REM // Van McCann

22. I Still Think About Her

I dreaded coming into work today, afraid that Bondy and Larry had more time to think about my strange behavior. The truth is, they most likely forgot. Larry's busy fretting about his date and Bondy has other stuff going on. In reality, no one cares so why am I worrying so much?

I noticed the light was on as I pushed the door open. That's strange. I'm normally the first to arrive. I closed the door behind me and heard paws scrambling to gain traction on the floor. An eager puppy ran towards me so I scooped him into my arms, cradling him.

"Hi there little fella," I cooed, scratching behind his ears. I looked up to see Bondy smiling, taking his earbuds out.

"Wasn't expecting anyone to be in so early," he said. "I see you've met Otis. I'm dog sitting my neighbor's dog for the day. Hope you don't mind."

"'Course not."

Otis was squirming so I put him down and he began running back to Bondy. As I walked towards my desk, I could see a dog bed next to Bondy's desk complete with a blanket and toys.

"Why are you watching your neighbor's dog?" I asked out of curiosity.

"His son is in the hospital recovering from a food allergy. Reckon he'll be released today but thought it'd be easier to have someone watch him."

"Hope his son's alright."

"Yeah, he's fine. They're just a bit shaken up. He's having a full allergy test before going home."

Otis watched me take out my laptop and charger. It was like he expected me to pull out a toy. To mess with him, I took the stuff out slowly to build anticipation. Each time, he was disappointed. Well that's life, bud.

"Roman's tour is at 2 PM, by the way. He messaged me this morning asking if that was okay," I told Bondy.

"Yeah, that's fine with me. Otis will be pleased to meet another person, won't you?" Otis looked up at the mention of his name and Bondy began scratching under his chin. "I'm not gonna get work done with this bugger here to distract me. I need to take him out every few hours."

"I can help with that. Just let me know," I offered.

I was glad Bondy agreed to watch Otis. It'll be a nice distraction from our normal routine but I know it's short lived. As soon as Florence comes back tomorrow, they'll immediately remember what happened. I tried my best to focus on work, thinking about how I was going to give Roman a tour. He was a bit intimidating as it seemed like he expected professionalism from us. My worst fear was being unprepared. Larry later walked in, surprised to see a puppy run up to him.

"Who's this?" he asked, smiling. Otis was trying to steal his shoelace but Larry swatted him away. "Stop it. I need that." He knelt down to tie his shoe.

One glance at Larry and you could see he put a lot of effort into his appearance today. He wore the shirt we talked about with black jeans. He was clean shaven and his hair was styled neatly.

"Look at you," I teased. Larry immediately blushed from the attention. "When are you meeting her?"

"Right after work," he grinned, trying to hide his excitement. He put his stuff away and went to the kitchen to make a brew. "I was thinking of going under today. Do ya wanna come with?" He was looking at me and I found it strange that he asked me to join him and not Bondy.

Ever since the study started, Bondy and Larry have been going under less. I wasn't sure if they were being mindful of Florence or if they didn't have a real need to go under anymore. We already proved time and time again that we are able to meet in the same dream. Now we were trying to figure out our next step. We've looked into manipulating our dreams but it usually comes from us. Bondy wants to program the software to manipulate our dreams. We've never had an external force do that before and the thought was terrifying. Losing control of your own dream is unnerving.