I Remember (Remembrance Series) (25 page)

“Thanks, Mike.” The rest of my personal items only took moments to pack.

While he loaded the car, I called Alley.

“Hey, Jordan,”

“Did you get my message about moving today?”

“Yes. I went down to the office and already gave them permission to sign you off the lease. All you need to do is sign a couple of papers.”

“Wonderful. I will go ahead and turn in my key and pay for my half of the remaining rent.” “Do you know if you are going to stay here, yet?”

“I think I may move a little closer to work. I have a co-worker whose lease is up soon and we may decide to go in on a place, together.”

“That’s wonderful news. I am sorry about moving out like this. I hope you understand. I wish you were here so I could give you a proper goodbye hug.”

“I’m not going to say goodbye to you, Jordan. We will still be friends. That is if you still want to be after what Tony did.”

“That wasn’t your fault, Alley. You deserve so much better than him. Of course, we will stay friends. Speaking of which, is he still calling you?”

“He tried; but, I told him we were through. He claimed he was just headed to our place to talk to me and doesn’t remember anything else, other than waking up in a jail cell.”

“That’s weird. Please say you will try dating someone else? I know that someone special is just waiting for you.”

“You’re right. Thanks, Jordan. I need to go, some customers just walked in. Good luck on your move and call me to let me know how you’re doing.”

“Good luck to you too, Alley.”

Gregory walked over. “Did you want to take a walk through to see if we missed anything?”

I looked and discovered it had all been packed. The place felt kind of empty, with the exception of Alley’s things.

As I locked the apartment door for the last time, a feeling of warmth came over me. I sensed that a chapter in my life had just closed and a new one had already opened.

Gregory asked the guys if they could wait a few minutes while we took care of the paperwork in the front office. Mike nodded as we headed off towards the leasing office.

Tricia, the main leasing agent, was quick to greet us. “Hi, Jordan, Alley said you would be by, today. I’m so sorry to hear about your father, but I understand your need to be with family, right now. I just need you to sign off on the lease.”

She quickly placed our original lease agreement in front of me, with a ‘sign here’ arrow indicating where I needed to place my signature. “Here’s my key to the apartment and my half of the rent for the remaining couple of months.”

“That is really nice of you to do this, Jordan.” She went on to elaborate, “Most of our renters have had issues with their roommates moving out with no word and leaving them with all the rent and often a huge mess to clean up.”

“I could never do that. Alley’s a good friend.”

Gregory squeezed my hand, indicating we needed to go. “Thanks for everything, Tricia.”

As we walked back to his car, he leaned in to give me a kiss on the cheek, “That really was nice of you to do that for Alley. You are always so thoughtful. I guess that’s why I love you so much.”

Mike was standing outside the truck. “Did you want us to follow you?”

Gregory pulled a card out of his pocket with the name and address of the facility we were going to, along with some numbers on the back. “You can go ahead and start loading the unit. When we get there, we will need to stop in at the front office to finalize the paperwork.”

After he parked the car, I looked over, with a tear in my eye, “Thank you for setting this up. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

He grabbed my hands between his, kissing them gently. “No thanks needed. I would do
anything
for you.”

We walked into the office as the moving van pulled through the gates. Gregory greeted the lady inside, stating he had come in earlier in the week and filled out some paperwork that I needed to sign.

I looked at him in amazement. “When did you do all this?”

“I had to make a run out this direction for a meeting on Thursday. On my way back to the office I looked at a couple of facilities. This one had the highest level of security and air conditioned units. The cooled unit will protect your television and other electronics better than putting it into a hot locker.”

I smiled, “You do think of everything.”

He wrapped his arm around me. “I try.”

The lady explained that the unit had enough space to fit a complete one bedroom apartment with some room left over. The payments were due at the beginning of every month and could be made over the internet. It was a month to month plan and could be cancelled at any time without a penalty.

She gave me a copy of the contract and a lock that was supposed to be difficult to cut, along with two sets of keys, and the numeric combination to the electronic gate.

“How much do I owe?”

“According to our records, you are paid for the next four months. You will get an email notification when your next payment is due.”

I turned to Gregory, but he laid a finger on my lips and said, “I know you’re mad, but they would not reserve the unit unless I put down a deposit and at least one month’s rent.”

“You have already done more than I ever dreamed of. Let me at least pay you back, somehow?”

“We can talk about it, later. Right now, we need to see how Mike and the guys are doing.”

By the time we got around to the unit, almost everything was unloaded and stacked neatly, like a puzzle into the small space. Mike was writing up an invoice while the others finished up.

“How much do I owe you for the move and who should I make the check out to?” I questioned.

“The grand total is $100.00. Since we do this on the side, just make out the check to me and I will make sure we divide the payment, equally.”

I was flabbergasted by the price. “Are you sure that’s all I owe? My last move was almost $400 and I did all the small items myself.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gregory shake his head back and forth, ever so slightly and Mike raised his shoulders. “Yep. That’s it.”

Unbelievable!
I would play along for now, but there would definitely be a discussion later.

I handed the check to Mike and then grabbed my phone and walked away from Gregory. He tried to follow, but I held my hand up to stop him. His eyes were full of hurt, but I had to distance myself for a few moments to gain my composure.

I needed to hear my mother’s voice and try and make sense of all this.

“How is everything going, Jordan?”

“The move is complete, though I have a problem.”

“What’s wrong?”

“He went ahead and set up the storage place, paid for the first four months, plus he paid for most of the moving expenses. How do I deal with this? I appreciate everything, but feel so out of balance with him.”

Mom took a moment to think before responding, “Your father went out of his way to handle things for me, too. I think this is Gregory’s way of showing how much he loves you.

“You are a very independent woman, who likes to take care of herself; it is only natural that you would feel awkward; because for the first time, someone else is taking care of you.

“Try to look at things from his standpoint. He wants you out of the apartment, especially after what happened last Sunday. He knows you had the expense of terminating your lease, plus your regular day to day expenses for work and commuting. Maybe he is just trying to help out a bit.”

“You’re right. You always know how to put things in perspective for me.”

“It is my pleasure. Try to get some rest before your date, tonight.”

“I’ll give you a call when I am on my way home, later. Thanks and I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Sweetie. Have fun.”

When I got back, Mike and the guys were starting to pull away. I smiled and waved.

“I know your upset with me, but I just wanted you out of that apartment.”

“I hate that you went behind my back and took care of my expenses; but I am grateful at the same time. How am I ever going to repay you?”

He bent down a little to look me in the eyes. “Jordan, you need to understand that I get joy out of helping others; that’s a part of who I am. But, for you, it is something more.”

“I am not sure I follow.”

“If you would have let me, I would have covered all of the expenses, today. What happened with Tony scared me. I finally found the person I have been dreaming about and when I saw him ready to attack you, all I could think about was, ‘What if I had been too late?’ The visions of that day have haunted me the entire week. That’s why I’ve been so focused on getting you out of there, today. Forgive me if I’ve been a bit overprotective of you.” His eyes started to tear.

“You were dreaming of me before we met?”

He changed the subject. “How about we head back to my place and talk?”

I was speechless, only able to nod in agreement.

Despite my qualms, I could not deny the level of contentment I felt just being with Gregory.

When we got to his place, he led me over to the sofa where he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his side. “Where should I begin?”

Before he could continue, I said, “I think I understand why you went to such extremes, today. On the ride back I tried to imagine the situation in reverse and how I would feel. So I get it.” I leaned back against his chest and looked up into his eyes. “But, how could you dream about me, before we met?”

He took a deep breath in, searching for the right words. “Have you ever had vivid dreams or the feeling of déjà vu? Where you get bits and pieces of information about things and then you see them play out in real life?”

Did I somehow mention this to him at some point?

“Yes, but how did you….?”

“Remember the dream you had, about seeing the guy upset in the park, having just lost someone and what you told him? Do you recall one of our phone conversations, where, not realizing it had been you, I repeated the same statement back?”

I pulled away from him, not believing what I was hearing. “That’s impossible.”

“You would think so. I thought I had dreamt the whole thing up. Until we had that conversation. That’s when I realized you had, somehow, entered my dream.”

Gregory turned to face me and held both my hands, gazing into my eyes. “I know this is crazy, but for the past six months, I’ve been dreaming of the most beautiful person I had ever seen. I only saw her face at first, but then as time went on, I heard her voice and got glimpses of a personal ad listed online. The dream was so awe inspiring that I started searching for the ad. Do you know what it said?”

I swallowed hard “What my ad said??”

He nodded. “I could only see the first few words, ‘I have a dream.’”

To my mind, this made no sense. But, my heart seemed to hear what I could not.

“Do you remember the nightmare you had the first night we talked on the computer?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Do you remember a set of arms comforting you from behind?”

My eyes widened with shock as the vision of the dream rushed forward, filling my head. “Yes?”

“Can I tell you what the voice told you?”

I was totally speechless at this point.

“Do you remember me whispering to you, ‘Everything will be okay. We will get through this together?’”

I wanted to respond, but the words would not come out.

“I didn’t understand why or how we connected in each other’s dreams, but we did. Don’t tell me you didn’t recognize my voice, the first time we talked on the phone.

“The picture you sent was the vision I saw of you. Tell me you didn’t have the same response. Somehow we are connected. I can’t explain it, but we are.”

Gregory’s words were shocking, but truthful. It explained why I felt so comfortable with him and how some dreams seemed to foreshadow events in my life. On some level, it all made sense.

“Are you okay, Jordan?” He took his hands away and used them to prop his head up on his knees.

I was finally able to respond. “It is a lot to take in. You’ve been coming in my dreams almost every night, haven’t you?”

“No, not every night. Lately, it’s only when we are thinking of each other at the same time that our dreams collide. I still can’t comprehend how our visions connected prior to us meeting.”

“So, when I imagined you in my dreams…that was actually you?”

“Yes. Do you remember last night’s dream?”

“Vaguely, why?”

He went on to elaborate. “Similar to most nights, you were content with me holding you in my arms. However, you reached out to stretch for a moment and I noticed you had a freckled pattern on your inner left arm, just below your elbow, in the shape of an arc.”

I sucked in a deep breath. “How did you…?”

Gregory got up and positioned himself behind me on my left side. “Give me your hand for a second.”

He took my left arm and gently turned it over where the inside was facing up and the arc was visible. Then he moved the inside of his right arm against the inside of mine. I watched as our hands came together, and our freckled patterns met, forming the shape of a heart. I did a double take at what I was seeing. “How is this possible?”