Say You'll Remember Me

by Abby Jimenez

This is why I hated humans. They were the worst animals on the planet.

“I know you don’t like to hear it,” Maggie said. “But you are truly one of the best people I know, Dr. Rush. It’s an honor to work for you.”

Pooter Needs a Poop Chute’ was genius…”

I’M GOING ON a date with the guy.” Jeneva gasped. “The vet? How did that happen?” “He asked me at Pooter’s vet visit.”

“I told them the truth,” he said, turning to me. “That you gave me the most unforgettable night of my life, then told me to forget it.”

“It was my first alien abduction. You always remember your first.”

Mom used to be really fun. The life of the party. The last one on the dance floor at the wedding, the first one to get up when the live band started playing in a restaurant.

“You didn’t remember to forget me,” I said, quietly. “No,” he said. “I did not.”

“That there is nothing more beautiful than being

a witness to someone’s life. To know them inside and out and be with them through everything, share the same memories. Memories are everything. I want that.”

He needed the razzmatazz that I brought to the relationship. And I needed his steadiness.

He’d come back for me. It was so… everything. It was romantic and sweet and what every woman wants—only I knew that even though I wanted him, this was bad. An addiction that would only get stronger and I’d never get enough of him to satisfy me. This was reckless. Completely irrational. We could never work.

“I missed you,” he whispered from behind me. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I tried. I really did. And I’m sorry I came here without telling you the truth, but I didn’t think you’d see me and I just… I just needed to be in the same room as you.”

The gnawing discontent of the last two months was finally quiet, and all I could think in this moment of relief was that I was kissing my wife.

I couldn’t tell you how I knew this.

This was what they meant when they talked about the one who got away. She’s the woman you never stop remembering, the one who haunts you. The one who stays at the front of your mind even when decades pass.

“You are in so much trouble,” she whispered. “I like this kind of trouble.”

Something about her just felt right. She’d felt right from the very beginning I realized.

I was going to fall in love with this man. I was already halfway there.

Mike’s younger sister, Janessa, was working.

And that was the moment I knew two things. The first was that I could never let my parents see me fail. Ever. I could never shutter this business. It would validate everything they thought about me and I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. And the second was that I was head over heels in love with my girlfriend. And that was worse than I thought it was too.

“Because if you were my wife you would be my world. Everything starts with you and ends with you. Anything else is just the stuff that happens in the middle.”

You think that it’s the big memories you should be chasing—and it is in a way. Birthdays and vacations and special occasions. But the small memories are the fabric of your life, the ones so inconsequential that you don’t even remember them. You just remember how you felt when you were making them.

“I’ll cut right to it then. I would like to come work for you.”

Hear me out. I’ve got fifty-five years of vetting under my belt. I owned my own clinics for most of that. I know how hard those first few years can be and I think I can help.”

“I don’t need the money. What I need is people. Socialization. I need something to look forward to every day.

Something to get me up and out of bed, keep me moving.”

I thought Mom’s dementia was cruel. It was cruel. It was a long goodbye. But no goodbye was just as bad.

I never felt like I belonged anywhere or to anyone. But I belonged to her.

The One. The person who was made just for you. And you only ever get the one. Samantha was my one.

Loving her gave me purpose.

“Because life wouldn’t be worth living if I didn’t remember you.”

You are a wonderful human, Xavier. I hope you know that. I hope you

hear me when I say it. You are so selfless. Hard working. Generous. Gentle. You’re smart and patient. And I saw everything you did for us today. We all did.”

I vowed that I would be the kind of man who deserved that for the rest of my life.

“I’m thinking that I’m in love with you.” The words were so unexpected, I lost my breath.

“Xavier…” “You don’t have to say it back. I just didn’t want to lie.” “But… but you’ve always looked at me like that,” I said. “I know. I’ve always loved you,” he said simply. “I think I couldn’t forget you because I remember you from a different lifetime. And I loved you then too.”

leaned down and gave me a kiss. When he pulled away I peered up at him. “I love you too.”

“What she wanted was to be remembered,” Dad said. “She didn’t want to be left somewhere and forgotten.

“Your mother is beyond understanding anything that happens in this house or this marriage,” Dad said, carefully.

“I love my wife. I always will. There are days I’d rather be dead than have to live through the things happening to her,” Dad said. “Her body might still be here, but she is gone and she has been for a very long time.

My life is a permanent, intolerable unhappiness. And I pray you never know what that’s like.”

“Dad’s being forced to make decisions that none of us could ever comprehend,” she said. “He has to think about what’s right for her, what’s

right for us, what’s right for his grandkids.

“I think you have a fever. Get in bed. Let’s go.”

My body was giving out. I could feel it.

I felt defeated. Like my own body had betrayed me. It was probably the other way around. An hour later they admitted me. Double pneumonia.

“You can’t keep living like this, Xavier. I don’t want you working like you have been anymore, okay? Please promise me.”

If you’re not going to have a life with me in California I want you to have a life here. I want you to have time to see your friends and go to the gym and sleep.

“It won’t always be this way,” I said. “Yes, it will,” she said. “Because nothing about our situation is going to change.”