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  “Dream symbols definitely have meaning. Not always what you’d think they’d have, but yeah. Anything you put into your dream has meaning.”

  Kelly shot Tovah a look. “Are you gonna get all New Agey on me?”

  Tovah shook her head. “No.”

  “Good. Because if you told me I needed to light a candle before I went to bed or put weeds under my pillow or something, I would have to find someone else to get coffee with.”

  Tovah shook her head again, slower this time. “Don’t worry.”

  “But you know a lot about dreams, huh?” Kelly looked at Tovah closely.

  Tovah hesitated. “Some. Not everything.”

  Kelly nodded. “My grandma was big into dreams. She used to tell me she could do…whatchamacallit…where you know you’re dreaming?”

  “Lucid dreaming?”

  “Yeah. Lucid dreaming.”

  The waiter interrupted their banter, his pen at the ready. “Ladies?”

  Confronted with the lack of a vegetarian selection, Tovah chose fish and chips. She wasn’t picky about meat being kosher or using the same pots or pans to cook in, but eating meat and dairy together was a long-time habit she’d never gotten around to breaking. Kelly faltered in her quest for shepherd’s pie and ordered a club sandwich, instead.

  “Lots of people can do that. What did your grandma say about it?” Tovah asked when the waiter had gone.

  “Oh, just that what she liked best was flying. My grandma was in a wheelchair for most of the last fifteen years of her life,” said Kelly matter-of-factly. “She said only in dreams was she able to get out of the damn chair and dance the way she used to.”

  Tovah knew how that felt. “Have you ever tried it? Lucid dreaming, I mean. Did she ever tell you how she did it?”

  Just because Kelly’s grandma had been able to do it didn’t mean Kelly could. Then again, it didn’t mean she couldn’t.

  “How do you think I get Justin Ross to bang me?” Kelly answered with a grin.

  Tovah laughed again. “Good for you.”

  “Don’t tell Frank. So long as he’s convinced I can’t control what’s going on, he can’t be mad at me. What about you? Can you do it?”

  Tovah hesitated again but didn’t lie. “Yes.”

  Kelly looked impressed. “Wow. What’s it like?”

  Tovah thought about it for a second. “Did you ever see The Matrix?”

  “Hell-o,” Kelly said. “A movie with Keanu Reeves in it? Of course.”

  “It’s sort of like that. When you control your dreams, you control everything in them and around you. You can make anything happen.”

  Kelly was silent for a moment, as if she were pondering that. “Huh.”

  There was more to it than that. Lots of people could enter lucidity in their dreams, but even though they managed to manifest their desires in the dream world, they were still just…dreaming. How could she explain the differences to Kelly, who’d never done it? How could she explain that achieving lucidity was fluid and amorphous, that keeping it was a struggle few could master completely. Shaping, on the other hand…that was conscious and consistent. Tovah didn’t understand it herself, just that before waking from her accident she’d had dreams in which she’d known she was dreaming. But knowing how to shape the Ephemeros, how to manipulate and mold it to her whim…that was a much stronger talent.

  “Haven’t you ever had a dream you knew was a dream?” Tovah attempted the explanation.

  “Sure. Usually that’s when I tell Justin I can’t sleep with him because I’m married.”

  “No.” Tovah laughed but shook her head. “I mean where you know it’s a dream and you manipulate it. Or manifest something you want or desire.”

  Kelly thought. “Once or twice. But it was hard to hold on to it. Usually if I suddenly realize I’m dreaming I wake up right away. I’ve had nightmares—”

  Tovah waited, but Kelly didn’t continue. “About what?”

  A shadow passed over Kelly’s face. “I’ve had dreams about falling and I wake up just before I hit the ground. Or dreams I’m being chased, or that someone’s in my house. Usually I’ll wake up before something really bad happens. And I think I know I’m dreaming, but it’s still scary.”

  “Everyone has bad dreams once in a while. But if you know you can control the output, you can get out of them.”

  Kelly nodded, still frowning slightly. “Yes. But lately I’ve been having some real doozies. Frank, too. I told him it must be something in the water.”

  Tovah looked up at that, and thought carefully about how to phrase her question. “What are the nightmares about, now?”

  Kelly’s laugh sounded forced. “It’s stupid.”

  “I bet it’s not.”

  Kelly shrugged. It was rare to see her unsure of herself. “I dreamed the world fell apart.”

  Tovah didn’t say anything to that and Kelly gave her no chance to. “Crazy, huh? I’m afraid to analyze it, you know? The world falling apart? What’s that say about my mental health?”

  Before Tovah could answer, the waiter returned with two more drinks, though they hadn’t finished the first. “Compliments of the gentleman at the bar.”

  Kelly gave Tovah a look.

  “What?”

  “Now see what you’ve been and gone and done,” Kelly scolded. “You made eye contact before, didn’t you!”

  Before Tovah could answer, the two men from the bar showed up at their table.

  “Hi,” said the man who’d earlier caught her eye. “Are you ladies alone?”

  “No,” said Tovah as Kelly answered “yes,” at the same moment.

  They battled with their gazes while the two men stood frozen, halfway into the table’s empty seats. Tovah, who was fine with long-distance yearning but had no intention of giving in to flirtation, tried to give Kelly a subtle glare.

  Kelly wasn’t into subtle. “Have a seat, fellas.”

  They did. Tovah scooted over to leave more legroom. The table was small for two and nearly impossible with four, no matter how many chairs claimed they wanted to belong. Kelly was already moving her napkin over and sampling the gifted drink. Tovah wasn’t so foolhardy.

  “John.” The one Kelly had labeled metrosexual held out his hand. “This is my friend, Pete.”

  “I’m Kelly. This is Tovah.” Kelly shook John’s hand, then Pete’s. Tovah did the same.

  John turned out to be the conversationalist, Pete his trusty cohort who seemed to be playing wingman. Tovah wasn’t sure about Kelly’s role in this little quadrumvirate, but with Pete taking up her attention, that left John to hit on Tovah.

  Hard.

  He was smooth about it. Not subtle, by any means. But smooth. He knew just how much sincerity to use, just how close to sit. Or when to draw away. He knew when to talk and when to listen, and he didn’t seem taken aback when Tovah gave him one-or two-word answers only.

  Using the excuse that females could only visit the restroom in pairs, Kelly pulled Tovah away from the men. In the ladies’ room she pulled out lipstick and bent forward over the sink to concentrate on lining her mouth while Tovah washed the greasy fish and chips from her fingers. Kelly gave Tovah a look in their shared reflection.

  “So? You don’t like him? What?”

  Tovah pulled out her compact from her purse and set about freshening her own makeup. “He’s cute.”

  “Yeah, he is.” Kelly rubbed her teeth to clean them of any stray lipstick stains, blew into her hand to check her breath, and pulled out a package of mints. “Want one?”

  “Is that a hint?” Tovah took the mints and crunched one.

  “No. But it’s good to be prepared, huh?” Kelly laughed. “He sure is putting the moves on you.”

  Tovah leaned against the sink. “What about his friend?”

  Kelly laughed. “Married. I saw the ring. I slipped him a little comment about my husband and you should’ve seen the look on his face. Relief. Clearly he’s just along for the ride. Romeo on the other h