“What’s your name?”
She took a deep breath. “Wait. Are you telling me you don’t remember me at all?”
Sam winced. “I’m afraid not. Were we close?”
“Yeah, kinda…” she made a coy smile that looked like she was working hard to suppress something from her past.
Sam said, “I’m sorry.”
She nodded, squeezed his hand again in a subtle gesture of acceptance. “It’s okay. Not your fault. Let’s start again… Hi, I’m Catarina Marcello.”
Sam shook her hand, in mock formality, “Sam Reilly.”
She grinned. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, really it is, Mr. Reilly.”
“Catarina Marcello?” Sam said the name out loud, letting it sink into his own ears, hoping that it would jog his memory somewhere. “Can I call you, Cat?”
“You asked that the first time we met!”
“What did you say?”
“I said I didn’t like the name.”
“What did I end up calling you?”
“Cat.”
“Really?”
“Afraid so. It was a joke at first, but the name stuck.”
Sam said, “Sorry.”
She laughed. “Don’t worry about it. The name’s grown on me.”
They sat there in silence, their eyes drifting out across the glistening ocean, all the way to the horizon. Neither one knowing what to say next, what to ask, or where to go from here. Sam’s brain, despite having no memory, was working like a complex computer, calculating everything he’d learned, what he knew, and where he should go next.
Sam turned to face her. “You said we were close. What happened?”
“That’s a long story.”
“I have time… I think?”
Catarina said, “We met here on vacation.”
Listening to her accent, which was a rich combination of an Italian accent mixed in with a predominantly American drawl. He tried to place its origins, deciding on somewhere Mid-Atlantic. “You’re American?”
“Yes. But my dad’s Italian. We immigrated to the US when I was in my early teens, but he kept his family home. I like to use it during the summer break each year. You taught me to SCUBA dive around the reef, just over there.”
Sam grinned. “I can SCUBA dive?”
Catarina’s lips parted in a smile, part incredulous, part bewilderment. “Yeah. You weren’t too bad at it.”
“What’s that meant to mean? Was I a dive instructor or something?”
“No. A marine biologist, actually. To be honest, when I met you, I think you were permanently spending most of your life diving in remote and exotic locations.”
“Sounds like a nice life.”
“It was. I followed you in it for nearly two years. We traveled the world together and had a wonderful time.”
Sam felt somber at the thought. He wished he could remember it. “What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“If it was all so wonderful, why did we ever stop?”
“Well…” she was hesitant. “I finished my course and had to start real work, and living.”
“And that was it?” Sam asked. “You mean, we went our separate ways because you had to start work? That seems a little hard to believe.”
“No. There was more to it than that.”
“Like what?”
She paused, swallowed. “To be honest, I asked you to marry me.”
Sam glanced at her. She was intelligent, nurturing, empathetic, and painstakingly beautiful. Every nerve in his body wanted to touch her and be held close to her. He frowned. He couldn’t imagine any world in which he would have turned her down.
His brow furrowed with incredulity. “I turned you down?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Her gaze avoided him. “We were both young. You said there was more to see in the world. But that wasn’t it.”
“I would have loved you very much.”
She smiled, her doleful brown eyes were wide, and distant, as though they were miles away. “We were smitten with each other.”
Sam persisted. “So, what went wrong?”
“You joined the marines.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I think you did it to piss off your father, who tried to insist you join the family business, which as far as I could tell was to make money.”
Sam didn’t bother to ask what his family did. He didn’t care. Right now, he just had to know what could have possibly caused him to drift away from someone like her. “And you left.”
She smiled. But there was still pain in her face. “No. I would have waited for you. Whatever you wanted. I would have followed you anywhere and everywhere you wanted to go.”
“I broke up with you?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Catarina’s lips parted in a coy smile. “I’m afraid I can’t answer that one.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “Can’t?”
“No. That’s something you’re going to have to work out for yourself.”
“Why?” Sam expelled a deep breath. “I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to let you out of my sight, let alone break up with you. What went wrong?”
“Honestly?”
“Yeah…”
“You were so angry at me — I don’t think you ever forgave me.”
“Why?” he asked, feeling suddenly sad at the thought of ever quarreling with someone so lovely.
She crossed her arms. “No. I’m afraid, that’s something you’re going to have to remember for yourself.”
Chapter Ten
Sam tried to pry the truth out of her.
His attempts fell short and he was met by Catarina’s ironclad refusal to talk on the subject. He didn’t persist very long. No reason to distance himself from the only lifeline he’d found since waking up.
Failing to break through her defenses, Sam’s mind turned to what he knew about her so far. She was an Italian immigrant to the US, who went on to become a university graduate from a prestigious Ivy League University — Johns Hopkins University. Her parents were far from poor if they had kept their old apartment in Vernazza out of sentimental reasons for the occasional vacation. He and Catarina had dated, nearly ended up married, and then separated because something she had done had made him so angry that he had pigheadedly decided to never talk to her again.
His thinking turned to what she knew about him.
He was a marine biologist, who joined the marines to upset his dad who wanted him to join the family business, whatever that was. He used to take her SCUBA diving in exotic locations throughout the world. They hadn’t spoken in more than fifteen years — yet, she knew that he was supposed to be in Holland.
Sam asked, “If we haven’t spoken in fifteen years, how did you know I was meant to be in Holland?”
Catarina said, “You called me last night.”
“When?”
“About eight-thirty. It was completely out of the blue.”
“What did I have to say?”
“Not much. Only that you wanted to see me, and that it was really important that we talked in person — face-to-face.”
Sam grinned. “And now I’m here.”
“Yeah, but I have no idea why or what you wanted to talk about.”
“Did we plan for a time to meet up?”
“No. Only…”
“What?”
“You said that you needed to be somewhere in Holland on the fourth. It was vitally important and you couldn’t risk being late, even to speak to me…”
“Do you know where I was going in Holland?” Sam paused, realizing he was using the misnomer for the Netherlands. It was a trivial detail many people overlooked, including some Dutch people who referred to it as Holland, even though it only represented the two provinces of North and South Holland. He suddenly grinned.