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Chapter 14 by fantaghiro

What's next?

Ariel & James

The chunky heels giving a soft cack against the stone pathway. His body moved with a strange, instinctive grace—as though he’d walked this garden a thousand times before. The skirt shifted against his thighs, light and teasing in the breeze, and he found himself smoothing the hem with a little tug, the kind of **** motion a girl made without thinking.

He frowned at that—at the ease, the automaticness of it. But his lips curled upward anyway, a smile bubbling past confusion. The flowers seemed brighter than ever, their perfume heavier, and he reached to pluck one from its stem. A pink blossom, perfect and soft. Without hesitation, he tucked it behind his ear, smiling at his reflection in the glass door again.

The girl in the glass smiled back, radiant. Ariel.

A pang shot through him then, sharp as glass in his chest. He knew this wasn’t him, wasn’t his life. And yet the memory came unbidden: laughter on a summer afternoon, friends splashing in the pool, Ariel running barefoot across this very patio, hair tangled in the sun, bracelets clattering as she twirled to show off a skirt that wasn’t much different from the one James wore now. He staggered, breath shuddering.

I’m not her. I’m not.

But the voice inside—small, sweet, insistent—whispered otherwise. It told him this was natural, this was right. That the past was gone, buried with the man he used to be.

He didn’t know how long he stood there, half lost in memory, half lost in the dizzy rush of the present. But eventually a James thought went through his mind. Maybe he should check in with Sarah. He'd been letting her handle all the details of the transition to their new lives - he should see how she was dealing with it all. Immediately feeling better at having made a _James _decision, he practically bounced back into the mansion to look for Sarah. He found her upstairs in the humongous master bath. She had changed into some workout clothes and was examining herself in the mirror, taking some pictures to get views of her whole body.

What's next?

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