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I couldn’t tell you when the dreams started. I couldn’t even tell you when I started recognizing her.
I just know that one day I noticed she was always in my dreams. A beautiful woman, maybe the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
She looked like a God, all sharp features, brilliant blue eyes, shiny black hair. And don’t even get me started on her chiseled body, muscular arms and legs covered by black colored art.
I knew it was the point of the whole soulmate thing, to have someone that you’re attracted to be the one your soul was tethered to, the one you were meant to be with the most.
But I felt as if it was too good to be true that someone so heavenly could be tethered to me.
Last night, I dreamt that we were on a beach, somewhere. Her hair was curled lightly and brushing against her shoulders with every gust of the ocean breeze.
We were just sitting together, not talking, but looking at each other. We never really talked. There had been a few times when I’d heard her talk to someone else in my dreams, and I knew she had an accent. But there wasn’t much to say. I’d much rather just admire her.
I noticed the woman’s nails were bright red. That was new… They were usually either brown or black lately. She had makeup on, but her lips weren’t black like usual. I found I liked her like that more, when I could see the pink of her lips.
My alarm woke me up to get ready for work at 7am. I carved in some time to get a fun drink every Monday morning, knowing that was a way to get me excited for the week.
Just a block from my apartment was a coffee shop called Bloom, and they made the best chai tea I’d ever had.
The line was long this day. I spent the first half of my wait time thinking about my soulmate, about the new tattoo I noticed on her bicep a few months ago. And then I remembered the snippet of tattoo I could see on her back last night. I couldn’t tell what it was from the angle I had, but it was certainly new and beautiful. I wondered-
“Oh sorry, mate,” A voice said, an Australian accent making me turn my head in curiosity.
And there she was. Even more tall, beautiful, dark, chiseled, and ethereal than she had ever been in my dreams.
It was like there was a shiny aura around her, like she was an angel from the heavens, sent down to the earth to make the world brighter, to fix all that is wrong with this dying planet.
She must’ve noticed eyes on her, because when she turned to face me, she had a concerned look on her face. Almost defensive.
Watching her eyebrows soften and her eyes widen made me realize the expression on my face was probably that of a dumbfounded loser.
There were still a few people between us in line, and I didn’t know what to do. Should I move? Wait for her to step to me?
But then the woman at the counter stole the attention of my soulmate, and the eye contact was broken. She ordered whatever it was that she was going to order, then walked around the corner to one of the tables out of my view.
My heart was hammering in my chest as I waited in line still, eyes scanning around as if I could move the wall that prevented me from laying eyes on her again.
“Hello, how are you today?” The girl at the register asked politely as I approached.
“Uhm, I- I don’t know,” I said nervously, facing her with shaking hands. I wasn’t really hungry anymore, or thirsty. Any caffeine in my system would probably kill me dead.
“What can I get you?”
I probably looked like I was on something, shaking so violently and looking over in the direction of where I knew the woman from my dreams was sitting.
“Iced Chai Latte, please. With, uhm, oat milk,” I told the worker.
“Anything else?”
“Croissant,” I told her.
She chuckled, weirdly, but then nodded, “The woman a few people in front of you paid for yours. Left a $10 bill. You can go wait over there, and that’ll be right out. What’s your name?”
I gave her my name and took a deep breath, if only just to steel myself to face that tattooed goddess around the corner.
Her back was to me. I almost wanted to thank her for that.
I could tell by the tattoo on the back of her neck that this one was mine. The wings I’d dreamed of so many times before I started actually seeing her.
I approached the table, taking a deep breath to steel myself before I reached her.
“Hi,” I said nervously.
She looked up at me, blue eyes even more beautiful than in my dreams.
“Hi,” She said back, her voice deep.
“Can I sit?” I asked, gesturing to the open seat across from her.
“Of course,” She nodded.
I sat down, hoping she didn’t notice the way my hands were shaking as I placed them on the table between us. It was quiet for a bit. I was busy fighting against my instincts to avoid looking at this woman, despite the way I could feel her eyes burning holes through my skin.
“What’d you get?”
I lifted my head, “What?”
God, she was beautiful. She wasn’t wearing the heavy makeup that she was in most of my dreams. Sometimes she was bare faced, but today she was wearing some mascara and blush. Or maybe that was just the soulmate thing making her cheeks so pink.
“What’d you get?” She repeated, a small smile on her lips, “To drink?”
“Uhm, iced chai with oak milk. And a croissant,” I told her, trying hard not to stare.
The woman laughed then, “You’re fucking with me, right?”
“What? No,” I was blushing, but her laughter was contagious and a bubble of laughter escaped my mouth, “What’s wrong?”
“I got an iced chai with almond milk. And a croissant,” She scrunched her nose for a second.
“That’s why the barista laughed at me,” I realized, lowering my head for a second before looking back at the beautiful woman in front of me. I couldn’t look away from her for very long before something told me to find her form again.
There was a lull when the two of us stopped our laughter. I could see a piercing through her tongue when she laughed, which was something I’d never noticed in my dreams before. You’d think I’d have noticed it.
She looked down my bare arms, “You’re even more gorgeous than you are in my dreams.”
I couldn’t blush any more than I already was, “I, uhm… thank you. You’re… well, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
She smiled again, full teeth this time. The points of her canine teeth flashed at me, and I rolled my eyes, “You know, I was so shocked the first time I noticed your new fang teeth, that I took a nap that day to see them again.”
The woman raised an eyebrow, “Really?”
“Yeah. Or when you got those extensions in your hair,” I shrugged, “I started going to bed earlier to dream of you.”
She sighed, “What happened, that one week when I saw you with a scrape down your leg? It looked bad.”
“Fell off my bike,” I chuckled, “I didn’t realize you would see that.”
“Nearly had a heart attack when I did.”
“Your new tattoo… What is it? On your back?”
Rhea smiled, “Magpies. And a snake. Cool isn’t it? I still have a few sessions left on it.”
“I just noticed it last night. It’s-”
“Rhea?” The barista called from near the register. The woman in front of me turned her head, and gave me a small smile before standing up.
Rhea. So that's the name of my future.