Lethe Vita

Chapter 22

She considered they may have fallen into the habit of spending too much time alone together when he began to invade her dreams.

Perhaps it had been their intimate touches in the lake.

Perhaps it had been those infamous double dimples flashed in tune with the dance in his eyes at the Helsinki stand-up show they had attended before crashing in their hotel room.

Perhaps it had been his verbalized curiosities to the team in the control room the following morning, the way Dylan had learnt as much as he could about the recording process as Brenda situated herself on a tall office chair, dove into her script, and began channeling a brazen fairytale princess.

Perhaps it had been the concern Dylan had shown when they had returned home to find their friends worried over Cindy's silent state.

Perhaps it had been the way Dylan had stroked Brenda's arm as she tried to find it in herself to comfort Cindy; from what, Brenda didn't know.

Perhaps it had been his meeting her at the bus stop at the end of Brenda's solo day in Helsinki.

Perhaps it had been his smile when Brenda rummaged through her drawers and pulled on one of Dylan's shirts.

Perhaps it had been the way he had looked at her when she had worn his shirt, like he had never seen anything more fascinating.

Whatever the reason had been, Brenda now often found Dylan to be the star of her dreams.

It wasn't terrible to dream of Dylan McKay, or to dream of Dylan reaching out his hand to unearth Brenda from the rubble of the train.

He did turn her nightmares into pleasant dreams, which was certainly a bonus.

The difficult part was trying to determine whether she would still be dreaming of Dylan if he didn't sleep beside her every night.

If they still shared their child, but not a home, would her mind focus on him half as much?

Brenda turned her thoughts to the tea in her cup, stirring mindlessly as she weighed the complexities in her relationship with Dylan against the relaxing evening she had had with Luca.

She pondered over whether she would still have fun with Luca if their casual dynamic became more serious.

Or was she starting to wonder what it would be like to begin a serious relationship with Dylan?

If they did go that route, would they learn how to maintain it, or would there never be anything more for them than broken highways?

"Thought you agreed to cut back on the tea."

Whipping around, Brenda flung a hand against her heart. "Didn't think anyone would catch me at this time of night."

"Better me than Dylan." Valerie dug through the fridge. "Cheesecake?" She held up a slice.

"No thank you," said Brenda. "I'll take some pie, though."

Valerie retrieved two forks and handed Brenda her pie.

"Dylan must really like pie for our baby to want it this much," said Brenda as she separated out a piece.

The pie, she had been told, had been made by Cindy.

Brenda had tried to encourage her mother to see a doctor about Cindy's incoherent ramblings.

Cindy had refused, and continued her compulsive cleaning.

The Walsh twins and Dylan were told only that Valerie had shared with Cindy something that Val said should have been kept to herself.

Val refused to elaborate on what she had said.