Settling in (Samantha POV)

Samantha felt very much adored.

The entire evening, while Gavin had retired to his room upstairs, she and Richard had spent time together, talking mostly, in the kitchen as she did the dishes and he helped by wiping and putting them away. It was still very much early in the process of getting to know each other and the more that they talked, the more she could see how well the company had paired them up together.

Richard, Samantha learned, was a blue pill taker, having been a single woman in his past life who had no real prospects and had not really encountered any sort of meaning in his life. Pushing 45, no kids, no relationship, dead-end job, she had felt the need for a change of pace and had applied for the program. Something that Samantha had not discussed with Gavin was that she had been matched up with Richard beforehand, when they were still Harold and June, and the two of them had talked through the secured match-making process. It was a revelation at how well they had gotten on and they had spoken maybe 6 hours the night before they had taken the pills.

Richard wanted to be a parent his whole life but never felt that it was right for him to be a mother, it was just not sitting right with him. He had opened up that while not transgendered, he often envisioned himself as the man in a family, a straight family, meaning he would be married to a woman and they would have children. When X-Change had become more acceptable, he leapt at the chance for the matching. It sadly took him 3 years to be matched with Harold so when they had met, he couldn't help but cry over it.

Samantha found that endearing.

Finishing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, the two of them continued their talk through the living room, locking up the house and turning off the lights, before they made it into their bedroom. It was still a bit awkward to be suddenly sleeping next to someone you just met that very afternoon but instead of beating around the bush, Samantha smiled warmly at her husband and walked up to him and slipped her hands around his neck. "I've been wanting to do this all afternoon," she whispered and then kissed him. It wasn't a hot, lingering kiss, but a kiss that was loving, longing, and wanting all at once. She couldn't describe how feminine she felt around him and Richard, for his part, wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close to him.