Not Real. Not Imaginary.

PART THREE: NINA. [At the back of my mind]

I opened my eyes, as a very concerned Terry stared at me. I looked around, squinting under the bright light of the room. Terry’s assistant, Lewis, was there too. He was on the other side of the room, pacing as he talked with someone on the phone.

Terry’s arms suddenly wrapped around me, and she pulled me up towards her. She squeezed me strongly, and that made me grunt slightly.

“Oh, sorry.” She loosened her grip around me a little and slowly released me, moving an inch or so away to give me space.

I was confused. How did I get here, and why was I in the bed? Why was Terry here, and why was she so worried? What was Lewis doing here?

“Where…what…how did I…” I had so many questions, but I didn’t really know how to express them.

All I knew was that I had just woken up, and there was Terry right in front of me. I tried to force myself to remember something, anything. After a while, I could remember that I was dreaming something…something important? But as the seconds passed by, everything faded away.

“Shh…It’s okay. Take it easy, move slowly.” Her hands flailed and hovered all around the place, as if she wanted to help me but was unsure of what the best way to do so was.

“Terry, what are you doing here?” There was something scratching at the back of my mind, something…that I needed to remember, but…I didn’t know what it was.

“Well, we were talking and you suddenly…” Her arms flailed around again, this time, it seemed like she was confused and didn’t find the words “blacked out?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well...that! We were talking and you suddenly lost consciousness. You really scared me; I didn’t know what to do.” She seemed sincerely concerned, as was to be expected; but for some reason I still felt...undeserving of that concern.

I managed to sit up straight even though my head felt so light, and suddenly felt a soft pain in my head; like a tiny hammer, hitting against the side of my skull from inside.

I vaguely remembered parts of our conversation. Bits kept coming back one after another, out of order…I think.

I held my head in my hands and sighed as I felt another tiny hammer hit, and another bit of memory coming back. But the pain wasn’t just a little, and the memory wasn’t just any memory.

Terry’s proposal came to me, and suddenly I felt extremely embarrassed, confused, and worried.

“I’m so sorry, we were discussing something important and I just…”

She stopped me from talking as she placed her index on my lips.

“It’s okay. I recognize it was a very…daring… proposal. And I probably should’ve laid it out a bit more delicately after all I’ve known you for a while, I should’ve seen this coming.” She stroked my head, probably trying to tidy my hair (which, always got messy, no matter what) a little.

“No, it’s okay. I…would’ve probably reacted like this no matter what.” I looked at her apologetically “I’m sorry I caused you trouble...”

“You didn’t kitten. I think I am the one that caused them to you” She chuckled and gently cupped my cheek.

I leaned into her hand, searching for the warmth of it. I blushed, wide-eyed as I surprised myself, and immediately moved away. She seemed amused at my reaction and chuckled a bit more as she pulled her hand back and placed it on her lap.

I looked around and my eyes fell upon Lewis, who was still pacing around, talking on the phone.

“Did something happen?” I asked, curiously, seeing how impatient Lewis seemed to be, with whomever was on the other side of the phone.

“Well, you were unconscious and I wanted to look after you, so I asked Lewis to come get me some stuff from work while we were here…and…I have him rescheduling some client meetings, and some other minor stuff.”

A frown furrowed my brows as I looked down at my fidgety hands. I couldn’t believe I had caused Terry so much trouble that she had to cancel her meetings.

“What time is it, by the way? How long have I been…unconscious?” That question made both, Lewis and Terry exchange a puzzling expression.

And then I noticed Terry was wearing something completely different. Her makeup was different too, much more natural, although she still looked beautiful…even her hair was different. She had fixed it in a slightly messy low bun.

“Kitten…you were out for an entire day.” She spoke reluctantly.

A day? A FULL day?!

My eyes widened as I looked at her, then at Lewis. He smiled awkwardly and turned away, focusing on the phone again. Meanwhile, I looked down. I had been tucked in bed at some point; and also, someone had changed my clothes. I was now wearing a black, basic cotton T-shirt.

I lifted the covers to peek inside, hoping the shirt was over my dress and Terry hadn’t seen me in my underwear. But I had no luck. There was nothing covering my lower body, except for the underwear that I had worn when I came to meet with Terry. So, I was slightly relieved that, at least, she hadn’t seen me without it; still, I was mortified, and I felt my face warming up.

“I…I’m sorry” I could feel my cheeks igniting with embarrassment.

“No, I’m sorry.” She blushed too, just barely, as she looked at me. “I wanted to make sure you were comfortable, and took liberties that didn’t correspond me.”

“It’s okay. I understand why you did it”. I smiled to reassure her and placed my hand on hers.

She smiled back at me and looked down at my hand on hers. She took it and brought it up to her lips, placing a gentle kiss there, which made me blush, again.

Something started to bother me again. I felt like I was forgetting something important. And it just kept escaping me. No matter how much I tried to grasp it, it kept eluding me. I could only hope I’d remember later, but for now, I should let it go before it made me have an anxiety attack.

“Well, now that you’re awake…” She stood up and stretched lightly, so for the first time I could actually notice she was wearing denim jeans, and a simple navy-blue crop top. And I envied her again for looking so good, even in such simple clothing. “should we go for something to eat?”

“Actually…I think I should get home soon. I wasn’t there at all in the past day…apparently...” She quizzically stared at me and lifted a brow.

“Well, I guess you’ll be more comfortable there than in some hotel room. We can buy something on the way there...” I wasn’t really inviting her, but…she was worried and it was understandable. I just hoped Greer would be okay with me bringing someone back home.

‘Oh, no!’ an alarmed voice ringed in my head: I had forgotten about Greer…

She didn’t know what had happened and probably was very worried. Again, I wished she could use a phone so I could at least text her and let her know what had happened.

A warm feeling pulsed inside me for a moment, then it faded without even letting me realize where it came from.

I sighed and tried to get up. I lifted the covers and slid to the edge of the bed. Then, I was alerted by both, Lewis and Terry's gasps. I looked at them confused, then followed their gaze to my semi-naked lower body, and immediately covered myself back, as a red blush tinted my cheeks.

“C-could I get my dress back?” I asked shyly as I wrapped myself in the covers before getting up again.

Terry nodded and gave me a clothing bag. I quickly took it and walked towards the bathroom to get changed. I peeked into the bag and noticed it wasn’t my dress. She had bought me clothes while I was asleep…I thought it was very like her to do something like that, and it made me giggle.

Inside the bag there were a pair of pale blue denim shorts and a cute frilly blouse: black, made of a very delicate fabric and almost see through, fitted to the waist and then flowy and loose. The round collar had some frills and the sleeves were frilly too. She was very aware of the kind of clothing I liked.

I came out and looked for my boots. They were neatly placed on the side of the bed, but I didn’t see my dress anywhere.

“Uhm, Terry…Where is my dress?”

“Well, when you fainted you spilled a bit of oil on it. Apparently, one of your bottles wasn’t closed properly and when you fell, it came out and spilled on the floor. And it got on your dress. So, I had Lewis get it to dry clean. I’ll make it get to you as soon as it’s back.” She shrugged and looked at me apologetically again.

“Oh…it’s okay then...”

It wasn’t entirely okay. That was my favorite dress, and she must’ve seen how I felt about it because she quickly added:

“I made sure to take it to the best dry cleaning. It will come back as new, I promise.” She hurried towards me and took my hands in hers.

I looked down at our hands and smiled. She followed my gaze and smiled again, blushing slightly.

“Well kitten, we should get going” She kept holding one of my hands as she led me to the door.

“Sure, let’s go home” I replied cheerfully.

She seemed pleased after hearing those words, and I couldn’t help but to feel uneasy for some reason.

Again, something deep inside my mind was trying to get my attention. I didn’t understand why. All I could get from it, was the image of Greer popping in my head.