Dream On(16)

“How do you know?”

I blink. “Because Brie never met nor heard of him.”

“And she meets all your boyfriends?”

“Well, yes.”

Brie sticks a finger in the air. Her hot pink nail polish shimmers. “I never met Tucker.”

“That’s because you were at Purdue and I only dated him for two months junior year of college. You didn’t miss anything. He was a dud.”

Marcus paces the length of the room. “And according to your memories, how long were you with Devin?”

“Three months,” I say.

He shrugs. “Three months isn’t much longer than two. Maybe you were keeping the relationship a secret?”

I chortle. “No way.”

“Why are you so sure?”

“Because I never texted or called anyone named Devin, and I don’t have any pictures of him. If we really had dated for three months, I would have at the very least had his number saved in my phone.”

“Unless you wanted to keep your relationship a secret.” He shrugs. “In which case it’s conceivable you wouldn’t have his number stored in your contacts. Maybe you communicated with him through an app or DMs and deleted the messages. Or used a burner phone to talk to him.”

“A burner phone?” Brie snorts. “You watch too many thrillers.”

Flopping back into the sofa cushions, I cross my legs. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would I want to keep a relationship with someone a secret?”

Marcus taps his long fingers against a jean-clad thigh. “When was your accident again?”

“Last July.”

“Okay, so eleven months ago…” Marcus’s narrowed eyes flick back and forth. “Yeah, if I’m remembering it correctly, he was seeing someone back then. What if he had a girlfriend, and you were, like, his side piece?”

“Piece of what, exactly?” Brie demands, folding her arms across her ample chest.

He holds his hands up in surrender. “No disrespect intended. All I meant was, maybe you were casually seeing him on the sly because he was technically with someone else.”

Brie scoffs. “No way.”

“Absolutely not,” I add. I would never get involved with someone who was already in a relationship… Right? The last year of law school had been the hardest of my life until then—increasingly difficult classes, applying for jobs, and Law Review editor duties, with a daily dose of Lexapro for anxiety on top. Not to mention a tough breakup at the beginning of the school year. I was under a mountain of pressure. Was it possible I indulged in a fling with a guy who was already spoken for, just to blow off steam? I shake my head hard. “No. Never in a million years.”

Marcus shrugs.

Bracing an elbow on her knee, Brie pinches her lower lip between her thumb and index finger. “There has to be a logical explanation.”

“Like the one I just offered?” says Marcus.

Brie flattens him with a glare.

His eyes glint. “Okay, what if it’s fate?”

“How so?” I ask.

Marcus shifts his weight. “What if you and Devin are supposed to meet? What if your memories of him, your accident, was fate at work?”

Brie sighs. “Fate is the excuse people use to justify when life-altering things happen, when in reality it’s the result of the decisions they make—and maybe a dash of pure dumb luck. Good or bad, people’s actions determine their future. Cause and effect. Action, reaction. Blaming things on fate only downplays the importance of choice.”

“So you don’t think there’s a guiding hand in the universe nudging people in the right direction—God, karma, kismet, something?”

“No, and in case you’re wondering, I don’t believe in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy either.”

Marcus tilts his head. “But there’s so much about the world, the universe, we don’t know. Perhaps it’s possible a higher power is at play here, guiding Cass and Devin together.”

Her lips tilt into a grin. “Marcus, are you a closet romantic?”

“Just playing devil’s advocate.” The tips of his ears flush.

She pushes her glasses farther up her nose. “Well, I don’t believe in woo-woo magical explanations for anything; I believe in provable facts. Science can explain what happened to Cass; we just need to form a hypothesis and test it.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Here’s my theory: Devin was never your boyfriend, but maybe you have met him before. You just don’t remember. There’s no other explanation.”

I sigh. “So how do we test your hypothesis?”

“You talk to Devin, of course. I bet he can crack this mystery wide open and tell us how you know each other.”

My thighs tense. “That would have been a good idea, but I kind of burned that bridge already.”

“How so?” asks Marcus.

“I went to Blooms & Baubles after work to buy some flowers, and I totally embarrassed myself in front of his brother, Larry.”

“You mean Perry?” says Marcus.

“Yeah, him. Guys, I saw Devin for approximately two-point-five seconds and I fainted. Like a Victorian damsel.”

“Are you okay? You didn’t hit your head, did you?” Brie grabs my skull and twists it around, looking for a goose egg. I’d left that detail out in my earlier explanation.