Chapter 34 The night that didn’t happen
THE NIGHT THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN
VIOLET
What’s your idea of a perfect date?
SilenceInMidnight: No words. No pressure. Just being.
I’m tucked in the back seat of Elodie’s car beside Daisy. Up front, Willow connects her phone to the speakers and turns around the moment the music starts.
“Now this feels absolutely right.”
I return her smile. “I can’t believe you planned everything so quickly. We only talked about this two days ago.”
The words are barely out before Willow and Daisy exchange a quick, loaded glance.
“What?”
Willow turns a little farther in her seat. “Um… we thought this was your idea.”
“Rowan texted us this morning with the reservation details.” Daisy pulls out her phone and tilts the screen toward me. “We thought it came from you.”
The music keeps playing as I go very still.
“Oh.” I stare at the message and his name at the top of the thread.
Why didn’t he tell me?
“Did he say one of us made the plan?” Elodie’s eyes find mine in the rearview mirror.
I shake my head. “Not really. Actually”—I pause, turning the morning over in my mind—“I had a moment earlier. He’d ordered Pop’s favorite dessert, and I just… I kind of remembered it.”
“You remembered the Quesada Pasiega?” Willow’s voice tips between surprised and delighted.
“I remembered the dessert,” I reply carefully. “But then I kind of freaked out. Maybe he thought I needed some air.” I glance back down at his text. “Maybe he just didn’t… want to come across as too protective.”
“That sounds exactly like Rowan,” Daisy says, squeezing my hand. “And Vi, the fact that you remembered? That’s a good thing. Isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” I nod slowly. “Rowan said the same thing.”
As the words leave my mouth, an uninvited unease settles back in. The truth is, lately the thought of going back to my old life scares me. The memories aren’t the frightening part. It’s what they might bring with them.
What if I remember something I don’t like? What if the person I was before doesn’t fit in the life I’ve started to love?
What if remembering changes everything with Rowan?
The thought is enough to drain the warmth right out of the day. I turn toward the window, watching the highway unspool ahead of us.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
Daisy glances at Willow again, sharing that same look before answering. “Spring Falls.”
I freeze.
Spring Falls. The town where Rowan and I met for the first time.
“I had my accident on this highway. Didn’t I?” I whisper as my hands clutch the leather of the seat.
“Shit.” Elodie’s hands jerk on the wheel, the car swerving just slightly before she corrects it.
“I’m sure it’s a coincidence,” Willow whispers, but this time the certainty is missing from her voice.
I turn back to the window.
Rowan is too precise for coincidences.
This whole day feels off. Scattered in pieces, waiting to be arranged into a picture I’m not sure I’m ready to see.
And the worst is yet to come.
I don’t know where the thought comes from, but once it does, I can’t shake it.
Elodie pulls into a shared parking lot flanked by two buildings. An upscale restaurant on one side, and a brand-new coffee shop on the other.
We step out in silence. When my eyes land on the coffee shop entrance, I notice the inauguration balloons still tied to the doorframe. They must have only just opened.
“I know it looks like too much of a coincidence.” Daisy nods toward the coffee shop. “But isn’t this exactly the kind of place we’d want to visit? New, completely off our usual route?”
“That’s actually true.” Elodie tilts her head. “If we’d made the reservation ourselves, we would’ve searched for something like this.”
While my friends talk, I can’t tear my gaze from the restaurant next door.
A strange stillness moves through me.
Why does this place feel familiar?
I look down and tug absently at the sleeves of my black dress, the one Rowan pulled from the back of my closet this morning.
I hadn’t thought much of it at the time beyond feeling slightly overdressed for a casual outing with my friends.
I’d assumed he wanted me to dress up for my first real day out with my friends.
A reason enough to feel like myself again.
But standing here now, I suddenly feel unsure. Rowan—
I shake my head, cutting the thought off before it can take root.
Stop doubting everything, Violet.
Like Daisy said, today is a good day.
It started with Pop’s favorite dessert, and even though I don’t remember the man himself, I know that he was special to me. Someone worth remembering.
Then there was Rowan in my closet this morning. His touch, his love, and the way he completely unraveled me in that small space. There was nothing rushed, nothing hidden, just pure affection and awe in the way he looked at me.
I focus on that warmth as the hostess leads us to our reserved table. I settle into the window seat, and Elodie hangs her bag over the back of the chair beside me before pointing toward the restroom sign.
“I’ll be right back.”
The hostess sets four menus onto the table with a practiced smile.
“I’ll be back shortly to take your order.
Someone will bring your water. We also have a new selection of cakes each day.
For those, it’s easiest if you have a look at the display yourself.
” She gestures toward the front of the café, where a glass case catches the light.
“We’ll definitely do that.” Willow grins, and the moment the woman leaves, she turns to me.
“I love testing desserts at a new place, especially cake. I’m continuously on the lookout for talented bakers to add to our list of vendors for wedding cakes at the Blooming Quill.
” A fondness takes over her expression. “And you always loved the cake-tasting part of these dates.”
I smile at that. Based on everything my friends have told me about my past self, I can almost imagine the old Violet charging through bakeries and declaring her opinions with full confidence.
“Let’s go.” Willow rises, Daisy following immediately, and then they both pause, looking back at me still sitting.
“Violet?”
“Why don’t you surprise me.” I manage a smile. “Pick something you think I’ll love. Surprises have been turning out well for me today.” I say it lightly, trying to ignore the quiet unease still coiled somewhere beneath my ribs.
Daisy gives my shoulder a small squeeze as she passes, and then they drift toward the display case together.
I turn back to the window and to the restaurant beyond.
“Water?”
My gaze snaps back from the empty parking lot to the waiter standing beside my table, and a shiver moves through me that has nothing to do with the temperature.
A strange, crowded feeling shifts inside me, like my brain is suddenly too full of itself.
Blurry images press against the edges, insistent, trying to push through to the surface.
I know this man.
“Oh, it’s you.” His words give shape to my thoughts.
I open my mouth, close it, but words don’t come.
A lopsided grin spreads across his face. It’s not flirtatious, just familiar. “You don’t recognize me, do you?”
“I’m sorry.” I shake my head slowly. “I’m forgetting your face.” I don’t mention my amnesia or give a long apology, and somehow he is satisfied.
“I don’t blame you.” He sets the water glass down carefully. “That was a shitty night. No one likes to be stood up.”
He knows me from a date.
My mouth twists, like I’ve tasted something sour. I can’t imagine being with anyone but Rowan. The thought alone feels wrong.
It must have been much farther in the past, as a few months before the accident, I was already falling in love through chats with Night, already giving pieces of myself to the man I now know as Rowan. There would have been no room for anyone else.
“I’m sorry.” I lean forward, my bottom lip catching between my teeth. “Do you know how long ago that was?”
He scratches his forehead, eyes drifting upward for a moment as if pulling at a memory. A beat later, his eyes brighten and he reaches for his phone.
“Actually, I can tell you the exact date.” He scrolls briefly, then nods toward the restaurant. “That was my last working day over there.”
Is that why this place feels familiar?
“It was…” He says the date.
And everything blurs for a beat. The noise of the café falls away. The music, the clinking cups, my friends laughing somewhere near the display case—all of it recedes.
That’s the date of my accident. The night my life changed completely.
But I was on a date with Rowan that evening.
Was I also dating someone else at the same time? No, no, that’s not possible.
After spending days reading through my old messages and emails, after hours of conversations with my friends piecing together who I was, I know, with certainty, that I was a loyal person.
Overexcited, absolutely. Impatient, without question. But not a cheat.
“Are you sure it was me?” I ask carefully.
“Of course.” His eyes move over me briefly.
“Actually, I can’t believe you’re wearing the exact same dress…
or something very similar. You told me that night that the black dress was how the guy was going to recognize you.
It was some kind of blind date, right? You’d been paired with someone you’d never met in person.
” He gives me a small smile. “But you were already wearing your grandmother’s ring. Ready to get engaged, you said.”
The cave in my chest finally releases.
Thank God. He’s talking about my date with Rowan. But… that relief is short-lived.
I wasn’t stood up that night.
I open my mouth to say so, when his order pad slips from his hand and falls to the floor. He bends to pick it up.
And when he straightens, smiling up at me from the floor—
The world stops and my head splits open with it.
Images come crashing through one after another, fast and merciless, like fragments of film overlapping. They are vivid and impossible to stop.
I press my fingers to my temple, but there’s no slowing them down, until I’m left to make sense of the story.