Bubble of Happiness

For the second time in his life, Roy Robinson had woken up in a house full of women he loved, with nowhere he particularly needed to be for the next hour except behind the wheel of his car. It was, by any reasonable measure, a dream come true. The trouble was that some part of him still expected to wake up properly and discover he'd imagined the whole thing.

Jessica's house. His house, too, now. He had to keep reminding himself of that.

The thought brought a ridiculous smile to his face as he guided the car through the morning traffic. He'd spent the night there with Zara, holding her close in the darkness, and had woken to the quiet bustle of the household beginning its day. The ordinary details had made it feel more extraordinary, not less. Shoes by the door, coffee brewing in the kitchen, a few sleepy greetings exchanged in the hallway. He was living with the women he loved. He was building something with them, something that might actually last.

And it felt like any moment now, someone was going to pop the bubble.

Roy glanced at the passenger seat, where Zara sat with one leg crossed over the other, looking as pleased with life as he felt. Her tight blouse hugged her figure, and her short skirt had clearly been chosen with her new commitment to becoming one of the Sexy Girls in mind. Zara had never been shy about sharing her enthusiasm, and the occasional squeeze of his thigh while he drove made it clear that last night's intimacy hadn't dampened her spirits.

Michelle sat in the back seat, dressed in her Walmart uniform, her long brown hair falling neatly around her shoulders. The contrast between the two women was almost comical. Zara looked ready for a date, while Michelle looked ready to help a customer find the right size of jeans. They were so different in appearance, temperament, and the way they approached the world, yet they got along beautifully. Roy loved them both, intensely and profoundly. The idea of a life without either one of them was almost impossible to contemplate.

And he was allowed to have this. He was allowed to be happy.

The thought brought Monique to mind, though, and his smile faded a little.

Michelle's mother had been at Jessica's house the previous evening, joining the gathering of girlfriends and making herself part of the life Roy was trying to build. He'd known it was coming, of course. Michelle had told him how much she wanted to repair their relationship, and Roy understood why. A mother was a mother, and Michelle had no other family left. Still, understanding something intellectually didn't mean he had to like it.

Roy had spent much of the evening trying to reconcile the woman who had humiliated her daughter, furious and cruel, with the affectionate girlfriend who now called him honey bear. He hadn't liked the way she'd treated Michelle. He hadn't liked the way she'd treated him, either, although at least he could understand her motivations for that. His feelings about her had been formed almost entirely by her worst moments, and he couldn't pretend to know what she was like when she wasn't lashing out at the people closest to her.

But the sight of her and Michelle talking together, laughing together, had been genuinely heartening. There had been a warmth between them that he hadn't expected to see so soon. Michelle seemed lighter with her mother around, as though a weight she'd carried for years had finally begun to lift.

"Mom was so happy last night," Michelle said from the back seat, as if reading his thoughts. "I don't think I've seen her that happy in ages."

Roy glanced at her in the rear-view mirror. Michelle was leaning forward slightly, her arms resting on the back of the passenger seat. "She seemed to have a good time."

"She did. I could tell." A smile spread across Michelle's face. "And I was happy, too. I know things have been rough between us, but seeing her there with everyone, knowing she's part of your life now... I don't know. It felt right."

Roy tightened his grip on the steering wheel. "I'm glad."

"More than glad, I hope." Michelle's voice held a playful note, but the sincerity beneath it was unmistakable. "You know, if it wasn't for you, Mom and I probably wouldn't even have a relationship anymore. I don't know if we'd ever have found our way back to each other."

The words landed harder than he expected.

"Michelle..."

"No, I'm serious." She sat back, gazing out the window for a moment before looking at him again. "I was so angry with her. And I had every reason to be. She said some horrible things, and I didn't think I could ever get past them. But you've helped both of us. You've made her softer, and you've helped me see that maybe we can have a relationship again without pretending none of the bad stuff happened."

Roy didn't know what to say.

"That's another thing I love you for," Michelle continued. "You don't just make me happy. You make the people I love happier, too."

A familiar, uncomfortable knot formed in his stomach. The truth was considerably less flattering than Michelle imagined. Their relationship had been broken, at least in part, because of him. Monique's anger at Walmart had been directed at him as well as her daughter, and the wish had transformed that hostility into affection. The reconciliation Michelle was celebrating had grown out of circumstances Roy hadn't chosen and couldn't explain. He'd become the centre of Monique's emotional world without doing anything to earn it, and now Michelle was thanking him for the consequences.

He felt like a fraud accepting the praise.

Worse, he still didn't like Monique.

Perhaps that was unfair. He barely knew the woman. He'd seen her at her worst, and the magic had ensured that their next interactions were coloured by feelings neither of them had developed naturally. But the only unaltered evidence he had of her character was the way she'd spoken to Michelle, and that had been ugly enough to leave a lasting impression. Roy couldn't simply forget the venom in her voice because she now smiled at him across a dinner table.

He'd been planning to become intimate with Monique soon. Once that happened, he could move on, as he had with so many of the women the wish had brought into his life. He'd told himself that it would be better for everyone if he kept things simple, if he didn't let another relationship become permanent simply because the magic had made it feel meaningful.

But what would happen to Michelle if he did that?

The thought unsettled him more than he wanted to admit. Monique was the only family Michelle had left. Her father was gone, and there were no siblings or other close relatives waiting in the wings to fill the gap. If Roy ended things with Monique, would their new closeness survive? Would Michelle once again be a daughter who had been forced to push her mother out of her life? Would Monique be lost in the anger and bitterness that had pushed her daughter away in the first place?

Roy didn't know. He couldn't know. That was the maddening part of the wish. Every choice he made seemed to carry consequences he couldn't predict, and every attempt to make things right risked making something else worse.

Would getting rid of Monique be selfish? Would it be self-serving to end a relationship he hadn't wanted in the first place, even if doing so might hurt Michelle? He had every right to decide who he wanted in his life, didn't he? Surely being trapped in a magical relationship wasn't a moral obligation.

And yet he was the reason Monique had become part of this mess. The rift between mother and daughter had been mended, at least in part, through the very magic that had created his relationship with Monique. He couldn't take credit for the good and wash his hands of the consequences.

And even if he did reject Monique, with how the wish had begun to change, would that rejection last?

"Hey." Zara's hand settled on his thigh, her fingers giving him a gentle squeeze. "You're doing that thing again."

Roy glanced at her. "What thing?"

"The thing where you stare at the road like it's personally responsible for all the world's problems." She gave him a bright, affectionate smile. "You've been miles away for the last five minutes."

"Just thinking."

"That sounds dangerous."

Michelle laughed from the back seat. "He's always thinking."

"Exactly!" Zara's expression grew animated. "It's one of his most endearing qualities, but sometimes I think his brain needs a little vacation. A nice beach, perhaps. Somewhere with cocktails and absolutely no complicated ethical dilemmas."

"That would be nice," Roy admitted.

"See? He agrees with me. We should all go somewhere. A trip together! Once everyone has settled in, we could rent a cottage or something. We could bring games, and I could introduce everyone to some of my favourite board games. Not the really long ones, unless everyone wants to commit an entire weekend. Actually, that might be fun, too. We could make a tournament out of it..."

Zara's enthusiasm was infectious. It was one of the things Roy loved most about her, the way an ordinary thought could blossom into an entire universe of possibilities before anyone else had finished processing the first sentence. From the moment she had ended up in his life he'd found her talkative nature charming. Now, with her hand resting on his thigh and her smile bright enough to light the car, he found it almost impossible not to smile back.

For a few seconds, the worries receded. There was Zara, happy and affectionate, already planning a future that included all of them. There was Michelle, content in the back seat, looking forward to seeing her mother again. And there was Roy, driving them to work as though this were the most natural arrangement in the world.

Maybe it could be. Maybe it would be.

Then Zara's next words shook him out of his fairy tail and back to reality, bringing an unpleasant reality back into his thoughts.

"I still can't believe you're going on a date with Agnes tonight," she said, practically bouncing in her seat. "I mean, I knew she was beautiful, obviously, but I never imagined she'd be so completely in love with you. Jessica said she was practically glowing when she talked about you."

Roy's smile became more strained. "Jessica did seem pretty convinced."

"She was convinced before she even finished telling us the story. And Elaine agreed, and Michelle agreed, and I agreed, and Monique agreed. We all think you should give her a chance."

"Yes. I remember the vote."

Zara squeezed his thigh again, this time higher up his leg, oblivious to the grimace he was trying to suppress. "Come on, Roy. You don't have to marry her. It's one date! You might discover there's something there."

"I know."

"Besides, if she's really changed, wouldn't it be good to find that out? People can change. I know you don't like the way she used to behave, and I don't blame you, but Jessica seems to think Agnes is trying to become a better person. That's worth something, isn't it?"

Roy let out a quiet sigh. Zara wasn't wrong, which was irritating in its own way. He'd agreed to the date, after all. Nobody had forced him to say yes. He could have refused, could have explained that he had no interest in giving Agnes another chance, but the unanimous support of his girlfriends had made that difficult. They believed Agnes was sincere. They believed she'd examined her prejudices, recognized the harm she'd done, and decided to change.

Jessica, especially, was convinced that Agnes was head over heels in love with him. She'd described the difference she'd seen in her employee, how Agnes seemed more present and engaged, less detached from the people around her. Jessica had met with her, listened to her confession, and come away believing she'd witnessed a genuine epiphany.

Roy wanted to believe that people could change. He wanted to believe that Agnes had looked at the ugliness in her own heart and decided she didn't want to be that person anymore. But he remembered the woman he'd known before the wish had altered her feelings. Her beauty had been undeniable, but so had her bigotry. She'd looked down on people she considered beneath her, and her views of who was acceptable and who wasn't had been repugnant.

One of the best things about moving out of his apartment had been knowing he wouldn't have to live next door to Agnes anymore. He'd thought that particular problem was behind him. Now he was expected to dress nicely, take her to dinner, and see whether the woman who'd once repelled him had become someone he could care about.

He'd agreed to go once. One date. If nothing else, it would give him a chance to confirm that his original judgement had been right.

Or so he told himself.

The problem was that Agnes wasn't the only woman whose feelings had returned in some form. Ava had been watching him with an intensity he couldn't ignore, and he was increasingly certain that her affection wasn't merely the warmth of a daughter getting along with her mother's boyfriend. She'd already been under the wish once, had been released, and had no memory of the experience. Yet something about her behaviour suggested the magic might have left a mark.

Varoonth had warned him that the wish was changing. He still had no idea what that meant, and the bartender hadn't provided anything close to a useful explanation. Roy had spent too many nights wondering whether the magic was rewriting its own rules, whether women he'd thought were safely released could find themselves drawn back into his orbit.

How long until another of his former girlfriends appeared, declaring that she'd fallen in love with him? How many women would he be expected to welcome into his life before the wish finally ran its course? And what would happen if the feelings weren't real, or if they were real but had been born out of something they'd never chosen?

He glanced at Zara. She was chattering about the possible cottage trip, apparently undeterred by the fact that her boyfriend was contemplating a magical disaster. Her hand remained on his thigh, warm and reassuring. Roy wanted to give her the kind of future she was imagining. He wanted to give all of them that future. But the more he tried to build a stable life, the more the wish seemed determined to complicate it.

And then there was Tom.

The thought came with a fresh wave of anxiety. Helena had asked him to give her a day to come up with a plan to deal with Tom's blackmail. By later that afternoon, twenty-four hours would have passed. Roy trusted Helena. She was smart, experienced, and powerful enough within the company to make things happen. She'd believed him when he explained what Tom had done, and she hadn't treated him like a man who was simply trying to avoid the consequences of his own mistakes.

But Helena could only do so much. Tom had been careful, and the false evidence he'd assembled could still cause serious damage. If Helena couldn't find a way to expose him, Roy might lose the job he'd spent years building. The thought of leaving his position, his team, and the work he'd invested so much of himself in made his stomach tighten. He'd already had to confront enough uncertainty in his personal life. He didn't need his professional life falling apart as well.

He wanted to call Helena and ask whether she'd made progress. He wanted to know there was a plan, that somebody had figured out how to stop Tom before the situation became even worse. But he also knew that pushing her wouldn't make her work any faster. She'd asked for a day, and he would give her that.

Trust. It was a word that had taken on a great deal of weight lately. He trusted Helena to help him. He trusted Jessica to have recognized something genuine in Agnes. He trusted his girlfriends to be honest about what they wanted, even when their wishes were complicated by the magic. He trusted Michelle when she said that Monique's presence made her happy.

The one person he couldn't quite trust was himself. Not because he wanted to hurt anyone, but because every decision seemed to come with a hidden cost. He wanted to be fair, but he couldn't always tell what fairness looked like when the rules of his life had been rewritten without his permission.

"Roy?"

Michelle's voice drew him back again. "Sorry," he said, meeting her eyes in the rear-view mirror. "What was that?"

"I said I'm really glad you're taking Agnes out. I know you don't like her, but if she's trying to change, maybe she deserves a chance. And if she's still the same person, you'll know you did your best."

Roy considered that. "That's a very reasonable way of looking at it."

"I'm a very reasonable person."

Zara snorted. Michelle laughed, and Roy found himself joining in. The conversation had wandered away from the worries that had been weighing on him, and for a moment he was grateful simply to listen to them tease each other. Their affection was effortless. Neither seemed to find the other's differences strange or difficult. They could be completely different people and still find common ground, still care about each other, still make room for each other in their lives.

Maybe that was what he needed to remember. A family didn't have to be made up of people who were alike. It had to be made up of people who were willing to keep trying, even when things were complicated.

The Walmart parking lot came into view, and Roy signalled into the entrance. Cars were scattered across the broad expanse of asphalt, with a few early shoppers already pushing carts towards the store. Michelle straightened in the back seat, gathering her bag and checking that she had everything she needed for her shift.

Roy pulled into a space near the employee entrance and put the car in park. For a moment, none of them moved. The morning sun shone through the windscreen, warming the dashboard and catching the edges of Zara's glasses.

Michelle leaned forward between the seats. "Thanks for the ride."

"Anytime." Roy unbuckled his seat belt and got out, walking around the car to meet her. He pulled her into a hug, holding her close for a few seconds longer than he strictly needed to. She smelled faintly of her shampoo, clean and familiar, and the feel of her arms around him made the world seem a little less precarious.

"I love you," he murmured.

"I love you, too." Michelle tipped her face up, and Roy kissed her gently. She smiled against his mouth before stepping back, looking pleased and a little reluctant to go.

Zara leaned out of the passenger window. "You know, if you two are planning to keep making out in front of Walmart, you might want to book some sick time or vacation time. Otherwise, you're going to be late for work."

Roy laughed, and Michelle covered her face with one hand, giggling. "Oh my God, Zara!"

"What? I'm just saying. There are policies about these things."

"You're ridiculous," Roy said, shaking his head.

"And yet you love me."

"I do."

"Good. Then you can make it up to me later."

The playful sparkle in Zara's eyes made it clear that she had something in mind, and Roy couldn't help grinning. Michelle gave him one last hug, promised she'd text him on her break, and headed towards the employee entrance. He watched until she disappeared inside, feeling that familiar swell of affection that seemed to fill every corner of his chest.

Then he returned to the driver's seat and found Zara waiting for him with a smile and her hand already reaching for his thigh.

His house. His women. His life.

The bubble was still intact.

For now, Roy decided, that was enough.