Paul Jackson--ever the gentleman--opened the passenger's side door for his girlfriend and smiled. "Can you believe that was your last session with Dr. Harris?"
Sarah DeVries looked at her boyfriend and smiled back. "My god, no." She got into the car and waited as Paul turned the ignition. As they began the thirty minute drive back to Paul's house, Sarah reflected on how strangely well the events of the past seven months had turned out.
She had woken up in a hospital room one day surrounded by strangers with not a clue as to what had been going on. Or who she was, for that matter. One man--clearly a doctor--explained that she had been struck by a car. While she had suffered only minor injuries to most of her body, witnesses apparently reported that she'd hit her head particularly hard. The hospital's tests had shown major brain damage, and the doctors had expected some kind of memory loss. They did seem unfortunately excited by the case of "Hollywood Amnesia--" Sarah could not remember much of anything about who she was or anything else about her life.
The memories had taken a while to come back. For some reason lost in medical jargon, not all of them seemed genuine, they felt as though they belonged to someone else's life. Mom and dad and her identical twin sister Sabrina were there for her all the time, always bringing a scrapbook or photo album or something to help jog her memories. Most of all, though, was Paul. They told him he had been her boyfriend before the accident, and Sarah could see why. This man had stuck with her all the way, from the first moment she opened her eyes to the physical therapy to the first time driving she could remember. He had even helped cover her medical bills after she'd been let go from her job due to her extended period of hospitalization.
At first, Sarah had been worried that she--before the accident at least--had been dating Paul for his money. He seemed to be rich for a guy his age--able to afford a house, albeit a small one. But when she moved in with him, she saw that it couldn't be true. She had come out of necessity--partly because she had no job to cover rent, partly because she was having trouble doing some basic functions when she was alone. She had stayed because she was in love with Paul.
The car screeched to a halt, and Sarah suddenly realized that Paul hadn't brought them home. Instead, they were at the gates to a local park.
She laughed, more out of confusion than anything. "Paul, what are we doing here?"
They got out of the car and he took her hand. "How much did we actually tell you about the accident?"
Sarah shook her head. "Not much, really. Just that it happened somehow and that it was horrible and that I lost my memories."
Paul pointed to a fairly unremarkable stretch of sidewalk. "You did--right there."
Sarah opened her mouth in shock or some other emotion that she couldn't exactly quantify. "Paul, were you...."
"Was I there when it happened? No, actually. You'd left me alone for a minute to think about something."
"Think about--"
"I'm getting ahead of myself. Come on." The young couple walked down a path in silence, ending up on a park bench in front of a pond. "We were here," Paul said, getting on his knees. "You'd left me to think because I did this."
Sarah stared wordlessly at the ring that Paul was showing her. "Paul--are you--"
"Yes. I am."
Another moment of silence, then she lunged forward and pressed her lips against his. "Yes. Oh, God, yes."
They kissed passionately for some time, feeling somewhat inhibited due to the lack of other people. After a while, Paul stopped. "You know, in some ways I feel kind of fortunate that you were in that accident."
Sarah hugged her new fiance tightly. "Oh?"
"It's like I got to fall in love with you all over again."
"You're right," Sarah said, kissing Paul lightly, "And I bet the 'me' I was just before the accident wouldn't change it for the world."
