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and used it instead. That is when I discovered to my surprise that I actually got a closer shave without any nicks, cuts, or bleeding. So from that day forward, I stopped wasting my money on shaving cream. I know that this tip doesn't work well for everyone because a friend of mine tried it at my suggestion and really did a number on his face. But it works extremely well for me.
Next up is washing down my body. I am okay with using Body Wash if I have a Shower Puff to apply it with, which is usually the case. But in my own home I just use bar soap. I am particular about what brands I use because I don't want to feel 'oily' or 'filmy' after I am done bathing. Once my body has been lathered up thoroughly, then I begin rinsing out the Hair Conditioner. Much of the extra water that runs off of my head catches the suds on my body killing two birds with one stone, as it were. A quick rinse of everything on my body that didn't get rinsed as collateral damage from rinsing my hair and I am done.
So after doing a quick assessment of Hannah's shower, I grabbed her Suave Brand 'Lemongrass and Ginger' Shampoo and put it to use. She had a matching bottle of conditioner and I used that as well. I didn't have one of my triple blade razors, so I decided today would have to be a stubble face day. She did not use bar soap, evidently because there was body wash and a puff available. Again, it was Suave Brand but the fragrance was Ocean Breeze. After I scrubbed up really good, I rinsed out the conditioner and then rinsed off whatever soap remained on my body.
I borrowed her hair brush and dryer to style my hair before going back to the bedroom. In all of the upset and commotion from Haley's breakdown last night, we had never attended to unpacking my clothes and stuff that I had brought over. I put the suitcase on the foot of the bed and set about pulling out the necessities for me to get through today. That was when my déjà vu kicked in and I remember dreaming about the suitcase with my clothes in it and my confusion during the dream about the unfamiliar location where I was at. I had been here before when I dreamed about it about 9 months ago. Before I took my shower, I had been planning on just leaving by going straight to the front door after I was dressed for work. But in my dream, I had gone into the kitchen and retrieved a small paper bag so I followed my instincts by repeating the moves in my dream.
The apartment was still quiet when I stepped out of Hannah's bedroom. Turning into the kitchen I found that sure enough, there was a paper sack with a note under it. I grabbed both, snatched up my cookware, and headed out the door to my truck. In the note, Hannah explained that she had to leave early for school today so that she could ride the bus, but that she had taken a moment to throw together a small lunch for me. The bag contained two Ham-n-Cheese sandwiches, a bag of Cheetos, and a Navel Orange. The note was signed by her hand with Hugs and Kisses on it. It was implied that Haley was still asleep in her room. I felt all warm and fuzzy inside as I drove to work that day. I made sure to pass Hannah's note around to all of the guys. It was great to have them envy me for a change!
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That evening when I returned to my own house I was still concerned about Haley and her breakdown. But I knew on some level that I would be brought into the loop whenever Hannah and Haley decided that the time was right for that. As it was, two more days past by without any word from either of the Fletcher sisters. I was beginning to be concerned when one evening I heard a key working the latch to my door. Rocket made a mad dash for the door and began mewing in expectation. He stood on his hind legs with his front paws braced against the door jamb as if he wanted to reach up and grab the knob to open it up for whoever was trying to get in.
Rocket obviously knew who was on the other side of the door. That little bit of knowledge combined with the key working the lock were the only two clues that I needed to also know who my visitor was. The unlocking of the door was followed by a short knock as the door was partially opened just a crack. Sure enough, a second later Hannah stuck her head inside and called my name. Rocket twined about her ankles as she came inside. He stayed glued to her just like a remora on a shark.
"Over here in the Living Room," I answered. I put down the book that I had been reading and stood up to greet my girlfriend. Hannah didn't have any bags under her eyes or otherwise seem in distress, so my next thoughts were for Haley. "How is your sister?"
"Uh...yeah. This is going to be an extremely awkward conversation." Hannah took my hand and guided me to the couch. "But that is exactly why I am here. I have told you before that the dream isn't perfect, right? The dream doesn't contain everything that happens to all of us. But I am certain that there are things in the dream that will come true as long as you and I don't deviate from a particular path. You and I figure into the dream very heavily, but Haley? Not so much. She is in the dream, but to the best of my knowledge she doesn't have a critical or pivotal role in the events like you and I do.
"I finally managed to get Haley to open up to me this afternoon about what has broken her spirit. As it turns out, she has been partially in denial about the whole déjà vu thing because mine was so vivid to me. It was kind of like she wanted to blow it all off as some form of Hocus-pocus that no one should take seriously even though I was totally committed to finding you. You are literally my 'Dream Guy'. I dreamed about you long before we met. And now, here you are. So..."
I waited patiently for Hannah to continue, but she just stared at the floor. And then a tear formed in one eye and rolled down her cheek. I rushed to fall to the floor at her knees. I knelt on the floor in front of her and gathered up her hands in mine.
"Baby! What is wrong? Please tell me and we'll work through this together! I don't want to loose you! Did I already fuck something up?"
"My own dream isn't perfect and sometimes it doesn't show everything, Skip." Hannah placed her hand softly on my cheek and cradled my face. Then she drew a huge breath to calm herself and prop up her resolve. "Haley is still being extremely tight lipped. But one thing that I know for certain is that right now she refuses to be close by to anywhere that you are. She has said in no uncertain terms that she cannot be in your presence ever again. That isn't going to work as far as curing whatever her problem is and we all know it. I promise that I am going to make Haley work out some other solution.
"The one thing that Haley finally let slip was that she has had a couple of déjà vu experiences exactly like yours. So just like what happens to you, she dreams about something but forgets it almost immediately while she sleeps until the day comes that the puzzle pieces match up. Then, 'bam!' the lightning strikes and she remembers the dream and everything in it. But unlike you, she doesn't have a good strong timeline for how frequently that this happens to her because she was never curious enough to dig deeper into it like you did.
"But as to this most recent revelation, she refuses to give me any useful information besides the fact that she had a déjà vu experience and the reason for her actions are tied directly to her own dream. She is adamant about keeping a minimum separation of 100 feet between the two of you. Haley is insistent and claims that she doesn't hate you, in fact to the contrary she assured me that she is rather fond of you. She swears that she isn't angry with you. She is adamant that you did nothing wrong and the issue lies entirely with her own self. However, she admitted to me that she did dream about you and claims that her own dream is the reason for the estrangement."
We both stood up then and I drew her into a long affectionate kiss. Then she gently pushed me back down to sit on the couch before assuming her rightful place in my lap so that we could continue making out. After a while, our kissing slowed and stopped. We snuggled together there on the couch and I ran my fingers through Hannah's long hair. My thoughts began to catch up to me a little as we sat there cuddling.
"I never had a sister growing up," I began. "Haley seemed to be growing closer to me over the past few days, and honestly I was soaking every bit of it up like a sponge. I'm in love with Haley because she is the sister that I never had. I love being close to BOTH of you. My first thought tonight when you told me that she didn't want to see me or speak to me anymore was that maybe I had blown it with her by being over protective or something. I love her Hannah. I really, really do. I need you both!"
"I believe you, babe." Hannah brushed her lips against mine, "I'm really glad that is how you feel. Whenever I thought about being married and having a husband, I always knew that he was going to have to like my family and visa-versa. When I saw Haley hugging you and kissing your cheeks, my heart soared to the heavens. Everything seemed so perfect until she broke down. But don't worry, you and I will figure out how to get her to come back into the fold. We'll do it together."
We spent the next few hours getting reacquainted. Hannah had missed me just as badly as I had missed her. I admonished her about going totally silent for the last couple of days and explained that I was scared to death. She apologized and told me that between school and Haley's breakdown that she had more on her plate than she could reasonably handle. That turned everything back around 180° so it was my turn to apologize and explain that I wasn't mad or angry because on some level I knew that she was overwhelmed. We both agreed to do a better job on communicating with each other by using short text messages at least once a day, even if we had time for nothing else in the future.
After that, we made love to each other without getting naked or any physical penetration. You
CAN
make love without having sex, just in case you didn't know. I suppose that it is just as well that we didn't undress because Rocky demanded his fair share of affection too. He got into Hannah's lap while she was sitting in my lap. I had to laugh at his antics. But all too soon, the 10 o'clock hour chimed on my mantle clock so it was time for Hannah to return home for the night. Hopefully she would have some luck in getting Haley to open up and be more forthcoming about her issues so that we could resolve this crisis. I locked up the house, turned out all of the lights, and went to bed shortly after she left. Rocky decided to curl up at my knees instead of sleeping in his own kitty bed that I had moved into the master bedroom. I'm glad that he did. His snuggles and purring eased my heartache, putting me right to sleep. I slept very well that night.
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Over the next few days, Hannah and I did a lot better job of communicating with each other. One thing that I had realized as I played our communication gap over and over in my head is that I am totally hung up on the whole 'making the wrong move that fucks everything up' paradox. On the one hand, if I do the wrong thing, then Hannah and I do not get to have our 'happily ever after'. On the other hand, if I try to take the safe way out and do nothing at all, then that is a guaranteed failure that will ruin everything.
So I had already made a mistake by not following Hannah's instructions on the night that we met. I had to continue on acting with my own intuition and gut feelings hoping that Hannah would catch me out before I made a mistake. In this particular case, I had feared that reaching out to her and calling her would have upset the apple cart in two different ways. I could be making a wrong turn from her dream or I could be pissing Haley off even further as Hannah tried to work things out between the three of us.
Several times throughout the day, I would send little short text messages to Hannah. Simple little lovebird things like, "Thinking of you right now." and, "I wish you were here." as well as the standard, "I love you, babe!" Hannah usually replied promptly with little things of her own. Several times I didn't receive an answer until a while later. But whenever that happened, she was always sure to include a reasonable explanation like, "Sorry, but we had a pop quiz in class and looking at my phone would have been an automatic 'F'." or, "I was indisposed in the restroom."
I tried calling Hannah for a voice chat the next evening after she had come by the house. We had a nice chat that lasted a little less than an hour. So it became a standard move to try and call her around 8:00 each evening. Hearing her voice was at the very least cathartic. Just listening to her purged all of my anxiety and tension almost immediately. I asked Hannah about the progress with Haley and she paused briefly to go into her bedroom and close the door for privacy.
She explained that she had tried repeatedly to get more detail about Haley's dream out of her, but that she had hardly budged on it. Haley remained resolute that she could not be near me since that would end up in a catastrophe that would destroy the three of us. Hannah reassured me that the situation would resolve itself one way or another because of events in what we began to call "The Master Dream", referring to Hannah's déjà vu that had started the whole convoluted mess to begin with.
