Chapter 5: Owen

“A dream guide, huh?” I said quizzically, sitting down hard on the chair TruPaul had conjured out of nothing.

I really didn't want to believe that the past day, a perfectly normal seeming day that I hadn't doubted at all, was actually a dream. Maybe I'm not quite as observant as I thought. I contemplated silently. Looking back, the sudden changes to the house should have been a dead give away, and should have prompted me to investigate. I was always the one that wouldn't rest until all my questions were answered.

Speaking of unanswered questions, I looked again at TruPaul. I really couldn't have picked a better dream guide, to be perfectly honest. She seemed just like the kind of woman I aspired to be. Well put together, in charge of the situation and drop dead gorgeous to boot. I had always admired women that were smart, able to take charge and look fabulous while doing it.

“Why did I get a dream guide, then?” I asked as she was pouring the pancake batter into the skillet. “And if this is a dream, why do I need to eat?” As I asked the second question, my stomach gurgled as if to tell me that while I was still dreaming, it would be as real as it wanted to be.

TruPaul turned from her place at the stove and gave me a long searching look. “I'm here quite frankly girl, because you need me. You need someone to give you some good advice before you do something you'll regret.” She flipped a pancake smoothly. “And trust me, you will do something you'll regret if you don't change that piss poor attitude of yours.”

“Piss poor attitude?! I think I'm perfectly entitled to being upset after the way that bastard cheated on me!”

For a long minute, TruPaul said nothing. She merely finished up cooking the rest of the breakfast goods, plated them, and set the plates on the table before me. I barely noticed that the table was decorated with a cute table cloth, and the dishes looked exactly like something I would pick out in a designer store.

“Well-” I began only to be silenced by the raising of a perfectly groomed hand.

“I'll answer your questions after you eat and calm down, missy.” taken slightly aback, I picked up the sterling silver fork by hand and dug into the food in a most unladylike fashion. Even if it was a dream, my stomach reminded me that it had been ages since the time I last ate. To it all off, TruPaul's ability to create breakfast was amazing. Everything tasted just the way I liked. Perhaps it was the best this was a dream, I'd have to spend all day in the gym to work off the calories I was ingesting.

Once I'd eaten as much as my dream stomach could hold, which as it turned out was quite a lot, I looked at TruPaul. Unsuccessfully, that is. I'd been so engrossed in eating that I hadn't noticed when she left. Or had she just popped out of existence like the chair I was sitting on had popped into existence.

“I'm in here, darling,” TruPaul called from somewhere. I followed the sound of her voice from the kitchen back through the newly renovated monastery. Everything was different, but the same. TruPaul said it really was haunted. Does that mean it's haunted in this dream too? I didn't really mind buying a haunted monastery because I didn't really think it was haunted. Now that I had some form of confirmation, it was kind of spooky. Keep it together, Stella, I told myself. You are as fierce as any ghost could hope to be.

I found TruPaul sitting on the top of a desk in a room that eerily looked like my office back at G.M. It'd taken me hours to make the place at work look just right, and this space looked even better. I hoped that if anything, I'd be able to remember what it looked like so I could remodel my work office.

“Alright, enough gawking at your own office, and time for some serious business,” TruPaul said. She looked me dead in the eye before continuing, and I could see that her eyes were a weird golden color to match her heels.

“You need to get your life back on track,” she said in a stern tone. “These plans you've made will just hold you back! You've got to pick yourself up, write a sad poem in your journal, and move on! No man that will just up and leave you after seven years is worth all that energy you're putting into feeling sorry for yourself and hating him and his new girl.”

I looked away during her little speech. Everything she said completely matched any advice I would give someone else in my exact situation. But no matter how good the advice was, I just couldn't help but feel the way I did. I could still feel the angry knot of hurt and rage burning in my stomach right along with the delicious breakfast TruPaul had just cooked for me.

“I still can't forgive him for cheating on me! Why shouldn't I get some sort of revenge for that kind of betrayal? We were going to have a family of our own, but he had to go and start building another one while we were together! Why would he do that?” Even though I promised myself I wouldn't cry one more tear over that man, I felt tear slide down my cheek. I was lucky that I'd never been one of those people whose face puffed up when I cried. My eyes never even got that wet, and my mascara was waterproof.

“First of all,” TruPaul began, crossing her arms. “How do you know he was cheating on you? Maybe the girl was preggers before they started dating. You don't know anything about her, so you can't assume something like that! Maybe Alex is marrying her because she needs someone to support her and her kid. That doesn't excuse him suddenly dumping you for no reason, but he still may have a reason. You never even asked, or talked to him about it at all for that reason! You should find out more about them and why they got together so fast before you start assuming things like that.”

TruPaul's words felt as if they struck me straight in the heart. Again she hadn't said anything that wasn't good advice, but I still couldn't make myself take it to heart. It was almost as if there was a wall in my brain or heart, whichever place that governs decisions like that, that wouldn't let me accept her advice.

What she said, however gave me an idea. I didn't know anything about the expecting couple. I needed to find out just how the met, why they got together, just when Alex started cheating on me, and all sorts of things of that nature. More than my need for revenge, I needed to know why! My mind was almost consumed with the need to know. I just needed to get TruPaul to leave me alone long enough to do some research.

“There's another reason that you need me,” TruPaul said, startling me out of my thoughts. “You've hit some sort of block at work, no?” It was true. At G.M we were so close to having a breakthrough, but some new research had proven to be a big setback. “You can figure out what's wrong, you just don't know it yet. You have to keep going to work, even though this is a dream. Once you figure out what is eluding you at work, you will know how to wake up! So, you'd best get to work! You'll want to wake up soon, I can't imagine how stiff your neck will be after your nap on the floor!”

Before I even had a chance to say anything, she was gone. Although she left me with more questions than answers, I was a little happy to have a moment to myself. I had so many things to think about, and so little time. I wanted to sort out things with Alex as soon as I could, as well as figure out what exactly it was I was supposed to find out for G.M. This was shaping up to be the most productive dream I'd ever had!