Selfless

5

Colby's POV

"I thought we were going for a walk?" Cora said as I grabbed my keys. I chuckled to myself at her choice of words. "We are, just not here." I said living in the deja vu moment, "go ahead and get in the car, I have to grab something real quick." I said and ran upstairs.

When I got to our room I went into the closet and grabbed a pair of my sweatpants. I then grabbed the baby monitor and went into Mia's room to check on her. She was soundly sleeping which made my heart melt, I loved that little girl so much it hurt.

I snuck into Sam's room and put the baby monitor on his nightstand. Mia usually did a pretty good job at sleeping through the night but I couldn't have her in distress while Cora and I weren't here.

I couldn't help the smile that was forming on my face as I made my way downstairs. My heart was still heavy at the fact that Cora didn't know who I was but I couldn't wait to just be alone and talk to her, I was willing to start from square one if it meant I still got to be with her.

I made my way outside to see Cora standing in the middle of the driveway weeping, "hey hey! what happened?" I asked and hugged her, "I didn't know which car was yours. I should know that shouldn't I?" She cried into my chest as I sucked in a breath and smoothed her hair down. "It's okay, I should have told you, it's my fault." I said feeling my heart break in my chest. I really hated seeing her hurting like this, she didn't deserve that.

"It's not your fault I can't remember....Please tell me what happened..how did I lose my memory?" she asked and looked at me with glassy eyes. "I...it's just a long story Cor, I don't think you're ready for it." I said and she nodded then backed away from me as she wiped her face. "Maybe we should just go back inside." She whispered and looked down.

"Trust me, you'll like where we are going, come on." I said and guided her to my car. She looked at my corolla and giggled which sounded like music to my ears, "what's funny?" I asked and opened her door for her, "just didn't expect this one to be yours." She said and got in, "it's reliable! Could you imagine me driving Mia around in a sports car?" I asked and got into the drivers side. "No. I couldn't." She said sadly and looked down.

For a minute I forgot that she didn't know who I was, so when I realized what she meant by that I felt my heart break into a million pieces again.

I put some music on and we silently drove to the beach. I was hoping this would maybe spark her memory, or least give her a chance to fall in love with me again.

"Where are we?" She asked as I parked the car, "this is our spot." I said and she bit her lip. "What do you mean?" She asked and I shrugged, "I'll explain when we get down there." I said and got out of the car.

When Cora got out she immediately shivered, "oh, here I brought these for you." I said and handed the pair of my sweatpants that I grabbed for her.

They were her favorite pair, the same ones she wore to the hospital when she had Mia. "Thanks." She whispered and took them hesitantly.

I watched her as she carefully put them on over her shorts and rolled them at the waistband so they would fit. She then bundled the sleeves of my balenciaga hoodie in her hands and looked up at me.

"What?" She asked with a mildly frightened expression, "nothing. You ready to go?" I asked and she nodded. "Tell me why this is our spot." She said quietly as she crossed her arms over her chest, almost as if she was hugging herself as we walked to the shoreline.

"The second night we ever hung out I took you here because we both couldn't sleep." I said and she nodded, "like tonight?" She asked and I smirked, "like tonight." I repeated and looked over at her.

The moon was shining down so perfectly onto her causing her to look almost angelic. I admired her for another minute before she looked over,

"everything okay?" She asked and bit her lip. "Yeah, anyways we have had more memories here, like I proposed to you over there." I said and pointed to the part of the beach that we did the proposal at. "We watched the sunrise right there." I said and pointed again, "and right here.." I said and stopped, turning her to face me, "is where I fell in love with you." I said and she bit her lip harder as she looked down.

"I'm sorry.." she whispered with a thick voice, "what are you sorry for?" I asked, "I'm sorry I can't say I love you back.." she said and kept her eyes down, "hey, I don't expect you to say it right now, don't cry." I said and lifted her chin up, "what if I never remember?" She asked which sent a sharp shooting pain through my chest, "then I guess I'll just have to win you over again." I said with a smile and started walking down the beach.

"Tell me stories." She said quietly as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "What kind of stories?" I asked as we slowly made our way down the beach, "I don't know..stories about us." She said and looked up at me. I smiled and looked at her as the moon was shining on her eyes in the most beautiful way possible.

I wanted to kiss her.

I couldn't. Not tonight.

"Well. One of my favorite memories was when we went to our wedding cake tasting, and we ended up both covered in cake because I wanted to test how it would feel to smash it in your face." I said and she laughed, "what flavor did we decide on?" She asked and looked up at me as we walked, "we decided on three flavors, one for each tier. Chocolate peanut butter, red velvet, and white cake with white frosting." I said and she scrunched her nose, "I don't believe you. I would never let red velvet be a part of my wedding cake. Disgusting cream cheese frosting." She said causing me to laugh, "you didn't want it but I did and you were willing to let me have it." I said and she just chuckled, "tell me another one." She said as we sat in the sand.

"Well for your birthday last year we went to a haunted house and you clung onto me the whole time. It was adorable." I said and she shook her head, "are you sure it's me you're in love with? I would never go into a haunted house especially on my birthday." She said and looked out into the horizon. "You wanted to go because we all wanted to go, you had fun though I think." I said and just pulled her legs to her chest.

"I wish I could remember." She said quietly causing my heart to clench. "I wish you could too..but we are going to get you back baby girl. You're gonna come back to us." I said and she stiffened at the pet name.

"Sorry.." I whispered feeling my heart drop, "no...no I'm sorry, I'm just not used to this kind of affection." She said and looked up at me with sad eyes, I wanted to cry and scream in this moment.

I just wanted to take her pain away.

I got up and reached for her hand, "we should get going, it's freezing out here." I said and she nodded, taking my hand so I could help her up.

I wanted to keep her hand in mine but she pulled it away right after I helped her up. I couldn't blame her, but damn did it hurt.

We walked back to the car and she smiled a smile that was so beautiful I almost fell to my knees, "thanks for taking me here. I did really love it." She said and got in the car.

We drove in silence for a few minutes before I felt Cora's small hand reach for mine which sent my heart into overdrive.

The second our fingers intertwined it felt like a million fireworks had went off.

I couldn't help the huge smile that was plastered on my face as I rubbed the back of her hand soothingly. She didn't say anything as she rested her head against the window next to her.

I felt like we were already making some progress, and I couldn't be happier about it.