Megan put down her purse and kicked off her heels. She sighed heavily and padded into the kitchen for a soda. It had been a long day. Not only was she late for the first time in months, she had been reminded about her language in the office. This time her manager snapped at her in front of her coworkers. That made the afternoon a real drag. She had managed to concentrate enough to finish her important work, though it was in part because fewer people came by to chat with her after witnessing the dressing-down.
She slumped against the fridge, soda can in hand, and popped it open. "Everyone had bad days, Megan. Just forget about it." She chugged the can and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. Her bun had thankfully stayed in place, but that pesky lock had slipped loose some time in the afternoon. She double-checked her phone to confirm she had indeed set up a haircut appointment. Just then, she received a text from Will.
He was going to arrive soon, and with take-out. That set her at ease. She finished the soda and set about changing into something more comfortable.
When Will showed up, he looked as bad as Megan had felt. His hair was disheveled, and had clearly failed to shave, as his shadow was more pronounced than yesterday. "Damn is it good to see you." He held up the take-out boxes. "I grabbed Italian for us."
"Thank you. I think we both needed this," Megan said, kissing him lightly, and taking the boxes. "Want to talk about your day?"
"It's the damnedest thing. I keep forgetting to shave," he answered, a hand idly brushing his chin. He winced as his fingertip caught a particularly sensitive hair going the wrong direction. "My boss said the next time he sees me, I'd better have either a full beard, or a smooth chin. They're real sticklers about appearances in the dress code."
Megan nodded sympathetically. "I got in trouble again for my mouth."
The two recounted their full day's experiences as they sat down to eat. The more they fixated on the aspects that were troubling them, the more Megan felt something in particular was wrong. At one point she had apparently stopped eating or listening to Will entirely, because she suddenly heard him say her name quite firmly.
"You okay?" he asked in a gentler tone.
She shook her head. "I... I actually don't know. Something just occurred to me. I've been having problems with my hair and foul language. You've been having problems with your grooming. And neither of us can explain why."
He sipped some wine and shrugged. "What if we're spending too many nights fucking each others' brains out?"
She snapped her fingers. "Yes!"
Will chuckled, almost choking on the wine. "I didn't really mean it."
"No, but that's when this all started! When we took those love potions. What if they're changing us more than we thought?"
"We only took them that one night, though."
Megan nodded. She twirled some linguini with her fork, pondering. "They were made to bring us closer and keep us together. Maybe their effects were supposed to linger."
"What does having better sex have to do with you forgetting your haircut appointments?" Will asked, then just as he finished, he blinked a few times and stared at Megan. "Oh..."
Megan leaned forward, raising her eyebrows. "Oh...?"
"I've wanted...," Will paused, his mouth hanging open. "I've wanted you to grow your hair out."
Megan thought back on the past few weeks. She had several memories of Will strongly advocating for that. But she hadn't agreed with him! "Yeah, you haven't been exactly subtle about that. But I don't want longer hair. I didn't mean to skip that appointment." She was reminded of the lock brushing her ear and instinctively pushed it back again.
"But you still skipped it."
Megan nodded. "I can't explain it. I just kept...forgetting. You think the potions made me ignore the appointments? And...and made you forget to shave?" Megan remembered how she wanted to see Will with a beard. Even with just the stubble he had, he looked quite sexy.
Our bodies changed to match our wishes. What if the potions are forcing us to behave the way we want each other to?"
"To make us into the perfect partners for each other...oh my god." Megan pushed her chair back from the table. She looked down at her chest. A chest SHE had wanted, but Will had also wanted. And Will was looking more like the hunk she wished for day by day. "Will...we've got to be careful about this. If the potions are still working, we've been changing each other and we didn't even realize it."
Will nodded. "We've got to...what, not think of changes we'd make to each other? That's--" He suddenly slapped both hands on the sides of his head and winced.
"Will?" Megan asked, getting up.
"Sorry--! I... I just couldn't help it!"
"What? What is it?!" Megan froze while moving halfway toward him.
"I just had an image of you in my mind. A different you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
Megan's eyes widened in shock as she looked down at herself.