For the second morning in a row I slowly drifted awake to the sight of sunlight filtering in through my curtains while I was all warm and comfy and cosy, half-buried in pillows.

  It was also the second morning in a row I'd woken up to find Jenna snuggled up tight against my side. Her head was resting against my shoulder, an arm draped across my belly and one of her legs intertwined between mine. The cute genie hadn't woken up yet, she was all quiet and peaceful, an expression of innocence on her sleeping face.

  After a few seconds to think it over I decided not to disturb her. Instead I kept quiet and allowed myself to just rex for a change.

  There was no reason to panic today. No deadlines, nowhere I had to be and nothing I needed to do. I didn't even know what time it was, but I also didn't care. This was Sunday, I was free to rex and take it easy. And I decided that snuggling a cute girl in a big pillow-pile was exactly how I wanted to begin my day off.

  Unfortunately as nice as it felt to just y there cuddling in between a big pile of pillows and my sleeping friend, now that I was awake my mind refused to stay silent. I found myself thinking about everything that happened the day before, from the open house and the four potential interested parties to the unexpected arrivals of both Jenna and Jason, and how that conflict was resolved.

  Some anger bubbled up inside me once again as I thought about my coworker. It was just like him to show up uninvited so he could snoop at best, try and sabotage me at worst. And all the while ciming that he was only looking out for me and just trying to help out or do me a favour. Then he'd turn around and either take all the credit, or at the very least he'd want me to split the commission with him.

  Except that definitely wasn't going to happen, and my anger slowly shifted to concern. While I was pretty sure my accidental wish wouldn't actually hurt him, I had no idea what it would really do to the guy. Jenna said he was doing some introspection and self-discovery, but as much as I wanted to trust her she was also the same genie who thought turning him into a newt was a good idea.

  I spent a few minutes fretting about that situation, before finally forcing myself to let it go. There was nothing I could do about it now, I'd just have to wait and see what happened when he came into the office tomorrow. Until then the best I could do was hope everything would be ok.

  So instead of worrying about my coworker, I focused my mental attention on someone much more appealing.

  I never asked Jenna to come to the open house yesterday, and I certainly didn't ask her to help. In fact if she'd offered to help or even just come and keep me company I would have told her no. I'd have been worried she'd make a scene or scare people away with her antics. In this case I was very happy to have been proven wrong. She was more or less professional, helpful, and to be honest with myself I was happy to have her there.

  On the other hand I still needed to make sure she knew not to show up at the office or follow me around trying to help out on a regur basis. The open house was a special situation that worked out ok, but during my normal day-to-day work she'd definitely get in the way.

  Still, it showed me another side to the genie that I hadn't expected. She wasn't always silly and impulsive and over-the-top, she could act mature and reasonable when she wanted to.

  That line of thought ended with another little surprise. During the Jason situation Jenna called me her best friend, and ter on I referred to her as mine. I didn't think about it at the time, it was simpler to just stick to her story. Now I found myself thinking about that a lot, as I tried to figure out how I felt about it.

  I had a best friend back in high school, but Amelia and I slowly drifted apart after graduation. Same with most of the other people I hung out with back then. We stayed in touch for the first year or two, despite our lives all going in different directions. Gradually though the get-togethers stopped happening, then the texts and calls faded away. The st time I heard from Amelia had to be over a year ago, just after she moved out west and got engaged.

  Then it sort of hit me, about the only person I really thought of as a friend nowadays was my boss Erin. The st couple years I'd been so focused on work and getting my real estate license that I hadn't made time to get to know anyone else.

  I still had a lot of mixed feelings about Jenna, I definitely didn't want to take advantage of her or her magic. And there was the fact that I barely even knew her. Apart from our initial brief encounter a couple weeks ago I'd really only started spending time with her over the st two days.

  Then again, I couldn't deny the fact that I kind of missed her in those two weeks after I wished for her freedom. And while part of me was reluctant to admit it, I was actually enjoying these morning snuggles. I hadn't even realized how touch-starved I'd become tely. The pillow pile and Mount Plushmore would probably take a little longer to get used to, same with the casual reliance on magic for mundane tasks like getting dressed or getting ready for bed.

  And while I y there thinking about magic versus the mundane, my genie friend finally stirred.

  "Mmmm," Jenna mumbled happily as she smiled and cuddled up a little closer. "G'morning Vikki. How come you're not racing around in a panic today?"

  I blushed, "Good morning Jenna. Today's my day off, so I can take it easy. No panic, no rush, nothing to do but rex."

  "That sounds nice," she sighed as she remained snuggled against my side. Then her smile shifted to a pout as she added, "Except I'm kinda hungry."

  That was a retable dilemma, the warm comfy cuddle versus the need for food. Food won though so I suggested, "We can always go rex in the living-room while we have breakfast. How do you feel about cold pizza?"

  The genie's eyes snapped opened as she beamed at me in excitement, "Cold pizza for breakfast sounds perfect!"

  "Then let's do it," I smiled back at her.

  A couple minutes ter we were sitting together on the living-room sofa. Neither of us had gotten dressed, magically or otherwise. She was still in her pink nightshirt with the purple polka-dots while I was in my bck pyjamas with the white kitties all over. I brought st night's leftover pizza out of the fridge and put the box on the coffee table, and we both grabbed cans of co to drink while we munched on a couple cold slices.

  "Gosh Vikki this is so amazing," Jenna smiled happily as she leaned against my shoulder again. "I thought this sort of thing only happened on TV, but here we are living the life for real!"

  I gnced at her as I commented, "Eating cold pizza in our PJs isn't that big a deal, you know? Honestly I think the dinner you made Friday night was a lot more incredible."

  The genie shook her head, "Nah. I've conjured up fancy food hundreds of times for loads of different masters. But I've never ever got to eat leftover pizza with my best friend before."

  "I bet we could do this a hundred Sundays in a row and I'd never get tired of it," she added, before taking another big bite of her slice.

  That left me with some more mixed feelings. After washing down another mouthful of pizza with some soda I said, "In that case Jenna I'm honoured that I got to be the first one to share the experience with you. It does kind of bring up some of the stuff we agreed to talk about today though? Specifically about our living arrangements."

  "Like I said before," I continued before she could distract me or change the subject, "My apartment really isn't big enough for two people. It's ok for a short visit, but long-term it just isn't enough. Plus my lease is pretty clear about roommates, there's a bunch of regutions and requirements and stuff. If the ndlord found out I had someone living here with me that wasn't on the paperwork I'd be in trouble."

  Instead of looking anxious or sad or any of the other potential emotions I was expecting, Jenna just gave me a wide excited smile. She swallowed another mouthful of pizza then announced, "That's totally ok Vikki, because I have a brilliant idea. I'm going to buy a house!"

  "You are?" I asked warily.

  "Uh-huh!" she nodded. "See I know you won't wish for a house, and you said you don't want to wish for money so you could buy a house either. You told me you didn't want to take advantage of me, but I figured out a loophole!"

  "You did?" I asked, just as warily.

  "Uh-huh!" the genie nodded again.

  She sounded very proud of herself as she went on to expin, "So I'm going to buy myself a house, then I'm going to invite my very best friend ever to come and live with me! That way we can still be roomies, but we won't be all cramped and there won't be any annoying ndlords to give us a hard time. And you won't have to feel guilty about getting a free house or free money or any of that other stuff you like to feel guilty about! Because it'll be my house!"

  "So what'cha think?" she added as she grinned at me. "It's pure genius, right?"

  I found myself staring at her as a few dozen different possibilities ran through my head. What kind of house did she have in mind? Did she mean something like my current apartment but with two bedrooms? Or an actual house, like a typical two-story family home with property and a yard and stuff? Or was she thinking bigger? I could only imagine the sorts of mansions and paces her various masters wished up. In fact for all I knew that's what she thought normal homes looked like. Or could she be thinking of the open house property from yesterday, she knew it was avaible since I was trying to sell it...

  "Vikki?" her voice snapped me out of that flood of thoughts. "You're not saying anything. What's wrong, don't you like my idea?"

  I shook my head, "It's not that, I promise. It's a really good idea, but I have a whole bunch of questions?"

  After a brief hesitation I added, "I guess the first one is, if you can just go and buy yourself a house then why do you need to be roommates with me? And if you do buy yourself a house, are you sure you'd immediately want to have a roommate move in with you?"

  Jenna stared at me quietly while her eyes widened and her expression slowly fell into a sad pouting puppy-dog kind of look. She asked quietly, "Don't you want to be roommates with me? I thought we were best friends. Don't you like me?"

  "Of course I like you Jenna!" I insisted. There was a very brief hesitation before I added, "And yes, you are my best friend. But being best friends doesn't automatically mean roommates. And I guess..."

  My voice drifted off as I tried to figure out the best way to say what was on my mind. "I guess I'm just thinking? Saying you're going to buy yourself a house specifically so the two of us can share it isn't really that different from magically gifting me a house. Or giving me the money to buy one. What I mean is, I'd still be worried about taking advantage. Or worried that you were going to all that trouble just for me."

  The cute genie continued to stare at me with the big eyes and the pouty lips for a few more seconds before she let out a long deep drawn-out sigh. At the same time her expression shifted from pouty and sad to something a little more serious, but maybe a tiny bit sombre.

  "I know we've only just started to get to know each other Vikki," she said in a soft but serious tone, "And I know I can be naive about a lot of things? But one thing I got good at over the years was observing people. Mostly my masters and mistresses, but also the folks around them. And something I've noticed about you is you seem to have a problem accepting gifts and favours."

  "Not just from me," she added. "You do it with Ms. Rhodes too, you only seem to accept her help when she insists."

  Jenna continued in that same tone, "I've seen the opposite too? You're just as afraid to let people take from you. Like Mr. McTavish? You get really upset with him because he takes you for granted, he takes up time you don't want to give him, and he tries to take credit for your work. I don't know yet if these things are connected, but I think it's something you should be aware of Vikki."

  "As for our living arrangements," she shrugged, "Yes I could magic up my own accommodations, but that's not what I want. I like you and I want to stay with you. If we can't stay here because of the ndlord then there's a thousand ways I can solve that problem. But I want to solve it in a way you're comfortable with Vikki, because you're my friend."

  Yet again I had a lot of mixed emotions while all that sank in. I hadn't noticed the connection between those two things she pointed out, but now that she called my attention to it I knew she was right. And I had a good idea why I was like that, but it was something I didn't want to think about. Not right away at least.

  "Ok Jenna," I finally responded as I gave her a sad smile. "You're right. That stuff you said about me, it's something I need to work on someday. As for the house idea..."

  I hesitated as I thought it over again. The bottom line was despite her unpredictable nature I liked her and I really did enjoy having her around. And the st two days reminded me how lonely I'd become tely. Now I had someone who liked me and wanted to be my friend, and who was offering to set us up in a house so we could be roommates. I'd be crazy to turn her down.

  My smile became a lot happier as I nodded, "Yes. You're right Jenna, your idea is pure genius. So how about tomorrow when I get to work I check the listings to see if there's anything around here that looks good? Then maybe I can arrange for the two of us to go and see some potential houses together?"

  "Eeeee!" she actually squealed and bounced in her seat a few times before leaning closer to pull me into a hug. "That sounds perfect Vikki! I can't wait!"

  PurpleCatGirl