Aka Amy

"Thanks for the ride!" I grinned as I settled into the passenger seat.

Amy smiled back, "Any time Tess."

As we pulled out of the clinic parking lot she added, "Seems like you're in a good mood today?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Still busy, still swamped, but today was nice."

It was Thursday, and as usual I spent the day at the clinic working with Bev. Things were busy between my internship and all my regular classwork, and it was just going to get worse as I got closer to graduation. But something happened at lunch that I couldn't wait to tell my girlfriend about.

She asked, "So are you going to tell me what happened that was so nice?"

I shook my head, "Not till we get home."

My girlfriend pouted, but she didn't argue.

It wasn't that far anyways, and only ten minutes later the two of us were sitting together on the sofa with glasses of wine in hand. And after a sip of my cool crisp Riesling I finally shared my news.

"So I had lunch with April today. She texted this morning and asked if we could meet, then she picked me up at noon and took me to a little restaurant down the street."

Amy frowned, "She's ok though right? It has to be good news, you're smiling."

I grinned and teased, "If you want to hear the story then don't interrupt cutie."

She pouted and rolled her eyes, but motioned for me to keep talking.

"So you remember what I told you Tuesday after class right?" I asked. "She had a few people notice she'd changed. A couple profs commented that she looked different, and a few classmates said she looked nice. She was worried about last night though, she was going to her parents' place for dinner, it'd be the first time her family saw her since her miracle. And she was stressing about today too, about going back to her intern work."

My girlfriend nodded, "I remember. So how'd it all go?"

I had a gulp of my wine first as my smile faded, "Things with her family started off a bit tense she said. They're local so she sees them pretty often, and her last visit was only a week or two earlier? So they saw all these sudden drastic changes in her, and they knew that was impossible. It freaked them out a bit? They still knew it was her, she said there was no question of them doubting her, but they had a hard time accepting that she'd changed so drastically in such a short time."

After another sip of wine I went on, "Of course they wanted to know what happened, what she'd done. And she ended up telling them? According to her, she told them she met a real live Goddess and she was granted a miracle. She says she didn't mention anything about me or about your secret identity, she said she did tell them your Goddess name though. And of course her family didn't really want to believe it, but on the other hand they couldn't deny that she'd had a miraculous change."

My grin was back as I finished, "So in the end they just accepted it and they're happy for her. So she's ecstatic about that, it was one of the things she was really worried about and it went just fine."

By that point Amy was smiling as well, though I was positive she also looked a bit relieved.

"That's great news," she replied. "I'm glad she got past that hurdle without any trouble. What about her work? Did she say how they handled her sudden changes?"

I drained the last of my wine then nodded, "She does her internship on Thursdays and Fridays, same as me. So she left work Friday as her original self, came back this morning as the new and improved version. Her boss and coworkers all noticed, but she said none of them questioned or challenged her. They just accepted it and maybe decided it was none of their business."

"And," I added with a wide smile, "April said she's never been happier than she's felt these past few days! She said her confidence is way up, and she's really happy and grateful that you gave her that gift."

"That's great," Amy grinned. "I'm happy for her."

I was still in a good mood about it as I commented, "I'm glad we did that, I'm glad we helped her. And I want us to keep helping people like that. Bringing that kind of joy to people... I don't know, it seems important. Bringing some serious good to the world, to counter all the depressing stuff that goes on all the time."

"Yeah," Amy sighed as she got to her feet. She picked up my empty wine glass on her way to the kitchen, then brought it back after refilling it.

On her way back to the kitchen she said, "I guess we should figure out our plans for the next few days then? There's some things we need to do, to prepare for your birthday and the ritual Saturday night."

I thanked her for the wine, then agreed "Right. So what did you have in mind? I'll be honest my mind's been nine parts schoolwork and one part April's news. Do we need to do anything special tomorrow night?"

My girlfriend got started making dinner for the two of us as she replied, "Nothing special tomorrow at all. Actually I hope you don't mind, but I was going to go online and meet up with my friends in the game after dinner tomorrow?"

"Oh?" I asked as my eyebrows crept up. "Did you hear back from that one you were worried about?"

Amy was chopping some vegetables as she shook her head, "Not exactly. Kreff hasn't replied to any of my messages or apologies. They did confirm in the group chat that they're available Friday night though. Leah and Raven are free as well, so I'd like to join them. And hopefully I can clear the air between me and Kreff, once we're talking on voice in the game."

She added, "Seems like nothing came out of my slip-up last week, we haven't had any nastygrams from the game company, nobody's been suspended or anything. Maybe they think my magic was just a glitch or something. I hope so anyways."

"Ok Amy," I replied.

I still had mixed feelings about her socializing with her angel, but I knew Ravenna had been part of her game team for months. I just hoped nothing changed between them, now that Amy knew who she was and knew she could get the angel to do anything she wanted.

After a sip of wine I decided, "I'll park my laptop on the coffee table tomorrow night and work right here on the sofa while you're doing that. It'll take some of the pressure off for my Saturday too, if I can get stuff done tomorrow night."

She had the veggies and some meat sizzling in a pan as she said, "Sounds good. And for Saturday, I guess we need to do some preparations? Maybe take it as a normal day till mid-afternoon, then we can focus on the fun stuff. We'll celebrate your birthday, take it easy, then around nine or ten at night we can switch gears and do the magic ritual stuff?"

"Works for me," I smiled. "I'll need to step out Saturday for a tiny bit of shopping. I need to pick up a certain kind of cookie, and a bottle of ice-wine."

My girlfriend smiled back, but she stayed focused on cooking for now. From the look and the smell I could tell she was making us a stir-fry. In addition to the meat and veggies sizzling in a pan there was a pot boiling, probably with rice or pasta inside.

I sipped my wine while I spent a few seconds just observing my cute girlfriend cook our dinner. And I smiled as I quietly gave thanks for how lucky I was to have her in my life.

Less than ten minutes later Amy brought my plate over to me and set it on the coffee table in front of me. She returned with her own meal, and sat down next to me on the sofa.

"Thanks cutie," I grinned. "It smells amazing!"

She smiled, "It's just stir-fried pork and rice noodles."

The food tasted as good as it looked, and as the two of us ate I asked "So we've got our plans sorted out for Saturday, and we're all set for tomorrow night too I think? That just leaves tonight. And Sunday I suppose, do we need to do anything special immediately after the ritual?"

She frowned then shook her head, "We should probably just take Sunday as it goes? I honestly don't know how we'll both feel after the magic stuff Saturday night, so maybe let's not have any plans at all for Sunday. If we're up for something we'll figure it out when the time comes."

"As for tonight," she added, "I don't really have anything going on. I assumed you'd be hitting the books again. But if you'd rather do something fun I'm all in."

I sighed, "You pretty much guessed it. I'll put in another hour or two at my desk tonight after dinner."

"Ok Tess," she gave me a sad smile. "Just don't overdo it right? I know this is important and you've got a lot going on, but it's not going to do you any good if you push too hard and burn yourself out."

"I know," I grimaced. "Thanks for looking after me."

Amy was about to reply when my phone's ringtone cut her off.

I sighed and grabbed my purse, then dug out my phone and answered "Hello?"

"Hello Theresa, I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time?"

I hadn't bothered to check the call display before answering, but suddenly I wished I had. The muscles in my shoulders and neck started to tense up as I replied, "Hi mom. Me and Amy just finished dinner. What's up?"

"So I know this is last-minute," mom said in that tone that I knew meant she was up to something, "But I wanted it to be a surprise. I'm coming to visit you for your birthday, and I was wondering if you'd like to come and pick me up at the airport tomorrow? My flight lands at six your time."

My blood started to run cold as I found myself staring at a blank spot on the opposite wall. Several different emotions churned through me at once as I tried to come up with an appropriate response.

"You... You're what? Mom you know I'm busy as hell, you can't just show up out of the blue and expect me to drop everything! And you know I don't have a car, why are you asking me for a lift?"

She sighed, "I thought maybe you could borrow your friend's car? But if that's too much to ask, I guess I can always try one of the cabs."

I rolled my eyes then asked, "So you've booked a flight, where are you staying?"

She switched back to her innocent voice, "Well I was hoping I could just -"

"Absolutely not," I cut her off again. "We don't have a guest room and our sofa doesn't fold out into a bed. I'll find you a room at a hotel in town."

Mom sounded disappointed, "Oh. I thought you said you and your friend were sharing a larger apartment now?"

I stated, "It's bigger than the tiny place I was living in last year, but it's not big enough to entertain houseguests, ok?"

"Very well," she sighed. "You don't sound very pleased I'm coming all that way to visit you Theresa. I thought you'd be happy to see me, it's been nearly a year since Harvey and I moved out west."

"Of course I'd like to see you again mom," I said as I tried not to sound too exasperated. "But popping a surprise visit on me with one day's warning isn't cool. You know I'm busy with my studies, I'm working two days a week at the clinic, and I've got a girlfriend and a life. I have plans, and I can't just drop everything and cater to your whims."

Mom was quiet, but I recognized the sounds of her being audibly sad.

I sighed again, "Look, I'll find you a hotel room nearby, and I'll see if I can borrow Amy's car to pick you up tomorrow night. What's your flight info, so I'll know where to find you?"

Of course mom didn't have any of that information handy, so she had to fuss around with her email trying to find her itinerary.

It took her a minute or two, then she started to read it out to me before I cut her off and told her to just forward it to me so I didn't have to worry about her missing any important details. Then after a bit more mildly annoying small-talk I finally got off the phone.

"That sounded frustrating," Amy gave me a sympathetic look as I trudged back to the living-room and collapsed onto the sofa next to her.

I groaned, "It was. And it's going to keep being like that for the next ten days. She's flying out here tomorrow, and she's not going home again till the eighth of May."

Amy sighed, "That'll be awkward. What are we going to do about your birthday and the ritual Saturday night?"

"She's not staying here," I stated, maybe a little too forcefully. "Whatever else happens, she'll be at her hotel room Saturday night. We're going ahead with the ritual, I don't want to have to put it off till the next full moon."

"Ok hon," my girlfriend responded as she pulled me into a hug. "Try not to get too worked up though alright? Whatever happens, you can handle it. And I'll be here backing you up and supporting you."

Hearing her say that actually helped drain some of the stress I was feeling, and I hugged her back. "Thanks Amy. I appreciate it."