Rikki and Zane rode in silence as Rikki drove them back to Zane's place. Neither quite knew what to say to the other. It was Zane who finally broke the silence.
"Well..." He began slowly. "We have nothing to worry about, Rikki. I feel just fine now, I'm sure I won't have anymore memory flickers." His tone didn't quite convince either one of them. He looked to Rikki, letting a few more moments of silence pass, but she stared straight ahead. "Please say something." He pleaded.
"Sorry." Rikki shook herself free of her troubled mind. She forced a smile to her face, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Want to stop for dinner? You must be hungry."
"Don't you want to talk about what the doctor told us?" Zane asked timidly.
"What is there to talk about?" Rikki's harsh tone gave her away more than she'd intended. "The doctor said that you may have relapses from time to time. And that you may have them for the rest of your life." She finished blankly.
"Or that it might never happen again!" Zane shot in quickly. "Rikki, I feel fine, really."
"And you felt just fine before each of the times it's happened." Rikki could feel herself beginning to lose her cool, unable to keep her voice from rising higher and higher. "And then you lost your memory all over again. And then I got to relive all those days when you couldn't remember me." Her voice cracked slightly. "It was torture."
"I'm sorry." Zane said quietly.
Rikki laughed bitterly, unable to take her eyes off the road in front of her. "Don't you ever say you're sorry. I mean it. This is not your fault, Zane."
"I know that." Zane fiddled with his watch as he muttered. "I just hate all this. Haven't we been through enough?"
"I was just thinking the same thing." A sad smile lifted the corners of Rikki's mouth. She glanced briefly at Zane before focusing back on the road. She gently steered the car into the driveway of Zane's house. Rikki shut off the engine as she composed her words.
"We have been through enough, Zane." She said firmly. "And we're going to make it through this too. We can make it though anything." She smiled at him as they both climbed out of the car.
They walked to the front door hand-in-hand and taking their time. Once they reached the front door, Rikki pulled Zane towards her and kissed him hard on the lips. A moment later she headed down the walk towards her own home. Zane watched her go, breathless with the memory of her lips against his. He watched her until she had completely disappeared from view before hurrying inside. He dashed upstairs and threw open the middle drawer of the large oak desk that sat in the study. He pulled a plain white notebook from the drawer and hastily he began to write. And he didn't stop for a long time.
Rikki opened the cafe the next morning as usual. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, but she did her best to convince herself that everything was going to be just fine. She checked her watch constantly. trying not to worry about why Zane was so late for his shift. "He'll be here soon." She told herself.
The cafe was bustling with the afternoon lunch rush by the time Zane hurried inside.
"Sorry I'm late." His lips brushed her cheek as he busted down towards his office. "I didn't hear my alarm this morning." He smiled brightly at Rikki, winking at her before pulling the office door closed behind him.
Once inside, and out of Rikki's sight, he immediately sagged. He rubbed his temples so hard his fingers went white as he dropped to lay on the couch. Zane swallowed hard, trying not to feel too guilty. He had lied to Rikki, and he felt terrible about it. The truth was that he had not slept through his alarm that morning. It had woken him up at 7:30AM, just like it was supposed to. And then Zane had shut it off and gone right back to sleep.
He had had absolutely no idea why the alarm was going off. No idea where he was supposed to be at that hour of the morning. Not the slightest recollection of Rikki's Cafe, or of having to work that morning, or anything. Three hours later, Zane had shot out of bed, cursing when he saw the time. He'd gotten dressed as fast as he could before running out the door towards the Cafe. Deep down, Zane was unnerved by the spell of memory loss he'd experienced, but he was determined not to let Rikki worry about it. He didn't want to be the cause of any more stress.
A knock at the door made Zane sit up immediately, pretending to be looking for something on the table in front of him. "Come in." He called casually.
Rikki cautiously poked her head inside. "Hey..."
"Rikki, you know you don't need to knock." Zane was secretly glad she had, as it had given him time to compose himself. "It is our office."
"I know..." Rikki gingerly sat next to him on the couch. She looked at him with concerned eyes. "Are you alright? Did anything happen last night after I dropped you off?"
"Of course not." Zane shrugged casually, his voice only slightly higher than usual. "Why would you think that?"
"I don't know." Rikki looked at him hard, her brow furrowing slightly. "I just worry about you, that's all."
"Well you have nothing to worry about." Zane pecked Rikki's lips lightly as he stood to walk over to his desk. "I'm completely fine."
"Good to hear." Rikki smiled, relieved, as she stood as well. "Did you put in the fruit order?"
"Sorry, I forgot." Zane froze, looking up guiltily. He quickly reassured her. "I just forgot, I didn't have a memory flip out or anything. Don't stress."
"I won't." Rikki opened the office door. "But we'll run out of strawberries unless you put that order through today."
"Yes ma'am." Zane saluted her, then watched until she was gone. It was only then that he resumed rubbing the temples of his throbbing head.
"Hey Rikki." Bella called behind the counter as the band set up for their practice later that afternoon. She leaned over so that only Rikki could hear her. "So... Cleo and I were thinking about taking a swim out to Mako later. No boys allowed." She grinned. "Are you in?"
"You know, that sounds like exactly what I need, actually." Rikki smiled back before getting back to work. A relaxing swim with the girls sounded like the perfect way to get her mind off things. It also sounded like the perfect opportunity to get their opinions on the situation.
"See you at 7!" Bella winked before joining Nate and the rest of the band on stage.
The hours passed quickly. Zane shortly returned to his normal self and Rikki worked hard until she could finally go.
"You sure you got this?" She asked as she took off her apron.
"Absolutely." Zane calmly started the blender. "It's not even that busy in here. Go on, get out of here."
"Ok..." Rikki said reluctantly. "I'll have my phone at the moon pool, call me if you need anything."
"Ok." Zane gave her a gentle push. "Now go have fun with the girls."
Rikki didn't need to be told twice. After a quick glance from side to side to see if anyone was looking, she leapt off the dock and into the water.
Swimming was perfect, just the right amount of relaxation after a hard couple of days. Rikki took her time getting to the old island, swimming lazily through the saltwater. Eventually she surfaced in the Moon Pool.
"Well look who finally made it." Cleo teased. "We thought you'd never get here."
"Sorry, I just didn't feel like rushing anywhere." Rikki shrugged. She quickly pulled herself out of the water and dried herself, steaming the water off in a matter of seconds. Once standing, she reached into her pocket and set her cell phone carefully on the sand before jumping back into the water. "I told Zane to call if he needed anything." She explained.
"Speaking of Zane..." Bella raised her eyebrows, waiting for Rikki to fill them all in.
Rikki didn't need any more encouragement. She told them about all the events of the last few days, including her worries for the future. Her friends listened closely, listening thoughtfully as she unloaded.
"So do I just wait it out?" Rikki finished. "It's the worst feeling in the world, I can't go through the whole thing again."
"No you can't." Cleo quietly agreed. She reached out a reassuring hand to Rikki's shoulder. "Rikki, we all watched you go through it. You were pale, sick withdrawn... no. You can't put yourself through anything like that again."
"But it may not be a problem anymore." Bella piped in, shooting Cleo a look. "Look, one or two flashes here and there is hardly anything to break up about, right? Rikki, you love him."
"I know!" Rikki ducked under the water in frustration. She took a few moments of cool silence to herself before resurfacing. "I'm sorry. Thank you both for your input. You're both absolutely right. I just don't know what to do about it."
"Look," Cleo spoke to her friend gently. "When Lewis and I broke up, it was the worst feeling in the world, and we'd only been dating for a few weeks. You and Zane have been together for years. I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"I know." Rikki took a deep breath. "I'm sure everything will be just fine."
With a shrill bell, Rikki's phone rang loudly into the sand. The three girls froze momentarily as they looked at it.
"It's nothing." Rikki said lightly, though her hand shook as she reached for the phone. "I'm sure it's nothing."
There was an echoey silence in the cavern as Rikki held the phone to her ear. "H- hello?" Her face instantly melted into a relieved smile. "Hey Zane, what's up?" She listed for a few moments. "That sounds great, I'll be home in a few minutes. Meet me there in an hour?" She hung up the phone.
"He's taking me for a boat ride later tonight." She announced, smiling. "And everything has gone smoothly today, no memory blips."
"See?" Bella said happily. "I told you it would all turn out alright."
Rikki smiled back before ducking under the water and swimming quickly back towards shore. She ran into her house and quickly threw on a blue dress, straightened her hair until it shone under the lights, sprayed on just a touch of Zane's favorite perfume, and popped in a pair of Sapphire earrings Zane had given her for her birthday. She checked the time on her phone as she applied a bit of coral lipstick. Zane should be at her house to pick her up any minute now.
Rikki checked out the window for Zane's familiar silver car, but there was nothing in her driveway yet. A few minutes later she checked again, only to be disappointed all over again.
Twenty minutes later she finally dialed his phone number.
"Yes?" His voice came over the line.
"Uh, Zane?" Rikki was taken aback by the coolness of his tone.
"That's who you called, isn't it?" Zane shot back.
This time there was no mistaking it, something was wrong with the way he sounded. "Where are you, Zane?" She asked, quickly becoming nervous.
"Down at the docks, where else would I be?" Zane hung up the phone.
Rikki didn't hesitate for a moment. She dashed out the door and ran for the docks. Maybe Zane was really fine. Maybe she'd misunderstood when he said he'd pick her up at her house? He could be totally fine. Zane had always had a short temper, maybe he was just in an ill mood.
Rikki reached the docks after nearly a mile of running. She gasped for air as she paused to look for Zane's boat. She located it quickly and dashed to it, resting on the side of it. "Zane?" She panted. "Are you here?"
It soon became apparent that Zane was not on the boat. In fact, Rikki couldn't seem to find him anywhere. The pounding of loud music from a boat further down the line distracted her. Maybe Zane had gotten bored waiting for her and had wandered down there?
A crowd of young people were partying on a large white boat that Rikki recognized from the marina. It was still docked, but definitely had a raging party onboard.
"Hey pretty thing." A completely wasted frat boy leaned over the edge of the boat. "What are you waiting for? Come on up."
Rikki tried to phone Zane again, listening hard for his familiar ring. To her surprise, it rang loudly from only a few feet away.
"Don't you want to answer that?" A female voice giggled from nearby.
"Now? Hell no." Zane was standing with his back to Rikki. He had his arms wrapped around a trashy looking blonde girl who was obviously wasted. "I have better things to do." He leaned in and kissed the girl's ear.
"Zane man, I thought you were just going to get us a couple beers... oh..." Nate dashed around the corner, stopping short when he saw Rikki. His eyes then darted to Zane and the girl he was now making out with. "Hey, Rikki, I'm sorry, I just asked him to keep me company at my cousins party, I swear." Nate promised, looking genuinely surprised by Zane's behaviour.
Rikki felt like her world was crashing down around her where she stood. She turned and ran, not sure quite where she was going. Bella had been completely wrong. Things were not going to turn out alright.