One and Only

Chapter 8 - Breakfast Club

"Don't worry about it gorgeous," he said giving me a kiss on the lips. "Actually, I figured you'd just go straight to bed. Since you're awake, do you want me to make you some breakfast?"
"That sounds amazing, but honestly, I don't think I have the energy for anything other than Raisin Bran."
"What time do you need to leave to go back to the hospital tonight?"
"No later than 6:30."
"What if I come back here around 4 and I'll cook you dinner again before you leave?"
I gazed into his blue-grey eyes, that were the color of the sky before a storm, his lashes impossibly long, "I'm going to ask you a question, and I'm being serious, ok?"

"Ok," he said, leaning back on the bed, abdominal muscles taught to the point that they looked like a tray of cinnamon rolls (ironically, given that he probably had never had a cinnamon roll in his life, the fucker.)
"What's wrong with you? I mean, like, how is that you're gorgeous and smart and successful and funny and you have, like, the most beautiful genitals, and you fuck like a porn star and you cook. Like, I'm asking for all women everywhere, what is wrong with you? Do you have, like, a jar of ears at home or something?" I asked turning to look down at him in the shaft of morning light that was creeping into my bedroom window.

He chuckled to himself, and started softly caressing the small of my back with his left hand. "A jar of ears? Really?"
"It's from one of my favorite British TV shows called Coupling we absolutely should watch it one day, it's incredible."

He was quiet for a full minute, then said, quite thoughtfully, "well, I can get a little OCD about my workouts, and I don't suffer fools well, and I hate doing the dishes. Oh, and I can't sing."
"And you're positive that you don't have a jar of ears or other body parts at home?"
"Yes, quite positive. No ears or other appendages in storage."
"Well, none of those are deal breakers for me, but it's good to know about the dishes, I'll have to make a mental note of that."
"So I'll see you later tonight," he said, sitting up and walking over to his drawer to put on his shirt.
"It's a date," I said, laying down on the bed, too tired for even cereal.
***
I was in a house that was my house, only it wasn't my actual house, but everything was very dark, like the power had gone out. I moved from room to room, looking for someone, but no one was there. For reasons I couldn't explain, it felt like I was being watched or followed, almost like I could hear the scary music that always accompanies the female lead in a horror movie, right before she's about to get killed.

There was a room at the end of the long hallway, but it seemed like the faster I ran, the farther away it appeared. Until suddenly, I was standing before the door, and there was light streaming out around the edges. I pushed on the door, and it creaked open ominously, and I couldn't see anything inside because of the intensity of the light emanating from the room.

Then, suddenly, I was in the middle of a verdant forrest, moss and lichen covered the floor and the lower half of the trees, I could hear a small cry on the other side of the small grove I was standing in. I moved forward cautiously, stepping over fallen branches and rotting leaf matter, until I appeared in the next clearing.

There was a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, crying softly just a few feet from where I stood, I moved closer to inspect the bundle and was shocked to see that the baby was a girl, but she was quite blue, barely breathing. I picked her up and started performing CPR, but I could tell that my efforts were in vain. I pulled back and held her lifeless body in my arms, and when I looked down, the baby's face had morphed into Andy's and I woke up with a start, screaming.

"Jen! Jen! Wake up, it's just a dream, wake up."
It was Andy, he was leaning over me on the bed, holding my shoulders with both hands, as if he had been shaking me to wake me up.
"Andy!" I gasped, "the baby! The baby it's dead!" I screamed.
The look on his face told me that something about what I'd just said didn't make sense. It took me a minute to realize that I was no longer in the grove, that there was no blue baby, and that the baby's face wasn't really Andy's."