Chapter 6

Snow

Sam and I sit in the consulting room for about an hour before the doctor comes in with the test results.

“From our results, the ZIP drug is in every system in your body. It’s not harmful at all so don’t be worried.” The doctor says as he sits down behind his desk. “It’ll slowly leave your body as you recover your memories ."

"When will that be?" Sam asks

"Well you said that you remembered something yesterday right?" I nod and he continues, "It depends. I can't really say when it'll be completely out of your system. But in the meantime you can see a therapist to help you recover your memories. You also have to be very active too to speed up the process."

"Okay." I say with a small smile, not really knowing how to respond to this.

"Here's Doctor Stella Gates' card. Call her for an appointment and let her know that I recommended her to you. She's a really busy woman but she'll make time for you when she knows that I recommended her." The doctor hands me a business card and I take it and slip it into my pocket.

"Thanks Doctor." Sam and I say.

As we get up to take our leave the doctor calls my name. "I'm really sorry for what happened to you Miss Jenkins but I can assure you that you'll recover soon."

"Thanks." He extends his hand for me to shake and I do so. Sam and I thank him again and we leave the hospital.

"Wanna get coffee?" Sam asks me as we sit in the car. The driver looks at me through the rearview mirror, waiting for an answer before he drives out of the parking lot.

"Sure." I say and he nods driving.

"There's this really great coffee place called Matt's Coffee house that Cody and I always buy our coffee from. They make the best coffee." Sam tells me, her excitement spreading to me. For some reason, the place sounds very familiar.

"There's this employee at the Coffee House that makes really good coffee. The manager always made her serve us. She's great but we never see her." Sam smiles to her while I watch her.

"We're here Miss Smokes and Miss Jenkins." The driver announces. He pulls up at the parking lot in front of the Coffee House.

Immediately I step out of the vehicle, a wave of familiarity hits me. I stare at the building before me and try to point my finger on what's bothering me.

Sam pats me, pulling me out of my trance and we both enter the Coffee House. The smell of hot coffee immediately fills my nostrils, bringing back memories of when I used to work here. The feeling you get when you take in delicious milky coffee, going down your throat, waking up your senses and putting a smile on your face.

Sam notices my smile and returns it and gestures for us to take a seat at one of the empty tables. I look around and notice that the place is almost empty since it's afternoon. Even the cashier and waitress behind the counter looked bored. Then I gasp.

I used to work here!

But I'm an investigative reporter so I probably did this as a part time thing. Sam gazes at me, looking puzzled and as I'm about to utter a word, a waitress walks up up us.

She glances at Sam and then at me and frowns. "Lily? What the hell?"

I mirror her expression. "I'm sorry who are you?"

She scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Quit playing games with me. Chuck and I have been calling you and trying to reach you but you never answer. We even drove to your apartment to look for you but you weren't there. Why did you stop coming? D'you quit? What the hell happened to you?"

I notice her name tag, Amanda Walker. The name sounds very familiar and for some reason I hate her already.

"I'm sorry Amanda but I don't know what you're talking about?" I say slowly and politely.

"You can't just come over to customers and bombard them with questions when you're supposed to be serving us." Sam comes to my rescue.

"Oh, Miss Smokes. I apologise but Lily isn't a customer, she's an employee." She explains to Sam once she recognizes her.

"I don't think so." Sam shakes her head at her.

Amanda huffs in frustration and stomps off. I smile at Sam and she returns it. "What was that all about?"

I shrug "I don't know. But there's something I have to tell you." Sam nods giving me her attention and I continue. "This place feels really familiar and I have the feeling that I used to work here."

Sam raises her eyebrows and I elaborate, "What I mean is that I just remembered that I am an employee." I say, my voice sounding almost like a whisper.

"What?!" Sam whisper-yells. "Why didn't you tell me before all this just happened?"

"Sorry." I give her an apologetic smile.

"We have to go and apologise."

"But what do we say to her? We can't just say I've lost my memory because someone gave me an overdose of ZIP." I point out and Sam nods.

Amanda walks up to us with some guy following behind her. He immediately frowns when our eyes meet. Manager Chuck Dawson was on his name tag.

I swallow as they both stare hard at me.

"Lily?" He finally says.

"We're really sorry for the misunderstanding earlier. Sn- Lily is very very sick and it has affected her memory. She just remembered she's an employee." Sam explains with a wide grin. She emphasised on the very. "She also lost her phone and doesn't live at her old place anymore. She'll be back to work soon."

The manager and Amanda simultaneously avert their attention to Sam. Then Chuck smiles at her. "Oh Miss Smokes. I didn't see you there. Forgive my manners." Then he turns to me with an evidently forced smile. "Lily isn't feeling well? I'm sorry. I hope you get better soon Lily."

He says with a cold tone that I almost didn't notice. I smile back at him as he walks away and find Amanda still standing there.

"I'm sorry about earlier Lily. Get well soon." She says but she didn't look like she meant it. "So what can I get you?"

"The usual." Amanda writes down in her notepad, gives me a last glance and walks away.

"I don't think I like them." I tell Sam immediately Amanda is out earshot. She giggles with a slow nod and then her eyes widen.

"That's probably why you make amazing coffee!" She exclaims. "Cody told me that you made him coffee yesterday and when he drank it, it tasted really familiar. What's even more awesome is that you're probably the employee who makes us coffee."

I smile at her. It did make sense. That's probably why Cody liked it. "I guess so."

"Then why did we never see you? It's like they were trying to hide you. I'll have Cody deal with them for that. "

"Nah, that's alright. They probably had their reasons." I wave her off.

Sam is about to say something when her phone rings.

"Hold up." She raises a finger at me and answers. "Cody? It's Sam." She groans and listens quietly. "Oh."

"What? What is it?" I ask her, feeling neveous all of a sudden.

"Your apartment." She says and I swallow hard. This is probably not good.