Greg had never had a boyfriend. And yet, often enough, when the subject of relationships approached, he’d find himself saying he did.

“I am in love with a man I have never met.” Greg would say, his tone dreamy and far off as if imagining his nonexistent but very real lover.

He’d only met the boy, Tim, in his dreams but he was sure he was out there somewhere in the world, waiting for him. Greg’s heart ached at night with the sadness of passing another day without the love of his life, and somehow happiness at the realization that he might find him in his dreams (he didn’t like using the term dreams because that implied he wasn’t real when Greg knew nobody realer than Tim. It was a matter of the heart.)

Tonight was one of those nights where Greg laid in bed, on the cusp of a warm dream, a dream that hid inside the love of his life, the sun to his moon, the happiness to his aching heart.

Greg found himself seeing red. He was in the woods and the first thing he’d noticed was the mass of red on the leaves and across the ground. He decided it must be a dream because in front of him was no other than Tim. Tim wore a grey shirt and skinny jeans and on his face was the most beautiful smile Greg had ever seen, it was his favorite feature of Tim’s actually, he found his worries melting away as a few leaves floated softly to the floor.

A single spanner of light glowered over them like a spotlight on a stage and Greg half-expected an audience to appear and clap, but instead all he could hear was the slight breeze of the wind.

“So we meet again.” Tim motions to the surroundings with his hands. “This is so much better than last dream where you almost got eaten by a shark.”

Greg laughed at the memory, “Yeah, I’m sticking to the land from now on.”

Tim wrapped Greg in his arms, closing the distance between them. Greg’s heart hammered in his chest and he was sure it would pop out like a jack in the box as their lips collided and the dream began to fade.