadn't thought about that. If Ana didn't remember most of her past. If she didn't remember her mother, she wouldn't want to come back to them.

"I don't know. It all depends on Ana." I concluded, wished her goodbye, and headed back to the hospital.

When I returned to Ana's room, I saw Doctor Salvatore on the far side of her bed, Sebastian hugging a crying Mary, and Antonio pacing along the wall with the window. Ana was scrunched in a ball on the bed. She was shaking.

"What the hell is going on?" I exclaimed, rushing to her bedside.

Ana moved closer to me, wrapping her arms around my legs. The doctor looked from her to me, his eyes locking on mine.

"I just came in to do some checks on her memory..." he paused.

"And?" I prompted.

"And I asked her how old she was. Let me try again." he paused again. "Anastasia, dear. How old are you?"

"I'm nineteen," she answered, shyly.

Nineteen! She thought she was nineteen? Her poor mother. This poor girl believes she is two years older than she was.

"Will she remember her real age?" I asked the doctor.

"Most likely, this is temporary. She has been distressed since you left." What!

"What do you mean?" I asked for clarification.

"When the young man came in to share his stories, her heart rate monitor began to spike. The more information was given to her, the more stressed she got. It was like her brain was trying to detect lies.."

"Something didn't seem right with his stories. It didn't seem real." She explained. "Mary's made sense. I believe you, Mary. I can remember knowing you as family, maybe my mother. It's still a little fuzzy. Antonio, you're Gabriel's uncle. That is how I know you."

She did it. She made a connection. With both of them. I saw a smile appear on her mother's and Antonio's face. Even if it wasn't the way he would want her to remember him, she did. Her memory was coming back slowly.

"I don't remember Sebastian though. At all. Sorry." she apologized to him.

"What does this mean?" I asked the doctor.

"You, Mary, and Antonio should stay through the night. Sebastian should go. As there is no deep connection obviously between him and Anastasia, it would be best for him to leave." His advice made me smile. Her bullshit detector was as sharp as before. "She needs to sleep though. I will ask Jenna to bring two more chairs and I will be back later to check on her. Just keep her calm and happy." He escorted Sebastian out.

As the door closed behind them, Ana released her grip and laid back on the mattress. Mary and Antonio came over to her.

"Do you want all of us here?" Mary asked her.

Ana looked from her to me to Antonio and back to me, smiling.

"I want each of you here. I don't know the depth, but you three are who I remember the most."

Her mother held her hand. I kissed her forehead.

"Get some rest."

"Will you sing to me?" Her voice was quiet and soft. I had never done this before.

Jenna, the nurse, walked in pushing a chair. She was followed by another nurse.

"Here you are. If she needs anything, just press the button." With that, after dropping off the chairs, they left.

I walked to the other side of Ana's bed while Antonio and Mary closed the drapes and sat in their chairs.

I lay next to her and started humming a soft melody. She rolled over so her back was to me. I moved closer and wrapped my arm around her. She pulled it tight to her chest as she fell into a peaceful sleep.

The next morning, the doctor did some last-minute exams to make sure she was ready to be discharged. She, of course, passed them with flying colors. Mary signed the papers and I drove her home.

"We will see you and the boys tonight for dinner." I said after setting Ana in the front seat, after her mother kissed her head.

Ana's first time seeing Tomas, Nicholas, and Francisco. Antonio, Mary, and I were all hesitant, but the doctor said that the sooner we built connections, the better.

We had just left downtown Marbella and were five minutes from home when I struck up a conversation. "Are you ready to come home?"

"I am just ready to have some alone time with you. It was uncomfortable yesterday when you were gone. Having all of these people tell me these stories that I wasn't sure were true." I understood her perfectly. I didn't doubt that yesterday was extremely trying.

"Besides our dinners with Mary, Antonio, and their boys, we can just relax and you can focus on getting better," I remembered the doctor's words of warning.

"If you push her memory too hard, the more likely she won't remember. Even if you think you know what she needs, only do as she asks," he warned me as we left Ana's room.

Then, we arrived at my mother's, I guess our, house.