During a time when my first serious, live in, relationship was crumbling I started having these "stress dreams" where this guy - always the same guy who I'd never met before named Philbert - would meet me in my dreams. The first one he approached me during my morning jog while waiting at a stop light and asked me on a date. I told him I was engaged and he told me "I don't give up that easily." to which I told him he should. He showed up the next night with all of my closest friends. I was aware that I was dreaming and so was everyone else and they seemed unsure of how they got there but everyone agreed that how they got there didn't matter and what was important was to enjoy the time we had together. Best dream ever.
Our dreams, as I'll call them, were hyper-real. He flew me places, all over the world. Places I could never have possibly imagined myself, but were able to confirm exist. We went to Paris, we went to Tokyo, Turkey, Antarctica, Iceland, South Africa, and more eating at the finest restaurants. I remember eating fried fish on the coast of South Africa and fireworks over the town square in Tel Aviv. It was all incredibly detailed and he was a magical companion. Charming, witty, intellectual, talented. He played the piano in a hotel lobby in Tokyo for me that attracted a huge crowd. It was beautiful.
Then I would wake up and go back to my miserable life. It got to a point where I felt like I had to tell my extremely jealous husband who reacted poorly to hearing that I was having an affair with a figment of my own imagination and put me in the hospital. After that I told Philbert I couldn't see him anymore.
He flipped out when I told him. He was frustrated with my resistance to breaking it off with my fiance. He wanted me to make a commitment to him and I wanted to but didn't know how I was supposed to live my whole life in a dream state and no matter how much he convinced me being asleep was better I could not stay asleep long enough to build a consistent life with him.
At this point I just felt crazy. My life was completely fragmented. I knew I had to break it off with my violent fiance, but I was isolated and frightened. It just wasn't that easy. I didn't want to lose Philbert as he was my greatest source of comfort, but I knew I couldn't keep doing this with him so when he insisted that I make a decision and that if I tell him to go that he wont come back, I did. He threw his glass against the wall, walked out onto the balcony, and disappeared into the fog never to be seen or heard from again.