I woke up to find Nate staring at me. Seeing that I was awake, he smiled, showing off his pearly whites. Sometimes I really thought the past months had been nothing more than a dream. I mean, waking up next to a hunk was something I never imagined possible in my life.
"Good morning, handsome," I said, giving him a quick kiss. For some reason I was in a really good mood that morning.
"Good morning, love," he replied. "I take it you slept well?"
"I do believe I did. You want to know a secret?" I asked.
"Sure." He gave me a kiss on the top of my head.
"I'm ninety-seven-point-three percent sure I love you," I told him.
I doubted it was much of a secret. We'd been together for months and I acted nowhere near as repulsed as I used to. Shoot, I hadn't even said a word about finding him in my bed more often than not. That had to give me some kind of indication where my heart was.
He looked at me questioningly. "Who are you and what have you done with my fianc??"
"Well, us space aliens were hovering over the city last night and thought she'd be a good person to take back to the home world to study," I said jokingly, in an off-voice that I imagined real aliens spoke in.
"Seriously, Nate, I know eventually I'll get all these memories back and be so in love with the person I remember over the years, but the truth is I already do love you. I don't have to remember the millennia we've been together to know that. I'm thinking we let Frannie and Gary get their big to-do out of the way and after they get back from their honeymoon, we can have that small ceremony we've talked about. Of course, after this little trip, the attendees list about doubled, but I still think we should get it out of the way."
I shocked him into silence with my suggestion. It was a little out of the blue, but we'd been working towards that goal, and I was wearing his ring. It felt right to go ahead and make our reuniting official.
"Personally, I'm all for the idea, but I want to make sure it's really what you want. I have no problem waiting around however many centuries you deem necessary," he replied, when he could put words together.
"I know and that's a big part of the reason I'm willing to proceed with the wedding before the memories return. Once I told you to back off, you did in a big way. I'm sure it was just part of your evil plan to get me to want you, but no matter what, it worked. Eventually, I'm going to want our little kisses here and there to move further, and I don't think I want to do that until we are man and wife."
"I'm not sure how I feel about you only wanting me for my body. I guess it will be something I just have to get used to," he said, giving me a firm closed mouth kiss. "So do you have a specific date in mind?" he asked, pulling away. "Like I said no hurry, just wondering how soon you're really talking."
"Well, it's getting to be the end of January now. How about March second?" I asked.
"Wow, that is really soon. You're sure Frannie will be okay planning everything out by then?"
"Hey, it's Frannie. I might not even tell her it's going to happen until March first," I said, laughing at how dead I'd be if I actually did that.
"You know, soon-to-be wife, you can be really evil sometimes. It must be why I love you so much," he said, still smiling. I didn't think anything was going to wipe that smile off his face in the foreseeable future.
"Well, soon-to-be husband, I'm going to tell you something I've never told another person other than in a joking matter. I love you, too. Now, what do you say we go down and rustle up some breakfast before our trip to the Bering Sea today?" I asked.
"I'm pretty sure if you asked me to eat mud right now, I would take a big bite," he said as he rolled out of bed.
We headed downstairs in our pajamas, holding hands. My pajamas consisted of a long t-shirt and workout pants. Nate's was a pair of sleeping shorts. Any woman that saw him would wonder why in the world I'd waited so long to set a date. I'd have to tell them, first off we hadn't even known each other a full year. Secondly, they should know a woman needs to play hard to get.
When we got to the kitchen, Vinnie was sitting with the look he usually got when he was running his daily indexing of the Internet. Not wanting to disturb him, I went to the cupboard and grabbed a box a cereal.
"This okay?" I asked Nate.
"Sure, I'm always game for Frosted Flakes," he replied.
I grabbed a couple bowls and filled them with cereal. Since we each preferred different levels of milk, I liked cereal still crunchy, he liked it soggy, we poured our own milk. Picking up some spoons, we made our way out to the sitting room to enjoy our breakfast.
"So, are you still not going to tell me what you had Vinnie off doing yesterday?" I asked.
"I wish I could, but for right now it's best you don't know. You know, even though it seems I find joy in keeping things from you, I actually hate it. I imagine within a few days you'll know what I'm currently up to and I know you'll understand the secretiveness," he replied.
"Darn, so telling you I love you doesn't automatically make you spill all of your secrets. I was hoping that was one of the perks," I said teasingly.
"Avery, tell me you didn't," Rick said, walking into the room with his usual awful timing.
"What, confess my undying love for Nate? I wouldn't say it went that far, but the three little words may have escaped from my lips this morning."
"It's about time. You've been making the poor boy suffer, little sis. Now, on to more important things, is there anything good for breakfast?" he asked. I was surprised there wasn't more mocking.
"We settled on cereal. If you want something special, Vinnie might be able to whip something up, but the last I saw he was downloading," I told him.
"Don't want to interrupt a download, so I'll go with cereal too," he said, disappearing into the kitchen.
When he returned, we discussed the trip of the day. We'd all evidently seen the Bering Sea before, but I was the only one that didn't remember it. It sounded like, and made sense, that I'd been to every known place on the planet. When I'd only ever lived in two cities during the time I had full memories, it was weird to except that truth.
"So, do you think the others would mind if we flew?" I asked. "We could follow them from the air. I think it would be a great way for me to get some more practice in."
"What about all the people watching from the ground?" Nate asked. "Aren't you worried we'd be noticed?"
"Good point. To solve that problem, I'm supposed to be a sorceress, right? Can't I just cast an invisibility spell on us so we can fly under the radar?" I asked. "I was able to say a spell yesterday."
"Do you think you could actually cast a spell to accomplish that?" Rick asked.
"Sure, why not. Let me give it a try," I said, trying to think of something that sounded good. "Now you see me, now you don't; just like an evil crocodile, lurking in a moat." Most of the spells I'd ever heard rhymed, and it was the best I could think of on the spot.
"That's just creepy," Nate said.
I looked down and clearly saw myself, so I assumed my words did a whole lot of nothing. "If you can come up with a better spell, let me know and I'll try it out," I said. I hadn't really expected it to work.
Frannie and Gary walked into the room, surprisingly early for them. Frannie looked at us and screamed.
"What are Avery's eyes doing floating around in midair?" she asked.
"What are you talking about? My eyes aren't floating." I wanted to ask if they were tripping on catnip, but I wasn't sure about unique etiquette as far as teasing a person based on their animal.
"She's doing her crocodile impression," Rick said laughing. I had no idea what he was talking about.
"She's testing an invisibility spell. It worked exactly as she spoke it," Nate informed the room. "A line of the spell referenced a crocodile lurking in a moat. Usually when I've noticed them lurking, all I see are their eyes, just like all you can see of her is her eyes."
"Wait a second, the spell actually worked?" I asked. I looked down again and still saw myself.
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"It sure did," Rick said. "Do you think you can think of something to cover all three of us?"
"I don't see why not. How about this," I said, quickly arranging words in my head. "Now you see us, now you don't; we still see each other, but others won't."
I looked over to Frannie for some indication that it worked and rather than screaming like a lunatic, she was smiling. "That is so cool. You guys just totally disappeared."
"No eyeballs floating?" I asked.
"Nothing at all," Gary confirmed. "That should come in handy."
The doorbell rang and I decided to test the invisibility further by answering it. I walked to the door and looked out to see the berserkers standing on the other side. I rubbed my hands together thinking about the fun I was going to have. I opened the door wide and they both looked inside, trying to find who had opened the door.
"Umm, hello?" Kyle said, still standing outside.
"We're in here," Nate called from the sitting room.
They stepped inside and could see Frannie and Gary sitting down. Once they cleared the door, I shut it behind them, causing both of them to spin around. Not seeing anything, they turned around to talk to Frannie and Gary.
"You guys experiencing some weird drafts today?" Liam asked.
"No, it's just Avery messing with you," Frannie told them, and she wondered why it was easy to replace her as my best friend.
I moved to stand right behind the guys and said, "Frannie, you're no fun. Why did you have to go and tell them so soon?"
That caused them to spin around again, their eyes searching for me. I took the opportunity to make funny faces at them. Since only Nate and Rick could see me, I tried some of the more crazy ones in my repertoire.
"You won't find her. She's invisible," Nate said.
He had moved to stand next to me, so they were a little startled to hear him so close. They were big guys, so I wouldn't say they were scared, they only jumped a little bit.
"How exactly did she turn invisible and am I right in thinking Nate is also currently not able to be seen?" Liam asked.
"That would be a correct assumption, but don't forget I'm also visibly impaired," Rick said joining in on the fun by standing behind them.
"Hmm. What to say to make us reappear. Once was hidden, now is not; make us visible, to the whole lot," I chanted.
"Wow, that was so cool," Kyle said. "How long did it take you to figure out that spell?"
"I didn't time myself, but probably ten seconds. It really isn't as hard as I expected. I'm not sure the rhyming is necessary, but it makes it even cooler as far as I'm concerned," I replied.
"What else can you do?" Liam asked.
"I don't really know." There were so many possibilities that I wasn't sure where to start. I looked down and saw I was in my pajamas, so I decided changing my clothes was in order. "Ready for a ball, I am not; wrap me in purple silk, and make me look hot," I said, waving my arms a little for effect.
"Holy cow," Liam said, taking in the ball gown that enveloped around my body.
It was a grape colored, full length ball gown. The top was a form fitting bodice that had silver paisleys running up and down it. The skirt was a huge organza slash taffeta draped number with rhinestones here and there to add a little glam. I didn't really know the fashion terms to describe it accurately, but it was one of the prettiest things I'd ever seen.
"My darling, that looks amazing on you," Nate said as he grabbed my hand and twirled me around.
"Well, I can't be dressed up for a ball by myself. Nate's boxers are not enough, I want to see him in a tux," I said. It didn't exactly rhyme, but it did the job. In a matter of seconds, he was standing in front of me, very debonair looking in a black tuxedo.
"Okay, you two, enough fooling around," Rick said. "Let's go get dressed in some real clothes and we'll discuss how we're going to get to our destination today."
"Aye, aye captain," I said as I picked up my skirt and headed to my room. I was beginning to enjoy the sorceress powers and was thrilled with my former self for picking them up. The possibilities seemed endless.
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CHAPTER 26
Fences are made for those who can't fly