Whiskey, On The Rocks

thirteen

Taylor

When I woke up, I was very aware of a throbbing in my head, wrists, and ankles. My whole body hurt, but that wasn't what I focused on.

What I focused on was the fact that I hadn't forgotten Travis. My mind was fuzzy, but I could recall every interaction I'd ever had with Travis. The fucking procedure hadn't worked.

I started to cry. It seemed to have done the exact opposite. I could remember everything. Everything he'd erased from my brain the first time. Every moment we'd ever had together, every laugh, every kiss, every fucking moment.

"Tay?" I heard Selena's voice knocking on my door. "You awake?"

"Yeah, come in." I sniffed, and my door creaked open. "Hey." I smiled weakly.

"Hey, how do you feel?" She asked, coming to sit on my bed.

"It didn't fucking work Sel." I mumbled, tucking my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them.

"What didn't?"

"Oh don't bullshit me, Travis must have told you so I wouldn't find out." I looked at her. "The fucking procedure didn't work. I still remember everything."

"Well." Selena sighed. "Honestly, I think that's good. Erasing someone's mind is some out of this world shit."

"Yeah but I didn't want to remember what he did to me?"

"And what did he do to you?"

"Erased my mind once and let me get into a relationship with him and didn't tell me." 

"No!" Selena's eyes widened. "Fuck, I wish I'd..."

"Don't." I groaned, flopping back and rubbing my eyes. "Just don't. I just want to move on and pretend I never had anything to do with Travis Kelce except for him being my boss."

Seeming completely baffled by this whole thing, Selena just nodded. Apparently I'd been given the rest of the week off to recover, which was good since I felt like absolute shit. My wrists and ankles burned with dark bruises from the restraints, and my whole body - specifically my head - throbbed all over. Selena told me that Travis had brought me home this morning, and I'd been out all day. It had just gone seven.

Selena went to keep making dinner and I got up, going to have a long, hot shower. I put my dress in the wash and then scrubbed my whole body clean, washed my hair, shaved. I just wanted to get everything off me, and once I was done I felt like I had. And I had a plan.

Travis never had to know it hadn't worked. I'd just pretend it had, and that would make it so much easier. I could continue working, treat him as my boss, and just keep a distance between us. Things would be fine.

I spent the whole week sulking at home, dreading my Saturday shift. Five to one. I just hoped it would be busy enough that I wouldn't have to exchange more than the typical employee-boss greeting with Travis. I was a really shitty actor, so pretending he meant nothing to me was going to be hard.

And I was so confused. I was so scared of him after finding out what he'd done. Erasing my memory like that and never telling me. What did he think, that I'd fall in love with him and never find out? How could he have lied to me like that? Of course he still had a tiny piece of my heart, but it's not like we'd been together for years or anything. It should be easy to get him out of my head.

When I got to the bar at quarter to five, I was insanely nervous. I didn't want to see him, but I loved this job more than anything and I couldn't give it up. It paid so damn well, and let's face it, I needed the money.

Luckily for me, Travis didn't seem to be anywhere around. There was a decent amount of staff on the bar since it was a busy Saturday, and I soon got caught up in the rush of orders. I made drinks, topped things up, cleaned glasses, everything I'd been trained to do, and soon I forgot all about the fucked up part of my life. And I even had a little fun laughing and joking around with the others as we worked, able to move around each other easily.