Thank you for the comments! Now, let's see what Missy has to say about those two idiots. . .

Chapter 19

"Drink!" Missy ordered him and held another bottle of beer into his face when John had barely finished his first.

He raised his eyebrows doubtfully. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"

"Of course," she rolled her eyes in annoyance, "So you'll finally stop pussyfooting around and tell me what's really on your mind."

With a heavy sigh John leaned back in his seat and eventually took the bottle out of Missy's hand to have a sip. "Clara," he admitted after a moment.

His friend snorted. "Never would have guessed."

John glowered at her, but decided to let her comment pass.

"Really, it's not that tough a guess. That's all you've been doing for the past five years," she told him and then went on to imitated his voice, failing miserably, "Clara this. Clara that. Clara Clara Clara."

"Can we please have a serious discussion about this for once?!" John spat and Missy instantly went quiet. He heard her take a breath and eventually she granted him a sympathetic smile.

"Thank you," he growled and sipped his beer. He wanted to open up to Missy, that was why he had invited her over, but not if she treated it as a joke. "I like Clara. I've only known her for a short while and you know how long it takes me to warm up to people, but I like her. I wish my memory would come back because I can feel that I'm hurting her, that she's suffering and yet all she ever does is to be kind to me, to help me. I'm not sure if I want to remember for myself or. . . for her."

Missy just raised her eyebrows in response.

"Well, she deserves it, doesn't she? According to you she's the woman that turned my life around and for her I became the perfect, loving husband who makes thoughtful gifts like retrieving her mum's lost necklace all the way from Italy. Clara is amazing, she is everything a man could ever wish for. She doesn't deserve this," John said, gesturing towards himself.

"On second thought," Missy mumbled and leaned across the sofa to take the beer bottle away from him, "Alcohol has always made you a little soppy."

"How can I remember?" he let his head sink with a groan, "What do I have to do to remember?"

"I'm assuming you still haven't had sex?"

John's head shot up and his entire body twitched at the thought about that. Yes, at some point he would like to be intimate with Clara, but that point was still far in the future. They had only just managed a hug. He needed time.

"Don't look at me like that," his friend told him defensively, "Maybe shagging her will trigger your memory."

John scoffed.

"You did that quite a lot before your accident."

"Oh really?"

Missy took a large sip from her beer bottle. "My last birthday party. The basement. Not that I minded that, but I'm certainly not sending you two to fix a blown fuse again. The theme was roaring 20s, not dinner in the dark."

John only nodded, not knowing what he was supposed to say to that. He doubted that Missy would lie about such a thing, but he still found it hard to believe.

"I'm serious, John. Give it a go. Can't get worse than it already is, can it?"

"I think-" he paused and suddenly he wasn't sure whether he had interpreted the signs right, "I think Clara has been flirting with me lately."

"You think?"

"Well, she, uhm," he stammered, lowering his gaze to his own feet, "She said I looked good with the beard and cane. And she-"

"She what?"

"She took her clothes off," John mumbled quickly and reached for the beer bottle again, taking it back from Missy to have a sip just so he would have something to do. He couldn't look at her while he was telling the story.

His friend, however, laughed. "She took her clothes off? When? How? In what context? John, I need details."

He inhaled deeply before he started telling Missy about their encounter in the bathroom and she listened intently, beaming at him as she did.

"Okay, yes, she was definitely coming on to you, so have sex with her!"

"Missy," John hissed, "I haven't even kissed her yet."

"So do it!" she told him, "Forget about your shyness and your reluctance for once. Clara is your wife and she loves you and she is only waiting for you to make a move. And who knows, maybe it really will trigger your memory."

John took another sip of beer, but suddenly he couldn't help but think that maybe Missy wasn't so wrong after all. This wasn't a usual situation. He already knew that Clara liked him. He really had nothing to lose.

Clara had stopped sobbing a while ago and now she was only crying quietly, her head in her grandma's lap while she gently stroked her hair. It felt good to be comforted for once, to just let herself fall and give in to all the tears she never dared to cry at home. She was trying so hard for John, but after the last couple of days Clara had really needed to get away for just one evening, just to be allowed to cry.

"He'll come around eventually," her granny whispered after a long while, "Just remember how long it took him the first time. It's just who he is and because John is still exactly who he has always been, I am certain that he's going to fall just as madly in love with you as he did the first time. If he doesn't remember before that happens."

"How can you be so sure?" Clara asked, sniffing.

"Because he'd be stupid not to and he knows it. You said he's making an effort, so he knows you're worth it."

Clara lifted herself into a sitting position and looked at her grandmother. There was nothing but compassion in her eyes.

"But what do I do in the meantime?" she asked, "What do I do? I'm not sure I can stand this for much longer. I'm trying so hard, I'm trying to be nice and kind and give him the space he needs, but he is my husband and I love him and when I look at him all I see is that he doesn't even know me. It hurts. It hurts so much."

The tears came back before Clara could stop them and once more she collapsed into her grandma's embrace. She couldn't be strong for much longer.

"I love him," she whispered, "But to him I'm just a stranger. A nice woman that he has only just met."

"He will remember."

"I'm not so sure about that," Clara admitted, swallowing hard, "I don't think John is sure either. He says he will remember, but I doubt he believes it. Maybe he doesn't even want to."

Her grandmother scoffed softly. "Now you're being silly. Of course he wants to remember and you're going to help him. Recreate what you had in the beginning. Your friendship. Go down that route again and I'm sure it's only a matter of time. You two are made for one another. Why wouldn't it work a second time?"

Before the accident Clara would have agreed with her grandmother on the spot. Before the accident she had believed that there was nothing in the world that could tear them apart after everything they had been through together. But now Clara really wasn't sure and she didn't think she still had enough strength to hope.