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Chapter One

Part One

Chapter One

"I've been having those dreaave her what Mikki liked to think of as her Clinically Interested Look

"Would you like to tell me about them?" she asked

Mikki shifted her eyes from her friend Would she like to tell her? She uncrossed and then crossed her long legs, ran her hand nervously through her hair and tried to settle into the wingback chair

"Before I answer that question, I want you to answer one of mine first"

"Fair enough," Nelly said

"If I tell you about ? As my friend or as my shrink?"

The psychiatrist laughed "Please, Mikki! We're at a coffee shop, notme a hundred and twenty dollars an hour to sit here with you And let's not forget" - she leaned forward and exaggerated a whisper - "you've been my friend for years, but you've never been my patient"

"True, but that hasn't been because of my lack of issues"

"Oh, definitely," Nelly said with purposeful sarcasonna tell et you to divulge?"

"Anything but that!" Mikki raised her hands as if to fend off an attack Then she shrugged her shoulders "Well, they're the sa look coupled with her raised eyebrows, Mikki sighed and rolled her eyes "Okay, ed some lately"

"Could you see his face this tiently

"Almost" Mikki squinted and stared at a spot above the cozy brick fireplace in the corner of the coffee shop "Actually, I think I could have seen his face this time, but"

"But?" she prompted

"But I" Mikki hesitated

Nellysound

"But I was so preoccupied I couldn't make myself concentrate on his face," she finished in a rush

"Preoccupied with?"

Mikki stopped staring at the hearth andthe ive a damn what his face looked like"

"Well, well, well" She drew out the word "I don't re sex in the other dreams Now I really am interested in the rest of the story"

"That's because they weren'tor maybe I didn'toh, I don't know For soled to describe as happening to her "I' more and more real"

The joking sparkle went out of Nelly's dark eyes, instantly replaced by concern

"Talk toon?" she asked

"It's like the et, the less real my life is"

"Tell me about your latest dream, Mikki"

Instead of answering her, Mikki twirled an errant strand of thick, copper-colored hair and bought ti her cappuccino She and Nelly had been friends for years They'd met at the hospital where they both worked and had been instant girlfriends On the outside they had little in common Nelly was tall and slender - dark with an exotic beauty - a gift from her mother's Haitian blood She towered over Mikki's five-foot-seven-inch frame Where Nelly was dark, Mikki was fair, just as where her friend was slender and graceful, Mikki was voluptuous and earthy But instead of being jealous of or put off by the differences in their exteriors, the tomen had, from the moment they'd met, appreciated each other for their uniqueness

It was a solid friendship, founded in trust and mutual respect And Mikki had no idea why she was so hesitant to tell Nelly about the dreams, especially the last one

"Mikki?"

"I' of where to start," she prevaricated

Nelly gave her a little half-s a delicate bite froood shrinks have one thing in common"

"I know, I knowyou're all annoyingly patient"

"Exactly"

Mikki fiddled with her coffee cup She really did need to get this drea too weird, in a hypnotic, seductive way

But she was stalling, and not just because she was hesitant about revealing such intimate details aloud, but also because part of her was afraid her friend - who really was an excellent psychiatrist - would have soic words that would cure her

She wasn't sure she wanted to be cured

"Hey, it's just me," Nelly said softly

Mikki gave her a tight, appreciative san "Okay, this one started the saernail polish

"You mean in the canopy bed?"

"Huge canopy bed in the enormous bedroom" She corrected and then nodded "Yeah It was the same place, only it wasn't as dark as it usually is This tih a whole wall of s I think they're called" - Mikki searched for the word - "lass Knohat I mean?"

Nelly nodded "Mullioned s"

"Right, I think Well, whatever they're called, I noticed theht" Mikki's gaze was trapped by the cheerily burning fire as she relived her dreaht that ht herself and continued, "Anyway, it woke h escaped her throat "It even see my dreaed her shoulders "But I woke up I was lying onone of those big brushes with soft, wide bristles" Mikki grinned at her friend "You know there are few things better than having your hair brushed"

"I' is not sex"

"Okay, it's been a long ti is not sex I'm not at the sex part yet, I'm just at the why-I-was-so-relaxed-and-happy part," Mikki said, giving Nelly an impatient look

"Sorry for interrupting Just pretend like I'm not here"

"Is that shrink-talk stuff?"