Mesmeric

Story by gaprevot

"The man on the sidewalk was tall. He had dark hair and a bushy mustache that looked like it might be fake. His eyes were intense. I remember you laughing at something, but I don't remember what he said." She was sitting on the couch trying to describe everything she remembered.

I could tell her memories were in bits and pieces, like they were pieces of a jigsaw puzzle thrown across the floor, nothing was making sense to her. "That's it? That's all you remember?"

"The next thing I remember is being back at the hotel. I keep thinking there was something else, like he said something, but I can't remember it. I can almost see his mouth moving, that mustache, remember the mustache?" Her eyes widened, "I remember you joking about the mustache."

She was right, as soon as we had walked away, I started joking about the hypnotist's mustache, it was bushy like Mario's in the video game. He had told me to joke about it, said it was important that I mentioned it more than once. "It was like a miniature push broom glued to his upper lip."

"Yeah, it was, it made it hard to see his lips moving, but I remember he said something, it was important, what did he say?"

I looked Val in the eye. "I don't remember, I mean, he said a lot of things. He was funny. I can't believe you don't remember his jokes."

It wasn't the first time Val and I had run over the story of the sidewalk hypnotist we had run into on our girls getaway to Vegas. It was in there, stuck in her head somewhere she couldn't reach.

"It's just so weird, Alex. I mean, I can remember walking down the sidewalk with you, I can even remember talking about the other street performers - that fire breather guy, but..." Bryn ran her hand around her neck, and I thought of the little black collar. "I know," she picked up her coffee and took a sip. "I'm sorry, it's all I can think about lately. It's so weird." She set her hand on my thigh. "You're such a good friend for listening."

I picked up my coffee. "You should probably just forget about it," I took a sip and set the coffee back down.

"You're right," Bryn chuckled, "how much fun was that trip though, right?"

I laughed, "we girls know how to party."

The trip had been spur of the moment. Bryn was a week out of a relationship, a little worse for wear, and had two weeks of vacation to use up. When she called me and asked if I thought we should do something, I jumped at the chance immediately. Of course, I had selfish motives for my answer.

Bryn and I had known each other since college. We had a number of classes together and graduated the same year, but our friendship really started when she and I ended up taking jobs at the same firm. We worked on opposite sides of the same floor, her in real estate and me in business.

We saw each other almost every day and had lunch more times than I could count, but we were very different people. Bryn had sort of a fast and loose philosophy when it came to her love life. She wasn't a party girl, but she did like to hit the clubs, dance, and wake up in strange parts of town from time to time.

Every time we got together, she would regale me with stories about which guy she was considering getting serious with, but it seldom happened and, when it did, it was never for very long. Bryn was just that kind of girl, still too young for anything serious and really, really pretty. A girl with long, blonde hair, a trim, athletic body, and eyes that could stop time.

But although Bryn and I were about the same age, worked for the same law firm, and ran in some of the same circles, we were very different, fundamentally different. And although I had always wanted to tell her about how I felt and who I was...I couldn't do it.

Bryn's hand lingered on my thigh as we sat side by side on the little couch in her apartment that morning. "Really, Alex, I mean it, you're such a good friend."

It didn't always happen and I told myself that it wasn't going to happen this time. I took a breath and stared down at the coffee in my cup, but her hand was on my thigh - the spindly fingers with the painted nails. I took a breath. No.

Bryn moved her hand. "Shit, maybe I should just become a lesbian," she chuckled.

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