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Cat furrowed her brow then realization dawned on her face. “Oh, God! No, Elena. I didn’t mean you and me.”

“Whew, okay,” Elena said. “I thought I’d missed something.”

Cat chuckled. “It’s been a strange day. I had this dream and our talk…”

“Dream?”

“It’s nothing. Really.” Cat sighed. “It seems you have made this nice wall, that I had so expertly built around my heart, begin to come down. All kinds of thoughts about all kinds of things have swirled through my head and you, my friend, are getting the random blips. Don’t ask me where the friends with benefits came from because I don’t even know.” Cat paused and stared at Elena. “But it makes me wonder, have you ever been attracted to any of your friends?”

“No, I haven’t. I guess I can see where you might think that since I repressed all those feelings from college, but there’s no one. Friends are friends. Dean was my lover.”

Cat nodded. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“You didn’t. But have you been attracted to any of your friends?”

“Never.” Cat shrugged and held her hands up. “See what I mean? I don’t get it.”

“Hmm, I’ve never thought about it, but I guess I can see how it could happen. You see it in the movies all the time.”

“Well, if it’s in the movies, it must be true.”

Elena laughed. “Absolutely.”

Cat leaned in and said, “I think Aqua might be my kind of friend with benefits.”

Elena giggled. “You’re being weird today, but okay. Yeah, I did refer to her as my little friend.”

Cat shrugged. “Exactly.”

“Do you have time to sit for a minute?” Elena asked.

Cat looked around the bookstore and saw Jessica helping a customer, but there was no one else in the store. “Sure. If someone comes in I’ll need to help them.”

“Of course, just like every other day when I come in.” Elena smiled. “Do you want to tell me about this dream?”

Cat sat in what had become her chair when Elena visited the bookstore. “It’s nothing, really. I was walking…” Cat gasped. “It’s because of what you said last night!”

“What did I say?” Elena thought about their conversation, but they’d talked about a lot of things.

“You mentioned walking along the lake. That’s what happened in my dream,” Cat explained.

Elena listened and hoped Cat would continue. She wondered if it had upset her and that’s why she was a little off today.

“I was walking along the lake near Lovers Landing,” Cat began. “Do you know it?”

Elena nodded. “Yes, that’s where Krista Kyle has her resort. I’ve never been out there. Have you?”

“Yeah, several times. Krista is a friend. Anyway, I was walking along the lake at Lovers Landing and I was holding someone’s hand.”

Elena’s brows rose up her forehead. “Someone?”

“Yes, a woman, but when I tried to see who it was her face was a blur,” Cat said.

“But you know it was a woman.”

Cat nodded.

“Did this dream upset you?”