Page 42 of Forever Love-Reimagined

“Oh wow. If this is what she looks like, no wonder why you’ve been dreaming about her.” She fanned her face as her cheeks turned beet red, but I decided to let that go.

I didn’t want to embarrass her, and I had more important concerns. “I’m definitely taken by her, but do you think if I run this through a program and make it more picture-like, we could put it up somewhere and see if anyone recognizes her?”

She bounced up and down like she had won the lottery. “Oh! You mean like missed connections? Oh my God. And then we could do one of those meet-cute videos, and you two could go viral. This is seriously like a scene from a movie,” she squealed.

“What is missed connections? Will that work?” It seemed odd it would be that easy.

“It’s a section in the classifieds where someone can post messages hoping to reconnect with a person they met but didn’t exchange information with. Regardless if it works or not, it’s at least worth a try.”

I didn’t have any other ideas, and she seemed hopeful, so I was game. “That sounds good to me. But Haley,” I stopped and gave her my serious eyes, “if this works, there will be no videos of any sort.”

She waved her hand as if swatting that comment away. “Don’t be ridiculous. There is no if. I believe this girl is your soul mate, and I have no doubt you’ll meet her.” Haley had this enamored look on her face, which I wished would rub off on me.

“I’ll try to keep that hope alive. But I haven’t been that lucky in the past.” I laughed mirthlessly.

“Yeah, but you haven’t been with her before, right?” She had a good point.

Hopefully, she would end up in my arms soon. At least she would tonight in my dreams, but I wanted to trust it would happen in this life, too.

Chapter Twenty-One

Blake - Friday

Each night, I craved the sweet release of sleep to wash over me. My time with her was an all-encompassing love that surpassed any expectations I had, yet there was a frustration building inside of me. We weren’t sexual in the dreams, and I had a growing need to be with her, even though this was a fantasy.

She’d altered my heart, and it would never be the same. It was like when I was near her, it beat like a jackhammer. When I was touching her, it flip-flopped, and when I was away from her, it ached like a physical pain. Waking up each morning to an empty bed was getting harder and harder. Each dream was becoming more realistic, and the loss when she was gone was becoming excruciating. Honestly, my heart couldn’t take much more, but at the same time, the dreams came unwillingly—not that I wanted them to stop. It was better to have her in some way than never to have her at all.

My alarm sounded early today so I could get a head start, but there was a sadness knowing it would be a full day before I could be with her again. I almost called into work, but I had things to do, and at least it would offer me a distraction.

I went to the office and jumped right into work. I needed to prepare for an upcoming court appearance on a probate proceeding, and I had a few documents to review before handing them off to the client. But as I sat at my desk, my head wasn’t in the game.

As I thought about my life, I realized I didn’t have control over any of it, and that caused my anxiety to rise. Work was always a constant and never seemed to let me down, but it also didn’t give me that rush it used to. Before these dreams started, I played it safe and did everything the way I was expected to. But now, I was ready to do something for myself—but I wasn’t sure what that entailed.

I stayed close to my comfort zone, but look where that got me—married to my work and rendezvous with a phantom in my dreams. How depressing was that? As I was sinking into a pity party, my computer beeped with a reminder: Full Exposure in 1 hour.

Yesterday, I was satisfied with paying the fee and leaving, but now, I was emboldened. This was what I needed to get me out of this funk. I needed to do something daring and fun. I didn’t have anyone to take these pictures for. But this was something to treat myself.

I started packing up my stuff to leave. After I shut down the computer and turned off my light, I closed my office door to insinuate I wasn’t returning.

When I walked down the hall to tell Ty goodbye, I ran into Greg, who had a scowl on his face.

“It doesn’t look like closing time?” He tapped his watch and tsked.

“I have an appointment in a few minutes, so I have to get going.”

“Is it for work?” He was so condescending, but I didn’t have to answer to him.

I put in more than my share of hours for the week. “No,” I said matter of factly because I was tired of cowering to him.

“No? Well, that doesn’t look too good for a senior partner to quit early on Friday. I mean, lower-level staff might view that as you don’t appreciate them. So, you might want to reschedule for a time when you aren’t working. Okay?”

“Greg, I appreciate your concern, but no one will complain about me taking off at 1:00 when I already have more than fifty hours for the week. But if you’re worried about it, I can talk to some of the other senior partners and see if they have any objections. If they do, I’ll cancel. Would that make you happy for me to call a meeting to discuss it?”

“Blake, I’m not sure where you get off thinking my opinion doesn’t trump yours, but it does. If I say cancel, then you cancel. Got it?”

Just then, Tom, another senior partner, walked by, and I stopped him to join in on the conversation.

“Hey, Tom. How are you?”

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