Wishing on a Dream

by Michele Notaro

After a few seconds, I asked, “Is that all you got?”

  “You didn’t send them yourself?”

  “I just checked in case I was losing it, and nope. Nothing in the bank account.”

  He ran his hands through his hair.

  “So… you’ve got nothing.”

  “Not a single thing.”

  “Great.”

  “Sorry. But you’ve got nothing, too.”

  I sighed. “I know.”

  We sat there in silence for a few minutes, and then Laz sat up and said, “Oh, I know. Let’s call the chocolate place and the florist and see who paid for them.”

  My eyes widened. Why hadn’t I thought of that? “You’re a genius!” I grabbed the card, and of course, the florist’s number was right on it.

  It took some begging and pleading on my part, but eventually, the woman told me, “I… I’m not supposed to say anything, but… there’s no name on the account. It says it was paid in cash and anonymously. We don’t even have any contact information.”

  With a defeated sigh, I said, “Alright, thank you so much for your help.” I hung up. “It was anonymous and paid with cash.”

  “Shit.”

  “Right.”

  “Try the chocolates.”

  I nodded and went to grab the card from that basket, but I was sure we would find much of the same, which was exactly nothing. After more begging over the phone, the worker said it was paid for in cash, so they have no contact info. Fantastic.

  “So…” Laz reached over and patted my shoulder. “Secret admirer, then, right?”

  “Uh huh, sure. Makes so much sense how they were able to listen in on my dreams and everything.”

  He blew out a breath, and after a few minutes asked, “Wanna watch a movie? I’ll even suffer through a Christmas one if you want.”

  I smiled a tad. “That sounds great.”

  He picked up the remote and tossed it at me as he stood. “I’ll go pop some popcorn, and we can order a pizza later. We’ll make a night of it.”

  “Thanks, Laz.”

  He waved me off as he headed into the kitchen.

  My attention went straight to the snow globe again. “If you’re real, why aren’t you moving? Why aren’t you talking to me?” He’d said something about the curse and not being able to move, but… “Can you leave me a message? Are you frozen all the time, or can you move when I’m not here? Do you have a stick or… something, anything to write in the snow?” I sighed. “Why am I talking to a goddamn snow globe figure?”

  “What?” Laz yelled from the kitchen.

  “Nothing,” I called back, still staring at the snow globe. “Nothing at all.”

  With a sigh, I pulled out my phone to research warlocks and snow globes, not that it really helped with anything at all.

  “Why aren’t you talking to me?” I demanded the second Alaric popped up in my dream.

  He turned to me, blinking. “What?”

  I waved my hand dismissively. “Not here; out there, in the real world. Why aren’t you talking to me?”

  He sighed, licked his lips, and turned so his back was to me.

  “Oh no, you don’t get to just ignore me, Alaric. What the hell is going on? You’re sending me things, you’re not fucking moving, although I swear you blinked today and maybe the other day, you’re… here, every single night—”

  “You don’t want me here?” His voice was broken and strained, almost too quiet and defeated to hear, and it made me pause my tirade.

  “What? Of course, I want you here, Alaric. That isn’t the point—” I cut myself off when he turned back around, and I got a good look at his face. He was… devastated and close to tears.

  “Are you sure?”

  I opened my mouth, but no words came out because I hadn’t expected such an emotional reaction. I was a little too shocked at the sight of his emotions to say anything right away, and unfortunately, he took that as rejection.

  His face tilted down to the floor, and I was sure there were tears on his cheeks, though I couldn’t see them from here. “Alright… I’ll… I’ll just go. I’ll try to… break the connection so you don’t have to be here anymore. I’m not sure if it will work, but I’ll do my best to—”

  “Alaric.”

  He glanced up, and I gasped at the grief on his face.

  “I-I don’t want you to break the connection.”

  He wiped his tears off his cheeks. “If you’re not happy with—”

  “That isn’t it, Alaric. That isn’t it at all.” He wiped his face again and cleared his throat, so I took a chance and stepped closer. When he didn’t back away or try to disappear, I stepped closer until we were toe to toe. I whispered, “I’m sorry I upset you.”

  He shook his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  I wasn’t sure that was true since he was crying—why did he react that way?—but I didn’t want to argue with him. Grabbing his hands, I squeezed them tight. “I don’t want to stop… meeting you here. But I would like some answers. Do you think you can talk to me?”

  He took a deep breath before nodding. “Yes, of course I can.”

  I pulled him over to the couch where we sat, but I didn’t let go of his hands. He didn’t seem inclined to, either, and I took that as a good sign.

  After a minute, I asked, “Is this real?”

  “If you mean real in the sense of our bodies being here, no, it’s not. But if you mean real in the sense of our minds and souls being here together, then yes, it is.”

  I nodded, although the soul thing was a bit much. There was no way for me to tell if that was true or not since, if he was made up in my head, he could potentially say anything. “Are you the man in the snow globe?”

  He hesitated for a moment before sighing. “Yes. I am.”

  “And you were put there by a…?”

  “A witch cursed me to get back at my father.”

  He’d said something like that the other night. “If you’re really the man in the snow globe, if… if this is real and you’re really in there, then why… why haven’t you moved or said anything?”

  He sighed and let go of one of my hands so he could rub his face. “When a human gazes upon my prison, I’m frozen to the spot. It’s… it’s part of the curse.”

  “So… you can’t move when I’m looking at you…”

  “Correct.”

  “But you can move when no one is looking at you?”

  “Correct again.”

  “And you’ve been stuck in there for… two hundred years?”

  “Nearly that, yes.”

  “For two centuries, you’ve only been able to talk to people in their dreams? You’ve had no real human contact outside of that?” He hesitated again, so I asked, “What? Why did you go all pale?”

  He licked his lips before answering, “I’m… this is the first time I’ve been able to dream-walk with anyone.”

  My eyes widened as I took that in. It was hard to grasp. “You mean… you haven’t even been able to speak to anyone else for two hundred years?”

  “I have Tiberius.”

  “You’ve only been able to talk to your owl this whole time?”

  He nodded his head and turned his gaze away. “Yes.”

  His sad expression made me think about what happened when we first arrived here tonight. “You… this is the first time you’ve been able to talk to someone and you were… you were going to give that up because you thought… why? Why would you do that?”

  He turned back to stare into my eyes. “I never want to make you uncomfortable, Grady. If you don’t want to do this, I’ll accept that. I want… you deserve to be happy.”

  Something came over me then. Something I couldn’t explain. Some bravery I didn’t usually possess outside of this… dream world we’d created together. I didn’t know what it was, but something pushed me to connect with this sweet, caring, selfless man. And suddenly, I was surging forward. I’d meant for it to be a sweet, soft press of my lips to his, b
ut I miscalculated and ended up pressing much harder into him than I’d meant to.

  Alaric froze as I knocked him backward a little with the force of my lips. At first, I thought I’d made a grave mistake and he didn’t feel this… energy between us, but then he whimpered and grabbed my upper arms to hold me against him. And his lips, they pressed back softly.

  His small movements made me melt against him, and I softened my brutal attack enough to move my lips against his. He whimpered again, and the sound encouraged me, and I found myself pushing my tongue out to swipe along his lips. He gasped at the touch, making his mouth open, so I pressed my tongue inside, seeking out his. With a soft brush of my tongue against his, he moaned and wrapped me in his arms, hauling my body closer as he finally took charge of the kiss.

  He kissed sweetly, softly, sensually, in a way that had me begging for more. His tongue was a gentle stroke across my own, a waltz in my mouth that had never tasted so good. His flavor filled me, and that energy that always existed between us pulsed, making every tiny touch more intense.

  When we finally came up for air, he rested his forehead against mine, panting as he gripped onto my shirt.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and played with the ends of his hair as I watched him. His eyes were closed, his cheeks were flushed, and he was still breathing hard with his forehead against mine.

  Before I had a chance to say anything, to ask if that had been okay, if he was alright, his eyes snapped open and a whispered, “Grady,” fell from his lips a moment before he disappeared into thin air.

  Panic gripped my heart as I turned, searching for him. “Alaric? Alaric, where are you?” Did he run from me? Did he break the connection? Did I ruin everything?

  “Grady?”

  My eyes snapped open, and for a moment, I was confused because I was no longer in the cabin, I was inside my living room. But my heart was pounding, scared, terrified that Alaric was gone. Why did he leave? Where was he?

  “Grade? You with me?”

  I blinked away the fog of sleep and looked up at my best friend, and slowly, my heart began to beat at a more normal pace. Alaric was safe, he was back in the snow globe… Or, I was crazy and he wasn’t even real… probably that. I hoped it wasn’t that.

  “Grady, we fell asleep on the couch. Mind if I crash in the guest room?”

  I shook my head. “Go ahead.”

  Laz nodded. “Thanks. You should head up to bed, too.”

  I gave him a nod before he walked out of the room, but as soon as he was gone, I walked over to the snow globe and whispered, “You’re frozen when a human gazes upon the globe… is that what happened? Is that why… is that why you disappeared?” I sucked in a shaky breath. “Please let that be the reason.”

  With a small press of my finger against the glass, I sighed in defeat, then trudged up the steps to my room. Maybe if I went back to sleep, Alaric would meet me at the cabin again.

  But my dreams were dark and bleak the rest of the night.

  And for three nights after that, I didn’t dream of Alaric once.

  Chapter 8

  Alaric

  Grady kissed me.

  Grady had kissed me.

  It’d been four days since Grady had pressed his soft lips to mine and changed something fundamental in my core. He had owned my mouth and body, but more than that, I’d felt… something… something inside of me that swirled and danced and pulled and pushed. Something that reached for him on an even deeper level than that of our bodies merging in a blissful kiss.

  And I was terrified of what that something was.

  Tiberius flapped in my face, making me sputter around on the bed—Grady had gone to sleep hours ago, so we’d been lying in bed for a long time. Tib was so mad at me. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever seen him so angry before.

  I understood his anger. He knew I was avoiding Grady, and I was being selfish. Not only was I avoiding him, I was hurting him, too. Whenever he walked past the living room—he’d stopped coming fully inside after the second night of avoidance—I could see it in his drawn expression. I was hurting him; I was hurting me.

  But I was terrified.

  Tib pecked my nose hard enough to draw blood, and I swatted him away. It had the desired effect, though. My familiar would never injure me on purpose, not unless I was making a grave mistake and he couldn’t get through to me any other way.

  With a sigh, I said, “Alright, alright. I get it.” I pushed my finger to the bridge of my nose to stop the blood flow. “You made your point. Ow.”

  Tib jumped on my chest and nuzzled into my cheek, asking for forgiveness. I scratched around his neck and muttered, “It’s fine, Tib. I know why you did it.”

  He chirped at me.

  “Settle down and I’ll… I’ll try to dream-walk with him now, okay?”

  He chirped again before lying flat on my chest and stilling. With one hand on Tib’s back and the other holding my bleeding wound, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off to sleep.

  When I opened my eyes, I was back in the cabin, and I sighed in relief. I hadn’t been sure if I’d be able to dream-walk again after avoiding Grady for so many nights in a row. He could’ve easily kicked me out of his head.

  “Oh, look who finally decided to show up.”

  Grady’s voice filled me with joy, deep in my bones. But his irritation shined through with his words. Still, I turned a smile on him because I was happy to see him. Despite my fear, I was glad to be near him. It had hurt to stay away.

  Grady narrowed his eyes at me from his spot on the floor where he was playing cards on the coffee table by himself. “Why are you smiling like that, you big jerk?”

  I closed my eyes and took a breath for bravery, then opened them and said, “Hi.”

  “Psh.” He rolled his eyes and concentrated on his card game—Solitaire, I assumed.

  Since he was on the other side of the room, I walked around to sit on the couch so I’d be closer to him. “Grady.”

  He glanced at me, but went right back to his game.

  “I’m sorry, Grady.”

  His hands froze for a second before continuing.

  “I know… I know that wasn’t fair of me to do, but—”

  “What happened to your nose?”

  I reached up and touched the cut that apparently transferred from reality. “Tiberius bit me because I was avoiding you.”

  He snorted out a humorless laugh. “I like the bird already.”

  “He likes you, too.”

  “You kissed me back, you know.”

  That stopped me in my tracks. “Wh-what?”

  He turned his bright blue eyes on me. “You kissed me back.”

  My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. “I… know.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Then why did you avoid me? If you don’t want… if you don’t want to kiss me anymore or whatever, you could’ve at least told me instead of acting like a child and avoiding me. If you don’t… if you don’t like me in that way, then be an adult and talk to me about it.” I could see how hard that had been for him to say, and the guilt I’d felt for avoiding him grew ten-fold. He thought I didn’t like it, he thought I didn’t like him… because of course he did. In his eyes, why else would I have ignored him for days?

  Burying my head in my hands, I muttered, “I’ve made such a mess of things.”

  He snorted, but it wasn’t an amused sound.

  Dropping my hands, I moved around the coffee table to sit right beside him so he could see the sincerity in my eyes. “I’m so sorry I made you think I don’t like you or what we did… The truth is…” I sighed and licked my lips. “The truth is, I do like you, but I’m… scared.”

  “Of what?” His voice was a small whisper, but I didn’t miss the hopefulness in it.

  “Of… everything. Of what it means, for you, for me. Of what you’ll think of me when you hear…”

  He stared at me. “When I hear what?”

  Taking a deep breath, I admit
ted, “It’s never like this for me.”

  “Like what?”

  I swallowed around the lump in my throat, knowing I had to admit the one thing that always made other men think I was a freak. “The… attraction… it’s never like this for me.”

  His brow furrowed. “What do you mean? You’ve never been attracted to a guy before?”

  “No, it’s… I find people attractive, but it hardly ever makes me… react.” I waved my hand over my body. “Before, only one person ever…”

  He stared at me for several seconds before nodding. “Okay… Do you react to me?”

  Looking at the floor, I nodded, embarrassed but not wanting to lie to him.

  “Oh.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Grady laughed. “That isn’t something you need to be sorry for, Alaric. Everyone’s different, and that’s perfectly okay.”

  “You aren’t mad?”

  “Why would I be mad?”

  “Because I’m a freak.”

  He sighed. “I’m mad you didn’t talk to me, that you ran off like a child, but I’m not mad about that. You’re not a freak. There’s plenty of people that react the same as you. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  I finally lifted my head to stare into his eyes, and once I saw the kind sincerity there, I blew out a relieved breath. “Thank you.”

  He nodded and hesitated, then asked, “Did you like kissing me?”

  “Very much.”

  He grinned. “Me too.” The grin fell from his face. “Is that the reason you didn’t come back? You were afraid to tell me?”

  “Part of it, yes, but not all.” I sighed and licked my lips. “It’s… this is… I felt something when you kissed me.”

  “I felt something too.”

  I shook my head. “No, I felt something… magical.”

  He stared at me for a moment. “Like actual magic or just… it felt amazing kind of magic.”

  “Real magic.”

  He blinked slowly. “So… what does that mean?”

  I sighed and closed my eyes for a minute before refocusing on him. “A warlock can… or maybe it’s the person that does it, I don’t know… but a person can… connect to a warlock.”