Sometimes a dream can leave a larger mark than reality.

He was my everything; my best friend, the love of my life, and my partner. Ryder's brown hair and green eyes always made me melt. I had met him in college through friends and we instantly clicked. We soon started dating and we were always laughing and having fun or going on dates to our hidden spot by the small lake. After we graduated we moved in together and found secure jobs and got married. Neither of us wanted children but we always had a dog due to our love of animals. We bought our dream house on the side of a quiet lake in the woods but we weren't far from town either. It was two stories and was a modern-midcentury beach house with our backyard going from grass, to some sand, then to the water. Lawn chairs were set at the base of our lower floor facing the water. We sat here almost every day. Then we started growing old together loving each other more and more. His smile could light a room, I couldn't imagine life without him. He always knew exactly what to say to me. Then one day, in our eighties, he passed away. I sat in my lawn chair behind the house petting our beloved Golden with tears in my eyes but still had contentment as my memories of him flooded my mind.

Then I woke up disoriented. It felt so real and I was so sad the person I loved most was only a dream and I had to snap back to reality. "Woah," I thought, "that felt so real". Months passed but this dream came to mind now and then. Reminding me of what I never had, but I had just graduated college and moved to the city to start my job so I really should leave this dream behind. It was that morning I went to get coffee from a local building when I heard a voice.

To be continued.