2.6 | Forget Me Not ✓

+7 || tulipa

  

A/N

Happy Halloween to those of you who celebrate! Anyway, now with Killer Instinct in between seasons, I can fully focus on updates. So, as promised, here's your usual weekly update!

Happy reading!

x Noelle

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+ 7

t u l i p a

For worthiness.

  

(now: +7)

THE SURPRISED BEAT of silence seems to last for an eternity. Then, because Dylan still hasn't let go of her hand, Emma moves back a little. It's not until then that she realizes how close they were—with her knees between his, and his face close enough that she can see the small scar on his neck from the accident.

But Dylan doesn't let her go. If anything, he pulls her right back, and places her hand over his knee. She almost startles at the contact—the warmth of his hand; the rough skin from the scrapes on his knee. Fuck, she's really missed him. It's everything she can do not to wrap her arms around him, but Flo is there.

"Emma and I were talking," Dylan says to Flo, without once looking away from Emma.

"Is that so?" Flo's gaze lands on their hands, and Emma doesn't miss the way the other woman's features harden. Flo turns to Emma and says, "Can I speak with you for a moment?"

Emma stares at her, not sure where Flo's going with this. Finally, she nods and starts to rise, but Dylan's hand tightens around hers. She looks down at him, only to see the silent plea in his eyes. Don't go.

Now that he's stopped believing in Flo, she's the one he clings to.

"It's okay," she tells him, with a small smile, and he reluctantly lets go. She follows Flo down the hallway, until Dylan is out of sight. Flo starts to head down yet another hallway, but Emma stops her. "We can talk here."

"Okay, then." Flo nods and leans back against the wall. Everything about her is calculated—from her relaxed posture, to the leveled look in her eyes. And Emma is struck by the sudden memory that this is the Flo she remembered from college—cool and calm, bold and defiant, whose confidence Emma had once admired so deeply.

"I know what you've been doing," Flo says. "You've been leaving mementos for him to remember you by. But you know that won't work, right? Amnesia doesn't just vanish because of a trigger, no matter how big or memorable it is."

"I know," Emma returns quietly. "I didn't leave them for him to remember me. I left them for him so that even if he didn't want me to visit, I'd still be on his mind. It was important, especially because you were lying to him the whole time."

"I never told him that I was his girlfriend."

"You never told him you weren't. You let him think whatever he wanted to think, so it was still a lie by omission."

Flo stares at her for a long moment, before she lets out a sigh. "Fine, so I didn't tell him the truth. It was wrong of me, and I know that. But," she adds, in a quieter voice this time, "it's only because I really need him."

"Then you've never really loved him, have you? Even back in high school and college, you've only ever needed him."

"Is that so wrong?" Flo fires back. "I still care a lot about him—I always have. You wouldn't understand what it's like to be as alone as I have been. Back in high school, my mum left and Dylan was the only one I had. And now my dad is very sick, and along comes Dylan, and he remembers me. He loves me despite what I did to him in the past, and I just—" she breaks off and looks down at her feet. "It's like everything I lost has come back to me, and I don't want to let go this time."

Emma falls silent; her mind reeling. She doesn't know what to say to that. Flo takes a step forward, meeting Emma's gaze squarely, and when she speaks, her voice is soft. "I just want to have him, for a little while, so that I won't always have to be alone."

Emma swallows hard. "He's not an object, like a teddy bear that we can share. He's his own person, and—" She lets out a slow breath. As she looks at Flo, she realizes, then, that there is no 'other woman'. There are only two women: the past called Flo and the present called Emma, and there's no knowing what the future holds. "With or without amnesia, he's capable of making his own decisions, and I've always respected the ones he's made."

"What're you saying?"

"It's up to him to make his own decision, whether it's you, or me, or neither of us. I will accept whatever decision he makes. And if you really care about him, you'll do the same."

Without waiting for Flo's response, she turns on her heels and leaves. Her heart is in her throat and her chest is tight, and every step she takes farther away from Dylan leaves her empty inside. But this is what she intends to do: to accept his choice, no matter how painful the outcome may be, and never look back.

This is her choice.

Now she'll wait for his.