Sleeping on it

If Roy had once felt as though the threads of his life were slowly coming loose, the past few weeks had apparently been building toward the entire thing coming apart at the seams.

All he'd wanted was to spend time with the women he loved. He'd wanted to get to know Jessica better. He'd wanted Elaine and Michelle to meet Zara. Somewhere in the back of his mind, there had even been the vague hope that getting everyone together might make his increasingly absurd life feel a little more manageable.

Instead, one dinner later, they were discussing moving in together.

Roy looked around the crowded dining table and wondered exactly when his life had stopped being his.

That wasn't entirely fair. It was still his life. Nobody was forcing him to do anything. Elaine hadn't marched into his apartment, slapped a rental agreement in front of him, and announced that they were all moving in by Tuesday. Jessica hadn't produced a key to a mansion and informed him that his belongings had already been packed.

Everyone was simply excited. Maybe that was part of what made the whole thing so overwhelming. They wanted this. All of them.

And, if Roy was being completely honest with himself, so did he.

That part had snuck up on him.

Stress twisted through his stomach. His thoughts were racing. A dozen practical questions had already begun piling on top of one another. How quickly would this happen? Would everyone still feel this way tomorrow? Would somebody get jealous? Would there be arguments? Would he somehow become responsible for deciding who did the dishes?

At the same time...

God, he felt loved.

Wanted.

Appreciated.

Four beautiful women sat around a table with him, each one apparently delighted by the possibility of being even closer to him. A few weeks ago, Roy had been a forty-year-old department head who went home to an empty apartment and wondered whether the people at work noticed how little of a life he had outside the office.

Now four women loved him.

Four.

Nobody around him seemed to think that was particularly strange, either. Not the women who now considered themselves his girlfriends. Not his coworkers. Nobody. The wish had changed the world around him so thoroughly that Roy had stopped knowing where the edges of normal were supposed to be.

Across the table, Jessica still held his hand. Her fingers rested comfortably against his, warm and familiar despite the fact that they'd known each other for almost no time at all. That was another thing Roy was still trying to accept. How could someone he'd only just met already feel so important?

The answer, of course, was magic.

Or at least, it had started that way. The wish had brought Jessica into his life. It had shaped her reality, given her a relationship with him, placed feelings inside her that had not existed before. That was the part Roy couldn't escape. But sitting across from her now, looking into those intelligent brown eyes, he couldn't convince himself that what he felt was artificial.

Jessica was real.

Her laughter was real. Her warmth was real. The way she looked at him as though he were somehow more interesting than everyone else in the room was very, very real. And the idea of waking up beside her every morning...

Roy tried not to think about that too hard. The image was dangerously appealing. All of them under one roof. Michelle wandering around in the morning while complaining that she needed coffee.

Zara talking so quickly before breakfast that nobody could keep up with her.

Elaine sitting at the table, probably already dressed for work, smiling at him over the rim of a mug.

Jessica.

Coming home and seeing Jessica.

That one got him far more excited than he had anticipated.

There was only one Roy. Only so many hours in a day. Already, trying to make time for Elaine, Michelle, Zara, and now Jessica felt like attempting to keep four separate plates spinning at once.

Then there were the other women. It wasn't as if the wish had stopped. It kept finding new ways to complicate his life. New girlfriends appeared. New relationships began. Women he barely knew suddenly loved him with an intensity that left him struggling to decide what he was supposed to do.

There was only so far he could stretch himself. Living together might actually help. Maybe having everyone around him would make things easier. More than that, perhaps it would help him understand what was happening.

Varoonth had said the magic was changing. The bartender had dropped that particular revelation into his life and then, as far as Roy was concerned, failed spectacularly to provide any useful follow-up information. The wish was changing. Wonderful. Terrific. Could Varoonth perhaps have explained how?

Apparently not.

Maybe seeing the women more often would reveal something. Maybe living together would make the pattern clearer. While he was pretty sure he understood why some girlfriends stayed and some disappeared, maybe there was more to it. Or maybe Roy was just desperately looking for a way to make this seem sensible.

His eyes drifted toward Jessica. There was another problem.

Ava.

Jessica's barely eighteen-year-old daughter was free now. Thank God for that.

But the thought of sitting across from her at breakfast every morning was enough to make Roy's stomach twist for an entirely different reason. Ava would nothing. That was how the wish worked. She'd have no memory of being his girlfriend. No recollection of the time they'd spent together. No knowledge of what had happened in his car that evening before the magic had moved on.

Roy, unfortunately, ed all of it. The image threatened to surface again, Ava's face in his lap, her eyes locked on his, bobbing up and down...

He pushed it away.

Ava was no longer his girlfriend. The only relationship he had with her now was as Jessica's daughter. If everyone moved into Jessica's house, Roy could eventually find himself sitting across the dinner table from Ava, politely ing her the salt while pretending he didn't how good she'd made him feel for those few moments.

That seemed like the sort of situation nobody wrote an etiquette guide for.

Then there was Jessica herself. How long would this relationship last? That was the question he couldn't answer. They hadn't become intimate yet. Until they did, Roy had no idea whether Jessica would become permanent, like Elaine, Michelle and Zara, or whether the wish would simply move on once their relationship crossed that particular line. The thought of taking her to bed and then waking up to discover that she was no longer his girlfriend made his chest tighten.

Not because he didn't want her. Quite the opposite. Jessica was amazing. Smart. Kind. Strong. Beautiful enough to make Roy occasionally wonder whether his eyesight had been altered along with reality.

And there was something about the way she looked at him. Jessica had this knowing expression that made him feel as though she could see straight through every defence he'd ever built. Standing under that gaze sometimes felt like being completely exposed in front of a crowd.

At the same time, she somehow made him feel like the king of the world.

In his old life, Roy wouldn't have allowed himself to dream about a woman like Jessica. She wasn't merely out of his league. Jessica was playing an entirely different sport.

Yet there she sat, holding his hand. Loving him. And Roy loved her too.

"Roy?" Michelle's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Mister Man, you're being very quiet."

Roy blinked. Four women were watching him.

"What do you think?"

That was the problem, wasn't it? He looked at them one by one. Elaine had that warm, patient smile that always made him feel as though everything would eventually work out. Zara was practically vibrating in her chair, barely containing whatever torrent of thoughts had accumulated while Roy had been busy having an internal crisis. Michelle's excitement was impossible to miss.

And Jessica...

Jessica was still holding his hand. There was something almost vulnerable in her expression now. She wanted him to say yes. No, more than that. She needed him to want it.

Roy squeezed her hand.

"I think it could work."

Zara immediately made a sound somewhere between a squeal and a cheer.

Jessica's smile brightened.

"And," Roy continued, "I think it's an incredibly generous offer."

"Thank you," Jessica said softly.

"But..."

Zara's face fell.

"But?" she repeated. "Why is there a but?"

"There's always a but," Roy answered, smiling.

"There really doesn't have to be." Zara's voice took on a serious tone. "We all want this. You want it too. You just haven't caught up with the fact that you want it yet."

"That's not how decisions work," Roy said as he stared at her.

"Sure it is. Sometimes your brain takes longer than your heart. That's practically science," the beautiful woman in a pixie cut said with finality, crossing her arms beneath her breasts.

Jessica laughed quietly.

"Is it?"

"I don't know," Zara itted, rolling her eyes. "I'm not a scientist. But I feel like somebody has probably studied it."

"My point is that we should slow down," Roy said, shaking his head.

"Slow down how?" The younger woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously behind her glasses.

"One night."

"One night?"

"Sleep on it."

Zara sat back.

"There is absolutely no reason to sleep."

Michelle laughed.

"Actually," Elaine said after a moment, her smile softening as she considered his suggestion, "there is some wisdom in that."

Zara looked betrayed.

"You're taking his side?"

"I'm taking the side of making sure we're not simply being carried away by the excitement."

The words made Roy feel strangely relieved. That was exactly what he needed. One night. Twenty-four hours. Just enough time for everyone to wake up in the morning and decide whether this still seemed like a good idea.

"I'm fine with that," Michelle said, leaning her shoulder into him slightly.

"Really?" Roy felt relief hearing her voice.

"Sure." She smiled. "I don't think I'm changing my mind by morning, though."

Something warm settled in his chest.

"I don't think I will either." Jessica's fingers tightened slightly around his. "I certainly won't rescind the offer."

Roy looked at her.

"You won't?"

Her smile was gentle.

"No."

There wasn't a hint of hesitation.

"Why don't we meet at my place tomorrow evening? I can show everyone around properly. We can have dinner, talk about it, and decide whether this is something we genuinely want to do."

Zara brightened again.

"A house tour!"

"Yes."

"Oh my God, this is becoming a thing."

"It already is a thing," Michelle said.

"A much bigger thing than it was an hour ago," Roy muttered.

"So tomorrow?" Elaine asked as she laughed.

Roy looked around the table. Four women. Four hopeful faces. Four girlfriends. His girlfriends. The entire situation was insane. Completely, undeniably insane. And yet the idea of saying no felt impossible.

"Tomorrow," Roy agreed.

Zara clapped her hands together.

"Yes!"

Jessica smiled. Michelle looked as though she'd just been told Christmas was arriving early. Even Elaine seemed quietly delighted. For a few seconds, Roy simply watched them. Then something occurred to him. A slow smile spread across his face.

"Actually..."

Jessica raised an eyebrow.

"Actually?"

Roy leaned back in his chair.

"I didn't say we had to sleep on it separately."

Silence.

Zara stared at him. Michelle's mouth slowly opened. Elaine's eyebrows rose. Jessica's eyes narrowed with amused suspicion. Roy grinned.

"You said your house has enough bedrooms."

Jessica's expression shifted. Understanding. Then amusement. Then something that made Roy wonder whether he might have accidentally created an entirely new problem for himself.

"I'd say," he continued, "that at the very least, you've invited us for a sleepover tonight."

For half a second, nobody spoke. Then Zara practically exploded.

"Oh my God."

Michelle laughed so loudly that she nearly knocked over her drink. Elaine covered her mouth, though Roy could still see the smile. Jessica, meanwhile, continued holding his hand.

"Roy Robinson." The way Jessica said his name made him grin wider.

"What?"

"Are you seriously proposing that all five of us go back to my house tonight?"

"Yes," Roy answered instantly, barely considering the question.

Zara's hand shot into the air.

"I vote yes!"

"I don't think we're taking attendance like a classroom," Elaine said.

"Then I verbally the motion."

Michelle again leaned against Roy's shoulder.

"I'm in," she said, definitively. "I don't even need time to think about it. Mister Man's going, so I am, too."

Roy looked toward Elaine.

"And you?"

Her expression softened.

"How could I possibly say no?"

Three down. Jessica was last. The decision was hers. It was her house. Her daughter lived there. Her offer had begun this entire conversation, but there was a difference between suggesting that everyone might move in someday and having four people suddenly preparing to spend the night.

Roy watched her carefully. Jessica glanced around the table. At Elaine. At Zara. At Michelle. Then back at him. A slow smile appeared.

"I suppose," she said, "if we're going to make an important decision, we should at least gather all the evidence."

Zara blinked.

"Is that lawyer language for yes?"

Jessica laughed.

"Yes."

Zara squealed. Michelle hugged Roy's arm. Elaine shook her head in amused disbelief. And Roy sat in the middle of it all, feeling the stress, the fear and the complete lack of control over where his life was heading.

But underneath all of that was something else. Something warm. Something terrifying. Something wonderful. For perhaps the first time in his life, Roy didn't feel like he was going home alone.

He was going home with his family.