Aziza blushed as she showed Carmen and Josie some pictures of Tom and herself standing in front an enormous redwood tree at Redwood National Park on her phone, taken within the first week of their road trip. The two were smiling and had their arms wrapped around the other's shoulder in most of them.
"Oh wow" Carmen said, genuinely surpised. "Tom's disgustingly handsome. You have good taste in hets, Aziza."
She gave Aziza her phone back.
"See?" Aziza said in an insistent but light hearted tone of voice. She couldn't remember the last time she sounded so relaxed. "It isn't just me. I think we're all pan deep down, the three of us just lean a little more towards women."
"Not me, I'm 100% dyke" Josie said with a shit eating grin. "Your boyfriend is conventionally good looking according to heteronormative Western beauty standards, OK, I'll give you that. But he's too...I dunno, too blonde and beefy for me. He gives me Aryan Youth vibes."
"Oh stop" Aziza said. "He's a really nice guy."
"Maybe he's only $9;nice because he knows that you wear the pants in the relationship. He knows that you can turn him into a toad anytime he acts up."
"Tom knows that I would never do that."
"But it's in the back of your mind. I'm psychic, remember? Just give me the word, Aziza, and I'll turn Tom into a smoking hot chick. She won't even remember who she used to be."
"Uh... I'll pass on the murder, but thanks" giggled Aziza.
"Haley really turned you into a vag loving man hater, didn't she?" Carmen giggled, looking over at Josie.
"I don't hate men!" Josie laughed. "I love my dad."
"Dads don't count!" Carmen said.
"Can you name one man that you actually love?" Aziza posed.
"Sure I can. I...love what Jimmy Carter has done for the poor. I...love Jonas Salk for curing Polio. I...love Pedro Pascal's acting. But am I attracted to any one of them? No. Give me a girl any day."
"Trust me" Aziza said with another giggle. "You'll love Tom when you meet him."
**
"What is it, lesbian day at the library?" asked a warlock returning some DVDs of movies that weren't available in his dimension.
"You say that like it's a bad thing" Reggie replied. Both men were glancing over at Aziza, Carmen, and Josie, all acting like schoolgirls.
"Oh, quite the contrary" said the warlock. "I enjoy the view. If I knew that a bunch of gorgeous magic dames would be here, I would have arrived earlier."
**
Aziza fetched Jennifer when she was done dishing about her love life, helping Jen carry her books.
"Did you have fun?" Aziza asked.
"Uh...as much fun as a library can be, I guess. I learned a spell on how to change my hair color at will, which I suppose will save me money on hair dye."
"At least you didn't almost set the library on fire like I did my first day here."
Jennifer laughed.
"Did you really do that?"
"Yes."
"I met a woman who said that she knew you and asked me to say hi. Does Savannah Tullio ring a bell?"
"Yes, it does. I'd love to ring her bell."
"Yeah, I kind of figured. I take it you two have a history."
"Yep."
"I don't know why, she seems really nice."
"If you call being a psychopath nice, sure."
"I met her daughter Nancy too. She was kind of nerdy, but she was so fucking hot. I can't believe that I was never into women until now, because the both of them were like objectively beautiful. Nancy and I traded phone numbers if I'm ever in her part of town and want to hang out."
"They live in a different universe from you."
"I know. One day."
Aziza stopped their conversation once they reached the front of the library.
"Jennifer, these are my friends and colleagues, Carmen da Costa and Josie Murphy. Hopefully, if you prove to be an adequate Sorceress Supreme, one day they'll be your colleagues and friends too."
"Uh, hi" said Jennifer, waving casually at the beautiful brown skinned woman wearing tons of rings on her fingers, and the petite but big titted Irish woman wearing striped leggings.
"So you're the new girl. Nice to meet you" Josie said. "Have you met the other Jennifer Smith?"
**
Meanwhile, in another universe...
"Oh man, I'd get so bored if I were rich like Jennifer" Tom said to himself as he wandered around Jennifer's large home. "Having everything handed to me without having to work. Having to have dinner with snobs most nights pretending that you're interested in their banal little lives. Having a mansion does have one upside though. They provide the best environments for playing hide and seek."
Tom suddenly yanked open a door
"Gotcha, Mrs Rodriguez."
Tom pulled off the sheet which Martha was hiding under. The older woman shook her head and smiled.
"I never thought that I'd still be playing these kiddy games with you brats all these years later."
Tom hugged Martha.
"Thanks for humoring me. I feel so much lighter now that I'm not cursed."
"Aye, I see the same thing in Jennifer. In ten years, I've never seen her happy, until this week. Thank God for that woman you brought here."
"I wish Jennifer and Aziza were here right now. They'd probably find better places to hide than the broom closet."
"Probably."
"Hey, let's go find Mike. I'm pretty sure that he's in a closet upstairs."
"Of course that man is in the closet."
**
"So" Kylie asked Kyle at school the following Monday in the cafeteria. "How did it go with Aziza?"
Kyle beamed. "It went great! She wants me to come over again later today!"
"Kyle, that's amazing! I told you that you could do it!"
"I know, I can't believe things turned out this well You are like the nicest, kindest person ever for giving me that pep talk" Kyle said.
"Nah, I'm very far from nice. I've done some really, really shitty things. But thanks." Kylie said.
"Whatever you did, I don't care, You are the best person I've ever met. By far. Besides Aziza of course."
**
In The Great Change universe...
Diana left Robbie's apartment and sighed outside of the building.
Back to work.
Robbie was really good fuck. So was Savannah. So was this other woman, Barry Clarke. Diana would have to remember to come back here again sometime.
Something about this universe just felt magical.