Free Dear Meredith by Belle Kismet

under the light, while her blonde head stands out like a neon light.
                "He's just this guy who goes to class with me. He has a little girl, Ginny, and she puts the both of us to shame. I think she might be part dolphin," I tell her, conveniently leaving out the part where I think I find him quite attractive.
                I also tell her about how I was able to continue on with the lesson after the panic attack and she is equally astounded. "I wouldn't have believed it possible," she declares, while I shrug in bafflement.
                I catch sight of us in the mirror behind the bar, her blonde head and my red one leaning towards each other in a wordless gesture of long familiarity. I realise, with a surge of pleasure, that I look pretty decent myself. I had made an effort to dress up tonight for our date and I feel pretty for the first time in a long while.
                "So, Avery told me he might need to send me off to South Korea in two weeks' time. But I think it'll just be for a week," she adds quickly after seeing my face fall slightly.
                "No, it's fine. Anyway, we'll have the bookstore well up and running by then," I say, cheered by the thought.
                The paint has dried and the new floor and bookshelves gleam. Stencilled in large, neat black letters on the bottom left of the enormous glass window is the simple word "Books", followed by "Coffee" in smaller letters.
                After one and a half weeks of tearing our hair out, we'd also finally settled on a name: "Dog-Eared Books & Café".
                We'll be moving the books back in over the weekend, along with the furniture and some potted plants. It's hard to believe the shop was once dingy and unwelcoming, when it's so bright and airy now.
                "When all the books are on the shelves, and that wonderful, musty page smell fills the air - well, that's when we will really feel that we're in business," Laney says, echoing my thoughts.
                "Yes. It's really starting to sink in now, isn't it, now that everything is coming together? Half the time I still have to pinch myself because I feel this can't possibly be real," I say in bemusement, while she nods vigorously in complete agreement.
                The rest of the night passes in a pleasant haze and I eventually make my way home at around midnight, while Laney heads off with John, the bartender, who just finished his shift.
                I fall into bed, my eyes closing almost immediately. It had been a long day and the episode at the pool today feels light years away. I relive for a brief moment the strange feeling of weightlessness underwater, the curious roar of silence in my ears and the sea of blue stretching out as far as my eyes can see.
                I feel Bandit shoving her head under my arm, so it flops up and comes down to rest over the crook of her neck. She sighs once, satisfied.
                That night, I dream a new dream.
               
                White, white everywhere. The whitest of white weddings.
                I see our guests, their white faces turning towards me as I stand at the foot of the aisle, waiting for my cue.
                I see Mike, standing on the dais, his handsome face crinkling into a grin as he looks at me expectantly. He is so white, like a statue carved out of ivory.
                I think I can see the expression in his eyes, even from this distance. They're the colour of the sea on a calm, cloudless day. And as I drown in their depths, the colour starts creeping back into the world, Mike's white tuxedo rippling into a black and white one, the dais turning a warm, rich maroon.
                Glimpses of bright yellow suddenly catch my eyes, and as I look around the room, I see each guest is holding a sunflower, our