Tabs laughed. "No, he's not."
“Yes, yes he is. He's a trainee. That's who I fought last night."
The elevator dinged and the doors opened, and Tabs remained perfectly still, staring at me.
The doors of the elevator closed and I charged at her in frustration. "Say something."
"Sorry, computing. It can't be him. You would have known if he was a trainee."
I shook my head. “I don't know all the trainees by sight. He took me to his flat, so there's no way a trainee would even be off property. Even if he had permission. This place was real. It was a lived-in place. He had photos of him and his brother, and family, and other stuff. It was a real place."
Tabs swallowed hard. "Oh God, do you think it was a test from Gabe?"
Heat flushed my whole body in a rush, sending the bead of sweat rolling down my back. "No. He's not that diabolical. Him, willing to send someone to seduce his sister? That's… That's gross."
"No, not like that. Do you think he's testing letting out the trainees? We should find out more about him."
"We should, I agree. But, Tabs, that's not the problem."
"What's the problem?"
"The problem is, he didn't fucking remember me."
Tabs laughed. "What?"
"He didn't remember me."
"Wait, from what you told me, how could he not remember you?"
“I don't know. It was three months ago."
"How much sex do you have to have for someone to not remember you?"
“I don't know, but he doesn't remember."
“I refuse to believe that. He's fucking with you."
"No, Tabs. I saw his face, he was genuinely confused. He had no idea who I was. When I stepped into the moonlight, he looked at me like he'd never seen me before."
"Look, I saw him that night. I will go and assess. But I promise, it's not the same guy."
"Tabs, I had sex with this guy." I slid my gaze around because I was terrified that Gabe was going to hear or there were prying ears nearby. I stepped into the elevator and shook my head when she tried to talk to me, reminding her that the elevator was tapped. When we made it upstairs to the kitchen, I grabbed a couple of mugs for hot chocolate. And as I was preparing it, pouring the milk, she was still staring at me, slack-jawed. "No, this is… That isn’t cool."
“I don't know why he doesn't remember me or what the fuck happened, and I don't know why he's here. It doesn't make sense that he was a recruit. I was in his house. Unless it's… Oh my God, unless he was a trainee."
Tabs started to pull back on her initial thoughts. "Wait, hold on... Except he couldn't have been a trainee. That was three months ago, and Gabe wants you to keep training him. If Gabe wants you to train him, it means he's not a full-fledged trainee, which means that he was cooped up sometime after that night."
“I don't know, Tabs. It's one hell of a coincidence."
"Maybe it's not a coincidence. Maybe Gabe does know about you guys and that's why he picked him up."
"But why pick him up and then not tell me, you know?"
“Your brother is a dick. I'm sure he didn't see any reason to explain it."
“Fuck, Tabs, I don't know what he's doing here. But now I have to train him, the man that I shagged once. Okay, several times. Point is, I have to train him every day and pretend I don't know him."
Tabs ran her hands through her hair as I started to pace. "Hey, we'll figure this out. You and me, we will come up with a plan."