Page 32 of Forever Love-Reimagined

Should I try to lucid dream now? It wasn’t smart to try something I wasn’t very familiar with, especially without someone else around. But I was grasping at straws and desperate to get back to her.

Then, in an instant, there was a person in an Amish-style hat before me. We were on a farm. The noise of animals floated through the air from the distance. I didn’t recognize the woman at first, but when we locked gazes, it was her.

What was going on? The only thing that was the same were her eyes. Was this what she really looked like? Before I could wrap my head around anything, she disappeared again.

“Am I having a stroke?” I said out loud to make sure I could still talk. I took several deep breaths to clear my mind. Was this a hallucination or something? But these images appeared to be real—like I was looking at a person, not just a vision of her.

I was about to shut my computer down when someone else appeared. In front of me now was a redheaded woman in an old-timey nightgown. Her fair skin and freckles were nothing like the previous people, but again, those magnificent orbs were unmistakable. Even if the body changed, she hadn’t. I didn’t understand how or why.

When she tripped and landed in my arms, my heart jumped into my throat, and I never wanted to let her go. The way our bodies melded together was natural—perfect. But like the other visions, she was gone, and I was left empty-handed.

I slowly blinked and willed for something to come back, but my mind was a montage of images I couldn’t organize. I needed to get out of here and try to figure out how to bring her back. I believed the first vision was her in this world because the hair was the same as I remembered when we ran into each other that morning. But there had to be a reason for the other women, too. I just didn’t have a clue what it was.

How had my life become a jigsaw puzzle, with each piece leaving me a fragmented story I couldn't unravel?

Chapter Seventeen

Blake - Thursday

Why, in the name of sweet baby Jesus, did I drink so much? I peeled my eyelids open and examined the situation. I was at Ty’s house, which calmed me because I wasn’t sure what decisions I would have made if left to my own devices last night.

I swallowed, which was as painful as shards of glass scraping down my throat. I needed aspirin and something to drink. As I slowly stood up, the room was spinning, and nausea swirled in the pit of my stomach. But I managed to fight the urge.

I lurched into the kitchen but only made it as far as the barstool before I had to sit down. I held my head in my hands as tiny cloggers appeared to be doing a jig inside my brain.

“Ouch.” Ty came bebopping into the kitchen, looking like a cheerleader with too much pep. How the hell was he prancing around with a smile on his face when I appeared to be death warmed-over?

“How are you so chipper?” I was envious of him right now.

He handed me a water from the fridge with some ibuprofen. “I wasn’t the one who was drinking champagne directly from the bottle all night.” He laughed, and the noise caused me to flinch.

“How much?” I questioned because that didn’t sound like me, but yesterday was an exception, not a rule.

He bit his lower lip as if he was scared to say.

“Tell me?”

“Two bottles.”

“No wonder I’m in hell. Did anything else happen?”

He appeared sheepish as he turned away from me.

“Ty. Please tell me. I don’t have time for piecemeal.”

He exhaled deeply. “You begged our Uber driver to stop at Taco Bell. I said it was a bad idea, but you argued that a Cheesy Gordita was calling your name. You paid him fifty bucks to get one.”

I stared at him quizzically. “I’ve never wanted Taco Bell in my life.”

“Well, you did last night. But it turns out, you wanted more than one thing.” He covered his mouth to hide his smirk.

“What do you mean? What else did I get?”

He started to waffle, but I gave him my “don’t fuck with me” glare. “A Chalupa and a Locos Tacos Supreme.” His words came out so quickly, it took a minute for my brain to catch up.

“Are you serious? There is no way I ate all that.”

He nodded emphatically. “You did. Took them down like a vacuum. But it appeared to sober you up because you walked into the house by yourself and passed out on the couch while I climbed into my comfy king-sized bed.”

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