We were standing, buried waist deep at the edge of the ocean, and I asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Let the tide bury us? Are you sure?
He collapsed, and I wiggled myself loose and dragged him up the beach, brushed the wet sand from his mouth. He was shivering, so I wrapped myself around him, wrapped towels around both of us.
I knew in the dream that I was only ever there to dig him out, get him warm enough to survive, and then I would have to go.
___
The new boyfriend woke me up, slowly, over the course of an hour, whispering, "I love you," into my ear, spooning, stroking my hair while I fell back into the dream.
Finally, he said the magic words: "It's time to get up," and I pushed myself up with a start and took a minute to remember where I was.
"Hi," were my first words this morning, to my new love, my old lover fading as quickly as the green dot on the horizon at sunset. "Hello," I said, falling back into the mattress. "I love you, too."