Remember Us

Chapter Twenty-Four

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Chapter Twenty-Four

Adam chose my apartment. Why? I don’t know. I can’t say I hate having him around, because that would be a lie. But it’s just weird. Technically, we’re not even together anymore, but he doesn’t know that. Well, not yet.

Currently Adam and Katie were in the other room playing a game of Monopoly Junior while I was making dinner. I had decided to go back to work tomorrow since I hadn’t been there in almost a month. And in another month it’s going to be Christmas season, not to mention the big wedding I have going on.

“dinners finished!” I call out to them and hear a whine in response. “okay, fine, you two don’t have to eat the lasagna I made.” I say and take my seat at the table. Seconds later both of them are running in. I swear it was like raising two teenage boys.

“Katie, do you want to go to school tomorrow?”

she shakes her head no, “do I have to go back at all? I want to spend time with dad.”

“I’m not going anywhere sweetie. Plus, you need to get back to class.”

“But I don’t want to go! No one can speak Italian and it gets boring.” She pouts, trying to convince us to let her stay out of school.

Adam looks over to me for help but I put my hands up in surrender, “hey, don’t look at me. You’re the one who insisted she grow up with both heritages.”

He sighs and turns back to our daughter, “why don’t you teach them some Italian? That way you can talk with them.”

Katie thinks for a moment, putting her fingers to her chin. There were so many moments with her that are Kodak moments. Sadly though, I never had my camera around for them. “I guess that will have to work.”

“okay you two, back to eating. I do actually have a job to get to tomorrow morning.” They roll their eyes in unison, reminding me once again that they’re related.

Once Katie is down for the night, I start cleaning up from the day. It’s funny how a house can get so messy in one day when no one has stepped foot in it for weeks.

I feel a pair of arms wrap around me as I wash the dishes, “I can do those tomorrow,” Adam whispers in my ear, sending a tingle up my spine.

“and I can do them right now if you let go of me.”

his grip tightens, “well if that’s the case, than I just won’t let go. You were the one who said you had to wake up for work.”

“yes, and I also have to get these dishes done. Tomorrow you get to hang out with my brother and his wife while I’m at work.”

“oh joy.” He says sarcastically and I flick so water at him. “What? I have a feeling your brother doesn’t like me.”

“why would he? You did knock me up when I was at the innocent age of eighteen, yet to have been scarred by college life.”

Adam laughs and lets go of my waist, hopping onto the counter next to me instead. “fine, I’ll let you finish the dishes.”

“thank you,” I grab the sponge again and start scrubbing at a pan. Adam stays silent, “you know, you can talk to me, just no distractions.”

“well…I had this weird dream last night and-”

I hold up my hand to stop him, “Adam, I wasn’t exactly talking about you telling me about your dreams.”

He laughs, “what?! No! not that! Goodness Juliana, you’ve been around guys way too much.”

“Sadly, I can’t argue with that. And continue then, if it’s not perverted in any sense.”

“like I was saying, it was weird. There was this girl that looked sort of like you but she had blonde hair and looked thinner. Also, at least in the dream, her name was Skye.”

I just about drop the plate that I was cleaning. Did he just say what I think he said? “um, what was weird about it?”

“that’s not odd to you? I don’t know, it just seemed so real I guess. We were in Italy and it was summer. We were just walking around and stuff, hanging out. But she reminded me so much of you, and it was so real feeling.” He pauses for a second, “the doctors did say that a memory could come back as a dream, right? But what doesn’t make sense is the blonde hair and change of the name.”

I gulp and place the last dish onto the drying rack. I dry my hands an turn to face Adam, “I think I need to tell you something.” He follows me to the bedroom and takes a seat on the bed as I pull out the box that was found with the rest of his belongings from the crash. I walk back over to him and take a seat on the other side, placing the box on my lap.

Slowly I open the top, well aware of his eyes staring at my every movement. “It’s time for the rest of the story.” I tell him, pulling at the sonogram. “When the summer ended, I went back home to Washington to live with my brother. I had planned to still go to college and all of that, so I had to get back. You too, were going to school in Italy. So we chose to just break up when the summer ended, but still keep in touch. About two weeks after I got back from ItalyI found out that I was pregnant. This obviously kept me from going to college. But since you were going into your second year of school, I didn’t call and tell you the news. I knew that you’d be on the first flight over here if you knew you had a child on the way. So I kept it a secret from you.” I take a deep breath and pull out another item, the piece of paper that he’d written my name on to pick me up. “Two years ago Dakota called me, asking me to be her maid of honor for her wedding. You and I hadn’t spoken or seen each other since Italywhich had been four years beforehand. So when you were Finn’s Best Man, you can imagine how surprised I was.  You picked me up from the airport and were actually quite a jerk at the time.”

Adam looked down at me confused, holding the poster in his hands, “wouldn’t I have been surprised too?”

I take out the picture of us at a small café in France, right after we made it official. “That’s the thing, I lied to you that summer.” I hand him the photo and watch in pain as his eyes widen, “the girl in your dream, Skye, that’s me. I didn’t want to be the same goody-good Juliana that everyone knew. So I changed my appearance, attitude, and name, for my trip to Italy. After school you had come back to theUSwith that photo, searching for me but only knowing the name Skye. It was just a big coincidence that our best friends were getting married.”

I bravely steal a glance to him and see hurt in his eyes. “so you’re Skye? From my dream?”

I nod, “I guess it was a memory you were having.” He didn’t say anything in response, “do you want me to continue with the story?”

“I think-I think I need it all at once”

I nod and finish the story. Everything from the miscarriage, to what his mom set up this past summer to ruin his marriage. Adam just sat there silent, taking everything in. Now I was faced with the hardest part of the story, the truth about our relationship status.

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