What Endures by Katie Lee Page B

eyes boring into hers. “No matter what. I’m here for you." His hand cupped her cheek. "Always.”
    “Ms. Williams?” the phone on her desk squawked, jolting her back to the present. “Sean Richards is on Line 1.”
    She shook her head, as if to clear it before she reached over and pressed a button on her phone. “Thank you, Cindy. I’ll take it.”
    She rubbed her head tiredly, the memory of that day still fresh in her mind. She had thought back to that conversation often since Jason had revealed that he could recall bits of it yesterday. It was odd that he remembered that conversation because that was the start of the journey that had led to their reconciliation and engagement.
    Her heart so desperately wanted to believe that it was significant in some way. But her head told her to not read more into it. After all, her head argued, ‘Always’ came with an expiration date in this case.
    She sighed and pushed the button to line one. “Hey Sean.”
    “Hi Megan,” the voice coming from her speaker phone greeted her warmly. “How are you?”
    “As well as can be expected,” she answered out of habit. She found this answer seemed to preclude any further prying from most people.
    “And Jason?”
    “He’s, um, doing better each day.”
    “Good, good,” Sean said. She could sense that there was something he wanted to discuss with her but didn’t quite know how.
    “What’s up, Sean?” she asked, giving him the opening he clearly wanted.
    There was a pause, followed by a sigh before he finally answered. “Um, I just talked to Rick Edelson and-“
    “Rick Edelson?”
    “He handles all the PR for the Mariners.”
    “Right,” she replied. 
    “So, um, Rick says the team wants to hold a press conference this week. . .” Another pause. “Um, with Jason.”
    “What!”
    “Megan-“
    “No, no way!” she exclaimed.
    A tired sigh. “I don’t think we have a choice here, Meg.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Rick said that the Mariners are getting swamped with requests for. . .something on Jason’s situation and that the weekly, standard ‘he’s showing steady progress’ press releases aren’t cutting it anymore.”
    “Well, that’s-“
    “Look, Meg, you’re doing a great job with everything. I mean keeping Jason out of the press and all but. . .” A pause. “Maybe it’s time.”
    “For what?”
    “To get him out there. The press are already wondering why he’s been AWOL since his accident. So are his fans. The Internet is buzzing with all these rumors.” Rick sighed. “Jason just signed a multimillion dollar contract last year and everyone has high hopes he would lead them to the playoffs this year. Maybe even the World Series.  And then the accident happened and while people have been patient in letting him recover, they’re wondering where the hell the Mariners’ star outfielder is and whether he’s going to come back to the team and in what shape.”
    “I don’t care about any of that,” she said, annoyed. “I care about protecting Jason. He is not ready to do a press conference! Are they crazy?”
    “They’re under a lot of pressure.” A beat. “So am I.”
    “Meaning what?”
    “I’ve been getting a lot of calls from Jason’s endorsements lately. They want to know how their investment is doing.”
    “Then tell them he’s doing better,” she said impatiently.
    “Megan, we might not have a choice here. The rumors are saying he sustained a career-ending injury and the Mariners want to put a stop to that. Jason’s endorsements would like to put a stop to it too. They need the public, especially the press, to actually see Jason.” Another heavy sigh came over the line. “The latest rumor is that Jason’s injuries are permanent. That he’s never going to recover.”
    “That’s not true!” she cried, frustrated. “Sean, we’ve talked about this. When he was recovering in the hospital, I thought we agreed that keeping Jason’s memory loss under wraps