I was having the same dream that kept coming back to me. Something was after me, but I couldn't get away. Then a door appeared, but I couldn't open it. A cold and painful tingling ran through me, as if I had jumped into freezing water. I tried to scream but no sound would come out. I needed to get away. I had to get away, or else—

HOOOOOOONK!

I would have shot out of my seat, but my seat belt was restraining me. I frantically looked around. I saw the driver of a white sedan in front of us put his hand out the window and give Steve the middle finger.

"Damn idiot cut me off!" Steve yelled. I saw that we were about a block from TAPS headquarters. Steve looked at me. "Sorry for waking you."

"That's OK," I said, thinking back to the dream. I rubbed my arms. They had gooseflesh. I'm pretty sure Steve noticed my actions.

"What's wrong?" he asked, giving me a concerned look. I looked at him, debating whether or not I should tell him.

"Well…to be honest with you..." I took a deep breath before continuing. Steve kept glancing between me and the road. "…your driving scares the crap outta me. Thank goodness we're almost at HQ." Steve laughed.

"I could take another spin around the block if you'd like," he said, showing no sign of slowing down to turn into the TAPS parking lot.

"No, I would NOT like!" I said. Steve had an evil grin on his face. My eyes widened and I hung onto the door handle for dear life. "Holy crap!"

"Just kiddin'!" Steve said, whipping into the parking lot at last minute. I let out a sigh of relief and glared at him as he parked.

"You suck." I got out of the van and headed inside. Steve followed me to where we had cubbyholes where we kept personal stuff.

"Hey, I'm leaving back for home in a few minutes and you're not gonna see me for a while. How would you feel if the last thing you said to me was 'You suck'?" he asked.

"Correct," I replied. Grant had been passing by and had heard this. He stole a glance at us and chuckled. I felt slightly justified with this action. I looked at Steve smugly, but when I saw what he was doing I backed away. "Don't. You. Even."

Have you ever had someone give you a look that was so pitiful and disgustingly adorable that all you wanted to do was go "Aww!" and give them a big bear hug, regardless of whether you were miffed with them or not?

Steve was giving me one of those looks. I had to look away.

"Alright, alright! You don't suck." I glanced at him. Puppy dog eyes were still there. "Dude, I didn't mean it. I was joking." The puppy eyes never wavered. "Steeeeve, stop it!" Kris came in at that moment to get her stuff. "Kris, make him stop doing that!" Steve focused his puppy dog eyes on Kris.

"Aww!" she said, and gave him a big hug. Over Kris's shoulder, Steve aimed his puppy dog eyes at me. Frustrated, I grabbed my stuff and walked out of the room after telling Kris goodbye. I heard footsteps following behind me and then hurried into the workroom where Tango was putting equipment up.

"Hey, Dave, need help with that?" I said, coming to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him as if it would protect me from Steve's look.

"Oh—well—I just got done and was about to go." He looked at me awkwardly. I glanced toward the door expecting to see Steve, but he wasn't there.

"Right. Well." I patted him on the back and smiled. "Take care now!"

"Yeah, you too." He said as I hurried out of the room. I'm pretty sure I just made him confused. I popped my head into the office and said goodbye to Jason and Grant. When I turned around, Steve was right there with puppy dog look in place, lip quivering. Oh crap, not the lip quiver! I threw up my hands in defeat and then gave in.

"Aww!" I said as I gathered Steve into a big bear hug. Only when he started squeezing me tighter did I let go. "Okay, there's a big difference between hugging and trying to feel my boobs." After that Steve was the one who gave me the smug smile as we said goodbye. As I headed out to the parking lot, I tried to shake the weird feeling in my stomach that Steve's hug had brought on.

The next day I showed up for work at Tres Chicas at around lunch hour. The moment I walked in the door, I heard a scream and was soon caught in the heavily perfumed embrace of my cousin Britta.

"Felina! You didn't tell me you were back!" she said. I smiled. "So, how was your trip? Did you meet anyone?" She nudged me.

"Well…there was this one guy." Britta leaned in, interested. "He was so suave, so debonair. But it wouldn't have worked out."

"What? Why?" said Britta, looking devastated. "Is he a client with TAPS or something?"

"No," I said with the straightest face I could muster. "He was the ghost." Britta stared at me like I was an idiot. Angela came back to the shop from her lunch break and saw us.

"Felinaaaaa!" She hugged me. "Why are we all standing around?"

"Because Felina's still single," Britta teased.

"Oh. Well, there's a reason for that," said Angela. Hey!!!

"Hey!!!" I said. "It's not my fault you guys keep setting me up with guys I can't click with! Which is, like, ALL of them!" I went to tidy up the register. They followed. Geez, do I have a sign on my back that says "PLEASE STALK ME"?

"You should at least try to click," Britta encouraged.

"Well, if you can't click, then you shouldn't be on the internet," I replied. My cousins exchanged looks and then rolled their eyes.

"Get to work, Castillo. You're a hopeless case," said Angela, sighing and pretending to be immensely downtrodden.

"And that's why you love me!" I shot back cheerily.

To be continued…