This was not supposed to happen. It was not how I planned all of this. I hurt him again and I did not bother being extra cautious about him finding out. He already had his suspicions. Maybe I should have explained to him why I have been lying. He'll understand then.

The sinking feeling in my chest said otherwise and I tried to ignore that weight in my chest. He'll understand. The weight was now too heavy to ignore. He won't understand because I hurt him.

I began to become aware of my surroundings. I looked like a pitiful lady being abandoned by her date with her shoulders hunched together, her face looking solemn and her eyes drearily staring blankly at the table that was supposed to have delicious meals with her date looking lovingly back at her. I could have sworn that nearby diners were staring at me with pity. I hate that. Pity. No one wanted to have anyone pitying them.

I stood up and hastily grabbed my clutch and coat before heading towards the entrance of the restaurant where a waiter approached me quietly.

"Miss Riley, I was asked to lead you out through the back of the restaurant because…" he gestured to the entrance where a couple just walked in. The doors that slowly closed revealed the same paparazzi waiting out in the cold.

I nodded and let him lead me out to the back.

"Our reception just called for a taxi, it should be here in a few minutes," he said as we walked down the back of the restaurant. The exit led to a narrow alleyway but was wide enough for three people standing side by side leading to a narrow street that was not as busy as the main street of the restaurant.

The waiter stood at the sidewalk a metre away from my shivering self busily looking for the taxi. I looked around trying to distract myself from the cold. The dark street showed obvious signs that the taxi was not nearby. I clung onto the edge of my sleeves with my fingers as if covering another inch of my wrists was going to make me feel slightly warmer.

"Mr Hiddleston left from the front entrance and the paparazzi sensed that there might have been a problem with er…" he paused looking really nervous and turned his gaze to the street. "The paparazzi are on the lookout for you to ask questions and my manager recommended me to escort you an alternate way."

I simply nodded. I knew that if I gave a stupid excuse behind his abrupt leaving that he would not believe me anyway.

"Your taxi is here," he walked onto the side of the road to notify the driver to stop. Opening the door to the taxi he smiled and wished me a safe trip home.

"Lara, would you like to explain why Tom has suddenly left your romantic dinner outing?"

"He looked very angry, what did you do to make him so angry?"

"Why did you leave the restaurant from the back? Obviously something went wrong between you two."

Four paparazzi had followed me to the main entrance of my apartment never pausing from asking nosy questions. They obviously knew what might have happened between us and I had no idea what to tell them. What did famous celebrities say in situations like these? They usually looked down and walked quickly which I did from my first step outside the taxi to the main entrance.

I took a deep breath of cold air as I unlocked the door and turned around with a smile on my face to the four men with big cameras. One had a video camera with a light shining down on me. I tried to not let it intimidate me.

"Thank you for being so worried about our romantic evening that ended so suddenly but Tom had something come up and as we all know he is a busy man," I said confident that was a fact seeing as I gained a fragment of a memory of him always being busy. "So please, I'm sure there are better stories to follow than ours," I gave a short wave before entering inside and closing the door behind me.

Nothing compared to be in the safety of your own home away from all the messed up questions by the nosy paparazzi and away from the blistering cold. Switching on the lamp in the lounge room to create a wonderful glow in the house, I turned on the heater to forget about the cold still tingling all over my body and stripped off my clothes. Next, I went to my room to pull the blanket off my bed and carried it to the large sofa in the lounge room. I was going to spend tonight sleeping on the sofa because the thought of sleeping in a large bed without Tom's body warmth was too depressing and the sound of the television would make me feel less lonely. Sometimes, when I become too restless like tonight, Tom would make up light-hearted stories to help me sleep and combined with his soothing voice it did not take me long to sleep.

I smiled at that thought as I made myself comfortable on the sofa. My smile quivered as my brain made a jolt in realisation. Tom would tell me stories to help me sleep! My eyes widened. He never told me stories, not since the accident and he has never shared a bed with me for me to remember his warmth in my bed. My lungs let go of the breath it was holding as my mind casually went back to continue the functioning of my body. I was left panting from either the lack of oxygen I had in my lungs or from the mere realisation that I had just retrieved a memory. Quickly shutting my eyes tight I replayed that memory in my mind.

"She hurried to get back to the library to retrieve the book that supposedly had vital information about the…" he stopped mid sentence and the sleep that had almost engulfed me stopped and I slipped back to being restless.

I opened my eyes to see Tom staring right back at me with a small smile on his face. He was lying on his side facing me, shirtless with his elbow under him.

"You didn't fall asleep yet?"

I shook my head. "I can't sleep in a short time and plus you didn't finish the story," I poked him on his chest.

He grabbed my hand just as I poked him and lightly bit my index finger with a growl, "I've been telling you this story for half an hour!" he bit harder which caused me to try to pull my finger out of his mouth. He let go of my finger and rolled on top of me with his full weight that knocked the breath out of me.

"But the story was boring," I said quickly trying to breathe. "Get off me!"

He chuckled, "Only if you promise that you will fall asleep after this story."

I nodded no longer having enough breath to answer him.

"Alright then," he propped himself on his elbows to hold his own weight. "So, I was at this event promoting my new movie and I saw the most beautiful woman standing in a crowd of reporters. There were so many reporters there all trying to get a chance to interview me but my eyes never left the eyes of that breathtakingly beautiful woman. I couldn't get my eyes off of her and I didn't want to in case I lost her in the sea of crowd. She smiled at me obviously not knowing the chaos that was happening inside of me because of her."

"How would I know? You were playing so calm and cool just answering everyone's questions!"

"Ah," he smiled down at me. "So you know I'm talking about the night we first met."

"Yes and you have definitely exaggerated half of it just so you have your way with me," I pouted. I tried to look sad but I could not ignore the sheer happiness I felt from hearing about his thoughts of when he first met me. Just the thought of captivating someone's attention like that gave me the thrill. I was worth someone's time, finally.

"Well, I have you in bed don't I? That's one step closer," he smirked.

I gasped and slapped his arm and he responded with covering my mouth with a wet kiss.

"In all honesty though, I'm not exaggerating. I had to ignore all the chaos inside me and try to answer the questions as quickly as possible to avoid losing you," his gaze was so captivating and I could not explain how it made me feel. It was like I was the only girl he was seeing even in a sea of people. It was like his gaze just told me how intense his love for me was. It was like he allowed me to see his true and vulnerable self through his eyes.

I could not hold the gaze any longer or else it felt like my chest was going to collapse from the intensity and I covered my face with my hands and let out a nervous giggle. I felt him leave a kiss on my forehead and rolled off me.

"Did you want me to tell you another story?"

"No," my voice came out muffled from my hands covering my mouth. I uncovered my face and moved closer to him. Wrapping my arms around him I let out a sigh and wished him a goodnight. I could not bear to look at him or say anything else because I knew I would fall into a fit of giggles from the intensity.

I opened my eyes and started giggling. That memory felt so real just like how a dream can feel so real. I covered my head with the blanket and continued to giggle for another moment. I just could not handle intensity like that, I just needed a break and giggle from happiness.

After my giggling fit I removed the blanket off my face and sighed. In a week I have gained so much from my forgotten memories which was quite amazing. I smiled and reached for my phone that was in my clutch on the floor. I wanted to share this excitement with someone and so that they can wish me luck in gaining more memories and in no time I would be back to being normal again. I would have Tom back, wouldn't I? My smile fell.

No, I wouldn't. I hurt him and gaining each and every lost memory right now would not help the situation. Calling him now would not help anything either. What could I say anyway? Hi, I just wanted to tell you that I remembered a time when you were telling me a story to help me sleep and you told me about the night we first met. It was the night that I truly believed that I was worth it, that I finally believed that I deserved to love and be loved effortlessly.

I scoffed at my mental rehearsal and stared at my phone trying to contemplate if I should call Tom regardless about the situation. I'm sure he would like to know that I remember something else, maybe or maybe not. I was about to let out a sigh when the universe gave me the biggest sign I have ever encountered. Tom's name popped up on my phone notifying me that he was calling me. I didn't waste a second to answer it.

"Hi, what's up?" I bit my bottom lip and shut my eyes while mentally cursing at my fabulous way of answering the phone.

"I'm… just at home," he paused letting the awkwardness fill the silence. "I just wanted to see how you were holding up after the paparazzi," I smiled at his reason behind his call. "You probably don't remember how to deal with them so I was hoping your first encounter with them was not that horrible," his voice was drenched in sarcasm.

"Oh yeah," I cleared my throat. "Yeah, it went fine. I just told them that you had something come up and had to leave early."

"Okay, good."

"Yeah," I pressed my lips together.

"Okay," he said slowly. "Well, goodnight," he hung up without letting me reply.

I sighed with frustration and threw my phone on the sofa. I breathed in deeply to calm my nerves and held it for a moment while listening to the serene silence around me then sighed with frustration again. That sign was obviously the universe telling me I have messed up greatly.

I have no other reason to explain my delay other than lack of motivation and that I started walking again so I've been concentrating on that. I will never not be grateful over little things like walking again, seriously killed me not being able to do anything.

Like every time, thank you for the review. Absolutely lovely to know what you're thoughts and feelings are about it.

I'm going to try to update more frequently because I will be super busy soon!

Enjoy!