“Mama?” Katie heard whispered in her ear as she slept, but couldn’t place the voice. “Mama?”  

A few seconds later, Katie felt something or someone crawl on top of her, and sit on her back. 

“MAMA!” a voice shouted as this thing tried to open Katie’s eyelid. 

“Daddy! Why isn’t Mama waking up?” the mystery voice said, as Katie felt the thing on her back move off of her. Then she felt some more movement from someone who was next to her in the bed. 

She wasn’t quite sure if she should open her eyes, as she secretly wished this was a dream about her possibly future, and it was Josh laying next to her. 

“Well Mama had a rough night last night,” the person next to her said, as they got out of bed. 

She knew that voice and it defiantly wasn’t Josh’s, it was… Trevor’s voice. 

Oh God

“Come on Sophie- let’s get ready and let Mama sleep in a little before she has to go into work. How about some oatmeal for breakfast?” Trevor asked the little girl.

“No! Ice Cream!” the little girl shouted. 

“Shhh,” Trevor said, “No, ice cream… how about oatmeal?” 

“Ice Cream,” the girl said. 

“Oatmeal it is then,” Trevor laughed picking up the little girl while tickling her causing her to go into fits of laughter as they head downstairs to the kitchen.

As they left the bedroom, Katie opened her eyes, all while moaning at the bright light coming thru the window and feeling the pain of the pounding in her head. She noticed Advil and water on the night stand next to the bed, and then she looked around from her spot in the bedroom, and noticed this was defiantly was not her place that she had with Josh. 

There were pictures of her and Trevor and a little girl placed around the bedroom, different furniture, different bedding, just different everything. 

She grabbed her phone off the side table, praying that Addy was still in her contact list, but before she was able to get to her contacts she sighed in relief as she saw a text waiting from Addy. 

Are you doing okay this am? Thank you for last night, the talking helped :) 

Just as she was going to do some more digging in her phone for hints about what was going on, she heard the pitter patter of little feet coming towards the bedroom, with larger feet coming behind it. 

Katie quickly closed her eyes again and pretended to be asleep. 

“Alright Sophie, kiss Mama good bye and you’ll see her when she picks you up from daycare after work,” Trevor said quickly changing into his work clothes. 

The little girl kissed Katie on the cheek. 

“Bye Mama- I love you! Have a good day,” she said before running out of the room. 

Then Trevor leaned down and kissed Katie on the cheek. 

“Love you babe, and I’m on shift today, so I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day at work,” he whispered before walking out and closing the bedroom door.   

About an hour later, Katie had some how made it to work, just like it was a normal routine for her to get from the house that she woke up in this morning to the office. 

Once she walked in, she made a beeline straight to Addy’s office, which thankfully for Katie’s sake was in the same location it was in yesterday. 

She walked in and closed the door, only to find Addy on the phone. As she waiting for Addy, she looked around and noticed some of the décor was different, there were now little kid drawings hanging up, new photos around along with some familiar ones. She then got a glimpse of the wall calendar next to Addy’s desk and saw it was now the year 2019. 

“2019? It was 2014 yesterday,” Katie said under her breath as she took a plop on the Addy’s couch. 

“Alright… I’ll see you later… I gotta go, Katie just walked in looking dazed and confused… Yeah, I’ll let you know… Love you,” Addy said as she hung up the phone. 

“Hey!” Addy said. 

“What year is it?” Katie asked. 

“Huh? What do you mean what year is it?” 

“I’m serious! What year is it?”

“Um… 2019, like it’s been for the last 7-8 months. Oh yeah! Thanks for the girl talk last night, Alex and I talked when I got home and it was just a misunderstanding,” Addy said. 

Katie just sat there still with a confused look on her face. 

“Are you okay?”

“I really don’t know… I mean yesterday it was 2014 and now it’s 2019? Is this a dream I’m having or was that I dream I had? I really don’t know,” Katie said pulling her legs up to her chest and hugging them. 

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know if this is a dream or yesterday was a dream. I’m so confused!” 

“Well what was going on yesterday?”

Katie took a deep breath. “Well it was quite vivid, that’s for sure. But you know Josh? Alex’s friend?” 

“Uh.. yeah,” Addy answered swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat. 

“It was as if we were together. Meeting that one day he came in town for the job transfer interview, moving in together, and then I wake up this morning and I’m married to Trevor,” Katie said making a disgust face. “I mean is this a sign? Am I supposed to be with Josh instead of Trevor, or am I supposed to be with Trevor instead of Josh? I don’t know! I’m so confused Addy!” 

Addy stood up from her chair and went to go sit next to Katie embracing her in a hug.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you lady,” Addy said, putting her head on Katie’s shoulder. 

“Well at least please sum up for the last 5 years because I surely don’t remember, and like I said all I remember is being with Josh.” 

Addy sighed and tried to think back. “Well let’s see what I remember from when Josh was in town that day was that you were going to come to dinner, but Trevor had surprised you at work just as we were leaving, and took you out to dinner so you guys can talk and work things out, and I tell you Katie, that boy did a complete 180 after that dinner. Don’t know what you guys talked about, but that night he was a changed person, paying for dinner, no longer being a dick, but an actual decent guy.” 

Katie just looked at Addy like she was crazy. 

Addy laughed, “I’m serious!” 

Katie just shook her head.

“So you two got back together that night, and I think he proposed a couple of months later, then married in 2016, then had Sophie 2 years ago and that’s the last 5 years summed up in a couple of sentences,” Addy said. 

“So what happened last night? Did I bump my head or something?” 

“Well we went out to dinner because I needed someone to talk to after finding a mystery phone number in Alex’s pants, so yeah we had a few drinks, talked, and then headed home. I don’t know what happened after you got home, but Alex and I talked about what I found and everything’s okay for now,” Addy said with hesitate in her voice.   

“So what about Josh? Should I go back to Boston and say I messed up and we need to be together because whatever was going on yesterday, I rather be with Josh more than I would ever want to be with Trevor.” 

“You can’t go back to Boston, Katie,” Addy said with sadness in her voice.

“Why?” Katie asked standing up. “Why, can’t I go to Boston to find Josh and say it was a mistake that I never met him that night?” 

Addy just looked at her from her spot on the couch. 

“Because Josh isn’t in Boston anymore,” Addy said. 

“So he’s here in Denver?”

Addy just shook her head no 

“LA?”

“No,” Addy sighed. 

“Dammit Addy! Tell me, I need to go see him!” 

Addy then stood up, “You can’t go see him, because he’s not here anymore.” 

Katie just looked at her like she was crazy. 

“What do you mean he’s not here anymore?” 

Addy swallowed hard, “He was killed in a car accident a few years ago.”

Hearing the news, Katie sat back down on the couch in shock and started to get tears in her eyes. Addy once again took her in a hug all the while texting Alex. 

Will you pick up Sophie from day care when you pick up Els and Em! Please! 

"He is not dead. You are lying," Katie finally snapped, she couldn't take any more news. Not today, not after what she had yesterday. 

"Katie I'm sorry."

"This is not happening. This is ridiculous."

"Katie calm down."

"I don't want to calm down. I want what I had yesterday. It was so different with Josh."

"Katie, just take it as a good dream." 

"No fucking shit. I want the dream to be real."

"You and I both know Katie, it can't be real."

"Ugh! God dammit." 

Getting up Katie left the office slamming the door behind her. Addy just sat on the couch stunned. What the fuck just happened she thought, just as her desk phone brought her out of her thoughts. 

"This is Addy,” she answered not looking at the caller ID. 

"What the hell is going on with Katie? I'm almost thinking of writing her up for how she just acted at me," Jim said admittedly. 

Addy swallowed thickly. 

"Is she drunk, because I've never seen her act like that?"

"Hmm.... No she's just having a bad day. I'll take care of it."

"Well she's in her office pacing." 

"I'll take care of it."

"You better or I'm sending her home to figure her shit out and by the way she has a meeting in fifteen, so you better make sure she's there on time."

"Jim, I said I will take care of it," she snapped and hanging up. 

Coming out of her office she headed to her friend’s office. It was time for a little tough love to get them at least through the workday. She didn’t become Vice President of Client Services just by sitting around.

"Katie."

"What?"

Tears were just rolling down her cheeks. Great Addy thought this was going to be harder then she thought. Going over she placed her hands on her friend’s shoulders, and looked her straight in the eyes. 

"Listen to me."

"I just don't understand what's going on. How could I miss five years?"

"Those five years are in there. You just have to think and get them back, but listen to me. You have to snap out of this right now. You have to work, and when five o'clock hits we will figure this out together. Now you've been doing this job for as long as I've known you, so I know for a fact you remember how to do. It’s time to work, dry your eyes, freshen up, and go do your job. You have a meeting in 10 minutes."

Katie slowly nodded her head and wiped her eyes. Going into her drawer, she pulled out a small makeup bag. After a few minutes she was finally ready to face her meeting. Grabbing her things she headed out of her office silently. 

Addy could only watch her go and shake her head. She needed to figure out how in the world her friend lost five years, and what in the hell made her think about Josh? 

Damn, it’s  going to be a long day Addy thought rubbing her face already exhausted mumbling, “Can it be 5 already?”