Since the house we'd been seeing was so close to the downtown stretch of Main Street, Jenna and I declined Jake's offer of a drive back to his office. Instead we decided to take a little stroll around the area before heading home on foot.

  We visited Mill Creek Park, which turned out to be near enough to the property that you could almost see part of the house from the park's entrance. From there we made our way north, and ended up in a nice little restaurant on Main. In fact the evening turned into another date night, although we didn't forget to discuss the offer I'd be putting together on Jenna's behalf.

  Then again, it wasn't much of a discussion. I tried to treat her like any other client but she really wasn't interested in all that 'official nonsense' as she put it. In the end there were only a few details she bothered to provide input on, and most of that was regarding how quickly we could move in. Other than that, she left everything else up to me.

  So first thing Saturday morning I put together a formal offer, then had to bribe Jenna with the promise of a fancy brunch just to get her to review it with me. I emailed it over to Jake that afternoon, and we got the good news on Monday that the seller accepted it as-is.

  On the one hand that told me we'd probably been a bit too generous with our offer. We went with a fifteen percent premium above their asking price, contingent on them agreeing to a very tight closing date. We also promised to cover the cost of moving their belongings into storage for up to sixty days. In retrospect we probably could have opened with the moving and storage expenses plus a couple percent above asking, to test the water and see if they'd bite.

  On the other hand my genie wanted to take possession of the property as quickly as she could. She wasn't even remotely worried about how much extra that would cost, or how much she might have saved otherwise. And to be fair, she was just going to wave her hand and poof the money into existence anyway, so the actual amount was almost irrelevant to her. Half a million, a million, or something in between, it was probably all the same to Jenna.

  I also had to give her credit for going through with the purchase in a normal mundane way. I had no doubt she could have just waved a hand and taken ownership of the property on Friday, while we were standing in the backyard with Jake Green. So even though she seemed impatient with her talk of throwing more money at the situation to speed things along, I was actually proud of her for exercising all kinds of patience and restraint by pying along with our silly boring non-magical human rules. And I made sure she knew it too, and how much I appreciated it.

  Jenna and I visited Jake's office te Monday afternoon so she could sign the final purchase agreement and all the other legal paperwork, then that evening my genie did her little magic hand-wave trick and conjured up a bank draft for the full purchase price of her new home. I dropped that off with Mr. Green first thing Tuesday morning, before continuing on my way to work.

  Now it was about ten o'clock Thursday morning, and I was te getting into the office for the second time this week. I was arriving in style though, as I pulled around the back of the building and parked my shiny new Jeep in one of our staff spots back there.

  Ok it wasn't new, but it was new to me. According to the dealership the previous owner traded it in for the test model. Then they'd given it a full tune-up, had it detailed, and it was fully certified and had a warranty and everything.

  It was my very first car, and I was especially proud of it because I'd earned it all on my own. Or at least, mostly on my own. The down payment came out of my commission on the Kovalenko property, which I only had thanks to Erin's generosity. Then again I still had to do all the work for that myself, she just gave me the opportunity.

  The best part was I'd be able to pay off the rest of it in another month, when the deal closed on that big open house I took care of a couple weeks earlier.

  All that left me with a wide smile on my face, and I was eager to share the news with my boss since she made it all possible. Except there was no sign of her luxury SUV this morning. Jason's pick-up was the only other vehicle in our staff parking.

  I headed in through the back door and left my purse and everything on my desk, then headed over to my coworker's office door. "Good morning Jason, sorry I'm te. Did Erin have an appointment this morning, or a showing or something?"

  "Good morning Vikki," Jason replied.

  In the past he probably would have demanded to know where I was and why I was te, or he'd have compined about having to open up the office when that wasn't in his job description. And while I definitely preferred this new and improved version, I still felt guilty for the accidental wish that was behind his epiphany.

  Then he shook his head, "There was no sign of Erin when I got in at nine, and she didn't leave a note or anything."

  "By the way," he added, "Sorry if this is out of line, but I understand congratutions are in order?"

  That caught me off-guard, and I couldn't help wondering how he knew about my new car. I was trying to remember whether or not I said anything about it earlier as I smiled awkwardly, "Oh uh, thank you?"

  Jason smiled back, "I didn't realize you and Jenna were an item, but I can understand why you introduced her as your best friend rather than girlfriend. It's sad but a lot of folks around here are still uncomfortable with same sex retionships. Anyways I'm sure you two are going to be very busy over the next week or two, with the move and everything."

  "What?" I blinked at him. "How did you know about that?"

  Erin knew about my retionship with the genie, but I couldn't believe she'd have said anything to Jason about my personal life. And I definitely hadn't told him about that. I doubted she'd say anything about me helping Jenna to buy a house either. And she only knew about that because I was acting as Jenna's agent, which had to go through Erin's brokerage.

  Meanwhile my coworker replied, "Jake Green told me about it st night. A few of us real estate guys get together now and then for drinks and darts, at an old pub out at the west end of town. Anyways Jake told me you helped your girlfriend put in an offer on one of his listings."

  I managed not to face-palm, but I definitely grimaced at that news. I had no idea Jake realized Jenna and I were a couple, I thought I did a good job of acting professional and maintaining that separation.

  "Sorry Vikki," Jason apologized when he saw the look on my face. "I didn't mean to upset you. I shouldn't have made any assumptions, or maybe Jake misread the situation..."

  It took me another second or two before I shook my head, "It's ok Jason. I was surprised, but not upset"

  "And thank you," I added. "It's true, Jenna bought the pce and she's invited me to move in with her."

  He smiled, "That's great news! So when's the big day? Jake said your girlfriend was in a real hurry."

  That made me grimace again, "Yeah. She's been staying with me since she arrived in town, but she's been eager to get into something a little bigger and with its own yard. The closing date is actually a week from tomorrow, and I think we'll probably be moving the day after that."

  "Wow," he looked impressed. "Eight days. I'll bet she's busy with all the preparations! Just getting all the utilities coordinated and set up can take a couple weeks sometimes. Electricity, heat, water, internet, it's like a part-time job setting all that up."

  Under normal circumstances he'd be right, and I tried to talk to Jenna about all that stuff and more over the weekend. In addition to all the utilities we'd have to file change of address notices everywhere, and of course the biggest thing to worry about was hiring movers. I also had to notify my ndlord that I'd be moving out, and due to the short notice I was positive I'd be stuck paying for another two months of rent.

  My genie just smiled and assured me she'd take care of everything. Because after all, when it came to Jenna the circumstances were anything but normal. That's when I realized that although she wasn't using magic for the purchase or property transfer, she had every intention of using it for pretty much everything else.

  Meanwhile Jason came up with another question about my new girlfriend and housemate, "What does she do for a living anyways? You said she's new in town, I guess she must be commuting back to the city or something for work?"

  "She works from home actually," I replied. It was a story I cooked up over the weekend so I'd have it ready, since it was the sort of question people tended to ask. "She's lucky to have a job she can do from just about anywhere, and it pays well too. It's maybe a bit controversial so I'm not going to go into all the details, but she works in the online gaming industry."

  That sounded a whole lot more believable than telling people my girlfriend founded the Professional Piglet Racing League. Especially when I still had no idea if that was even a real thing, or just a gag Jenna cooked up to mess with me. Either way it worked, there were so many ads all over the pce for those gambling apps and websites that it sounded entirely pusible.

  "Nice," Jason grinned. "Anyways you're probably almost as busy as your girlfriend, so I'll let you get on with it."

  "Thanks Jason," I replied with a polite smile, before I turned and headed back to my desk.

  As soon as I was seated I checked my email and voicemail incase there was anything waiting for me from Erin. There were a few messages, but nothing from my boss. After that it was pretty much business as usual for the rest of the morning.

  Then around noon Jason emerged from his office and asked, "Hey Vikki, are you interested in getting something to eat?"

  "No thanks," I shook my head. "I'm just going to work through lunch, to make up for being te this morning."

  He hesitated, "In that case can I bring you something back? I'm just going to that sub pce down the road."

  That left me marvelling once again at how much he'd changed, although the thought came with another pang of guilt. Externally I just smiled as I shook my head again, "Thank you for asking, but I'll pass."

  Jason was only gone for about forty-five minutes before returning to the office and getting back to work. There was still no sign of our boss though, and she hadn't responded to my email yet either. I was just starting to think about calling or texting her, when she finally came in through the back door at about half past one.

  Erin looked a little tired, but apart from that she seemed ok. She greeted Jason then stopped at my desk and smiled, "Hello Vikki. I take it congratutions are in order today? I'm assuming that little bck Jeep out back belongs to you. Otherwise somebody's using in one of our parking spots."

  "Hello Erin," I smiled back. "And yes it's mine, thank you. I picked it up this morning."

  A moment ter my expression became more serious as I asked quietly, "Is everything ok? I was getting a little worried, since neither Jason or I heard anything about you being away this morning."

  For the briefest moment I saw an expression flicker across her face, but it was gone before I could identify it.

  Instead she grimaced slightly, "I'm sorry about that hon. Something came up that I needed to take care of this morning, but it's fine now. I'll try and remember to leave you and Jason a message if it happens again, so you don't have to worry."

  Then she changed the subject before I could respond, "This is shaping up to be a very big month for you, isn't it? New girlfriend, new car, and a new home soon too. Are you going to need any time off for that? I imagine you'll be very busy making all the moving arrangements for that over the next few days."

  I shook my head, "Not really? Jenna's taking care of a lot of those details, since it's her house. Mostly I just need to deal with my existing ndlord, then worry about updating my address everywhere after the move."

  "Ah," Erin nodded. Then she gave me a slightly worried look before asking quietly, "I guess she's using magic to make all this happen? The new house, I mean?"

  That left me feeling a little torn, between wanting to defend my girlfriend and not wanting to upset the boss who'd been so kind and generous to me.

  I ended up shrugging slightly as I replied just as softly, "I haven't asked how she's handling the other arrangements. But I know for a fact she hasn't used magic at all for any of the real estate stuff. She promised not to use her power around me or my work, and since I acted as her agent that meant she's going through the process in the usual mundane way."

  "All right Vikki," my boss frowned.

  Then a moment ter shook her head and apologized, "I'm sorry for putting you on the spot like that. I said I wouldn't involve myself in your personal life and here I am doing just that. Please feel free to tell me it's none of my business the next time I mess up like that hon?"

  Just like that I felt better again. I smiled, "I'll try and and keep that in mind Erin. I know you're just looking out for me though, and I do appreciate that."

  "Anyways I'd better get back to it," I added as I gestured at my computer. "And I'm gd you're ok."

  PurpleCatGirl