by Kailin Gow
“I can’t step foot onto U.S. soil,” my father said. He turned to me. “That’s why I don’t see that many Americans anymore.”
“Because of one of your medicines that was banned?” I asked.
“Yes, and because of people who I worked with (I don’t care who I help cure. I follow the Socrates Oath. Not politics…so I’m banned for that. Apparently I’ve treated people not well-liked by the U.S.”
“We could set up a lab right here at Summer’s Landing,” Nat said suddenly. “You’ll still be in France, and we could come visit here.” Nat looked over at me. “I’d like Summer to come here as often as she wished, too. I’d like her to join my Medical Research team, as Head U.S. Scientist.”
“But what about Dr. Turk?” I asked.
“He’s retiring. After what happened to Drew, he felt it was his fault for not making sure the coma medicine was safer.”
“Coma medicine?” my father asked. “Are you talking about mine? The CX2010?”
“Yes, Dr. Jones,” Nat said. “My scientist found it in one of our raids of the contrabands from crime lords, and we found the CX2010.”
“Which crime lord?” my father asked.
“The Dragon,” Nat said. “It was found amongst his belongings. How it got there…”
“He got it back,” my father said. “Xavier got it back for me.”
“You know the Dragon, um, Xavier?” Nat asked. I knew Nat knew my father knew the Dragon. He showed me a surprising and shocking photo of my father with Xavier when Xavier was younger.
“He was the boy I tried to reform,” my father said. “For the most part, he had some good in him, but he was in such a dire situation with his little brother, they turned to organized crime.”
“So he found it on the black market just to lose it to us,” Nat said. “How ironic.”
“So you used it on Drew Donovan, that little brother of yours?” my father said to Nat.
“We were desperate and didn’t have much of a choice. Leave Drew slowly dying in a coma or try the CX2010 on him. We used the CX2010 on him, and he’s up and functioning like a normal person, but something’s off.”
My father got out of the car and reached for his laptop. “You came all the way to France to find me to help Drew, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” I said.
“What happened?” he asked me.
“He’s physically fine, but he’s lost his memory. Not of everything, but of me and the last 10 years we’ve been together,” I said. “You see, he’s forgotten it’s me and Drew who are together. We were about to get married. We were engaged, and…”
“Suddenly Nat showed right up into your lives, and Drew suddenly lose his memory of ever coming between the two of you,” my father said.
Nat led my father and I into a sunny Atrium-like room with flowers and a water fixture. There were velvet-cushioned seats set up around glass tables. “You look like you needed a place to sit and work,” he said to my father.
“I do,” he said. “Let me pull out my notes about CX2010.”
He pulled out his laptop and began typing. I sat down in the chair next to him, and pulled out my paper notes from my inside coat pocket.
Nat came back with a tray of lemonade with ice in wine glasses.
“Oh fancy,” my father exclaimed. “You have excellent taste, Nat. After all, you’re with my daughter right now, aren’t you?”
Nat shook his head slowly.
“Now here’s what I have,” my father said. “The CX2010 does rejuvenate the body with a neurotransmitter that jumps start the brain’s many functions. After all the brain runs and controls the entire body. It’s our central control, and without the brain, we essentially become vegetables. I think I’ve covered most of the brain’s functions with the CX2010 except for one or two stubborn areas…the subconscious. Deep within us are strong but hidden memories we hide because they were so traumatic. I guess that is what had malfunctioned with Drew. Somehow some event or events in the present triggered him to bury them into that subconscious area. Along the way, his brain had dragged accompany memories in along with the bad memories.”
Nat and I looked at each other. “What you’re saying,” I said, “Is that something today was so painful to Drew, he’s blocked all memories of it? What could it be?”
Nat looked at me with deep pain in his eyes. “My return.”
“It’s not Nat’s fault!” I cried. “He’s the one who suffered in loneliness and exile from his friends and family all these years.”
My father looked at Nat and I. “But in Drew’s mind, the return of Nat, had made him realize he would lose everything, that he had lost everything. He had always felt like the inadequate little brother next to Nat.” My father took a sip of his lemonade. “Oh this is so good. Did you make this yourself, Nat?”
“Yes,” Nat said still frowning with concern over Drew.
“Even your lemonade is top-rate. How could a goofy kid like Drew compare to you?”
“He’s grown up so much since Nat left,” I said. “He’s gotten more serious. He stepped up to help run Donovan Dynamics and to take care of his mother…”
“Everything that Nat used to do, and did it with flying colors,” my father said.
“But he’s doing it…Drew is being responsible now…”
“Was he happy about it?” My father asked. “Was it his passion to run Donovan Dynamics? Was it his dream?”
“You’re saying,” Nat said, “That Drew’s brain had created a memory erase of the time he had to step into his position as head of Donovan Dynamics. That he just wanted to escape that reality?”
“No, Nat,” I said. “He remembers everything about Donovan Dynamics, but he had erased the last 10 years with me from his life.”
“People can do that, especially with strong emotions like love and hate,” my father said.
I looked down at my notes and also from the formula I had written. It made some sense. Drew’s condition physically with the blackouts and then the coma medication was the same as before. The coma medicine didn’t affect his medication for schizophrenia.
Nat sat down next to me and looked at my father. “Can you bring back Drew’s memories of Summer?”
“I could try, but honestly, the CX2010 didn’t cause it. It wasn’t a side effect from it. The condition was there, it just resisted the CX2010’s transmitter enough to manifest itself into his current memories.”
“Working on the CX2010 isn’t going to help then,” Nat said.
“It’s psychological,” my father said.
“You mean, it wasn’t forced on him from any medication,” I said. I looked at Nat, and I was sure he knew what I was thinking.
Drew had wanted to lose his memories of being with me. He had deliberately tried so hard and wished so hard, that when he woke from his coma, his dream and fantasy of being free from our relationship, became his reality.
“Drew wanted it,” Nat said out loud, echoing what I thought.
My father looked at Nat and I with sad but wise eyes. “The question is, do both of you want it too?”
Chapter 15
Summer
A strange twist of fate. That was what it was. The next day, we took Nat’s jet back to California and back to the compound.
Without my father, who agreed to work for Nat in the lab at Summer’s Landing. He seemed happy…his life as a fugitive finally coming to a halt. His years spent in a magnificent French chateau working on what he loved best was just the cream on top to discovering his little daughter again.
My father had shaved and gotten a haircut, no longer looking like a Yeti. Surprising, underneath all that hair, was a very handsome older man with pepper grey hair and bright green-blue eyes…a Brad Pitt lookalike. Steven Jones was back, and my mother had been notified. In fact, I told her that I had quit my job as neurosurgeon at the hospital to work for Nat at the compound. Better hours and even better benefits.
Being with Nat these days, it was as if he had never left. I knew I sho
uld feel guilty about being with him, like I was cheating on Drew, but when I found out how Drew subconsciously wanted out of my relationship with him; it was the kind of breakup that seemed like fate.
In fact, as Nat and I changed and slipped back into his quarters as though we had never left when we got back around 2 in the morning; there were several texts from Rachel to me.
Rachel: Summer. I need to warn you. Don’t pick up any tabloids you see at the supermarket newsstand. If you do, just know he had lost his memories. He isn’t trying to hurt you.
Rachel: Summer. Don’t watch any television, especially TMZ. He’s just being old Drew. Don’t think anything of it.
Rachel: Don’t know if you’re ignoring my texts, but he’s back on the internet. Trending. If you’re on, you can’t ignore it. It makes me sick to my stomach how he’s flaunting it, but then again, that’s how Drew is. Until you came along.
I finally took a look at my Twitter and Facebook pages, where I was friends with Drew.
There had been post after posts of him with this sexy starlet who would be appearing with Rachel in a love triangle film. My jaw dropped to the ground as Nat walked in on me looking at my computer screen.
“So Drew really has moved on,” Nat said slowly. “With an ex-porn star, too, turned starlet.”
“You know her?” I asked. “Carmel Tight?”
“All the guys know who she is,” Nat said. “Well, have seen something or some part of her.”
I didn’t really want to think about it. Was this the real Drew? Was this the Drew who would surprise me after being married to him 20 to 30 years? He’d drop me when my breasts begin to sag unless I’ve had surgery and my butt begin to flatten, for a girl a quarter of his age named Carmel Tight?
“Nat?” I asked. “Is this the real Drew? Because I don’t know this guy dating Carmel Tight. What kind of a name is that? An ad for some tinted tightening cream?”
Nat laughed. “Sorry Summer, I think this is the real Drew.”
He was a charmer, and also the boy who thought I was a challenge to bed. He was a challenge for me, as the boy whom I thought I could change. And did change until the day came for him to say, “I do.”
“Now that we’re back, I’m calling Rachel over,” I said. “Let’s see what that girl had been up to?”
“Yes, let us see how much damage could my sister could inflict in a couple of days?” Nat asked.
“Rachel?” I called on my phone. “Come over. We’re back. We’ve got to tell you what happened. Plus I think Nat and I would love to get an update of what you’ve found while we were gone.”
“You’re back?” Rachel answer. “Didn’t even noticed you were gone. Been busy. Real busy.”
“I’m sure you were,” I said, looking at Nat.
Nat grabbed me by the waist and bent me over while simulating sex with me. He whispered into my ear. “This is the sight I want to burn into my brains rather than the one with Rachel and Teddy.”
He kept rubbing against me, while I talked to Rachel on the phone. “I need to tell you something about Drew so you don’t worry about him. And me. Come over so I could tell you in person.”
Rachel said, “I’d be right there in about half an hour.”
“Okay,” I said, turning off the phone and throwing it across the bed before I sprawled out in front of me. The simulated sex had now become real with Nat ripping down my panties from under my dress and patting my butt.
The sound of zippers pulling down and then a loud groan filled the air before I felt all of Nat pushing deep into me and pumping steadily in and out of me. “I can’t get enough of you,” Nat said.
“I want more, too,” I said.
“I wasted so much time worrying about other people and their happiness,” Nat said. “I want us to be happy, finally, Summer.” He rocked me back and forth until I was clenching down hard, squeezing him with my very being.
“Oh mother,” Nat cried. “I. Can’t. Go. On. Without you, Summer!”
“I love you, Nat,” I said. “I’ve always loved you.”
“I love you too, Summer,” Nat said ramming into me one more time until we both cried out and sprawled onto the bed in exhaustion.
When the door knocked, and we both got up in surprised, Nat turned to me and kissed me softly. “I meant to do this the right way, but sometimes just doing it, is the right way.”
He got down on his knees and took my hand. “Summer Jones, you have and always will be my perfect lasting summer. Everytime I look at you, I am fulfilled. I am at peace. I am complete. I can’t get you out of my mind. I can’t get you out of my life. After all these years and every trial and tribulations we’ve encountered; we have always been meant to be with each other. My moon orbits around you, and you orbit around me. You are my Sun, and I am your moon. Together we can rock this universe. Marry me, please, Summer?”
My eyes were filled with unshed tears. I didn’t expect this, but in a way I had. Perhaps that was why haven’t married Drew yet. I know I would disappoint a lot of people if I don’t marry Drew, but I also know deep down…I can’t forget Nat. I can’t stop loving Nat.
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, Nat, I will marry you. You have always been my Nat in Shining Armor. Your steadfastness and constant strong love have always been my rock, Nat. I’ve always loved you. I’ve never stopped.”
Nat had tears in his eyes as he scooped me up and dropped me on the bed. He kissed me and said, “We’re taking the jet to Summer’s Landing tonight, Summer. Just you, me, Rachel, Luis, Hector, my parents, and your Mom.”
“What about Drew?” I asked.
“He’s coming too, along with Carmel Tight,” Nat said.
“We’re going to have the wedding right on the beach on the western side of Summer’s Landing,” Nat said. “I’ll notify Dr. Jones so he knows we’re coming, and Chef Guy.”
I got up, pulled on some clothes, and headed over to the front door to let Rachel in.
She was looking a little pissed, while checking her phone. “Can’t believe my idiot twin. He’s practically parading her around, getting more publicity for her than for me. What kind of a brother goes with you to the film location because he’s bored, and the next moment, he’s now seriously dating my co-star, who had been a total biotch to me the entire time until Drew visited.”
“So he’s replaced me with someone ‘tight’,” I said.
“I wished his memories would come back, and he’d get right back with you, Summer,” Rachel said.
“That’s what I had to tell you, Rach, it won’t happen.”
“Because of Carmel Tight? That won’t last, Summer. It’s just his immature self acting up.”
“That’s just it, Rach,” I said. “That’s just Drew. Anytime he’s made a mistake or acted juvenile, we excuse him for being Just Drew. I did all the time. I couldn’t help it. He was Just Drew. Everyone loves that about him. But we were about to get married, and that’s when it got to him. Rach, we can’t get married. He wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready. The coma medicine didn’t wipe his memory away. It wasn’t a side effect. It didn’t even affect that part of his memory. It was Drew. It was all him. He wanted to forget about being with me. He wanted to erase every part of me so he could erase what he’d done to be with me…his betrayal to Nat, his betrayal to me of not telling me Nat was alive so he could be with me…and more…stuff I probably don’t even know about.”
Rachel rushed into the room then and hugged me tightly. “Oh Summer, I am so so sorry. I can’t even know how to excuse Drew’s behavior.”
“No, Rach,” I said. “He wasn’t doing this deliberately like a prank. His mind deliberately chose to forget his memories of me. He chose the fantasy of a life without being with me without the guilt and the responsibilities. I think, Rach. He’s happy.”
“Oh my God, Summer,” Rach said. “I don’t know what to say. I didn’t mean to push you two together or to push Nat and you together…as long as you’re happy and not hurt by this.”
&nb
sp; Nat walked into the room then. He was grinning. “All set!” he clapped his hands. “Chef Guy called the local caterers, florists, the Priest next door to Summer’s Landing, and even a small orchestra.” He turned to Rachel, “Pack your things for a long weekend or even a week. Tonight, we are jetting you, our parents, Summer’s mom, Drew, and even Luis to France.”
Rachel’s face was as confused as a cartoon manga girl’s. “What for?”
“For a wedding, Rach,” Nat said.
“Whose?” Rachel said. “Not Drew and Summer’s. You heard about Drew hooking up with that hooker Carmel Tight.”
“No, Rach,” Nat said coming over to hug Rachel. He was all smiles and looking happier than he had for years. “Summer and I are getting married tomorrow when we land in France. At my place…a chateau I named for Summer. Summer’s Landing.”
Rachel was sobbing. “I can’t believe it. Nat and Summer. Finally! You both came to your senses. I always wanted you two to be together. I’ll finally be able to call you a Donovan.”
“And I will be working here at the compound from now on instead of the hospital, Rach,” I said. “I’ll get to run experiments and research, discover new medicines, help people in a bigger and broader way instead of one-on-one.”
Rachel pulled herself together and said, “I’m so happy for you, Summer, especially for everything that’d happened to you. I thought it was devastating to find out that Drew had cheated on you with Carmel Tight, but now I see, he just didn’t remember. And well, you’ve moved on to something and someone better for you. I love you, Summer, my forever sister.”
“I love you too,” I said crying and hugging her.
“Now let’s break this news of the wedding to Mom and Dad.”
I looked over at Nat and said, “And Drew.”
Nat nodded, “And Drew.”
Chapter 16
Nat
The happiness I felt when Summer said “yes” to my proposal was the best moment in my life. I knew it was right as soon as I asked her. It felt right, and it felt good.