“I don’t know how, but I swear, I was the other girl; in your dream, another woman suddenly appeared and gave me the necklace, right?” Theia gasped again. “I woke up and found it under my pillow,” Eleni revealed a long necklace she always wears but never showed the end. Theia gasped yet again and pointed at the tiny vase dangling from the silver necklace.

Eleni put the necklace back inside her shirt and said, “Stop gasping! There’s more!” Eleni walked to the back fridge and took out some soda cans and beers. “I had that dream exactly two weeks before we got here.”

Theia was about to gasp again but stopped herself. “You too?! God! anyway, that day I had a meeting with my editor and right before I went inside the café we always meet at; I saw the woman from the dream! The one that gave you the vase necklace… I thought I must have overreacted or hallucinated or something, but it was her, she stopped me and told me the same thing she told you in the dream and she also said that when your heart is ready, we would have this conversation.”

“My heart is ready! I’ll finally meet him! I’ll meet my prince!” Theia said happily, jumping a little and clapping like a child. Eleni cringed. The kitchen door slammed open, almost dropping their hearts to their feet. Manos stood at the door frame, looking at both.

“What is taking you so long? It has been almost ten minutes to get these,” he said, pointing at the drinks on the counter between them. “What secrets are you two hiding?”

They looked at each other. “Nothing, absolutely nothing,” Eleni said and lightly punched Theia, who still had a big smile on her face.

…

12:30 am.

Their night was about to end, and their friends left the restaurant one by one, leaving only Manos and Andreas. They helped them clean up before leaving as well. The girls were in the kitchen, closing everything before heading home.

Theia looked at Eleni, who was busy flipping through the chairs. Her patience was long gone, and she couldn’t keep her curiosity any longer. “When are we gonna do it?” she said loudly enough for Eleni to hear.

“Do what?”

“Meeting my prince!” Theia said and stepped out of the kitchen to Eleni.

“Your prince! You’re that desperate, huh?”

“Yes! I want to meet him… feel him… touch him… kiss—”

“Okay, fine! I get it!” she flipped the last chair. “If we’re doing that, we should go home first.”

“What are we doing exactly?” Theia asked and followed Eleni outside the restaurant.

1:48 am.

Eleni was outside in the house’s backyard garden; she was sitting on a white couch waiting for Theia to finish making two cups of coffee to sober up. Eleni was texting one of their waiters to tell him they would open late the next day.

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Theia walked to her happily, almost jumping from excitement. She put the cups on the squared table across the couch and shifted her body entirely toward Eleni, who smiled at her child-like mood and shifted her body toward her as well.

“Before I tell you anything, you must know I don’t believe any of that, but when you told me about your dreams, I almost peed my pants from the shock,” Eleni said, chuckling.

Theia laughed and said, “I believe you.”

“Okay, first, I don’t really know how it should work, but somehow what that lady told us in the dream was the same thing she told me when I saw her,” Eleni said. The dream they shared was fragmented pieces of what felt more like an actual memory they shared, but both knew they didn’t.

A woman in her mid-sixties gave Eleni an amphora vase necklace, the exact one the same woman gave them in the dream. Both times, the woman told them that the vase contained the essence of Theia’s true love. She told them when the right moment came, Eleni should throw a few drops on a gate, and she would know what to do next.

“On a gate?” Theia said. “Like a door?”

“I think so. She even told me again that I was the one who should know what to do after that. Which is ironic because I had zero belief that any of that was even real. But when you told me about the dream, it was like something inside my mind told me it’s time,” Eleni said, drinking her coffee. Theia nodded and drank her coffee as well.

As they were on their last sip, Eleni left her cup after finishing and walked to the back door of the garden that led to the wine pantry. Theia followed her after finishing hers as well.

Eleni looked at her and said, “Now we’re sober. I think we’re ready.” She grabbed her necklace and took the vase between her fingers.

The garden was filled with lighting, and on the sides of the wooden door were two big copper lamplighters. As Eleni looked over the small vase, a reflection of the light hit something over the vase.

She narrowed her eyes and saw a line written around the body of the vase. She narrowed her eyes harder and raised her hand to see the vase directly under the light. “What is that?” she shifted the vase right and left reading. A text in ancient Greek orthography shined. “Eye… sees… what the… heart desires.”

Theia was also looking at the vase and the text, yet she understood nothing. “How could you read that?!”

Eleni looked at her, then at the vase, and said, “I do not know.” Another text glowed under the light. “Hear desire… in the light of your fingers… what?” Theia looked as confused as Eleni, who kept reading another glowing text. “Secret is in your fingers and soul; okay, I don’t understand what that text means or how I could even read them?!”

“Maybe it means you should use your hand to make it work… I don’t know, it makes little sense.”

Eleni looked at her, thinking, then said, “Actually, when you put it that way, it makes sense somehow.” She stepped back and opened the cork closure. Rich, earthy, floral aromatic scent evoked from the rim of the vase.

“Wow, your love essence smells incredible,” Theia responded by nodding and smiling widely. Eleni threw a few drops over the white wooden door across them, the few drops were glowing in rose-golden color, they moved and shaped as words in ancient Greek orthography.

Both girls stepped closer, looking shockingly at the moving liquid. “Speak to open love gate, that’s… cringe,” Eleni said and looked at Theia.

“Really?” Theia said and looked more at the liquid; it was indeed in the ancient Greek language that is impossible for anyone to read except for philologists. “Uhm… if you could read that, it properly means you’re the one who should say it.”

“Yeah, but say what?”

“I don’t know. Say something to open it, anything.”

“Okay… Uhm… open sesame,” Eleni said.

Theia looked at her and chuckled, “Open sesame? Really?” the liquid moved down and covered the doorknob; it changed its silver color to a rose-golden one. Shiny like pure gold and smooth like silk.

Their eyes followed the doorknob, twitching the colors until it changed to a pure gold one. The liquid moved up and another set of words formed again.

“Touch and reveal… your desire,” Eleni said, she reached the doorknob, and powerful light exploded from it, covering them whole. The girls closed their eyes tightly as the light felt almost burning to their colored eyes.