New Fic-Wishful thinking -13

With or without me.

Those words ran through my head the entire evening shift. The entire drive home. The entire time that I stood beneath a steaming shower, washing away the scent of burgers and fries and onion rings.

The more I repeated those four words, the more I realized that Rob hadn't actually been talking about his success in theater. He and I could work out professional goals. We could figure out ways for him to achieve his theatrical dreams.

No. Rob was questioning me. Us.

For the first time since we'd started fighting, I truly understood. Rob didn't know if he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.

I'd thought that pushing him down the playground slide had bound us together for life. He wasn't convinced. Hadn't been convinced, despite high school homecoming. Despite college graduation. Despite two years in the outside world.

He didn't know if he loved me.

Without making a conscious decision, I tugged my terry bathrobe tighter around my waist. I straightened the towel that bound my hair, pressed my thumb and forefinger together and called out, "Jaze!"

This time, he was a clean-cut lawyer, freshly shaven, wearing a navy pinstriped suit and carrying a briefcase. As soon as he saw my robe and towel, though, he giggled in a most unlawyerly way and exclaimed, "Oh, goody!"

He tugged twice on his ear, and the courtroom attire was replaced by a robe of sumptuous white linen. A snowy towel draped around his neck like a terry cloth cravat. "Ready for a sauna, girlfriend?"

"Jaze, cut it out. I don't want to play your games."

He cocked his head to one side. "Really? What do you want?"

I sighed. "I want Rob to love me. You can do that, can't you? Grant my wish and make him love me forever?"

"Stop right there!" Jaze held up a hand, as if he were conducting traffic on Lovelorn Freeway. "I don't usually say this to a human, so listen carefully—that would be a terrible wish to make."

I was astonished by his vehemence. "Why?"

"Been there, done that, girlfriend. You'll end up hating yourself. And him. And me."

"It seems like such a simple solution!"

He shook his head so hard, I thought his towel was going to fall off. "It isn't. If it were simple, I'd let you make it, and I'd be one step closer to the Garden."

"Garden? What are you talking about?"

He sighed. "I thought you were on such a roll, I wasn't going to have to tell you about it." He muttered to himself, "Two wishes in twenty-four hours…I figured we'd be done in record time. You'd be happy, and I'd be that much closer to the Garden. But no. You stall out, two wishes down. Goodbye, Garden!"

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

Jaze raised buffed fingertips to his earlobe. "Brace yourself. It's easier to show you, than to tell."