What dreams may come

I AM being haunted by a figment of my imagination — or at least that’s all he is at the moment.
I’ve been having a recurring dream in which I meet this young, really good looking guy who I instantly recognise as someone I know or have known.
The only thing he says to me is: “You don’t remember me do you?”
I start laughing and continue singing the Hot Chocolate song which the line comes from. It’s one of those dreams where you can’t control what you’re doing, hence the fact that I’m singing.
He replies by saying: “I haven’t seen you for so long and then you just laugh in my face?” And then he leaves.
When I wake up I don’t have a clue who this guy is and have merely a fuzzy recollection of what he looks like. I make a mental note not to laugh the next time so I can find out more, but my subconscious lets me down.
Could it be that I’m actually dreaming of ‘the one’ or is that just far too cheesy? I wake really annoyed with myself because I KNOW who it is but I just can’t grasp it.
I don’t think I’m the only one who has approached a perfect stranger in the real world because I know them, and just don’t know how — like the Billy Connolly sketch: “I know you. I do, I know you”.
All too often it turns out the stranger knows you too but not why or where they fit into your life.
The last time this happened to me, we discovered he was born in the same ward on the same day ten minutes before me. Purely coincidental maybe but strange all the same.
It’s happened too many times for me to dismiss eventually meeting this ‘dream guy’ in the land of the living.
Can you imagine what I would say: “Erm. Yeah I dreamt about you, like, years ago and I knew one day I would meet you”.
It sounds like the plot to a Drew Barrymore film. A really bad one.
And so from dreams to nightmares. While writing this I am preparing my head for another reunion with my favourite ex in a few days. When you read this it will already have taken place and you’ll have to wait another fortnight to find out what happened.
I’ve invited my best friend along for moral support — moral being the operative word now that I am ‘with boyfriend’.
The ex is also now an ex after his girlfriend finally bit the bullet and called it quits. Now he’s sunk even deeper into his ‘ten months and two significant break-ups’ depression.
What he needs now is his friends. This weekend they will consist of his ex and now taken girlfriend stifling a mutual attraction, his brother who despite being a really top guy can’t find a top girl, and his best friend and former college roomie who has just split up with the long-term girlfriend who he can’t get over. My ex phones him when he wants to cheer himself up.
Before you decide this is a recipe for disaster, just think of the characters in Friends: their love lives were all intertwined and they managed.
Trust me — although it doesn’t sound it, it is a good idea — a night out on the town, no pressures, nobody waiting at home — well at least not for them. Just pure unadulterated fun with the lads.
As he says, it’s something he should have concentrated on last year before he got himself involved in another no-hope relationship. Like having one long last fling before settling into something you don’t want to get out of.
As everyone should bear in mind, loves may come and go but friends are there forever — a peach of advice my mother keeps administering like a broken record.
One thing I’m finding difficult regarding my new-found non-single status is I want to spend as much time with my friends as possible. Believe me this is not an easy feat considering they are all over the place both geographically and mentally.
But I also don’t want to neglect the boyfriend, and vice versa.
That’s the problem with being a singleton so long — you get used to your independence and availability to be here, there and everywhere depending on who wants you or needs you.
I think this is something the favourite ex needs to experience for a while — using his time just to chill and enjoy being young, free and single, tall, dark and handsome.
Something tells me it won’t last for long.