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ARI

“What do you think I should wear for dinner tonight?” I ask Caleb when I step out of the bedroom.

He’s lying on the couch and doesn’t look up at me from his phone. “Where are you and Javina going?”

“What do you mean?”

He still doesn’t look at me. “How am I supposed to give you a suggestion if I don’t know what type of place you guys are going to? Like, is it fancy?”

Oh. My. God. He forgot. “Caleb.”

Finally, he pries his attention away from the screen. “What?”

“I’m not going out with Javina tonight. I’m going out with you .”

“What? But—Oh, shit!” He jerks up and swings his legs over the front of the couch. “It’s our anniversary today, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and three weeks ago, you said you’d take the night off so we could go out for a nice dinner.”

“Oh, muffin. I’m so sorry. I completely forgot to take it off. I have to work tonight.”

I pout a little. I was looking forward to this because Caleb and I haven’t had quality time together in a while.

I work days at a bakery, and he works night shifts at a museum.

Normally, I get off just in time to come home to make him dinner before he runs off to work.

By the time he’s off, I’m in the middle of my REM cycle, dreaming about a person I shouldn’t be dreaming about.

Last night, my dream was the one where Javina and I were in Trey’s house, chatting on his couch, when we saw him pulling into the driveway in a brand-new white crossover—the vehicle that I now own.

Javina whistled through her teeth as we stepped outside. “Damn, pretty boy. Lexus ain’t doin’ it for ya no more?”

Trey flaunted a megawatt smile from the driver’s seat with the door open. “I’m good with my car. This one’s for Arella.”

I gasped. “Honey, you didn’t . . .”

He beamed proudly. “I did.”

“Why would you do this? After all the reasons I told you not to?”

Javina gaped at me like I was crazy. “Ari! Ungrateful much?”

Trey hopped out of the car with his arms up in surrender. “I bought the car under your name. It’s all yours. Fully paid for. No strings attached.”

I pretzeled my arms together. “I’m not accepting it.”

“How ’bout you get in and drive it around before you make that decision?”

I was about to protest again when Javina threw her arm up. “Shotgun!”

That’s the fifth time I’ve had that dream. The times before were the reason I thought to ask Caleb if he remembers how I paid for an expensive new car without any financing.

I mentioned it to Trey last night, and his silence confirmed he’s the answer to that mystery. It’s things like this that make me question my reality. Why doesn’t my life add up right? And when it does, why does it always point to Trey?

“This explains why you weren’t in the kitchen, making dinner.” Caleb stands from the couch and shoves his phone into his back pocket. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d have food ready in time.”

“I’ll go see what I can whip up for you quickly.”

“Don’t worry ’bout it. I’ll just grab something on my way to work, but that means I’ve gotta leave now.” He leans in to peck my cheek. “I’m sorry I forgot. How about I take you out on Thursday instead? I have that night off.”

“That’s movie night with Javina.” I think about offering to ask Javina if we can skip our movie date, but I’m not going to ditch my best friend just because my husband forgot about our first wedding anniversary. “Plus, don’t you have something with Rakesh that night?”

“Oh, that’s right. We’re doing this tournament thing at the gym. We can win a prize if we beat the other pairs that night.”

“Yeah, you told me that three weeks ago when we made these plans to go out tonight.” Which is why he was supposed to take it off.

“I’m sorry, muffin. I’ll buy you a nice gift, okay?” He kisses my cheek again, then heads into the bedroom to put on his uniform.

I’m left alone in the living room, holding back tears. I don’t want a nice gift. I want to spend time with my husband.

Later that week, as I drive back to my thinking spot, toxic thoughts consume my head.

The one that keeps repeating is Trey wouldn’t have forgotten about our anniversary .

I scold myself for thinking that, because it’s not right to compare my husband to another man.

Caleb has been stressed out with work lately. I’m sure that’s why he forgot.

My heart thumps wildly as I pull off the gravel road behind a motorcycle. Trey wasn’t kidding when he said he comes here every Sunday.

I step out of my car with my purse in one hand and my blanket in the other. The sun is beginning to set behind the woods, looking like a Bob Ross painting. When I make it to the top of the hill, Trey is in the same position he was last time: lying on his back under the oak tree, unmoving.

“Trey?” I say as I approach him.

He doesn’t respond.

“Trey?” I say louder.

He keeps his eyes closed and his earbuds in.

I don’t want to scare him again, but...

“Ahh!” he shouts when I poke him. He jolts upright and tears the wireless devices out of his ears. When his eyes land on me, his face lights up. “You’re back.”

“I am.” My heart flutters from how happy he looks. I didn’t expect to see him smile that big.

“Did you have some more thinking to do since you didn’t get to do it last time?”

“Yeah.”

“Would you like me to leave?”

I unfold my blanket and lay it down. Then I gesture for him to join me. He gladly takes that as my answer.

“Were you meditating?” I ask as we settle onto the blanket together.

He crosses his legs into a pretzel. “Mm-hmm.”

“Could I do it with you?”

“You want to meditate?”

“You said it helps clear your head, right? I could use some of that.”

“Uh, sure.” He hands me one of his earbuds, then sticks the other one back into his ear.

I put the device in but hear nothing. “How do I do it?”

“I’ll choose a short guided meditation for us. Then you just listen to what the lady on the app tells you to do.”

“Do I lie down first?”

“You can stay sitting or lie down. Whichever you prefer.”

“It seems like you prefer to lie, so I’ll try that.” I settle on my back and gaze up at all the leaves and branches above me.

Trey lies next to me, making my heart beat faster. He taps on his phone a few times, then a soft melody plays into my ear. A calming female voice tells me to release every thought from my mind and focus on one body part at a time, starting with my forehead.

By the end of the ten-minute session, my entire body feels relaxed and a little tingly. We sit up and face each other.

“What do you think?” Trey asks as he returns his earbuds to their case.

I try not to admire the way the sunlight hits the curves of his cheeks just right. “That was wonderful. I feel less stressed now.”

He shoves his earbuds case into the side pocket of his backpack behind him. “What are you stressing out about?”

“Same thing I came to think about last week.”

“The thing you refuse to share with me?”

The person here who refuses to share things the most is him. “I made a deal with you, remember? I’ll share that information if you share the deep thoughts you wrote on that postcard.”

“Oh, I have a gift for you.” He grabs his backpack and unzips the big pocket.

He brought the gift with him? “How did you know I was coming?” I didn’t even know I was coming until the moment after Caleb left for work and I climbed into my car.

“I didn’t,” Trey says. “I just hoped.”

We lock eyes as a warmth rushes down my spine. How long has he been sitting here, waiting for me to show up without knowing if I would or not?

After we break our intense stare, he pulls out a flat paper item from his backpack and offers it to me. I gasp at the colorful artwork of the New York City skyline. In the background is a silhouette of the Statue of Liberty.

“I wrote this card for you the night after my band’s video shoot at the softball field.”

I flip the postcard over and read it.

Whenever the sun or moon is out.

I knit my eyebrows together. “Am I supposed to know what this means?”

“You asked me a question that day, which I never answered. This was my answer.”

“What did I ask you?”

“You asked how often I think about you.”

I read the postcard again.

Whenever the sun or moon is out.

I can practically feel the nerves radiating off him as he waits for my reaction to this very sweet and personal message. I hug it to my chest. “Thank you, Trey. This means a lot to me.”

The darkness in his eyes dissipates a little. “It does?”

“Yeah. It took a lot of courage for you to give me this.” And now I can finally stop obsessively checking my mail.

“It was my therapist who convinced me to give it to you.”

“You talk to her about me?”

“Technically, I talk to her about Alterella, but you come up occasionally.”

Javina would love to know that Trey actually uses the name she gave my alternate-universe self.

Javina doesn’t know that I found Trey under my thinking tree last Sunday.

Caleb doesn’t know either, and I don’t plan to ever tell him.

This place is still my secret spot, and now Trey feels like a part of it.

“What have you told your therapist about me?”

Trey lets out a little laugh. “I can only open up so much at a time. Giving you this postcard means I’ve reached my limit for the week.”

“Does that mean I’ll have to come back next week to get you to open up again?”

He perks up. “Yes. That’s exactly what it means.”

“Okay, I’ll put it in my calendar. Next Sunday evening is officially hear Trey open up time. I’ll book it for seven thirty since that’s the time I got here today.”

That dimness in his eyes illuminates again. “Could you make it a reoccurring event?”

“Maybe,” I say with a smirk. “I’ll have to see if what you give me next Sunday is juicy enough to warrant a weekly visit.”

“I don’t open up a lot, so anything I say will be juicy.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”