The Real Danger

It was still quite early on that warm Monday morning, and Roy's commute was light and quick.

That was exactly what he wanted.

No stopping for coffee. No taking the long way. No lingering at intersections or looking around at people on the sidewalks. Roy kept his attention firmly on the road immediately ahead of his car, as though concentrating hard enough on the pavement might somehow make him invisible to the rest of the world.

Especially to women.

It was ridiculous, of course. Roy knew that. But he had to try something. Maybe the wish's magic needed him to actually see someone before it could take hold. Every time it had happened before, there had been some sort of visual connection. A glance. Seeing Elaine as he walked out of the gas station. Getting a glimpse of Michelle through the bus window. If he didn't look at anyone, perhaps nobody would fall under its influence.

It wasn't much of a plan. But at this point, Roy was willing to work with whatever he had. And it almost worked.

Almost.

The company parking lot came into view far sooner than Roy expected. The lot was empty, which suited him perfectly. He pulled into his usual space and shut off the engine.

Home free.

Roy had keys to the building and knew the security codes. It wouldn't have been the first Monday morning when he'd been the first person to arrive. In fact, there was something he genuinely enjoyed about getting there early. The building had a completely different character before everyone arrived. No ringing phones. No conversations drifting out of offices. No questions from employees who needed something five minutes ago.

Just quiet.

The calm before the storm.

It gave Roy time to think through the day, organize his own workload and consider what his teams needed from him. Normally, he found those first quiet minutes productive.

This morning, they were potentially useful for an entirely different reason.

Roy opened the car door and stepped out. If he could make it inside, he could wait for one of his coworkers to arrive. Then, if the wish activated, he'd be in exactly the right place to try his new plan. His morally dubious new plan. Still, it was the best idea he'd had.

Roy took one step towards the building.

Then another.

On the third step, he looked up.

And saw her.

The hairs on his arms stood up. For an instant, the world seemed to shift sideways. Roy stopped dead.

"Oh, shit."

So much for avoiding women. Why hadn't he kept his eyes down? Why hadn't he hurried to the door? Why had he let himself relax when he was literally three steps from making it inside?

From the other side of the parking lot came a bright but unfamiliar voice.

"Roy!"

His stomach sank. The woman waved enthusiastically and started skating towards him. Roy recognized none of her features. Of course he didn't. The magic didn't need an existing relationship in order to fabricate the one he now had. It just created it out of nothing.

She was young, probably around Michelle's age, with short black hair and an Asian complexion. Jeans shorts and a loose hoodie gave her a casual, student-like appearance, while a backpack was slung over both shoulders. Beneath her feet was a longboard, which she guided easily across the pavement.

She looked happy. Really happy. And Roy knew exactly why.

With a resigned sigh, he managed a smile and raised a hand in greeting. There was nothing he could do about it now. The wish had decided.

Again.

And there was only one way out.

"Good morning, babe!" she called as she stepped off the board, walking the last few feet. "I had a feeling you'd be coming in early. I missed you!"

Before Roy could think of anything to say, the woman reached up, took his face in both hands and kissed him. The kiss was affectionate and completely sincere. Roy had experienced enough of the wish by now to recognize the difference between someone pretending to care and someone who genuinely believed she was kissing the person she loved.

There was no hesitation in her. No uncertainty. No trace of a joke. She loved him. And Roy didn't even know her name.

For one moment, that thought left him frozen. Then instinct took over.

Roy kissed her back.

He didn't know what else to do. Rejecting her would accomplish nothing. As far as this woman was concerned, she had just walked into the parking lot and greeted her boyfriend. If Roy suddenly pushed her away, she'd be left confused and hurt, with no idea why the man she loved had apparently turned cold on her. Whatever else the wish had done, this woman didn't deserve to be punished for it.

Roy had no idea how long she'd have him in her life. Maybe only hours. Maybe a day. Maybe longer. However long it lasted, he wanted her to be happy.

And happy she was. What had begun as a simple good-morning kiss had somehow turned into something much more intense. The woman seemed incapable of getting enough of him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him closer with an enthusiasm that left Roy struggling to keep up.

Soon his back was against the side of his car as one of her legs rose, hooking behind him, holding him close to her. She moaned as they kissed, her groin grinding into his quickly stiffening erection.

It was a good thing that they were still alone in the parking lot.

At least they were alone for the moment.

"Wow," Roy managed when she finally gave him a reprieve from her kisses.

The woman laughed softly against him. Whoever she was, she certainly had confidence. Under different circumstances, Roy suspected he would have loved this. A beautiful woman meeting him first thing in the morning, clearly thrilled to see him, kissing him as though she'd been looking forward to it all weekend. There was something flattering about being wanted so openly. Roy was still getting used to the way his girlfriends looked at him, the way they touched him, the way they made it clear that he mattered to them. Even now, even knowing what was happening, some part of him couldn't help feeling special.

And it wasn't even the first time a woman had greeted him this way in this very parking lot. How many days had it been since Zara had kissed him here for the first time? That encounter had been different. His coworkers had been around to witness it, which would normally have been mortifying. At the time, though, Roy hadn't cared much.

He cared even less now.

Zara had stayed. She was his girlfriend because she genuinely loved him, not because Roy was waiting for the wish to move on to someone else. He loved her, too. If his coworkers saw him kissing a woman he loved, so what?

The comparison made the situation in front of him feel even worse about his decision. The wish had put him into morally compromised positions over and over, but it had at least given him the gift of genuine, pure love with a number of women. And now he was looking to weaponize it for purposes other than love. What kind of man did that make him?

Eventually, the young woman rested her forehead against his chest and gave a small, satisfied laugh.

"That's a hell of a way to say good morning," she sighed.

Roy looked down at her.

"I don't know how you do it," she continued, "but you make me so fucking wet I'm practically dripping."

She looked up and locked eyes with him, giving him another quick kiss.

"You know I have psych this morning," she said, a slight lecturing tone to her voice. "How the hell am I supposed to concentrate after that?"

Roy opened his mouth. Then closed it again. He had absolutely no idea what the appropriate boyfriend response was.

"Sorry?"

"You are so not sorry," she said, laughing. "You want me walking around campus so horny that I'm practically a zombie. God, are you like this with the other girls, too?"

"I... uh..."

"That's what I thought."

She shifted her backpack higher on her shoulders.

"I'm just teasing. Besides, I like thinking about you when you're not around. It makes seeing you again even better."

Roy felt heat creep into his face.

"I..."

Words failed him. Again.

"God, I wish we could just get in the back of the car, but not right now," she said, rising to her toes and stealing one more kiss. "I seriously do have to get to class."

She turned, bent down (giving Roy a fantastic view of her backside), and picked up her longboard.

"It's a light day, though. Just psych and linear algebra. I'm done in the early afternoon."

Roy's attention sharpened. There it was. An opportunity.

"Are you busy after?" he asked, finally finding his words.

"Want me to come by when I'm finished?" she asked. "I could think of a few ways to distract you for a while."

The idea immediately collided with the practical problem. If anyone caught them doing anything inappropriate at work, Roy wouldn't need Tom's blackmail to destroy his career. He'd get fired on the spot. But if he could find somewhere private...

If he could somehow get through this without anyone noticing...

Then the wish would move on. And perhaps the next woman would be the person Roy actually needed to encounter.

The thought made his stomach tighten. He hated how quickly his mind had gone there. Still, this was what he'd been thinking about all morning. He'd wanted to bring the wish to work. He'd wanted to find a way to influence what happened rather than simply waiting for the magic to choose for him. Now the magic had handed him an opportunity. Roy couldn't exactly pretend he wasn't going to take it.

"I'd like that," he said.

A mischievous grin spread across her face.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Hehttps://i.ibb.co/Y46pmv8Q/download.jpg leaned down and kissed her again.

"I'd really like that."

"You are such a dirty dog."

She laughed as she stepped away, clearly delighted. Then she turned towards the longboard.

"I'll text you when I'm on my way. This is going to be so hot!"

Roy watched her pick up the board and settle it beneath her feet. The woman pushed off, gliding smoothly across the parking lot. A moment later, she looked back over her shoulder.

"And babe?"

"Yeah?"

"Just to return the favour for how thirsty you made me."

Then she stepped off the board, turned, and lifted the front of her hoodie, giving him a fantastic showing of her breasts. She stood there a moment, a grin on her face, in the empty parking lot, enjoying being seen by her boyfriend. Then, with a laugh and wink, she hopped back on her longboard and skated away.

Roy stood beside his car, watching her disappear down the street, suddenly uncomfortably snug in his pants.

He didn't even know her name.

A beautiful young woman had just shown up at his workplace, kissed him like she loved him, made plans to see him later, then flashed her breasts and leaves. Most men would probably have considered that an excellent start to a Monday. Roy felt mostly guilty.

The guilt wasn't because he'd rejected her. He hadn't. He'd actually enjoyed being wanted. Part of him couldn't deny that. The guilt came from what he'd been thinking while she was with him.

He hadn't been wondering about her. He hadn't been wondering what she liked, what she studied, where she lived, what her family was like or what sort of person she was. He'd been thinking about the next woman. Thinking about how to use this relationship to make the wish do what he wanted.

Roy looked towards the empty stretch of parking lot where she'd disappeared. The magic had given him another girlfriend. For now, at least. And all he could think about was how quickly he could get past her.

Roy lowered his head and rubbed a hand across his face. What was this doing to him? Every new woman made the situation stranger. Every new relationship made it easier to accept something that should never have been normal in the first place.

Maybe that was the real danger of the wish. Not that it could change reality. Not that it could fill his life with women who loved him. The real danger was that Roy was slowly becoming accustomed to it.

He'd once been horrified by what the magic did. Now he was already figuring out how to make it work for him.

Roy glanced towards the building.

"God help me."

Then he headed inside.