Remember Us

Chapter Nine

It had been about a month since Adam had come back and life couldn’t be any more fun and simple. School started next week for Katie, first grade. She had decided she’d show off her Italian too all of her friends, so that’s what’s been the sound of the house for quite awhile now.

“hey mommy, how do you say Cinderella in Italian?”

I smile down at her, “Well, Cinderella is a name, so it’s pronounced the same way.”

“oh.” She thinks for a second, “what about Romeo?”

“still a name.”

Katie stomps her foot in frustration, “where’s daddy when I need him?”

I laugh and poke her nose, “your father should be-” I was cut off by the front door closing.

“right here.” He picks Katie up, tickling her. She bursts out laughing, calling out mercy. “how are my two favorite girls?” Adam asks, setting Katie down and giving me a quick kiss.

“oh, same old same old. According to Katie, I can’t speak Italian.”

“davvero? (really?)” He smirks and looks down at Katie, “non preoccuparti,hai ragione (don’t worry, you’re right).”

I slap his arm, “Adam!”

“what? It’s not like she knows the meaning of that.”

“non preoccuparti, means don’t worry. Uncle always tells me non preoccuparti,perché c'èsempredomani (don’t worry because there’s always tomorrow).” She says proudly.

Adam looks at me with a shocked facial expression, “our daughter is too smart for her own good.”

“you’re the Italian one, not me.”

“yeah, yeah. You won’t let me forget that either.” He steals a kiss and Katie turns away with a disgusted face. Both of us pull away and laugh. “Madeline will be here shortly.”

“hope she can speak Italian.” I joke and glance down at Katie who had her hands on her hips, glaring at me. Though for a six year old, glaring only makes them look cuter. “I’m sure you can teach her if she doesn’t.”

there was a knock at the door then and Adam went to go answer it while I slipped on my shoes.

“we should be back by midnight.” I tell Madeline when I walk into the room. “you can just crash on the couch if you get tired.”

“okay, sweet.” Adam opened the door and we said our goodbyes to them before heading out.

“so, where are we going?” I ask Adam, sliding into his car. It came just last week and I’m sure I’ve never seen him smile so big.

“___club.”

I hadn’t been there since the first night and didn’t quite know what to think of it. “oh, okay.”

Adam noticed the worry in my voice and put a hand on top of mine, “it’ll be fine Liana, I won’t be leaving your side tonight.” I smile though there was still a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen. We get to the club and instead of waiting in line, Adam gets us in through the back door. I guess he really does know his way around this town better than I do, he probably even did this as a teen. That thought made me laugh.

“what’s funny?” Adam asks, holding me tightly by the waist.

“did you sneak into the clubs as a teenager?” I ask.

He smiles, “that’s for me to know.” And then I get pulled out onto the dance floor, probably to shut me up.

After dancing, or more like grinding, to a few songs we went over and took a seat at the bar. Adam got himself a beer and me a coke which I frowned at. I mean, I know I don’t drink alcohol but still, the least he could do was not drink it too.

“I’m only having one tonight,” I smile at that and take a sip of my drink. We talked about random stuff for awhile like any other date. Honestly, I was having fun in a weird way. Usually Adams’ dates were a lot more quiet and romantic, not this loud and public type thing. But still, it was good.

“I’ll be right back.” He sets down his drink which was now a 7-up.

“you said you wouldn’t leave me.”

He kisses my forehead, “nothing’s going to happen.”

I let him go do whatever he wanted and sat there watching the crowd. A guy probably in his late twenties took the seat next to me, the one that was Adams. “hey,” he says in a voice that makes me want to puke.

“not interested,” I say. Glancing in the direction Adam went, hoping he’d be back any second now.

“you sure-” He didn’t get a chance to finish his question.

“she said, not interested.” Adams voice rang behind me, his arms around my waist. The guy muttered something under his breath and left. Just then the music, that had been pretty upbeat throughout the night, changed to a slower tempo.

“Adam, what did you do?”

he looks down with that face that told me he was at least trying to do good, “I asked him to play our song.”

I frown, “but that has terrible memories with it. I mean the whole deal at the wedding when I broke your heart was the last time I heard it, I don’t know about you. What I do know though is that the wedding wasn’t a good memory.”

“All I remember is taking you out to the movie festival and kissing under the stars to this song. So come on and get you ass out of that chair and dance with me.” he holds out his hand and I take it, letting him lead me out to the dance floor. We did some of the routine from the wedding, but mostly just swayed back and forth to the music. When the song ended, Adam dipped me, kissing my lips softly.

“see? Only good memories.” He whispers and lifts me up. As we approached our seats once again, his hand tightly around my waist, I saw the guy from before retreat. Though honestly, didn’t think anything of it. This place was so crowded he was probably just trying to get to the bartender. I sat down and grabbed my coke that was sitting there, taking another drink of it. I take another gulp and set it down, this time tasting something in the drink that I couldn’t place.

“something wrong?” Adam asks.

“um, yeah…I don’t know, but drink tastes off.”

“huh, it’s probably just flat or-” That wasn’t it though. My head started spinning in a weird sense. It reminded me of being drunk, though I knew that wasn’t possible. I hasn’t had alcohol since the first day.

Adam stood me up and helped me walk through the crowd. I guess it was time to go home.

“I helped you out, don’t you think I should get some?” that voice from before asked. The question, I think, was directed to Adam though I wasn’t sure on that.

I was let go of and chose to sit in a seat near by and put my head on the table, feeling sleepy. Before I was totally out of it, Adam lifted me up again, this time just carrying me. That’s about the time I fell unconscious.