Julien, my male best friend in life, the closest thing to a brother I will ever have – came to visit Rio de Janeiro from Paris. Because of the nature of our relationship, a true fraternal intimacy, I ended up telling him tidbits of my romantic adventures, and how much after four years as a spinster I was ready to be in a relationship. Julien, who has always been in long and serious love stories (yes, he is the kind of guy you only dream of meeting) mentioned something very random about an old friend of ours:
“Vincent, remember him? He is getting a divorce and he looks really good, he looks George Clooney good. You two should go out!”
Julien is my soul brother. We have always lived in different cities, connected through a strong bond!
Sixth Sense
I noted the observation without any expectations, especially as I hadn’t had any contact with Vincent for the past, let’s say, two decades. Funny enough, the following Sunday I had an interesting dream: I was at my oldest daughter’s PTA meeting, filled with parents and unfamiliar faces. Seated on the corner of that room, I spotted Vincent. Or how I imagined him to be now (you are right, he was represented by Clooney in my dream, obviously). In that fantasy, we chitchatted, and he told me that his daughter was friends with my daughter Luisa, as they were classmates. Then he asked me for a ride home and we all – me, him, our daughters – ended up in my car looking like a happy family. The alarm went off and I woke up still on cloud nine.
That dream was so intense that I told a couple of girlfriends about it and even wrote it down – something I use to do. Then, analyzing it, I thought it reflected the following aspects:
1) Luisa was changing schools and has just started at the French lycée that week – I had a PTA meeting scheduled for the next morning.
2) What Julien had told me about Vincent filled my imagination.
3) A dream is always a dream that crisscrosses random stuff in our brains.
I need to note, though, that those years of my life were filled with powerful intuition and sixth sense experiences. A subject for another book, hopefully. Regardless, the fact is: I was getting messages from my dreams and other sources.
The Dream is... real?!
Let’s forward to the PTA meeting day. I was running late and ended up showing there in my gym clothes, as disheveled and sweaty as I could present myself. In the middle of a very boring announcement, delivered by the monotone school principle, I had a glimpse of that dream and turned around to the corner where Vincent was in my dream and… I saw a guy who really looked like Clooney! Gray hair, sexy smile, perfect teeth… how odd, I thought to myself. Is my mind playing tricks on me?
At the end of the meeting, I walked to the classroom’s door and checked out the posted list of parents and students’ names. I wanted to rule out that the guy I had just spotted was not Vincent. What were the chances? I mean, that would be crazy! Plus, I didn’t even know if Vincent had children. So, you can imagine my astonishment when I found his name there. And guess what else? His daughter’s name matched the one Luisa had been mentioning to me as her new bff in school.
I walked towards him. He really looked hotter than the Hollywood movie star.
“Vincent, right? Remember me? Laura? Julien’s friend.”
“Oh, Laura! How odd! Yes, Julien told me about you recently, I haven’t seen you in forever!” he said, exposing the role of cupid our friend was playing, ignoring that higher forces were at stake.
After a 15-minute chat, Vincent asked me where I lived and well, we were neighbors. Literally two blocks away. Next thing I know, he was asking me for a ride (he had recently sold his car) and we were - the four of us - in the car like a happy family. I mean, the whole thing was so similar to my dream that it made my stomach twirl. As I was driving, I could feel lightheaded and almost dizzy.
Falling in Love
As the week went by, we managed to bump into each other every single day, without making plans. Monday was the PTA meeting I dreamed about. Tuesday, the girls had a birthday party and we ran into each other there. Wednesday, I gave his daughter a last-minute lift back to his place, and of course he came downstairs to greet me, and we ended up chatting for 30 minutes.
During those days, I recall not properly sleeping or eating. My inwards were inside out as I was suddenly growing two billion yellow butterflies in my stomach. I could not take a deep breath without thinking of Vincent. I was infatuated like a teenager and I did not know how to go about it.
Finally, on Thursday, we met for Julien’s goodbye dinner. I was nervous and hoping Vincent would ask me for a lift back home. I knew that I would act out of impulse, and probably open up my feelings about him. But I could not help it: what starts as a dream, feels like a dream.
*TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK (*subscribe to the blog to get an alert)
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