Previously

It was two minutes before eight when Brad started checking the voice mail messages on his home phone. Two thirds of the way through his first message the call waiting beep interrupted him. Halfway across the world Lana was sick in bed listening to the phone ring. Tears fell from her troubled green eyes when she heard Brad's soft soothing greeting. "Hey Brad. It's just Lana. How are you?"

"I'm okay. How are you?"

A knot of nervous tension cramped Lana's empty stomach. Why was it so hard to talk to the man she supposedly loved? "You were in one of my dreams last night."

Whatever the dream had been about Brad knew it hadn't been good. "If I could order dreams they'd all be about you sweetheart. What happened in your dream or don't I want to know?"

"We were out on an old time sailboat. I was tired. Your cousin Nathan was there. He was making chicken and he told me I could lie down in his bunk. I took a nap and when I woke up no one wanted to tell me that you were gone." 

Lana's dream didn't sound scary to Brad but he was touched that she was concerned. "That doesn't sound very gentlemanly of me." Outside snow blanketed his lawn. "It's too cold to go sailing anyways. What else is new with you?"

Uncertainly Lana pulled a curl down. "I got my hair cut. I told my students that if they did well on their test I would get my hair cut. Part of their assignment was to write about how they would get ready for a date and somehow I ended up promising to get my hair cut. I think they exercise mind control or something."

An image of Lana pushing back a mess of tangled curls lingered. "I give those kids credit. Learning a foreign language is tough. I'm going to tell Mary Beth about your students. She'll appreciate that."

Thinking about Brad's hygienist made Lana homesick. "I miss Mary Beth. How is she?"

Carefully Brad adjusted the ice pack that was sitting on his left arm. The red blotch above his elbow throbbed painfully. "She's learning first hand what having two pre-teen girls is like. Elizabeth is boy crazy. Ellen isn't as much but she takes cues from Elizabeth. Guess who Elizabeth has a crush on?"

"If she has a crush on you I'm older than she is and I've known you for longer."

"She has a crush on my cousin Noah. Mary Beth had to take Ellen and Elizabeth shopping for feminine hygiene products. One of Elizabeth's friends got her period for the first time. Elizabeth called Mary Beth at work to tell her about it because she was that excited. Can you imagine that?"

"Totally. I wanted my period until I actually got it. Gretchen got hers when she was in eighth grade but I didn't get mine until I was a freshmen in high school. Everyone got their period before I did. This is funny too but I can remember crying because I was the only person who wasn't menstruating. It's hard to believe I weathered that time of crisis in my life. Thanks for being there for me even though you weren't. Luckily for you I'm resilient."

"Had I known you were going through a crisis I would have been there for you. I'm not sure what I could have done about the issue but I would have done what I could. I'm sorry I'm such a failure at recognizing your internal crises."  

In the kitchen Lana put some water on to boil. Tea would make her feel better. "You should be sorry. Tell me about your day. How was it and what specifically did you do? Please try to be as thorough as possible thank you very much."

"Most of it was my regular day except today I went out to lunch with Brent. When we got back a bunch of us got into a snowball fight. I have an intern named Brittany. She's nice but her boyfriend is a dick if you want my opinion. He whipped a snowball at me and hit my left arm hard enough to leave a red mark...," Brad was still talking but Lana was no longer listening. Pain tore through her as she thought about his fragile left arm. "How is your arm?"

The ramifications of a badly injured elbow ran through his mind again. It wasn't something he wanted to think about. Not when he had Lana on the phone. "It still hurts. I've got ice on it. How long is your hair?"

"I can still pull it back but just barely." Memories of Lana's nightmare resurfaced. "I knew something bad happened to you damn it. You have to call me when these things happen damn you."

"It's not a big deal. And at least tomorrow is Thanksgiving. If my arm is still bothering me on Friday I'll go to the doctor. I did call my cousin Stan because that finger tingling thing was freaky. I can move everything now but for a couple minutes I couldn't do anything. Stan said he was going to talk to some people he knows and get back to me. This is completely off the subject but I need a dream weaver and you're the only one I know. Do you want to analyze the dream I had the other night?"

"Is this an X rated dream or can I share it with my students?"

Half of Brad's mind was listening to Lana. The rest of him was focused on his elbow. "I would rather you didn't share this with anyone. Have you ever met my cousin Sam's girlfriend Kelsey?"

"No, but I've seen pictures of her. Why?"

"I keep having dreams about her. Those kinds of dreams if you know what I mean. It's really bizarre because she's cute but I wouldn't say I'm attracted to her. I was wondering if you had a theory about recurring dreams featuring women who are off limits. I have to see both Sam and Kelsey tomorrow when we all get together Thanksgiving and I have no idea what I should say to either of them."

"What was the dream about?" A blush that Lana would have liked colored his cheeks. "This is really embarrassing. Do you remember being in Florida for Gretchen's birthday when she was expecting Parker?" By that time Brad and Gretchen had broken up but Lana hated the reminder that they had gone out and now had a son together. "Vaguely. I was pretty jet-lagged."

"In my dream we were down in Florida. I was in a room with a bunch of my family. I got up to go get something to eat but somehow I ended up outside. Kelsey was walking by and for some reason then the house looked like my parents' house but we were still in Florida. We went back inside, I don't know who started kissing who but we were kissing and then we went into the bathroom together. Do you think I have a thing for her that I don't know about?"

Carefully Lana poured boiling water over tea leaves. "Were the other dreams along the same lines as that one?"

"The other two are worse. In the second one I'm giving her a backrub because you know I would totally be giving my cousin's girlfriend a backrub if she was naked in my bed. I seriously don't even find her that attractive. That's the part I don't get. If I have to have dreams like that why can't they be about someone I am attracted to?" Like Lana for instance. 

"I've had dreams about guys that I wasn't attracted to. I once had a sex dream about my high school History professor. He wasn't the least bit attractive but we had major chemistry in the dream. One time I had a dream that Gretchen was a nurse. She worked at the hospital and we were lesbian lovers in the dream. Talk about having dreams about people you're not attracted to in the slightest. I wonder if anyone's done research about lesbian sisters."

Brad wasn't going to touch that one. "In the backrub dream Kelsey had an orgasm. I woke up feeling like a voyeur." Lana fiddled with her pen while she sat on the couch waiting for her tea to cool. "How did you feel in the dream?"

This was what Brad loved about talking to Lana. He could talk to her about anything. "This is strange but I felt very detached from the process. I was rubbing her back and she was naked but it wasn't anything sexual. I don't know what changed but then I was into her and her body. She had an orgasm and we weren't even having sex in the dream."

"What did you do to give her an orgasm?"

"This is crude but in the dream she was literally fucking my hand. I don't know how we got from back rub to hand job and that kind of bothers me too. In the third dream we're hanging out on a beach towel after she's done playing volleyball. I was sick when I had that dream so I'm not sure what brought a dream like that on. I guess that's what I want to know. What is triggering the dreams and how should I deal with Kelsey when I see her tomorrow?"

A small smile lingered on Lana's lips. "Invite her into the bathroom. Bring your beach towel and see what happens. That's what I would do."

"You would not. Give me a break." A shiver ran through him as thought about Lana on the beach. "Would you really?"

Her voice had always been low. Now it was smoky as well. "Have a dream like that about me. I'll fill in the gaps between the backrub and the hand job for you..., Fuck. God damn it all." Another shiver went through Brad but this time it was because his arm ran into the ice pack. "You lost me there. I was with you up until you said 'God damn it'." Lana put her hand up in a futile effort to stop a steaming cascade of tea. "I put my pen up on top of my tea and then I forgot it was there so I accidentally knocked it over reaching for my water. Son of a bitch I bet my laptop is ruined. What do you do if you spill tea on your computer?"

"Get a towel and turn it upside down over that. Pray that nothing is ruined. Marry me and I'll buy you a new laptop."

Memories of Brad smashing a volleyball into the ground made Lana long for simpler days. Days when his arm had worked and he had picked her up just for the hell of it. "I want spontaneous beach sex when you're done playing volleyball. You can skip the towel though. Towels are just another thing to carry around. Brad, what if my computer is ruined?"

"What if my arm is ruined? Don't worry about whether or not things might be ruined. Do what you can with what you have while you've still got it. Leave your laptop upside down for a while. What did you spill on your keyboard; water or tea?"

"Tea. I'm so god damned clumsy. I better not be klutzy in your dreams or all bets are off beach sex boy."

Suddenly his mouth was dry. "I've never had sex on the beach. The dream with Kelsey was the closest I've ever gotten to it." 

Inspiration for a story crept into Lana's mind. What would sex on the beach with Brad be like? Fast and furious? Maddeningly slow? Some other combination she hadn't thought of? "We should try it sometime. Just to see what it's like."

Her conversational tone was killing him. It was time to change the subject. "Do you want to hear a story about two people who have had beach sex?"

"Is it a real story or a made up one?"

"One time Brent and Fern had sex on the beach. She said it was amazing."

Lana's impatient fingers stopped drumming at the mention of Brad's former sister-in-law. "Do you think Fern did the right thing by leaving?"

Now that he had brought up this topic Brad wasn't sure he wanted to discuss it. Particularly with Lana who told Brent everything. "I can't answer that. I'm too close to the situation. What do you think?"

"I think Fern did the right thing. Brent couldn't get through to her because she wouldn't let him in. A fundamental breakdown in your ability to communicate with your partner because you're afraid that they're going to hurt damages your relationship. What I really think is he thought that he needed her more than she needed him when in fact the opposite was true. But that's just what I think. What do you think?"

Brad stretched his feet out on the couch and put his head back before replying. "I think you're right. Brent acts tough but he needs a lot of attention. If you give him your attention then he's okay. When you stop giving him attention he gets it into his head that you no longer love him. When I first met Fern she didn't act like she was afraid of sex or intimacy but I don't think that she expected him to want so much all the time. Their jobs didn't help either. I think that more than anything was Brent and Fern's problem. They went from pretty girl and good athlete to supermodel and Major League Baseball player overnight. That kind of stress is something I can't even begin to imagine."

It made Lana sad to think about his brother's ex-wife who was still struggling to live a life without Brent. "Do you think that Brent and Fern would have stayed together if they wouldn't have left Toronto?"

This discussion was going better than Brad had thought it would. He made a mental note to call Fern and see how she was doing. Holidays were a lonely time of year when you were single. "I think moving to Seattle was the straw that broke the camel's back. Fern said she wanted to move but I don't think that she really did. I told Brent I wouldn't move if I was him but Seattle was offering him more money than Toronto was."

"I think the straw that broke the camel's back was you breaking up with Gretchen." Lana said.

"Why do you say that?" Brad wondered.

"Are you going to get mad at me if I tell you?"

"Possibly." Briefly Brad pondered the wisdom of asking Lana what she thought. "Probably not though. I would like to know what your thoughts are regardless."

"I think that Brent likes to help women who are in trouble. From his point of view Gretchen was in more trouble than Fern was so he spent more time helping Gretchen because he knew Fern could take care of herself. That's what I think."

"I'm going to agree with you. I don't think it was a conscious decision on his part though. I would feel bad for a pregnant woman whose loser boyfriend dumped her." Here was the opportunity for Lana to ask him a question that had been bothering her since she got the phone call that Brad and Gretchen were no longer a couple even though she was six months pregnant. "Why did you break up with her?"

"I'm going to go back to something you said earlier. When communication breaks down you don't have a relationship. In the beginning I felt like I could talk to Gretchen. We could talk about most things and I thought that we had enough in common that a relationship would work out. I did know that she wasn't on the pill when we started daring but I also believed her when she said she would take care of birth control. She told Brent about Parker before she told anyone else in her family or mine. For a long time I thought that Parker was Brent's and Brent and Gretchen were lying about not having slept together."

"Do you think they were sleeping together?"

A smiling picture of Brent and Gretchen mocked him. "If they were we'll never know."

Another used tissue fell to the floor as Lana tossed it towards the trash. "Brent says they weren't. I don't know whether I should believe him or not. What's your take on the situation?"

"I want to believe him. I guess this is how I see it: Brent is and has been attracted to Gretchen but he doesn't tend to lie about things. Gretchen lies about things but she had no reason not to be honest with me because I was breaking up with her anyways. If Brent and Gretchen are lying there's nothing anyone can do about it. If they're lying so Fern doesn't find out that's not helping things either. So I don't know but I would like to think that Brent wasn't sleeping with Gretchen when he was married to Fern. He could have managed it obviously but I'd like to think that he did the right thing."

"I guess only the girls in my family cheat on people. You boys are the ones doing the right thing." 

"My violin teacher was the first person I slept with. I knew she had a boyfriend but that didn't stop me. I know for a fact that Brent and Gretchen slept together when they weren't going out. I also know that at least one of those times they were both going out with other people. I don't know Lana. People who give in during a moment of weakness are different than repeat offenders. That's the way I see it at least."

Silent tears stained the front of her shirt. Wearily Lana put her head back. She was sick of being sick. If she was at home she could sit on the couch, watch TV and be completely mindless while other people took care of her. "I should have broken up with Panos a long time ago. I kept telling myself that things would get better but I never talked to him about it when I had the chance. Now it's too late."

"I'm sorry that things didn't work out for you Lana." Had Lana been able to read his mind she would have discovered that he was reliving some of the same events she couldn't stop thinking about. They had been walking down the street when another couple had started kissing in front of the traffic lights. She had blown a kiss at Brad. He returned the favor by kissing her at the end of the block. No one had told Lana that someone could fuck your mouth for half a minute and pull away unaffected. While her world had changed forever only his mouth and eyes were different. "Cheating on him was still wrong Brad."

"I agree that you should be faithful to whoever you're with. But if you've broken up with someone you're not cheating on them Lana." For years he had wondered why she had invited him to Vancouver. Now was his chance to ask. Memories of rain on rain of her face gave way to the look in her eyes when she had informed him she was taking a nap. If it had been wrong to love her that afternoon he wasn't wasting time on regrets. An incoming text message diverted him momentarily. "Not to change the subject but I need a date for the Summerville Dentistry Christmas party. Who should I ask?"

"I would go out with you if I didn't have to go to the company Christmas party." Twice now she had walked away from him when he thought she was going to stay. That pain overrode his current physical injury. Her words echoed in his head. Was she telling him she wanted to go out with him? Cautious anticipation tightened his stomach muscles. He didn't want this to be another joke of hers. "This is my party so I have to go. If we did go out you wouldn't have to do anything you didn't want to do."

Nervously Lana bit the side of her thumb. "Do you want to go out with me?"

The pain in his arm receded momentarily. Down in the basement Brad searched through his iTunes library. A smile spread across his face as the music started playing. "Hey Lana, have I got a song for you."

Next

Thanks to lucychili for catching a typo. 4-15-9