The One After [SHAWN MENDES]

Chapter 69

I was giddy with anticipation for my dinner with Shawn, but I managed to stay on task and get my accounting work done. On my lunch break, I texted the Briya because something was in my mind.

Humor me...

You and Fallon were with Shawn at the hospital when he visited right?

She replied right away.

Yes! We hung out with him for around two hours

I think your dad was with him the next two days

I sent a response.

You guys talked a lot?

My phone vibrated because Bri was calling.

"Hey, boo. Yes, we talked the whole time. Is that weird? Maybe we should have been respectfully quiet since you were laying there in a coma."

"No, it's fine, but I think this explains my dream, or at least parts of it. Even in an unconscious state, I may have heard the conversations," I explained.

"Oh my fucking god! We talked about Vegas! That makes sense!"

"What else did you talk about?"

"He went over a bunch of his tour stops, but it was cute because he had to look at his phone to see what cities he was going to. He said he lives day to day when he's on the road without overthinking where he is headed." She paused a second. "I'm trying to remember the other stuff. Oh! We talked about quarantining during COVID and he said he'd been in Miami, but he didn't mention Camila specifically. After he left, Fallon and I pulled up a bunch of articles about their relationship because it made us curious. We must have sat there for another hour analyzing how cute they were at the beginning and then questioning why they broke up. You know how excited I get about celebrity gossip. We both concluded that he loved her and probably always would."

That accounted for my preoccupation with her in the dream! I must have 'heard' their talk. It now made sense why I knew more about them than I actually did prior to the attack. It's insane how my comatose brain was like a sponge absorbing everything they said.

When I was done talking to Briya, I texted my dad and said to let me know when he had a minute. Within seconds, I had an incoming call from him.

"Is everything okay?" he asked anxiously.

"I'm great, but can I ask you something?"

"Of course. Ask away."

"When Shawn visited the hospital, you talked to him?" I asked.

He laughed. "Did we ever! That young man is very chatty. On the first day he brought you a bouquet flowers and I told him that if you were awake, you'd appreciate them so much. Then I shared how much I loved bringing flowers home to your mom, and he said he'd done that a lot in his last relationship. I asked if he ever did it because he was in the doghouse, because that was usually why I bought them. He told me he'd definitely used them as an apology and then shared how his ego often got in the way with his ex."

"Ego, huh?" I said as I mentally checked that off in my head. Now I got why that was in my dream.

"I've been told before that I'm the type of person people open up to, and with him it was certainly the case."

"Anything specific that you can recall?" I queried.

"He talked about how he'd been pretty stressed lately. He told me about meditating and how he was into holistic medicine. I was surprised how open he was about his use of marijuana- not that I judged him. I told him I never smoked because I had that severe lung infection as a child and I knew I shouldn't. He told me all about gummies and which kinds were best. It was amusing to get an education on drugs from an actual rock star!"