Dream Walker (24 page)

“Busted,” he said with a laugh.

She shut the door and stamped across the floor, humphing into the stool across from him to make sure he got a clue that she was disinterested and inconvenienced. He started unpacking the bag, unfazed by her antics, pulling out an eclectic assortment of ingredients: Campbell’s Chicken and Rice Soup, eggs, lemons, ginger ale, Alka Seltzer, bottled water, and a bottle of Johnny Walker.

“What the hell kinda of recipe is that?”

“These three are for the soup,” he said pointing to the eggs, lemon, and soup cans. “If that ended up being a fail, these are secondary, tertiary and final-final options,” he said, pointing to the ginger ale, Alka Seltzer, and Scotch in that order. “When all else fails, the real hair of the dog never does. But look at you...” His eyes wandered back over her body and she felt it tingle under the attention.

Aislen crossed her arms across her chest and tried to keep herself from blushing.

“I see Genesis was able to get you undressed all right. I offered to help out, but she was pretty adamant about taking care of that herself. She wanted to protect your virtue, I guess.” Troy gave her one of his classic, heartthrob looks and, despite her efforts, heat blossomed on her face.

It didn’t even cross her mind how she had gotten out of the piece of fabric unfit to be called a dress and into fabric unfit to be called pajamas. How tiny Genesis had managed to undress and redress Aislen’s dead-drunk weight was unfathomable and it crossed her mind that maybe she had help after all.

Aislen reddened further. “I don’t remember that part.”

Troy laughed. “Yeah, well...you were pretty gone by that point. What
do
you remember?”

She thought for a moment, replaying the fragments again.

She skipped over the love scene she witnessed between him and Gen. “The Scotch,” she said.

“Check.”

She thought about the dancing again: how entranced she was by the music, how good the heat felt on her skin, how it felt like someone was dancing with her, moving in sync with her, around, with, and through her.

“The dancing,” she said.

“Double check. Very impressive by the way.”

She looked up at Troy. Maybe he had been dancing with her, after all. But she had looked around and nobody was there. And she would have remembered Troy being that close and intimate with her. Absolutely, no question.

“Is that it?” Troy said.

Aislen thought about it. There was a blank gap of amnesia from the dancing until the next image.

“Your shoes,” she said sheepishly.

He laughed.

“Sorry about that.”

“No worries. Nothing a wet paper towel couldn’t handle. That didn’t happen until we got you here. So you don’t remember me rescuing you from the dance floor and carrying you out of the club?”

“No.” Her voice was shrinking.

“How about being sprawled out across my lap in the back seat of the cab?”

“No.” She needed a rock to crawl under about now.

“Anything that you said in the cab?” He was looking at her intently. Amusement glittered in his eyes.

The dread and embarrassment was too much for her. She didn’t even want to know what she said to him in the cab. She changed the subject. “Do you want me to wake up Gen for you? She could probably use a good bowl of soup.”
And be thrilled to see you again,
she added silently.

“Uh...no, actually. I am enjoying spending time with you.”

Aislen was suddenly suspicious. “What are you? A player?”

“What???!!! A player! No! Where did you get that idea?”

She might as well confront him about it. It wasn’t going anywhere. “I saw you talking to Gen last night when I was coming back from the restroom.”

“Yeah...so?”

“You were holding her hand...and you were talking...and you were looking at her like...like...I don’t know, like...” Aislen stammered.

Troy crossed his arms, rested them on the counter, and leaned in close until his face was only inches away. “Like what, Aislen?” A hint of a smile played on his lips.

“Like you are looking at me now! Like you were really,
really
into her!”

Troy didn’t say anything for a moment and just looked at her. “I was talking to her about you, Aislen,” he finally said. “I was talking to her about how I am really into
you
.”

She faltered, shocked by the revelation. “Oh.” It came out as a breath rather than a word.

“Yeah. Oh,” he mimicked her quietly. He moved his face even closer, eyes unwavering from hers. An exquisite ache melted through her body. She couldn’t hold his gaze any longer and dropped her eyes down, but he lifted her chin so she was looking at him again, his thumb brushing against her cheek.

She felt intoxicated again. Her head spun and her body felt ablaze with fire. She closed her eyes. She felt the fever of his breath, then the imperceptible glance of his lips as they brushed against hers.

The bedroom door burst open and Genesis staggered into the living room. Aislen jolted upright and almost fell backwards off the stool.

“Oh, geez! I’m sorry! I forgot you were here,” Genesis said to Aislen. Then she noticed Troy leaning forward on the kitchen counter. “Holy crap! Hey there, Troy...” She stopped, obviously noticing the body posture, the mood, and put two and two together. “Uhhhh...I can go back in my room if you want.”

“No! Not at all. It was nothing.” Aislen jumped up, vertigo almost knocking her off her feet.

Troy shook his head and rolled his eyes at Genesis. “Yeah, she just had something in her eye and I was helping her get it out.”

“Oh, I see,” Genesis said, smiling back at him, totally in on the joke.

“We were going to make some kind of soup to help you feel better,” Aislen added, trying to brush the awkward away.

“Au contraire, mon amour,” Troy protested.
“I
was going to make soup for
Aislen
, but it appears she made it through the evening unscathed.
You
on the other hand, look a little emo right now. I’d be glad to whip it up for you.”

“I am willing to try anything if it will take this headache away.” Genesis sat down in the stool Aislen vacated, holding her head in her hands.

“Great! An appreciative and
willing
patient!” Troy found a pot and began his kitchen wizardry, opening cans, adding water, mixing in lemon juice, and cracking and separating eggs. He whipped up the yolks in a bowl and then poured them slowly into the soup. In less than ten minutes, a steaming bowl sat before each of them.

Aislen looked down at it. It was the most unappealing meal she had ever seen: a bowl of thick, bright yellow liquid with floating chunks of mystery meat. She grudgingly picked up her spoon and took a tentative taste.

Genesis had no qualms about it. She plunged in heartily. “Wow! This is delicious,” Gen said between spoonfuls.

She was right. It was pretty damn tasty for looking so...
yellow
. And with each spoonful, Gen seemed to get more of her sparkle back. Near the end, she drained the rest, drinking it straight from the bowl. She pushed her empty bowl toward Troy, “More, please.”

After she finished devouring her second serving, she appeared fully recovered.

“You got to be kidding me,” Aislen said to both of them.

“Told you so,” Troy responded.

“So Ais...” Gen turned to Aislen, back to her normal bright-eyed and bushy-tailed self. “How’d you sleep? Any more wild dreams to share?”

Aislen blanched. She glared at Genesis, mortified that she mentioned her dreams in front of Troy.

“What dreams?” Troy asked, looking over at Aislen.

Her stomach flipped over. “Nothing. Nevermind.” Her tone had an edge to it, sharp as a razor. She threw another evil eye at Gen.

“It’s not a big deal, Ais,” Gen defended herself. “I had some humdingers last night myself.”

“Could we talk about this later?” There should have been no mistaking the hiss that issued from her lips, but Gen continued.

“No, because I had this one with you in it and I want to tell you before I forget.” Genesis rattled on without taking a breath. “There was this older man in my room and he was talking with you. I couldn’t make out anything he was saying, but I could see him clearly. He was blond, with green eyes and he was showing you how to make these balls of light. Then you both jumped into them and disappeared from my room. It was amazing!”

Aislen nearly choked. It couldn’t be! That was exactly what Aislen had done with her father, but how was it possible that Genesis would see what Aislen had been doing in her dream?

“Whoa! That is really wild,” Troy said with a chuckle.

“Yep. That sounds pretty crazy to me, too,” Aislen said through gritted teeth.

“Really, Aislen? That’s the last thing I expected to hear outta you. With all you told me about yesterday,” Genesis rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Not everybody thinks dreaming is crazy, Aislen—only
you.
You think that everything is always physiology, chemistry, and neurology. You ignore all other possibilities, because you can’t ‘prove’ them. And you have
proof
, Aislen, try to say that you don’t.”

Aislen had never been so mad in all their years of friendship. Maybe she did have proof—especially now. And maybe she wanted to share this with Genesis—
alone
. But that Gen would bring this up in front of Troy was unforgivable. “I don’t want to talk about this right now, Gen.”

“So...let me get this straight.” It was Genesis who was angry now. “You dream about a boy shooting a man in the head...and then you see that
same
boy yesterday, and he may have
shot his father
and—”

“Shut! Up!” Aislen yelled, slapping the palm of her hand down so hard on the counter the spoons rattled in their bowls. It took everything in her power not to knock Genesis off her chair.

Genesis was stunned to silence and then a slow shame began dawning on her face as she realized that she had betrayed Aislen’s confidence.

Aislen turned to Troy. He was looking at her with a flat, steely intensity, a mixture of disdain and confusion. She couldn’t see which one was winning, but the “really into her” one was not playing there anymore.

“Is that true, Aislen?” he asked her, his voice tight and devoid of its usual warmth.

Aislen was speechless. She wanted to deny Gen’s claims, to call her an outright liar. But the words wouldn’t pass across her lips. Her heart seized up in her chest.

“Yes,” she confessed.

“You had a
dream
about
Blake
? And he shot a man in the head in it?” Disdain took the lead, but disgust was fast on its heels.

Agony ripping at her heart, but she couldn’t lie. She nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?”

“I couldn’t. I’ve never had anything like this happen before—I don’t have dreams that I usually remember—or that seem so real—or that are actually true! I thought I was going crazy.”

“And you don’t feel that way now?” he asked, venom spit in every word. Disgust was going for the win.

They stared at each other in silence. He gripped the counter, waiting for her to answer. Tears welled up in her eyes and looked at Genesis, who was awash in remorse.

Aislen couldn’t be mad at her. She had told the truth. She was nothing but honest and good, a true friend who would accept and believe in Aislen no matter what. She looked back at Troy, directly. If he couldn’t accept the truth—so be it.

“I do. I do feel it’s crazy.” She felt a calm descend over her. “And I don’t. I can’t explain it, but it happened. And,” she looked at Genesis and put her hand on top of her friend’s, “I had a dream like yours, Gen. Exactly what you saw—was exactly what I did. It scares the hell out of me, and I know I may be insane, but I can’t lie about it, anymore. I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“No. I’m sorry, Aislen. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

They both looked at Troy again.

He was fuming, leaning on the counter, looking at Aislen, his knuckles white. Aislen knew exactly what he was thinking now. He was thinking she was a complete and utter nutcase.

“Why don’t you go in and take a shower, so I can clean up in here,” he said at last as he turned his back on her and went about gathering the dishes.

Aislen watched his back for a while, thinking about how, just a few moments ago, he had confessed to having feelings for her. He definitely still had feelings for her, but they appeared to be quite opposite now.

She got up and walked out of the room. She knew he would be gone when she came back.

CHAPTER 24