Free Faded Perfection (Beautifully Flawed Book 2) by Cassandra Giovanni Page A

she looked around the room. She rubbed her forehead, and I watched as her chest rose up. “Where am I, River?”
    I glanced over at Jesse, and his jaw was tight as he locked eyes with me. I stood back up and went to her side, putting my hands over hers. “You’re in the recovery center, remember, a few weeks ago there was a car accident.”
    Tara’s eyes fluttered against her cheek, her head rolling to the side as she fought the memories. When her eyes opened, they were wet. “Oh, yeah. How’s Bobby doing?”
    I glanced down at my hands over hers, and I could feel my knees shaking as I wondered if I should just walk around the subject or if I should answer her. I didn’t know how her parents did it, and I didn’t know if I could do it. I squeezed my eyes shut.
    “Jesse!” she said, and my eyes snapped open. “You’re here too!”
    “Sure am,” Jesse said, and I stood to sit next to him, looking at the ceiling.
    “How are you?” she asked him, cocking her head. She was wearing light pink lipstick today and mascara. I wondered if she remembered how to put it on or if someone helped her.
    “We miss you at work. Things are a bit boring in the cube’s without you–or so I’m told. It makes me wonder what kind of trouble you brew up. I guess we’ll just have to discuss that when you get back to work, though.”
    I smiled at Tara. “It sounds like someone’s a snitch. I can’t believe this guy didn’t realize you were the cause of all the trouble. I thought you had the word trouble tattooed on your forehead.”
    Tara tipped her head back and laughed; honestly laughed. All the parts of me that went cold when she asked me about Bobby warmed back up as Jesse’s laughter, along with mine met up with hers.
    “Must be super boring without me,” Tara said, and her eyes went down to her feet. She wiggled her toes beneath her slippers. “They’ve been doing therapy with me now–trying to get me to remember things. It’s just super frustrating. I mean I remember how to do a Gantt chart for work, but I can’t figure out how the hell to walk.”
    “Must mean you remember all the crappy things,” Jesse replied, elbowing me.
    I felt my stomach sink. Not all the crappy things. My eyes drifted to the white rose as Jesse began filling Tara in on the projects she would need to help with when she came back and updating her on what he heard for office gossip–which wasn’t much.
    “Did I miss anything?” Jesse asked me, and I shook my head. He knew more office gossip than I did. I kept to myself before the accident, but now I rarely wandered away from my office. Jesse rubbed his hands on his slacks, looking down at his watch.
    “You’ve been quiet, Riv. How’s Adam?” Tara asked, and she blinked at me expectantly as my jaw worked but no words formed.
    “Great, he just went back to work–” I replied, leaving out the and got loaded while there part.
    Tara’s brow furrowed. “Why was he out of work? Was he in the car too?”
    I fought to keep the emotions off of my face as I took a shaky breath. “No, he was just out for a bit.”
    “He took a vacation? And you didn’t take one with him? Riv, you’ve got to lighten up!” Tara said, and she fluttered her eyelashes at me.
    “You’d swear work was her ball and chain,” Jesse said as he winked at me.
    Tara’s laugh filled the room once again but this time, I found it hard to join in.
    “Well, we should probably be going,” Jesse said, and I tried to keep the relief off of my face as I stood to give Tara a hug and a kiss.
    “I promise I’ll be back soon,” I said in her ear.
    It was a promise I intended to keep.

Chapter 14
    The days began to blur into one another, and I was never quite sure what day it was. I realized I was working my life away, but I just didn’t know any other way to deal with what was happening. I stared at the computer screen, my vision darkening at the edges, so I had to flick on the desk lamp to try to decrease the effects