Free It's a Love Thing by Cindy C Bennett Page B

p.m.”
    "What if they say no?" Fear gripped my
gut.
    "They won't. I'll have to listen to
their lectures and they'll have me sign a bunch of forms, but the
faery's wish is usually granted in cases like this."
    A small twinkle told me we were no
longer alone. "Hi, Jaxton."
    "Hello. Did you enjoy your Dag som en
människa."
    "Yes," she smiled. "This has been the
best day of my life."
    "Good. Here are your things." He
handed her a tiny bag. "I'll send you to the boy's room so you can
prepare." He waved his wand and Tink disappeared.
    "She looks well. I'm assuming you
followed the contract."
    "To the letter," I assured
him.
    "Ready," she said out the window. He
waved his wand and said more words I didn't understand. After a few
minutes, Tink flew out the window and landed on my
shoulder.
    "Jaxton, may I say good bye in
private, please?" she asked.
    "Certainly." He turned and flew over
the house.
    "I'll be back around five. Don't
worry, everything will be fine." She kissed my cheek and whispered,
"I love you."
    "I love you too." The love of my life
waved and flew over the house in the same direction as Jaxton. I
smiled at how lucky I was.
    *****
    I slept terribly, tossing and turning
all night. I got up at six and went for a jog. I cleaned the entire
house and even read a few of my manga. They weren't as good as I
remembered them.
    At noon, to my surprise and delight, a
familiar twinkle entered my room and I jumped up; only it wasn't
Tink.
    "Hello, Jaxton."
    "Hello, Mr. Pancerella."
    "You can call me Pete."
    He nodded. "I need to talk to you
about Tinkle."
    Panic hit me like a fist to the gut.
"Did she change her mind?"
    "Oh no, quite the contrary. She's in
court right now. It looks like they'll be done by four-thirty, and
that means she'll be here at five, just like you
planned."
    "We planned."
    "Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you
tried to influence her," he said politely. "Pete, did she tell you
exactly what is going to happen?"
    "You mean about the court and
all?"
    "No. With her." I shook my head,
barely. This was not going to be good.
    "Pete, a faery can only survive in
human form for a limited time."
    "How long?" I dropped against my
bed.
    "One year, tops. Tinkle is young, so I
imagine she'll make it to the one year mark, but the longest
anyone's survived is fourteen months."
    I got up and paced over to the window,
shoving a hand through my hair. "I don't understand. Why would she
do this?"
    "She'd rather have one year with you
than a lifetime without you."
    That sounded just like Tink. I could
almost hear her say those exact words. "Is there any other way we
can be together?"
    "No. I'm very sorry, there's no way.
If there were, I'd tell you," he said quietly.
    "You would? Because I know for a fact
that you're in love with her too. For that matter, how do I know
you're not making this all up so you can have her for
yourself?"
    "Because, Pete, I love her enough to
let her choose this. If it's what she wants, I will not stand in
her way. And as her supervisor, I can stop this if I
wanted."
    I searched his small face, with his
eyes that were too close together and a nose that was too big,
hoping to see a lie. But no.
    "You're hoping I love her enough to
not let her choose this."
    "Yes."
    "So you win."
    "I don't believe watching the woman I
love struggle through a broken heart would be considered winning.
No one wins, Pete. But she lives. I'll take that."
    "How did this happen? What about that
great computer program of yours that said there was only a point
zero-zero-zero one chance of us falling in love?" I demanded,
swallowing back the bitter taste in my mouth.
    "My fault. I enter Peter M. Pancerella
and your father came up first on the computer. Assuming he was the
one, I enter his information, not yours," he admitted. "I've
changed the policy. We use full names now so this won't happen
again."
    "Did you re-enter my information to
see what our odds were?" I was curious to see just how accurate
this little program was.
    "Yes.