Chapter 28

Tuesday morning, March 24, 2020

“I think it goes without saying that we loved your scenes,” Carla, told Dani the next morning, “or we wouldn’t be here.” Dani, Amanda Browning, and I were sitting in a large office at a studio in downtown Tampa with several of the movie executives: Carla, the casting director; Anthony, the director; Kathleen, the executive producer, and several others. Each introduced themselves but those were the only names I remember. Name remembering is not my strong point, I’m pretty proud to remember those three... “Tell us about this dream your husband had,” one of the women who’d introduced herself as a publicist asked Dani.

Dani took a deep breath, she was so damned nervous, her hands, one of them gripping mine, were shaking, “Last October he had an accident, slipping in the bathroom and hitting his head...”

She went on the next ten-fifteen minutes relaying the anguish, the doctor’s prognosis, and how I’d finally awakened four months later. Everyone in the room sat quietly, just listening. She finished with, “It was the most horrible four months of my life!” squeezing my hand when she finished. She followed that with, “I’ll let my husband tell you about his dreams during those four months,” she said.

I sat at that big round table, all these high-powered movie executives looking at me, I had no idea how detailed to get, do I even mention Alan Ryder’s name?

The night before

We were on the water taxi on the way to dinner when Amanda’s phone rang. She’d talked for a few minutes, sounding depressed, then clicked off her phone and turned back toward Dani and me with a serious frown on her face, ‘What the hell?’ I thought, she’d sounded so confident earlier. Dani looked stricken, her face going white, “What?” she finally asked.

Amanda took a deep breath, giving Dani the bad news, “That was Carla, the casting director,” she hesitated what seemed like forever, Dani and I both holding our breath, “She asked me to tell you...”

“That they’d like to see you tomorrow at nine,” breaking out in a huge grin, “She didn’t outright say it, but they want you for that part, I know! They wouldn’t be asking for you again, otherwise.”

Dani jumped up, throwing herself around Amanda, then me, almost tipping the boat.

“We have something to celebrate tonight!” Amanda finally said, her excitement coming through in spades.

A few minutes later, we were sitting at a table outside Jackson’s Bistro and Bar. How does someone who had never been here before or never looked it up on the internet know what it looks like? That it even exists? How did I know there was such a thing as a Pirate Water Taxi? How the FUCK did I know any of this shit? Funny thing was that I didn’t know anything past that night of Dani’s party where Betty told me to open my eyes.

The only reason I knew that Dani would get that movie part is that Amanda had been so certain about it in my dream. Even the fact that there was a real-life Amanda, just like in my dream. Hell, she even looked like I remembered, except that I’d had no clue that Alan Ryder was going to be the costar in that movie, no idea about the movie beyond the little bit Amanda had told me.

I ached to ask Dani about him but didn’t know yet what Amanda knew.

There wasn’t long to wait, as soon as we sat, Amanda told Dani, “I was amazed that you and Alan knew each other. You really went to school together?”

Dani nodded, “He hardly knew I existed, though, except for being my escort homecoming night, he probably hadn’t said ten words to me other than that night.”

Amanda laughed, “Sure didn’t seem that way, the way he greeted you, I thought you might have been old lovers or something.”

Dani blushed, glancing at me, “It was just the surprise,” she told Amanda, “after so long. Almost our only interaction was that he was my escort at the homecoming game and dance our senior year, nothing more ... oh, and he was at a New Year’s Eve party that I was at, but he was with his girlfriend.”

I noticed she forgot to mention the crush she’d had on him back in school and all those years after.

“Well, whatever, but the producers loved the instant chemistry between the two of you,” she said.

Later that night, in bed, Dani’s body was on fire. “That kiss...” she started to say as she ground her pussy down on me, “it was like ... oh God!”

I couldn’t take it, rolling us over so that I could fuck my wife. I pushed Dani’s legs up on my shoulders and plunged inside her, once ... twice ... three times. Then, breathing hard I hesitated inside her, Dani whimpering, “Like ... what?” I asked her. I remembered my dream, that first time in our hotel room, this very hotel, one story below where we were, ‘I’ve dreamed of this for years,’ were Alan Ryder’s words as he’d kissed my wife that night in my dream.

Dani groaned, “Fuck me!” she demanded.

My cock was aching to do exactly that, yet ... I’d asked her, “What was it like, his kiss,” before we’d climbed in bed, right after our soul-searing kiss. She’d slowly taken off her clothes, slipped her bra off, and her thong down her long, sexy legs, and given me that sexy ‘come-hither’ look as she’d climbed on the bed.

“No ... not until you tell me, like ... what?” I repeated, giving her short, hard jabs, pressing her head against the headboard.

“Like what?” I asked her again more forcefully when she didn’t answer.

She let out another whimper, “His lips ... so soft and sultry ... it was like ... bringing back the memory ... what I’d wanted him to do that New Year’s Eve ... like that high school girl with a giant crush on the boy she knew she couldn’t have ... except he’s a man now, not the boy he was then. The power in him, I could feel his strength ... and even more handsome,” whimpering, her breath panting between virtually every word, “I could tell ... he was as turned on as I was. That made it so much ... more!” she exclaimed. “I was just aching to be touched, his hands ... his mouth ... everywhere ... wanting so much more.”

I groaned, thinking about Dani’s kiss I’d witnessed with Mark just two days earlier, and how much more Alan Ryder had affected her. I should have been jealous, infuriated, I knew. But Dani wasn’t telling me anything that I didn’t already know ... and was secretly hoping for. I knew, from my dream, she was mine, no matter what, and I was just plain, fucking turned on! “And you’re going to be kissing him naked ... on camera ... aren’t you?”

Dani screamed, her pussy squeezing the cum from my cock, my orgasm exploding inside her, both our bodies shuddering together.

“Aren’t you?” I asked again after we’d collapsed on the hotel’s bed and regained enough strength to talk.

She groaned, obviously thinking about that very thing, being naked with her wannabe lover that she’d fantasized over, unknown to me, for so long.

“Dani?”

She was trembling beside me, “Yes...” she finally said, and I rolled over kissing her, cupping her naked breast, pinching a nipple like I could envision Alan Ryder doing to her.

A few minutes later I was inside her again.

I tried to answer the question, took a deep breath, probably more nervous than I’d ever been in my life. I knew we were here because of Dani, not me, and what I had to say wouldn’t make a whit of difference in whether or not she got this gig, but still...

“It’s a really long story...” I knew I could go on forever but was sure they had no idea the dream involved Alan Ryder, “We were visiting one of Dani’s high school friends here in Tampa, he introduced us to a woman named April, a friend of his, the makeup artist at a big studio...”

They looked around at each other, a surprised look on their faces. Dani said the makeup person who’d worked with her yesterday was named April. “She took Dani to the studio a day that a model didn’t show up and... “ I went on, explaining how Dani sat in for an advertisement for Winsome Naturals Cosmetics, how well it’d been received, and that April had sent her to Amanda Browning, who’d signed her to a contract and told her about this movie to audition for.

By the time I finished, they were all asking the same question that had been asked so many times, how had I known?

I shrugged, “I have no idea, Dani and I have asked ourselves that dozens of times since. There are so many things that I couldn’t possibly have known.”

The publicity woman, I have no idea her name, said, “We can use that, that publicity will get us tens of thousands of curious moviegoers.” Then she looked directly at me, “I’d love to spend time with you, explore that dream, how it all came about, I want every detail.”

Every detail? Damn, I wasn’t ready for that! I nodded to her, “Okay,” I said, “it’ll take a while, though, there’s a lot ... I think I could write a thousand-page book.”

“You might someday,” she said, looking around the room, “It might even make a good movie,” she added.

I shuddered at that thought, that would be an XX-rated movie!

“Okay, Daniella, or do you prefer to go by Dani?” Anthony, the director, asked.

“Well, my friends all call me Dani,” she said, “but either is fine.”

“I hope we’ll be friends then, Dani it is. You know there’s some nudity in the script, don’t you?”

Dani looked at me, nodded, “Yes,” she said.

“And you’re okay with that? There will be options if you’re not, your agent can go over those with you, Amanda’s well aware.”

“I’m ... I’m fine with it ... I think, depending...”

She was getting smiles all around, “Be great if you were, but Amanda will go over it with you.” Then, he asked, “Do you ride?”

Dani looked confused, “Ride?” she asked.

“Horseback, the movie’s set on a ranch in Montana, your character is a retired barrel racer, married to a rancher. Matter of fact, that’s how the two of you met. So being able to ride like you were born on a horse is going to be critical ... so the question, can you do that?”

“I ... guess so ... think so, anyway, my grandparents had a farm, I had a horse till I was eighteen, rode a lot back then, but not since ... kind of like riding a bike, I don’t think you ever forget.”

“Well, that’s more than Alan has, he’s the ranch foreman. We’ve already planned on riding lessons for him, you can take them, too, you both’ll learn to work cattle, too, like you’d been all your lives. We can use a body double for the barrel scenes, they’re too dangerous, but you’d need to do the final sprints so we can get the closeup of your face. Alan won’t have any scenes quite like that, but he’ll be working he just needs to be comfortable on the horses and be able to work the cattle.”

There was quiet for a few minutes, like silent communication between the people. Finally, Kathleen, the producer spoke, “We’re prepared to offer you the part, we can go over the details and finances with Amanda if you’re sure you want it. We know it’s going to make a major impact on your life, filming probably three or four months starting in May, you’ll need to plan for at least going through the end of August. So ... you want the part?”

Dani looked at me, squeezed my hand, I know we expected it, but hearing the words was so different than just ‘knowing’.

“And then there’ll be publicity tours for you and your husband since he’s such a part of why you’re here,” she added, “there’ll be TV talk shows, the late-night shows, when the word gets out how you got this part, everyone’s going to want you,” she smiled, “and we’re going to be sure that everyone gets the word, too. Will you be okay with that?”

I felt Dani’s body shivering, no matter what we might have expected, this was fucking unbelievable! It would also preclude her teaching, at least this coming year.

“Who’s going to play the part of the rancher husband?” Dani asked.

“That’s going to be the one part played by a known actor, we think we have him but can’t say yet until he signs a contract. But yes, you’ll have a love scene with him, too, to show the depth of love between your characters, although it’s not planned to be nude.”

She looked at me, knowing what I thought, but this needed to be her decision, not mine. She looked back toward Kathleen, “Yes,” she said, “I want the part.”

Grins all around, “Wonderful,” Kathleen said, “We’ll finalize a contract with Amanda. You’ll stay in town the next couple of days?” she asked.

Dani and I both nodded, “We can stay however long it takes,” she said.

“And we’d like you at the ranch in Montana next Monday for those riding lessons,” Anthony said, “we’ll have an acting coach there, too, just for pointers, since neither of you has acted before.”

Dani squeezed my hand again, this was going so fast. Three days ago, she had no idea of any of this, today she was the star of a major movie, and six days from now, that new career would start ... with the man who’d just turned her on so much with one kiss.

Everyone got up to leave, it was a happy group that shook Dani’s and my hands, lots of ‘welcome aboard’, and so on, before filing out of the room. Amanda hugged Dani and whispered to her to wait a bit.

“Let’s go somewhere, get a coffee or something, we can talk about your contract proposal,” she suggested, once we were alone.

She led us to a Starbucks three blocks down the street from the studio. Neither Dani nor I especially like coffee, but they have ice tea as well, very good ice tea as a matter of fact, to our pleasant surprise.

“I’m making an assumption here that you probably don’t have any clue what a contract like this should entail, am I right?” Amanda asked.

Dani and I led normal lives, me a small store owner and Dani a teacher, we both shrugged, This whole thing was totally foreign to both of us. Dani answered with a little laugh, “I think that would be safe enough to assume,” she told Amanda.

Amanda smiled, “I’ll deal with it, you don’t have to worry. I’ll call Kathleen and set up a meeting with her this afternoon, perhaps we can have dinner again this evening, I’d expect to have an agreement by then.”

I couldn’t stand not asking, “What ... kind of numbers would you be expecting?” I asked her.

She smiled again, “I don’t want to speculate, but I’m sure you’ll both be pleased.”

We spent the next hour-plus talking about little details of ourselves, our family, my store ... wanting to open another. I told her that the ‘high school friend’ we’d visited in my dream was none other than Alan Ryder but didn’t get into any of the ‘intimate’ details.

She smiled at that, “I suspected that was the case,” she said. “You’ll want to be completely up-front with Janet, she’ll help you with your narrative for the talk shows.”

“Janet?” Dani asked.

“Oh, I forgot, you don’t know names yet, do you, Janet’s the publicist.”

Finally, Amanda concluded our little impromptu ‘coffee’, “I have some prep to do for this afternoon,” she said, “Go out, enjoy Tampa this afternoon, it’s a beautiful city,” she said, before adding, a smile on her face, “and I don’t think you’ll need to worry too much about spending money.”

I had a thought, “Is there a mall named the Westshore Plaza in Tampa?” I asked Amanda. It’s the name of the mall that Alan took Dani to that first weekend.

She acted pleased, “It’s a beautiful mall, I love it,” she said.

Another ‘how the hell did I know?’ The strangest thing of that was that those couple of days that Dani spent alone with Alan after I’d flown home, I’d seen through her eyes. Everything else, I’d been there, seen and experienced myself, but that weekend had been different, all through Dani’s eyes and thoughts. It brought a shudder through me, remembering how Alan Ryder had treated her that night: the strait-jacket leotard; the leather collar and harness attached to her ankles; how he’d taken her out that night; Jerry, Alan’s friend, fucking her ... and then the trip to the sex store. I hadn’t told Dani about any of that, either, there was still so much I hadn’t told her, like probably ninety-five percent of what she’d done with Alan.

The strip club, how was I going to tell Dani that she’d been a stripper with a beautiful blonde, ‘Onna’, as she’d pronounced her name? And how the hell would that one ever come true? God, I’d love to see that for real!

One of the first mornings Dani and I were in Tampa over spring vacation in my dream, Alan showed me the video he’d recorded that night in his bedroom, when she’d been in that stretchy strait-jacket-type leotard and harness. All the rest of Dani’s couple days of that first weekend I’d seen through her feelings and thoughts.

Until that minute, just about to go to that mall, I hadn’t even realized what I was remembering then. Fucking weird! Except for the trip to the sex shop, I’d known that, it was the impetus for the sex shop that night in Reno, even if I hadn’t realized it at the time.

I shuddered at what my mind was doing to me, almost afraid that I might go insane from the memories that were flooding my mind from that four-month-long dream.

I saw Amanda putting her phone away. I hadn’t even realized she’d been on it, but she’d been texting someone during the time my memory was screwing around inside my head.

“Are we finished?” I asked, “I’d love to take Dani to that mall,” except I realized we had no transportation. Amanda had picked us up that morning like she had Dani the morning before. They’d even picked us up at the airport so we didn’t have a rental car, either.

“Just a couple minutes,” Amanda said, “one of my assistants is bringing a car for you to use.”

Minutes later, true to her word, a man came into the Starbucks and handed Amanda a key fob, who, in turn, handed it to Dani, “You two decide who drives, it’s right outside, the Tesla, we have it for our out-of-town clients ... see you at seven, your hotel,” adding, with a smile, “and remember, don’t worry too much about your spending habits ... it may adjust quite a lot after today.”

Forty minutes later, we were pulling into the mall’s parking lot, or I should say, the car was. It’s a miracle of modern technology. We’d gotten in, Dani behind the wheel, she pressed the ‘start’ button, and after a short, two-minute lesson from Amanda’s helper, she pressed the button for the voice-activated navigation system, and said, “Go to the Westshore Plaza.” From there, we sat back and let the car do its thing, taking us to our destination.

Actually, it wasn’t fully self-driving like the ads say, Dani had to take the wheel a couple times, once for an unexpected detour for an accident, and the other when some jerkwad cut us off on the freeway. It might have managed both but instinctively, Dani took over. Other than those, though, it was perfect, and so quiet! Not a sound, ever.

The mall was beautiful, palm trees everywhere, even inside in little courtyards. I didn’t remember those from my dream about the place. Dani found a knick-knack store where she bought some things for Jon and Jodi, and I told her I’d love for her to buy a leather skirt. She has a leather dress at home that she hasn’t worn for ... God, years, but she’d loved it until it seemed to shrink just enough to be uncomfortable.

I knew exactly what I had in mind but wanted to see what Dani might pick out. We found the leather loft, the same store she’d shopped in with Alan that day. Dani picked out several skirts from the racks, holding them to her, laughing about what the ‘kids’ wore these days. And then she found one she seemed to like, “Think this is too much?” she asked me, “or maybe too little is more appropriate,” she added with a giggle, holding it to her waist, coming a little more than halfway down her thigh. “Feel how soft it is,” she said. Ahh yeah, and that two-inch-wide laced gap up one side, too!

“No, I love it,” I told her, it was the same red burgundy skirt that Alan Ryder had picked out for her in my dream, “get it,” I told her.

When we left the mall, Dani was wearing the leather skirt, so tight and sexy over her hips; a black, silk blouse over a red lace bra; sheer, black stockings; and a gorgeous pair of fuck-me, red, Gianvito Rossi heels, all that we’d bought in various stores. I didn’t coach, she picked them out, just as she’d picked out the same shoes in my dream world, only the colors were different. She complained about the prices, too, but I reminded her what Amanda had said about spending. It was time to ignore the ‘frugal’ in our lives, at least for one day.

You may have noticed I didn’t say anything about the panties Dani was wearing. There’s a reason for that ... she’d foregone them completely. “They just don’t look right under the skirt,” she’d said. “Besides,” she added, “I’ve gotten to like the fresh air on my damp pussy ... and it makes me feel so sexy!” You think my dick wasn’t standing at attention?

Oh yeah, there was some very pretty, jewelry as well, Black Hills gold earrings, a matching necklace and bracelet. We’d spent well over a thousand dollars on clothes and shoes and just weren’t quite comfortable with another few thousand more for the jewelry that I’d have loved to buy her, but the Black Hills gold jewelry was beautiful, too. That can come after Dani has check in hand ... and we know how big that check is.

None of it would be quite appropriate for teaching, which neither of us had any idea if she’d ever be doing again.

Dani looked ... like a Goddess!

It was still early afternoon after we’d done our shopping and had a late lunch. During lunch, I had a hard time pulling my eyes away from my wife, she just looked so ... I can’t even think of a word. Beautiful, sexy, are the two most obvious, but those just seemed too inadequate, she was so much more than either. Heather Locklear came to mind.

We made the executive decision to spend our afternoon exploring the Riverwalk on the Hillsborough River. On the way there in the Tesla, I told Dani that she and I had gone there the first day we were in Tampa for Alan’s new restaurant grand opening, that we could drive to it or park up the bay and take the Pirate Water Taxi. I explained that it had been a big part of my dream in Tampa, that Alan, she, and I had had dinner in the same restaurant as we’d had dinner in the night before with Amanda, that I’d known what it looked like, what was on the menu, all about the water taxi, and one other thing that I’d forgotten, Princess Ulele, “She saved a Spanish Soldier’s life in the fifteen-hundreds, there’s a statue of her in front of the Ulele Restaurant. And don’t ask me how I know that, I have no fucking clue, except that I do!”

She laughed, “I’ve quit asking,” she said.

Well, I hadn’t quit asking myself that question. “But it reminded me of something ... not sure exactly what the connection was, but it did, what’s this about you and your grandparent’s farm? Having a horse and all? You’ve never mentioned any of that to me.”

She looked at me, “I don’t know, guess it just never came up, her name was Taffy, a big palomino. I loved her. She could outwalk any horse in the county, I think, run forever, too. We had to give her to some friends when Gram and Gramps sold their farm, it was about the time I went away to college.”

“Where was their farm? How come you never mentioned it?”

She shrugged, “Guess it just brought back too many memories, I was pretty depressed about them selling it ... and then especially when they passed away so young not long after. Maybe we could drive out there sometime, it’s about forty miles out of town, up toward Moses Lake. I think I’d like to do that, see what it’s like now. I haven’t gone back since it was sold.”

I nodded, “We’ll do that, I’d like that, too ... and something else I just thought of, that I’ve been wanting to do, you remember that trunk you said was in your parent’s attic, the one with a bunch of your old things in it? We were going to get it down but never have. Let’s do it when we get home?” I wanted to see if some of those clothes I remembered might still be in it.

“Yeah,” she said, “let’s do that.”

We were quiet the next several minutes while the Tesla drove us to the river, past our hotel, and parked in one of the big Water Taxi lots. “You sure you want to wear the heels?” I asked her, “there might be quite a bit of walking.”

“Yes,” she answered, “I love them, and I’ve never had high heels that were so comfortable.”

Perfectly wonderful to me, they looked so good with that skirt and made her legs look sooo sexy.

I bought us two arm bracelets for the water taxi, we waited probably five minutes, and I helped Dani to carefully step aboard. It seemed so weird that this was all so familiar to me when we’d never been there before except that one time with Amanda last night.

I was really curious about that store where I’d bought the sexy dress for Dani, the one she wore to Alan’s restaurant. I chuckled to myself remembering how she hadn’t taken along any sexy clothes at all on that trip, not even anything very attractive, because she’d been afraid to tempt either him or herself into something that she knew they’d both want; how I’d unwittingly thwarted her good intentions with that dress, the perfume, and the sexy lingerie. Except I’d wanted her to seduce him, and God, how it’d worked!

We got off the taxi at the Riverwalk, a different stop than the night before for dinner at Jackson’s. Talk about beautiful! Virtually everything was just perfect, flowers, greenery, palm trees, architectural shade structures, the beautiful river, colored brick walks. I could go on and on. Tampa clearly takes pride in the beauty of its city.

Our stop was very near the Hyde Park Village, which we discovered was a group of wonderful little shops. The one that caught Dani’s eye as soon as she saw it was the Candle Pour. Dani loves scented candles, don’t think I’d mentioned that before, but it seemed a pretty minor thing until she saw that shop where she discovered she could craft and pour her own candles.

We spent the next hour making candles, something that wouldn’t have been on the top of my ‘to do’ list, but Dani was in candle heaven. By the time we left we had candles that I admit were pretty and smelled very nice for the kids, Jenny and Richard, and some of Dani’s other friends, even the wives of my employees. If she’d had her way, we would have needed a wheelbarrow to haul them back. It turned out okay, though, as we could have them shipped home instead of carrying.

I was on the lookout for the clothing store we’d shopped at in my dream and was sure I’d found it, Francesca’s. I remembered it as being similar to Victoria’s Secret except more into skirts, blouses, dresses, things like that, along with lingerie, but everything very, very sexy. They also had swimsuits, which I didn’t remember. Seeing those reminded me of the pool at the Meridian and Dani in that bikini. “Let’s get you a swimsuit so we can go swimming later tonight,” I suggested to Dani.

“Sounds like fun, wish I’d brought one,” she said.

Yeah, but hers at home weren’t exactly what I had in mind. “Let’s check them out, see if there’s one you might want.”

We were back at the hotel at five-forty-five, getting ready to meet Amanda at seven. We showered and Dani put on new makeup before dressing back into the skirt and blouse from the mall. I loved that since I awoke from the coma and started telling her about my dreams, Dani has embraced her femininity so much more than she ever had and seemed to be enjoying her newfound freedom to be a sensual woman. What can I say about how Dani looked that night that I haven’t said a kazillion times before?

Amanda was waiting in the lobby when Dani and I came down. She looked Dani up and down wide-eyed, “Wow, Daniella, I am going to tell Tony and his costume designer to dress you in leather. My dear, you look absolutely stunning!”

“Thank you,” Dani responded, her blush returning in full force.

“Okay, shall we go then, I thought I’d take you to Ulele’s, it’s probably the best restaurant in Tampa, and I have a small room reserved for us where we can go over this contract.” She looked over at me, “or do we even need to go over it? Maybe you already know what’s in it?” she asked.

I chuckled, “Not this time, I have no clue, we’ve been kind of anxious about it,” I told her, hoping that she hadn’t misled us after the money we’d spent that afternoon.

On the way there in Amanda’s BMW, she proceeded to tell us about Princess Ulele, of the Tocobaga Tribe, how she’d saved the life of the Spanish sailor, Juan Ortiz, not once, but twice in the fifteen-hundreds and become a heroic legend in Tampa, pretty much a longer version of what I’d told Dani that afternoon, none of which I had any reason to have known.

This time, Amanda didn’t take us to the water taxi but directly to the restaurant. The statue, a huge bust of a beautiful Indian girl, was in front, just off to the side of the restaurant’s entrance. Amanda gave her name to the hostess, a young lady dressed in what looked like an authentic Indian maiden garment, hair in two long ponytails, (real hair? Sure looked like it) and we were escorted through the restaurant to the private room Amanda had reserved.

“May I have your waitress bring you anything, an appetizer, drinks?” she asked, dropping off menus.