Surreal Ecstasy (16 page)

"Sorry, ruffle-man. Time got
away from us."

"Wait a minute. Were you…
sleeping?" she finished that sentence as if the worst vision entered her
head, say, your brother doing your best friend.

Or vice-versa, considering the
position we used.

"Uh…" I wasn't sure quite
how to describe
anything
about our current situation. "Yeah… I was
tired… and we, uh, went home, I mean, to my apartment, and…"

"Whoa, Morgue, that's enough.
I don't really need to hear any more. Anyway, I was just kidding earlier. It's
not like I have anywhere to go right now, and tomorrow's Saturday. I'll take a
bus tomorrow over to your side of town to get my car. Where do you live again?"

She said
again
as if I'd
already given her my address, which I was pretty sure I'd never done. I recited
it to her, making sure she had my unit number.

"Okay, Morgue. I'll call you,
like, three hours ahead of time, just to make sure I don't walk into anything
that will make me lose my lunch." Then, after a brief pause during which I
am absolutely certain she winked, she hung up.

"Your sister doesn't seem the
least bit surprised that we ended up here," I said, turning only slightly
to face the most beautiful, amazing, and perfect man in the world.

Who just happened to be naked in my
bed.

Take that, Skyler.

Ree laughed face down into the bed—he'd
refused to use a pillow for some reason. "She'd probably want to take full
credit for it," he said, reaching for me and pulling me close.

"Take full credit for it, but
not want to hear a word about it," I chimed in.

"Exactly," he agreed. "Morgan…"

"What?" I held onto his
hand that was around my waist.

"Something's bothering me.
See, I really don't want you to think negative things about me. I have never
done anything like this."

"Had sex?" I teased,
laughing at my own joke.

He laughed also, saying, "I
was more referring to meeting a girl and being intimate with her hours later. I'm
really not like that, not at all. There's just something about you—about us. I
need you to know that."

"I know. I know what you mean.
There's this weird magnetic pull between us. I can't explain it either."
God, even lying there next to him after having sex, I wanted him again. He was
so delicious, yummy, and all the things in between.

"Where does your name come
from? I mean, is it short for anything? Don't tell me your first name is Rios."

He laughed with me and shook his
head. "I can definitely tell you that my first name is
not
Rios. My
full name is Tiberius Caesar Rios."

"Tiberius Caesar?" That
was unexpected. This man was just full of surprises. I'd expected him to say
Reynoldo
or something.

"Yes. Do you know who he was?"

Hmm. I was good at art history, but
not regular world history. Still… I knew that name from somewhere. I was about
to tell Ree that I didn't know when I vaguely remembered reading about a bust
of a person with that exact name. "Wait. Wasn't he a roman emperor?"

"Yes," he replied,
sounding pleased. "His full name was Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus. But
some people say he never really wanted to be emperor, and was pretty somber
toward the end of his life."

"Like he became emperor just
to follow in his family's footsteps, or something?"

"Pretty much, except it was a
bit more complicated than that. He wasn't going to be his uncle's heir, but
tragic circumstances placed him right in line for the crown. Anyway, another
interesting fact is that his younger brother had a neat name given to him at
birth—Decimus Claudius. That's where Dess' name comes from—Decima Claudia."

Huh! That was interesting. I never
stopped to think that the name
Dess
could be short for a much longer
name. Something about the twins' names made me think I've heard them before.
This sensation nagged me at the back of my brain, but I ignored it and said, "That's
cute. I like that. And I like the name Tiberius. It seems to fit you somehow."

I turned to lie on my back just in
time to see him get up to use the restroom, noticing that his butt was also
perfect, just like the rest of him. It was the perfect size—cute, muscle-y, and
round. Perfect for pinching, or just looking at with a big fat grin plastered
on your face.

I settled on the latter.

"Ree?"

"Yeah?" He turned his
whole body around to face me. It is important to mention that I enjoyed
this
view much, much more.

On the ceiling just outside the
bathroom was one of those round light fixtures. He'd just flipped the switch
for it because it was getting dark in the apartment, the still-not-turned-off
bathroom light notwithstanding. I looked up at him from the bed, a naked,
glorious creature, the light fixture appearing to create a halo right on top of
Ree's head.

He looked like he was from Paradise, the wonder of Heaven packed in an earthly figure, and an ideal one at that—a
living sculpture of what the ideal man should look like. I was taken aback by
the unreal splendor displayed in front of me.

How I wished I had talent. I
desired more than anything at that point to have the ability to paint the
beauty and perfection I saw, to commemorate every line, color, and curve for
the rest of my life. I stared at him, silently vowing to memorize the shape his
body and the way the light bounced off it. 

"Nothing," I said,
smiling.

Smiling also, he disappeared in the
bathroom for a moment.

When he came out, he said, "I
have to tell you something."

He came back to the mattress and
settled next to me. I couldn't resist eyeing his smooth, beautiful chest. I
started kissing him everywhere. "You're going to tell me that you were a
roman emperor in a past life?"

He closed his eyes, perhaps
enjoying all the attention he was getting from me. "I changed my mind,"
he said, smiling. "Go to sleep, and I'll talk to you there."

What? "Ree, why are you being
weird?"

"Shh, Morgan. Go to sleep. I'll
sleep too." He invited me to join him in a huge bear hug, which I accepted
and didn't move from as we both fell asleep.

* * *

I don't know how Ree knew I would
have a dream, but alas, it happened.

It was actually a continuation of
one of the dreams I'd had at the hospital. I was sitting in the park on a
blanket thrown over a manhole cover. A picnic basket yet sat in the corner.

"Okay, so I lied," an old
familiar voice said. "
This
is probably the last time I'm going to
be here with you."

"Friend!" I turned to
face him and recoiled a bit from the usual bright sunshine in my eyes. I
shielded them with my hand and walked toward him. "You were right, you know.
Dess—a girl from work—came to visit me at the hospital, and we've been talking
about God Generation stuff ever since."

"I know," he said easily.
"I used to see your daily activities."

"Oh." Used to see? What
did that mean? And what more was there to say if he already knew everything? I
played with my hair, distracted. I kept thinking of Ree and how I wanted to be
in his arms, loving him.

Friend laughed. I wondered if he
could read my mind, and if he could, I wondered if he'd be jealous of Ree.
Could imaginary friends that passed themselves off as angels even
feel
jealousy? "Do you remember what I said about who I was?"

I stopped walking, suddenly frozen
and confused. I knew it was just a dream and that because of this, it probably
wasn't very important or even really happening, but I could have sworn his
voice had changed, and now sounded… familiar.

"Obviously not." I was
annoyed at my own confusion, and definitely not in the mood for his half-assed
conversations that never went anywhere.

Friend stepped sideways, away from
the sun. When he did, my dream-legs stopped working, and I fell to the ground
in shock. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

He was Ree.

I awoke from the dream with a
slight start, as if from a nightmare. Disoriented, I took a couple of deep
breaths. Ree circled his arms around my waist and tried to soothe and calm me
down. "It's okay, Baby. Shhh—I'm here."

"What did you do with him,
Ree? Where did Friend go?" I leaned back, away from his touch, scooching
my butt slowly up against the wall.

"Morgan, relax."

"No." I held a pillow
over my naked body, as if it could protect me or do anything much at all. "You
killed him. He was my only friend, my only friend…" I loosened my posture
and knocked the back of my head against the wall, my shoulders heaving.

I should have known. Reckless as my
mother always thought I was, I slept with someone hours after I officially meet
him, and now the only good constant, by my side since childhood, had vanished.
I put my head down on my pillow, wanting to return to that place in the park
with the blanket thrown over the manhole cover, and Friend talking in circles,
pissing me off.

This might be one of the last
times we communicate this way.

Why had he said that? Why hadn't I
questioned him further?

Because I hadn't really believed
him, or cared. Because I had been too wrapped up in self-pity to heed his
warning.

Ree apologized profusely and oddly
enough, his words didn't break my train of thought. I said nothing at first,
the emptiness inside almost feeling like I was in mourning. I had pretty much
accepted the idea that Friend was totally made up. If that had been the case,
no one could really kill him, could they? On the other hand, if I had listened
to Friend with half the dedication with which he'd always listened to me, I
would have realized what he'd been trying to tell me.

I'm closer than you realize.
Every day I get nearer to breathing in the very air that you exhale.

Suddenly, I looked up at the
kitchen where Ree had been helping himself to a cup of orange juice. He had
left me alone for a while, about 30-40 minutes if I were to guess, probably to
give me the space and time needed to get my head together and think about
exactly this.

He glanced my way and, seeing me
watch him curiously, went back to my fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.
He handed it to me and watched me down half of it.

I stared at my water bottle
intently and tried to connect the dots in my head. I thought about my feeling
that, even though he'd only come into my life recently and I've only been
talking to him for less than a day, he'd somehow been a presence in my entire
life. I invented Friend when I was a little girl, but I honestly couldn't
remember when exactly I made him up or when I saw him for the first time.

Friend was a real person? How could
a real person appear in my dreams?

"Morgan, you don't get it, do
you?"

My body jumped at the shock of
hearing words spoken. 

I took a deep breath and shook my
head furiously, almost insanely. "No… apparently I
do
get it; that's
why I can't move my legs right now."

He laughed in slight shock, which
surprised me in return because I didn't mean it to be funny—it just seemed to
be an appropriate thing to say at the time. "You're adorable," he
said after a moment, cupping my chin with his hand. I allowed myself a crooked
grin, which eased the tension between us.

Ree stood up and leaned against the
kitchen counter. He took a breath and looked me square in the eye and said, "Morgan,
I have always been
Friend. More importantly, I'm your Guardian Angel."

Chapter 11

Ree's thoughts…

My Beloved's eyes grew rounder and
rounder as she regarded me in shock, almost as if it were the first time she
had ever seen me.

Perhaps one day I would reveal to
her just how greatly her feelings were constantly expressed in her eyes, but I
did not want to give that away just yet. I'd hate to see her try to restrain
herself from any further expression, and I rather enjoyed watching the emotion
play and change on her face minute after minute, hour after hour.

"I don't want you to feel
betrayed," I quickly added. "Being with you here and now has been the
pinnacle of my entire existence. Will you please let me explain?"

Saying nothing, she only nodded, a
slight look of distrust flittering throughout her eyes momentarily, shattering
my heart to pieces.

I had to fix this. I had to explain
it all to her in a way she would truly understand.

"Okay," I said, taking a
breath. I prepared myself mentally, something I'd been doing my entire life,
illustrating over and over again the best ideas and words that would most
accurately explain the unusual situation of my soul, and our bond.

I put on my dark blue boxers that
now had a small rip in its side due to our earlier, uh, enthusiasm. I sat down
next to her, keeping a respectful distance for both of our sakes, so we would
be able to focus on the matter at hand.

"Morgan," I began, "You
have no idea how much I have endured just for the privilege of being in your
presence and looking directly in your eyes. I have had to face many obstacles,
and I went through my entire life in search of my charge, the woman I've loved
for years and years."

"I don't get this," she
said. "But you're human, right? Dess is an ex-god. How does that relate to
what you are? Does she know?"

I broke it down to a simple
summary, explaining that Dess was definitely a Slate, and we
had known that for a long
time. We'd also known about my own unusual state of being, though I never told
my sister any details about who my charge was—that was always a personal thing
to me, something I never revealed to anyone, not even my twin.

As soon as I was old enough to know
my own name and recognize my mother, father, and siblings, I was also able to
remember who I was responsible for watching over.