"Vanessa, what the hell are you wearing?" Jeffrey shouts, almost the second Vanessa rushed through the door. Vanessa jumped in her skin, feeling her heart rate speed up inside her chest.

"I uh... I don't know." Vanessa stuttered, looking down at the long blue gown that graced her skin. The intricate details and the ruching around the midline of the skirt proved to her that she was overdressed for her office.

But she wasn't going to her office?

Vanessa shook her head, trying to figure out where things had gone wrong. She was on her way to an award ceremony, one where they were going to honor her... for what again, she couldn't remember.

"Are you kidding me? You seriously thought this was appropriate to wear to work today?" Jeffrey shook his head, pulling at his hair with his hands. "Get in my office now!"

He looked around the office, making eye contact with almost every single employee before opening his door for Vanessa to enter through.

"Get back to work!" He shouts at the employees which startled Vanessa once more. She shook her head, still trying to wrap her mind around her morning.

Things had gone so terribly wrong. She remembered waking up and feeling rushed to get ready in time. She was already running late for the ceremony, and she wanted to get a good seat.

Vanessa pulled out her phone to check her text messages. She knew as soon as she'd woken up she texted Talon. She told him where to meet her for her award. He hadn't answered yet, which left Vanessa feeling a little ignored. But that wouldn't matter for long.

"Sit down." Jeffrey spat at her from across the room. His fingers rubbed his temples as he plopped down in his chair. Vanessa took a mental picture of the red hue in his face. What had she done to make him so angry?

The room was quiet, but the tension was screaming as loud as possible in Vanessa's ears. How had things gone so wrong? Vanessa tried to remember what happened last night. She could recall going grocery shopping with Talon, and they talked about the sleep study. Then he dropped her off at home and she drank some sleepy tea and tried to go to bed. She even remembered the nightmare she woke up from with wire stuck into the inside of her skull.

Vanessa reached for her forehead and rubbed the spot she was convinced the wires were attached to. How was there not even a bump?

When she woke up in the morning she checked her calendar, saw she was late, and rushed to get ready for the award ceremony she was invited to. Her legs had betrayed her and sent her to her office, and Vanessa couldn't remember if she was supposed to work today or not.

"What the hell is going on with you?" Jeffrey hits his hand against the table. The noise rattled the pencils in their holder, and Vanessa's lower lip quivered.

"I don't know."

"What the hell do you mean, you don't know?" Jeffrey shakes his head. He leaned forward on the table. "Vanessa, you have all of your co-workers so freaked out. I get complaints all the time of you talking to yourself in your cubicle. You've been missing days of work lately without calling in, and now you think you can just show up in a dress that I don't... I don't even know how to explain what the monstrosity you are wearing is."

Jeffrey shot to his feet, pacing around the room. His hands were folded behind his back and it seemed he looked everywhere but at Vanessa. Vanessa fiddled with the details on her dress. She was trying to find anything that would remind her of what she was doing here. How did she get dressed and manage to find herself at her office without being able to remember any of it? It was like she woke up in her office.

Was this another nightmare?

Vanessa shook her head as the thoughts of every bad dream she had in school about showing up in her underwear rushed to the surface. None of those ever came true, but things were different now and her nightmares were more realistic. Would she just wake up from this one as well? How did she walk the streets of New York dressed like this?

Vanessa made a mental note of the blue dress and tried to remember a nightmare she had without one. This felt all wrong, though. Every time she wore a blue dress, it was always the same wispy material.

Vanessa searched the hem, bending forward the best she could to try and find the burn marks from months earlier.

"Vanessa!" Jeffrey shouted. Vanessa jumped in her chair and brought her attention back to her boss.

"What!" Vanessa yelped back. Hot tears threatened to fall down her face, but Vanessa did her best to hold them back.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Jeffrey's voice was calm, almost terrifying with how much it had shifted.

"I have no clue what you are talking about or what's going on. I don't know what you want me to say."

"You know what? I can't do this anymore. Vanessa, I am going to have to let you go. You need to pack up your things and head home. Today will be your last day at this office." Jeffrey fell into his chair and started rubbing his temples once again. His face was just as red as it was when Vanessa had entered his office, but his whole demeanor seemed different. His body relaxed, like a weight was lifted off his shoulders once the hard words were out of his mouth.

"Fired?" Vanessa questioned, her head trying to wrap around the words.

She needed this job.

How was she supposed to pay her bills?

How was she supposed to pay her rent?

Food?

Anything?

Vanessa needed this job to stay in the city. She wouldn't be able to afford to live in New York without this job. She had very little savings, as this job already barely covered everything.

"Sir, you can't do that." Vanessa muttered. Her words were weak and desperate sounding.

"I can, and I am. We can't have you here anymore. Please clean up your things and I'll get the paperwork done." 

"Vanessa, is everything okay?" Talon rushed from around the counter at the coffee shop as soon as Vanessa walked through the door. She didn't know how he knew she needed him, but she was thankful that he was able to take a moment to come and see her.

"No." Vanessa muttered, her hair in a frazzled mess on top of her head, falling from the formal bun she had done this morning. Talon looked at her with a worry in her eyes that she'd seen way too much over the last few weeks.

"Marcus, I'm taking a break." Talon shouts over the counter to the man that stood in the back. The guy Vanessa assumes was Marcus, nodded his head and jumped into place at the cash register as a third worker continued working on the coffees. "Let's sit here. Tell me what happened."

Vanessa followed Talon to a table in the corner, sliding her sandals across the floor. She pulled her jacket tighter around her body, trying to hide herself from the rest of the world. She could feel the mascara that had run down her face from her crying on the way home from work.

After she changed out of her dress, she placed it on her bed and couldn't look at it anymore. She didn't know where it had come from. She never purchased a dress even remotely close to this one. But after she looked at it for as long as she could bear, she put on her comfiest set and had to go somewhere. Anywhere that wasn't her apartment. Vanessa couldn't bear the thought of being alone right now, not when she'd just lost the only thing that seemed to give her reason in her life before Talon came along. So she knew exactly where she had to go.

The only place she could think of was Talon's house, but she knew he wouldn't be there, so here she was, sitting across from him at the coffee shop.

"I have no clue what happened." Vanessa started crying again.

"Does this have something to do with the text message from this morning?"

Vanessa nodded her head. Talon's hand was on her back, rubbing tiny little circles.

"I got fired today." Vanessa mumbled.

Talon looked taken aback by her comment, his brows furrowing and his lips pursed. He seemed like he was deep in thought, trying to solve one of the world's hardest puzzles.

"Alright, I'm sorry, I don't understand how the text message relates to you getting fired, also what the hell did you get fired for? You are such a hard worker." Talon shook his head, his hand shooting across the table to wrap around hers.

"I don't know what's happening to me." Vanessa mumbled, and the thoughts raced through her mind like a tidal wave. She didn't know how to answer Talon's question. She got fired for showing up to work in a ball gown? A ball gown she didn't own. "Am I really here right now?"

Vanessa bit her lip as she watched Talon's face contort at her question. He looked around the coffee shop as if he were looking for hidden cameras.

"What do you mean, are you really here right now? Yes, this is real. You are here." Talon squeezed her hand.

"How am I supposed to pay my rent? I can't make it in this city without that job. There's no way I'd be able to find something that pays half as well as that did with the experience I have."

"Hey, we don't need to worry about that right now. Why did they fire you?"

"Because they've been getting complaints about me talking to myself in my cubicle and something about being overdressed for work this morning. I don't remember. I have no clue." Vanessa shook her head, desperately trying to figure out what was going on in her life. She felt the tears start to fall down her cheeks once more.

"Overdressed?"

"Yes." Vanessa pulled out her phone and showed Talon a picture of the dress. She'd found it in her camera roll when she was searching through her phone for clues about what had happened to her. Talon pulled the phone out of her hand and inspected it, before looking at his own.

"You showed up to work in this dress?" He questioned.

"Yes, but I have no clue why. I was supposed to be going to an award ceremony. Oh Talon, I missed my award. They won't want to honor me again if I keep acting like this." Vanessa didn't notice the confusion on Talon's face, instead she put her head down on the table and allowed the tears to break free, fully releasing all the pent up emotion.

"Hey, let me go talk to Marcus and then I think we should head home." Talon whispered, leaning across the table so Vanessa could hear him better. She sputtered, her chest heaving as she nodded her head, never looking up from the table.

Vanessa could tell she was alone the second Talon walked away. Suddenly, his presence wasn't there next to her, and she felt empty. Vanessa wanted to go home and just sit with Talon and mindlessly watch movies for the rest of the night. She hated feeling this way and being so confused. The more she could run away from her thoughts and emotions, the better she would feel.

Talon met her at the table only a few moments later with a drink in his hand.

"Here, have some tea. It's on me. You don't even need to worry about it." He said as he grabbed his jacket and helped her up from her seat.

"I can pay for it, I swear." Vanessa muttered, feeling the pain inside her chest once more. She flicked a loose strand of hair out of her face and wiped the tears running down her cheeks, before using her sleeve to wipe the table off.

"No, let's just get you home." Talon whispered.