Someone to Need (#FridayFlash)

Someone to Need

Among the billions of dreams about ballerinas turned battlers and striving to be anyone but herself, there was only one in which slumber's magic left her untouched. Usually, she surrendered the real Rosie when sleep took her by the hand and opened a wardrobe of possibilities. She could be or do anything. She could realize every hidden desire and sink her teeth into them, whether playing the prowling wolf or the child getting its first taste of a peach.

This time was different. She felt so...normal. But even with normality, she was somehow able to interrupt his stroll with a simple glance, halting both him and his Shetland Sheepdog. He looked at her like he needed her, like he wanted her to care for him, and she couldn't help but agree. He started towards her, but something held him back, and before she could reach him, the quietus of the dream broke them apart. The sorrow was there, but it wasn't strong enough to survive when a text message blasted away any element of the dream that sought to linger. She forgot the man with the Sheltie who'd stopped at her glance and made her feel so alive in normality. In that moment, he had shown her exactly what she was missing.

 

But she didn't remember.

 

Not when she was en route to find him, not when she saw his face, and not when her adopted Shetland Sheepdog laid down on her lap for the first time.