Page 12 of Wildest Dream

It took about ten minutes for me to get inside and go through my morning ritual where I opened things up and turned things on. I was in the middle of that routine when I got another call on my cell phone. I had just talked to my mom on it, but was used to listening for the office phone while I was at work. I rarely got calls on my cell phone, so the ring tone sounded foreign.

I had to search for it in my bag. As I picked it up, I saw that it was my friend, Sabrina, from Seattle.

"Hello?" I said, putting the phone to my ear.

"Hey, are you awake?"

"Yeah, I'm just getting to work. Areyouawake?"

"Barely. I just set an alarm to call you."

Her voice was so groggy that I had to listen closely to make out what she was saying.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yes, I was just up till two last night finishing that book, and it was like five your time, and I didn't want to call you in the middle of the night, so I got a few hours of sleep and set my alarm."

"What are you talking about?" I asked since she was mumbling.

"There's a book, Ari. It's a popular book. My old roommate, Willow, has this friend who read it and she called Willow because she thought that story about your horse shirt and the restaurant on the corner sounded familiar. Willow sent me a message about it, but she didn't read the book, so she didn't know what was going on. Plus, I was busy when I read the text. She gave me the name of the book, but I didn't do anything about it for like a week. And then I remembered that conversation and I went back to that text, and oh my gosh, Ari. It was too late by the time I made it to the part with you in it so I couldn’t call last night, but oh, my gosh, you're in a book. Do you know that already? Do you live in Seattle now?"

"I'm gathering about fifty percent of what you're saying, but I'm having trouble understanding what happened, Sabrina. Can you please slow down and explain it? Hey Lauren."

"What?"

"I was talking to one of the instructors. Go ahead. What happened with a book?"

She sighed. "I'm tired. I stayed up late, and my alarm just went off. But Willow told me about this book where the character has the same shirt situation as you, only they find each other and fall in love and stuff. Somebody must've seen your interaction that day at the restaurant, though, because it's exactly what happened to you. She wrote this whole ending. The girl in the book ran into him the next day at agraduation. Can you believe it? You were at my graduation that day."

"Yeah, Sabrina I ran into… what? Are you saying you read this book?"

"Yes. I downloaded it and read it last night. Willow's friend read it. She was telling me about it last week, but I didn't understand. Ari, it's unbelievable. That woman, the writer, must have been at the restaurant and overheard you guys. It's a whole bit with the horse t-shirt and everything. It's all in the book where he's just staring at the front of your shirt like you and Willow said."

"I did run into him the next day at the graduation and I did take the shirt by the restaurant."

"You are messing with me. Did you leave it with a big dude, a cook named Robert?"

"I don't know what that guy's name was. It was probably Robert. You're freaking me out right now, Sabrina."

"I was freaking myself out, and that was before I even knew you saw him at graduation or went by the restaurant. Are you marrying that waiter? He owns that restaurant, you know."

"Marrying him? W-what? No."

"Okay, well not everything happened the same as the book, then. In the book, Ari reads the book and finds out that Isaac is looking for her."

My heart was pounding. All of this seemed like a big deal. I took a deep breath. "Okay, Sabrina, so what you're telling me is that there is a book, a fiction book, and in this book, they tell the story of a woman named Ari and a guy named Isaac meeting at the restaurant and then at your graduation?"

"Yes, exactly, but in the book, he can't find you because you don't leave your last name on the stinking note, Ari. So, the woman in the book writes a book to try to get you to come back to Seattle."

"Wait, so there's a book within that book?"

"Yeah."

"And, in this book, I came back? I am so confused."

"Yes, you came back to Seattle. You read the book and you knew he was looking for you so you went back. And you live In Chicago."

"Chicago?" I asked.

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