I freeze at the exit to the supermarket. The pressure of the hand grabbing my arm is intense enough to hurt—I may have a bruise tonight. There’s no chance of getting away. That’s for certain.
I turn around to figure out who grabbed me. A middle aged man is standing behind me, dressed in a gray uniform. He has a mustache and close-cropped gray hair, and muscles are popping out of the short sleeves of his uniform. His hand is still on my arm.
“I…” My mouth feels too dry to swallow. “I didn’t steal anything.”
I put that watermelon soap back. I’m sure I did.
“I never said you stole anything.” There is a gold ID badge pinned to the breast pocket of his uniform, emblazoned with the name Pete. “But are you supposed to be leaving here yourself?”
My mouth falls open. “Why can’t I leave?”
Instead of answering my question, he drags me by my arm over to the customer service counter by the back door. It feels like he’s about to rip my arm out of the socket. He grabs the microphone sitting on the counter, hits a button, and his deep voice booms out through the entire supermarket: “Camila Mendes to the front entrance. Camila Mendes to the front entrance.”
I suck in a breath, panic rising in my chest. My plan is disintegrating before my eyes. “What are you doing? Let me go!”
His hard, beady eyes look straight into mine. “If I let go of your arm, are you going to try to run?”
I want to run, but I’m not kidding myself that I’m going anywhere with this guy blocking the entrance. So I shake
my head. The pressure on my arm eases up as he releases me. Christ, this guy is strong.
A few seconds later, Camila is racing to the front with her shopping cart. She’s frowning and there’s color in her cheeks. She abandons the shopping cart by one of the checkout lines and runs over to me, her dark eyes flashing.
“What do you think you’re doing, Tess?” she snaps at
me.
“Nothing.” I raise my hands in the air. “I was just… I was
shopping and this guy grabbed me.”
The burly guy, Pete, scoffs at me. “She was making a run for it. I stopped her before she got out the door.”
Camila nods. “Thanks so much, Pete. I appreciate it.”
He grins at her, obviously pleased that the beautiful Camila is grateful to him. She’s got him wrapped around her finger. “My pleasure.”
I jut out my chin. “Fine. I was trying to leave. What’s so awful about that?”
Camila shakes her head. “You can’t do that.”
“Actually, I can. I’m an adult. I’m allowed to go out on my own. I wasn’t going to take the car.”
Camila and Pete exchange knowing looks. I am getting so sick of everybody exchanging those looks. Like they’re all in on some secret that only I don’t know. And I find it even more interesting that Harry knew I wouldn’t make it out of here successfully.
“I want to leave,” I say through my teeth. “I’ll call the police if I have to.”
“Lady, I’m security,” Pete says.
I snatch my phone out of my pocket, glad I took the time to delete Harry’s text messages. “I’m calling 911. You can’t keep me prisoner here.”
“Tess, please.” Camila rests a hand on my arm before Pete can react. Her touch is gentle, at least. “Can we talk? Privately?”
I look between Camila and Pete, weighing my options. I want to try to make a run for it, but I don’t think I’ll make it. My best chance is to talk to Camila about it and explain how crazy this is. That I’m not some sort of dangerous mental patient who’s going to get myself killed if I’m alone for two seconds.
“Fine,” I agree.
Camila looks over at Pete. “You can go. I’ll handle it from here.”
His eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. “You sure?” “I’m sure.”
Camila gently nudges me past customer service, down the hallway that leads to the bathroom. I follow her, my heart pounding so hard that I’m feeling dizzy. She stops and turns to face me, and all of a sudden, I’m not sure if I want to hear what she has to say to me.
“Tess.” Her voice is gentle but firm. Like a mother speaking to a naughty child. “Graham hired me to look after you today and every day. You’re not supposed to go off on your own. It’s not safe.”
“I just wanted to take a walk.” My voice has taken on a whiny tone, like I am that disobedient child. “I know where we are. I’ll be fine.”
“No.” Her dark eyebrows knit together. “You won’t be fine. You’ve wandered off before and haven’t been able to find your way back. Graham was worried sick about you. That’s why I’m here, Tess.”
Of course, I can’t contradict her. It’s hard to make an argument based on things I’ve done or haven’t done in the past when I can’t remember a thing before this morning. That alone is troubling. Okay, maybe I’ve had bad days when I got lost or confused—I can accept that. But today is not a bad day. And I desperately want to get to the dog park. Harry won’t stay there forever. He may have left already.
“I’m not going to get lost,” I say as calmly as I can. “And honestly, it’s not your decision to make. Like I said, I’m an adult. You can’t stop me from leaving.”
Camila’s plump lips set into a straight line. “Actually, I can.”
“Excuse me?”
“Graham is your legal guardian.” She stares at me, unblinking. “We have the court documents to prove it. If you try to leave here, I’ll call the police and they’ll bring you back to the house.”
My breath catches in my throat. “You’re lying.”
“We’ve had to do it before.” She purses her lips. “Several times. It wasn’t pleasant—trust me. I hope we don’t have to do it today, but I will if I have to.”
“How…” I can barely choke out the words. “How could you do that to me?”
Her eyes soften. “It’s for your own safety, Tess. You’re not competent to—”
“Bullshit!”
A few people in the grocery store turn to stare at us, but I don’t care. Camila is lying to me. I am an adult. I could walk out of here anytime I want and there’s nothing she could do to stop me. The police won’t stop me. If I called them, she would be the one who ended up in jail.
But Camila doesn’t seem perturbed by my outburst. She looks like she expected it. There’s a weariness in her expression, like she’s had this conversation with me dozens of times before. The crease between her eyebrows grows deeper.
“You think you’re okay,” she says, “but you’re not, Tess.
Your memory is badly impaired. You get confused easily.” “I’m not confused…”
“And you imagine things that aren’t there,” she goes on. “Like, sometimes you imagine your ex-boyfriend Harry has been texting you and asking you to meet him.”
I freeze. “What?”
“You say Harry is texting you. Telling you Graham is evil. That he’s not really your husband.” She sighs. “That’s one reason you’ve wandered away.”
My mouth hangs open. For a moment, I am speechless. “Maybe he really was texting me…”
She slowly shakes her head. “But he wasn’t. We checked your phone and there was no sign of the messages. And we would go to the place he told you to meet him, and he was never there.”
“Maybe he left…”
“Tess, Harry doesn’t even live in New York anymore. He moved out west years ago. He… he’s married to someone else now.” She rests a hand on my shoulder. “Oh Tess, is that where you were trying to go? To meet Harry?”
I feel dizzy. I need to lean against the wall to keep from passing out. My brain is suddenly fuzzy. What she’s telling me… it can’t be true. I did get a text from Harry today. He told me to meet him at the dog park. I saw him there. He looked right at me. I didn’t imagine that.
Did I?
I reach into my pocket for my phone. But of course, I have deleted all the text messages he sent me. If only he hadn’t told me to delete them. Then I would have proof.
Camila is frowning at me. “Tess? Are you okay?”
I pull up my sleeve to reveal the number I scribbled there earlier. Camila’s eyes widen when she sees it, but I don’t even care anymore. I type the number into my phone and send off a text message:
Where are you?
I stare at my phone, waiting. Camila says nothing, just stands there with me. But nothing happens. No bubbles appear on the screen. Nobody is replying to my text message.
Oh God…
“Where did he say you should meet?” she asks. I hang my head. “The dog park.”
She nods in understanding. The look of pity in her eyes is too much for me. My own eyes fill with tears. I don’t understand what’s happening. It all felt so real.
“I miss Harry a lot,” I murmur. “I… I wish he were here.” Camila strokes my hair gently. “I know, sweetie.”
I close my eyes for a moment, remembering the day I met Harry Finch. I was only two years out of college and I was at Best Buy, looking at computers, intending to purchase a laptop. I was talking to the salesman, but this boy about my age with dark hair and eyes, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, was listening in. After a couple of minutes, he started correcting the salesman, who clearly didn’t know what he was talking about.
The salesman became more and more flustered until he finally burst out, “Do you want to take over here?”
The boy blinked a few times and finally smiled. “Yeah.
That would be great.”
When the salesman was gone, we just stood there for a minute, smiling nervously at each other. “I’m Tess,” I finally said.
He jabbed a thumb at his chest. “Harry.”
“Nice to meet you, Harry.” I pointed at his shirt. “What does that mean?”
Harry looked down at the writing on his T-shirt. There’s no place like 127.0.0.1. I didn’t know at the time it was one of his favorite shirts. “127.0.0.1 is the local host IP address,” he explained. “It’s the home network on a PC. So…”
“There’s no place like home.” “Exactly.”
I laughed, and he rewarded me with a smile that made his entire face light up. “Listen, Tess, I’m happy to help you pick out a computer if you’d like. But what I’d really like to do is take you to dinner tonight.” He ran a hand through his
dark hair and I still remember how he was shaking a bit. “So… what do you say?”
I will never forget how happy he looked when I said yes. His expression will stay with me forever. Or the way he looked into my eyes when he asked me to marry him. It’s all so vivid.
Yet I can’t seem to remember my freaking wedding day.
How is that possible?
“Tess?” Camila squeezes my shoulder, bringing me back to the present. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I swallow down a lump in my throat. “Please take me to the dog park. Now.”
