The Accidental Fix

Roy stared in disbelief at the woman standing near the elevators. He didn't know her name. He didn't need to know her name. He knew exactly who she was.

Michelle's mother.

And now, apparently, his girlfriend.

The realization was so absurd that for several seconds Roy could only stand there and stare. The woman who had spent the last week hating him was looking at him with unmistakable affection. Not suspicion. Not anger. Not the barely contained fury he'd seen when she'd confronted him about Michelle.

Affection.

For him.

Roy's stomach twisted.

At considerable professional risk, he'd moved the wish's magic into his office, hoping that activating it around the women who worked there might somehow produce someone who could help him deal with Tom. The plan had already gone badly once. Instead of finding the perfect solution to his problem, he'd accidentally caught the eye of the adventurous young woman he'd just spent time with in the old server room. She was currently disappearing down the elevator, presumably returning to the life she'd had before Roy had ever entered it.

And so, he tried to regain control of the wish's transfer once more. Somehow, against all reasonable expectations, he'd landed on Michelle's mother. The universe had a sense of humour.

The last time Roy had seen this woman, she'd called him a groomer. The last time Michelle had seen her, she'd called her own daughter a slut and a whore. Seeing her again brought a complicated knot of emotions that Roy didn't particularly want to examine. Unfortunately, he was going to have to. Because, as much as he hated to admit it, Roy understood her anger. Not the name-calling. Not the cruelty. Michelle hadn't deserved any of that. Neither had Roy, technically, although he could hardly claim innocence when the entire relationship had begun because of a magical wish.

Still, if Roy had a nineteen-year-old daughter and some forty-year-old man suddenly appeared in her life, claiming to be her boyfriend, he probably wouldn't react particularly well either. Especially if that relationship had appeared out of nowhere. Especially if the man had, in fact, magically interfered with his daughter's life and made her fall in love with him without giving her any opportunity to decide what she actually wanted.

That thought had bothered Roy from the beginning, and still did most of the time. But it didn't change what had happened afterward.

Miraculously, he'd fallen in love with Michelle, too.

There had been a point when Roy had believed the right thing to do was release her. Let her return to the life she'd had before him. Give her back the choices he'd taken away, even if it meant losing someone who had become incredibly important to him. He'd even managed to do that with the young woman he'd just been with, just as he had with Agnes, Tabitha, and the others.

But Michelle was different. A life without Michelle seemed... wrong.

The thought had become almost impossible to imagine. She was amazing. Enthusiastic, playful, optimistic, wonderfully alive in a way that made Roy feel more alive simply by being around her. He loved the way she looked. He loved the way she smelled. He loved the little expressions that crossed her face when she was excited about something. He loved coming home to her and waking up beside her.

He missed her during the workday. He looked forward to seeing her at night. What had started as a magical accident had somehow become one of the defining relationships of his life.

Roy loved Michelle. Nothing was going to change that. Not the wish. Not the fact that she was only one of several women he loved. And certainly not the woman now walking toward him with affection shining in her eyes.

"Babe."

Michelle's mother approached with a smile, slipped an arm around his neck and pulled him into a kiss.

Roy knew the drill. There was no point pretending this wasn't real. To her, it was real. To everyone around them, it was real. The wish didn't merely make people act differently. It rewrote their understanding of the world until the impossible became ordinary.

The sky was blue.

The floor was solid.

Michelle's mother was his girlfriend.

And apparently she was very good at kissing.

There was nothing sloppy or desperate about it. Her kiss was warm and confident, affectionate without being overwhelming. For a moment, despite everything Roy knew about her, he found himself responding. The familiarity of the magic was strangely comforting, even as every rational part of his mind screamed that something was terribly wrong. When she finally pulled back, Roy took a small step away.

"Hey."

"Sorry to just pop in," she said. "I missed you. I hope today's not too busy."

"It was crazy this morning." Roy's answer came automatically, his attention still caught on the impossible situation unfolding in front of him. "But it's better now."

"Better?"

There was genuine concern in her voice.

"Yeah. Better."

A smile softened her features, as though she took his comment as proof that her visit had made his day better. She reached up and stroked his cheek with the casual intimacy of someone who had done it a hundred times.

"I don't want my honey bear too stressed out."

Roy's eyebrows rose slightly. Honey bear? Terms of endearment from her would take some getting used to.

"How's Michelle?"

The question stopped him cold. Roy stared at her. How was he supposed to answer that? He wasn't going to become a conduit for a woman who had spent the past week treating Michelle horribly. Whatever the wish had done to this woman, Roy wasn't about to pretend that the previous events hadn't happened. Michelle's mother, apparently oblivious to his discomfort, continued.

"Can you tell her I'm sorry I've been so busy with work? I'll swing by tonight for a visit, if that's okay with you."

Roy's expression must have betrayed his confusion, because she gave him an affectionate little smile.

"I'm so glad you two are together," she said. "It's hard being a single mother, and knowing she's with a good man like you gives me a chance to actually live my life a bit." A mischievous grin appeared. "Besides, I'll be happy as long as she doesn't get greedy and leave me without a piece of that Roy pie. I get hungry too."

Roy's eyes widened. This woman. This horrible woman. This woman who had called Michelle a slut. The wish had...

Fixed her?

The thought seemed ridiculous even as it formed. Could that actually be what had happened? Had becoming Roy's girlfriend somehow changed the circumstances that had driven Michelle and her mother apart? Had the wish rewritten more than just her feelings toward him? Had it repaired whatever had gone wrong between them?

Roy's mind raced. Michelle's mother wasn't angry anymore. She wasn't suspicious. She wasn't trying to protect Michelle from Roy. She wanted to visit her daughter. She was proud that Michelle was with him. And, apparently, she was perfectly happy to share him.

"Shit."

The word barely registered as Roy's thoughts accelerated. If the only way to fix Michelle's relationship with her mother was to keep this woman under the wish's influence, then what exactly was Roy supposed to do? He'd intended to release her. That had been the obvious answer. Take her somewhere private, repeat what he'd just done with the young woman in the Dust Closet, let the wish move on and get on with his life.

Simple.

Except it wasn't simple anymore. If Roy released Michelle's mother, would everything revert? Would Michelle's mother remember hating him? Would she remember the things she'd said? Would Michelle lose the mother she'd apparently just gotten back? More importantly, would Roy be throwing away a chance to repair a family that had been damaged long before he came along?

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

"Can I..." Roy began.

The words failed him. He took another small step backward, suddenly desperate for some distance from the impossible decision forming in his head.

"I need to..."

"Of course, babe." The tenderness in her voice made the situation somehow worse. "I need to go, too. I just wanted to stop by and say that I love you." She smiled at him as though there were nothing strange about any of this. "Remember that when work gets hard."

Roy opened his mouth, but nothing useful came out. A quick kiss landed on his lips. Then she turned and walked away. At the elevators, she glanced back and wiggled her fingers at him over her shoulder before disappearing from sight.

Roy remained where he was, staring after her. Around him, the office carried on as though nothing unusual had happened. Phones rang. People talked. Someone laughed from somewhere down the hall. The receptionist was probably already moving on to the next visitor.

Normal.

Everything was normal.

Except Roy's life.

He finally looked toward the elevators. Michelle's mother had come to his workplace intending to confront the man she'd considered a predator. She'd left believing that the man she'd once considered a predator loved her. But more importantly, she'd left believing that her daughter was with a good man.

Not for the first time since he'd made the wish, Roy wasn't sure that releasing someone was automatically the right thing to do. And unfortunately for him, he was the only one who could decide what the right thing to do was.