Promises Forgotten
Chapter 15

“Are you sure you want to continue?”

I laughed through the tears. “I mean, it can’t hurt any worse than it does, right?”

“I think we need Jason and more liquor, though.”

Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes. F**k, when was the last time I cried like this? College maybe? No, before that. High school after my dad told us that he didn’t care that Adrian and I didn’t approve of Claudia. He had married her already and so she was our mother whether or not we liked it.

“Adrian was with him, so I guess we get double trouble. But that means double the liquor.”

I sighed. “I didn’t tell Adrian yet. He kept asking questions but I didn’t say.”

“It’s fine. I’m sure Jason already spilled the f*****g beans. He sounded drunk already.”

“Great. Now, I’m never going to hear the end of this.”

Stacy laughed. “What, you and I sitting on the damn floor of your office, looking like a f*****g mess because we just cried through those photos and that was the smaller of the four folders? Yeah. No doubt. How old are we again?”

Smiling, I turned my head to look at her. “Too old to be dealing with this shit.”

“You’re the one that up and fell in love. You left us all behind. Hell, Adrian doesn’t even have this with Nicole, Zach. I’m gonna be honest, he might be upset that it even exists. Your grandfather was right. I always through he was off his rocker, but f**k…after those…we should all be so lucky…”

“Don’t have my f*****g luck. I only got four weeks of it, apparently.”

Stacy shook her head. “No, she got four weeks of it. She got four weeks and you left her alone after it. That’s what broke her. Feeling that kind of love and then realizing it will never be within your reach again…that would break anyone…”

“We are heeerreee….oh shit. No. I’m not f*****g here for this pity f*****g party.” Jason growled, but Adrian pushed him in.

“We are here for whatever the f**k they need us to be here for. They f*****g called us.” Adrian unloaded two bags of alcohol and a mess of red cups. Smiling, I filled up one with Fireball and a can of Red Bull. Stacy did the same and both of them looked at the two of us like we were crazy.

“Don’t f*****g judge. If I have to go through those last 30 f*****g photos again, I am going to need it. We have to set the f*****g god damn mood for them.”

I chuckled and exited out of the folder.

“So, Jason said you have a wife you are trying to divorce, but it turns out you married each other sober and for love. In which shit happened yesterday which made her cry so hard she made ten people not come in to work.”

“That’s the Jason-dumbass-cliff-notes, but yes. Now, apparently Zach decided to ask her if she had any photos. She did. She sent them. And so we are going through both Zach’s photos and her photos. We went through Zach’s first and that’s what this is for.” Stacy held up her drink.

Jason snorted as he flopped on the couch behind Stacy. “What are you talking about? Zach doesn’t f*****g take photos. Nice try.” Adrian sat next to him, behind me.

“Oh no, he does. I don’t think he will ever again, though. Not after these. God knows what’s in the damn Greece ones, but I don’t know if there is enough alcohol in the world to drown my heart.”

I opened up the folder again and went from the beginning. This time I was able to get a little better judge of the timeline, not looking at them for the first time. It still was raw but the alcohol was helping. Once we finished with the last ones of that folder, I clicked off and stared at the screen. Stacy was looking over at Adrian and I looked at him as well. He was ashen, still staring at the screen.

“A?”

“Don’t f*****g talk to me. I’m here for you. Just shut up and go through the rest of it.”

I nodded and turned back to the screen.

“Wait. Give me a second, will you?” Jason leaned forward and put a hand on my shoulder.

Looking up at him, I saw he was staring at the screen as well, but he had streaks down his cheeks. I didn’t say anything and just nodded, waiting until he removed his hand from my shoulder. He didn’t, but Stacy did it for him. Clicking on the folder, there were also more candid ones. There were even some videos as well. The first few were us at a wedding. Jason tapped my shoulder.

“I remember, she was there with a bridal party. Her friend was getting married. She was looking for applications for a plus one to the wedding. She said you had the looks, but your personality was lackluster.”

The three of them laughed and I shook my head. Clicking on the video, it was of her so someone else must have taken it. She was dressed up in a lavender dress with a violin in her hands. She was playing as her friends had their first dance. It was beautiful and when I smiled, my eyes started to gloss over. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe and I needed air. Needed space. Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and balled my hands up into fists.

“Zach, what’s wrong?”

“Yeah, she is playing beautifully. What the hell man?”

I coughed and took three gulps of the Red Bull mixture, but it did nothing to clear the knot. “She saved my life. She saved my life and I ruined hers.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That f*****g bullet. She lost her arm. She lost her right arm. When she stood in front of me, when I went to touch her arm, there was none. F**k. I ruined her. Her passion. Her music. I f*****g ruined everything.”

“Zach, you don’t know that…” Adrian tried to reach out, but I shrugged him off.

“I do! I f*****g do! I heard it. In her wail. I heard it all. F*****g…how could she stand being in that room with me? How could she even speak to me?”

Stacy took my face in her hands and forced me to look at her. “Zach, what did we establish in the first f*****g set of photos?”

I started to shake my head and Jason slapped me upside the head. “She f*****g loves you, you f*****g twat. She f*****g loves you more than any f*****g person should ever love one person. That’s why. I’m sure she was expecting to get out of that meeting with a reason to hate you and she didn’t get it. You didn’t abandon her on purpose, you dumbass, and that’s why she cried. She can’t f*****g move on if you haven’t. Hell, you don’t even f*****g remember an iota of any of this shit.”

Stacy and I looked at Jason like he was an alien. He shrugged and gestured to the screen. “Stop looking at me like that and f*****g go through the rest of the photos.”

Chuckling, we turned, but I do steal a glance at Adrian. He was sitting on the couch still staring at the screen. I started to click through the photos. I stopped at one where I could see her hand pulling me forward, but it’s a photo of just me. Looking at it, I felt like I was looking at a completely different person. Next to me, Stacy chuckled.

“Where was this guy when I needed a date in college?”

“Where was this guy ever? I don’t think he exists in this f*****g universe. It’s f*****g illegal to look that f*****g happy and that in love.” Jason mumbled from the back. He reached over my shoulder and grabbed one of the bottles of vodka. “I’m gonna need this all to myself if I’m about to look at photos of this goof’s happy a*s for an hour.”

I continued through the photos until a video started. It was of me, sitting on the edge of one of the giant fountains in Vegas. Her voice rang out loudly.

“Your goddess demands tribute! What can you bring her?”

In the video, I laughed and shook my head. “My goddess, I am only a humble champion. How could anything be worthy of you?”

You could hear her tisk behind the camera. “That won’t do! Worship requires song, then! Here!” She placed a guitar in my hands and now my face turned white. There was no way in hell I performed in front of all these people.

Strumming the guitar, I looked up at her. A look of pure and utter devotion crosses my face in the video as I asked her to join me. She laughed and asked someone watching to hold her phone. Finally, we got a good look at the two of us. Evie was wearing a Greek goddess style dress, much like the one in the first video but in white, playing her role. I looked like the bad boy out of Greased Lightening. She took her shoes off and stood on the edge of the fountain where I was sitting with the guitar. I started to play and I felt all three of my friends move in to listen.

My voice rang out and the light on her face seemed to spread when she began to sing as well. The two of us came together and she looked at me, smiling. I continued to play and sing until her part, playing along with her. Together, even our voices belonged together. She danced around for some of them, laughing and smiling as we sang together. I played with her, hitting the guitar along with strumming, setting a beat for her to dance to. We finished the song and she smirked.

“I guess I will take that as payment.”

A little girl stepped up to us in the video and the two of us smiled at her. Evie got on her knees and reached out to the little girl. The little girl reached forward and spoke to her. Evie nodded and looked back at me.

“I have another worshiper who would like to sing with me. Do you mind helping us with a song?”

“Of course. It’s good to have another person who loves my goddess.” I winked at the little girl before strumming a few bars.

The little girl started to sing but instead of coming in with her, Evie came in with a different song, blending the two together perfectly. The little girl gained the courage, singing her part loudly and lovely whereas Evie sang along with her. A smile found its way onto my face, watching myself in the video smiling and playing for the two of them, allowing them to have a melody to carry them. The two of them were adorable and received a huge round of applause. That was until she pulled the guitar out of my hands and jumped into the fountain with me. She got drenched with me as she splashed me. We saw security coming. I grabbed the guitar while she grabbed the phone from the person holding it, and then the video cut out.

Swallowing, I looked over at my two friends who had never once heard me play a musical instrument. Or sing. Both of them were staring at me, when Stacy punched my arm and burst out in tears, burying her head in her knees. I reached out to her but Jason slapped my hand away.

“A*****e. How dare you! You dare be f*****g perfect when the rest of the guys out here are trying to replace a girl that will just deal with us. You’re over here with your f*****g guitar and your good voice and f*****g smile that makes me want to f**k you. God damn it, man. I thought we had no f*****g secrets.”

I put my hands up. “Honestly, I haven’t sang since I put A to sleep when he was little. How she managed to not only get that information out of me, let alone get me to f*****g do it in public is beyond me. I honestly don’t know. We are all looking at this shit for the first time, I think you keep f*****g forgetting that.” I growled at them.

Adrian spoke up for the first time in a while. “Love. Because you loved her, Z. You did it for Mom, for me, and now for her.”

His voice was quiet and I reached up but he shook his head. Putting my hand down, I sighed and clicked through the next few photos.