Reminiscent

Chapter Fourteen

When I wake up the next morning, I search the room slowly. My eyes heavy and blurry, it takes me a second to process my surroundings. Then I remember. I'm in my future selfs home. I get up and go to the kitchen where I see Evie in her high chair and Chace behind the stove.

"Good morning" he grins at me.

"Good morning" I smile, "what's for breakfast? Smells good"

"Eggs" Chace announces.

Evie laughs before stuffing her face with scrambled eggs.

"Is now okay to ask you some questions?" I ask.

He nods, "Of course"

"How did we meet?"

"At the hospital," he tells me.

"Really?"

"You're a volunteer at the hospital" Chace explains, "which is how you met Daniel. You guys knew each other for a while before we met"

I remember Hank telling me the story, the story of how I left college when I found out about the affair. Then I began volunteering at the hospital.

"Just a volunteer?" I furrow my brows.

He shakes his head.

"You're a waitress," he tells me, "than hospital volunteer on the side"

"I was supposed to go into nursing after I graduated college, that was the plan" I sigh.

"You didn't finish college, hellbound" he narrows his eyes with a small smile, "you dropped out when you were twenty-one...after your mum left and you started dating your ex and...I don't know...you no longer cared about all that"

"So I never...I didn't do what I wanted to do?"

Chace shakes his head.

"People change," he tells me, "what was important to you when you were a kid, didn't seem to matter to you anymore"

"Then why did I volunteer if I was so happy waitressing?"

He shrugs "I don't know, maybe to hold on to the person you could have been before...everything happened"

It sounds like I was a hypocrite.

"So I was volunteering at the hospital...and what about Daniel?"

"What about Daniel?"

I furrow my brows. "You and I tell each other everything, right?"

He nods. "Even when it hurts to say"

"Did I tell you about me and Daniel?"

Suddenly his facial expression changes. He averts his gaze away and looks at the child.

"Evie, do you want to finish what you were watching on Disney plus" Chace lifts the toddler out of her high chair.

"Disney what?" I say under my breath.

Evie runs into the next room, then Chace firms his gaze at me.

"What did Daniel do?" He asks.

"So you know?" I raise a brow.

"Yes I know about his crush on you" he sighs, "how do you know about that?"

"I remembered something"

Chace's eyes widen in disbelief.

"You remembered him but not me"

"Chace, I can't help what I remember and what I don't" I explain.

"Did anything happen between you two?" He firms his gaze.

"When? Then or now?" I ask slowly.

"Now"

I shake my head, "No, nothing"

"Then?" He cocks a brow.

I hold my breath. "No"

"You're lying" he cries.

"No, I'm not" I deny.

"You just did again, you're a horrible liar," Chace exclaims.

"Look, okay, I remembered kissing him but that's all that happened between us that I remember" I assure him.

"When did it happen?" Chace lowers his voice.

"I don't know" I admit, "sometime between after the miscarriage and before the accident"

"Probably when I was in Boston" he sighs. "I knew I shouldn't have left. Why did I listen to that asshole? Was it his plan all along?"

I furrow my brows.

"Chace, I kissed him" I announce.

"You what?" His mouth hangs open and his brows raised in confusion.

It feels weird saying out loud that it was me. The girl in my memories wasn't me. I don't feel not even the slightest bit connected to that girl. That girl is Chace's wife and Evie's mother but she's not me.

"Daniel didn't kiss me. I walked into his office, kissed him...and he didn't kiss me back. He told me to go home...to you" I explain, as though I was telling someone else's story.

Chace drops to his seat, burying his face into his hands.

"Jesus Christ" he gasps.

"I don't know why it happened or if I wanted something to happen or what," I attempt to make it all better then soon realise I can't. Instead, I say what I want to say. "I'm not her Chace, okay? I'm not your wife. I know I look like her and sound like her. But I won't be her for another six years...and there's no guarantee that I'll ever become that girl."

"Stop talking" Chace begs with his head now against the kitchen table. "Okay, I just found out that my wife kissed my brother, I need a second to process this"

"You asked me if something ever happened...you must have known about them—" I start.

Chace looks up at me in anger, "do not refer to yourself in the third person, Halia, whether you want to accept it or not, it was you. You're the one who did it, alright."

"You know that's not fair" I shake my head, "and I know you don't need me to explain to you why"

"Shut up! Alright, just shut the fuck up" Dean pushed me against the wall.

My eyes widen at the memory.

"Our marriage was over" Chace admits to me, his hands covering his eyes. "We were separated. No use fixing it. You were ready for it to end. So you could move on...We hadn't spoken in weeks...maybe even months. Then when Caroline called me about your accident...I was a fucking idiot to think there was still hope for us. Something worth saving here...It's clear now where you were at"

My eyes well up with tears.

"Maybe we would have had a shot if we had met before...Before all the mess" I wipe away my tears. "The me that I am now and the you, you were then. Maybe they would have had a shot"

He looks up at me and nods slowly.

Because in the end, all he wanted was her and all she wanted was to be free of the one that came before him.

Suddenly, our ears are filled with the sound of a violent crash. We both run into the living room where a cartoon is playing on the TV, to see our small child seizing on the floor.