ALL NOVEL 71. Netflix & Chill (Tess)
"Thanks for the lift cutie," I smiled as I settled into the passenger seat of my girlfriend's car. "Are we going to do our usual Friday-night delivery? What do you feel like tonight?"
Amy shrugged as she pulled out from the clinic parking lot, "I don't feel like anything fancy or complicated. And I'm going to be cooking up a nice dinner tomorrow night, so how about something simple tonight? Maybe pizza? Or wings?"
"Pizza works," I responded. "Wine, pizza, maybe some cuddling on the sofa?"
She glanced at me before focusing on the road again, then grinned as she commented "You seem to be in a good mood. I take it you had a good day at work? Or are you just really looking forward to spending the next three days studying?"
It was Friday of the May long weekend, the last three day weekend of the school year. Starting Tuesday we'd have four solid weeks of classes, studying, finals, and at the end of it was graduation. For me at least, for Amy it was the start of summer break. She'd be back at college again in September, but I'd be working a lot sooner.
"I'm not exactly looking forward to that," I laughed. "And I won't be studying all weekend. Sunday and Monday for sure though."
"So what's got you in such a good mood?" she asked as we pulled into the underground parking.
I shook my head, "All in good time, cutie."
Amy rolled her eyes but didn't protest. Soon enough we were parked, and not long after that we were finally home.
"Can you get us some wine please?" I asked as I headed straight for our bedroom. "I'm going to get out of my work clothes. Meet you on the sofa!"
"Ok love," my girlfriend responded.
I was already pulling off my blouse and bra while she opened up the fridge. It only took a minute or so before my entire 'work outfit' was on the bedroom floor. Then I pulled on some comfy track pants and an old t-shirt. When I emerged I found my perfect girlfriend waiting for me in the living-room. She was sitting curled up in a corner of the sofa with a glass of wine in hand, and a second glass waited for me on the coffee table.
"Thanks cutie," I smiled as I collected my drink then sat down next to her. I slipped an arm around her shoulders and cuddled with her as I took a sip of the cool crisp Riesling.
After a few seconds to enjoy my wine I finally turned to Amy and announced, "So I have some good news. The last day of college is four weeks from today, right? Friday June seventeenth. By then all our exams will be over and done with, I'll have graduated, and you'll be on summer vacation."
"That sounds about right," Amy responded. "I got the impression you were going to be very busy from now until then. So why are you grinning and sipping wine and relaxing on the sofa like you've already graduated?"
I shook my head and smiled, "I'm taking tonight and tomorrow night off from studying, since I'll make it up by studying all day Sunday and Monday. And the reason I'm in a good mood is the good news I just mentioned?"
After a brief pause for another sip of wine I told her, "Like I was saying, we're both done with school on the seventeenth of June? I talked to Bev today about my work schedule once I go full-time, and I don't actually start until Monday July fourth. Which means I'll have fifteen full days in a row with no work, no studies, no responsibilities at all. So if you still want to fly over to visit Ireland and Wales, we can do it then."
"I had a look at flights during my lunch break today," I continued, "We could take a red-eye from Toronto to Dublin on the Saturday night, arrive in Ireland first thing Sunday morning, and find somewhere to stay in the city. Maybe do some sightseeing for a day or two? Then we could rent a car and tour around, visit granny's village and check out some other sights in County Wexford."
I paused again for wine before wrapping up my idea, "I figure we can spend five days in Ireland then head over to Wales and do some sightseeing there. We'll see where the Price family comes from, then we can end the trip in Cardiff. We'll fly back home on the twenty-ninth, that gives us nine full days over there. And we'll have four full days back here, including the July long weekend, to relax and unwind before I have to start work on the Monday."
Amy smiled as she listened and enjoyed her wine. When I was finally finished she grinned, "You're really excited about this aren't you? When I first mentioned the idea a couple weeks ago you didn't seem that enthusiastic about it."
"I guess it's been growing on me?" I shrugged. "It's a good idea, and I've never been overseas before. I think the furthest I've ever been is Florida, on a family vacation with my folks back before mom's first marriage fell apart."
After draining the last of my wine I added, "Anyways it'll be exciting trying to find granny's childhood home. Assuming it's still there of course. I wonder if there'll be any Clearys still living there? If not the house then the rest of the village?"
My girlfriend had an amused smile on her face as she drank the last of her wine as well. Then she responded, "I'm glad you're excited about the idea, so am I. Nine or ten days over there sounds good, and I like the idea of dividing our time between Ireland and Wales. I'm not so sure I want to deal with airports and customs though. And spending all night or all day on a plane doesn't sound fun at all."
"You really want to teleport us to Ireland?" I asked warily. "Not that I don't trust you Amy, but I don't know if I'm ready for that. Is it safe? Have you ever teleported other people before?"
She nodded, "Last Friday night I teleported a couple people back and forth across a few thousand kilometres."
My eyes widened as I gasped, "You what? When? What were you doing, why didn't I know about this?"
"You were busy studying out here in the living-room, remember?" she asked. "I was in the office on my computer. Except my friends and I decided to skip the game so we could meet up in person instead? So I popped over to Manchester and got Leah then brought her to Raven's place. Then I jumped over to Washington State and grabbed Krissy and brought them back here too. We spent a couple hours in a cafe getting to know each other better, then I took them both home."
She added, "I left you a note incase you went into the office and realized I was missing. When I got back later the note was where I left it so I figured you never noticed I was gone."
I stared at her in shock, "You teleported to England and back twice? And to the west coast and back twice? With passengers? I thought you were keeping the volume down on your game so you wouldn't disturb me!"
"Sorry Tess," she shrugged. "I'd have told you, but like I said I didn't want to bother you. But my point is, I can teleport us both to the UK and back without any problem. So we skip the airport and the plane and all that unpleasant stuff. We can work out our itinerary, book some places to stay, book a car, then just pop over when we're ready."
After a few seconds I finally said, "I need a bit of time to think about it, ok? I don't know why the idea of teleporting bothers me but I'm going to think it over and see if I can figure it out."
Amy smiled as she got to her feet, "Sure Tess, take as long as you need. One thing to keep in mind, if we do end up flying we'll need passports, and I don't know if we have enough time for that? June eighteenth is less than a month away, and I don't know if passport offices are open on the weekends?"
"Oh right," I frowned. "Even if we teleport over, we might actually still need passports? I don't know what kind of documentation they'd ask for at hotels or car rental places. And if we take a boat across to Wales we'll probably still need a passport there."
"We should probably look into this stuff," Amy responded as she picked up our wine glasses and took them over to the kitchen to fill them both up again for us. Then when she rejoined me on the sofa again she added, "Or I can do some searching online tomorrow morning."
I thanked her as she handed me my glass, then asked "What are your plans for the rest of the weekend? I know we've got Hailey and Alex coming over tomorrow evening, but do you have anything planned for the days I'll be studying?"
Amy had a sip of her wine then nodded, "I need to get groceries tomorrow, and we should stock up on drinks again just in case? On Sunday me and Raven are going to visit a few more demi-humans who need some help. And Sunday night me and my friends are going to play our game again, so I'm hoping you won't mind working out here again for the evening?"
"If I end up teleporting away to spend the evening with the gang I'll let you know first," she added. "I doubt that'll happen this weekend, but we do want to meet up again at some point."
I shook my head, "I don't mind studying out here, it's a nice change now and then. What demi-humans are you visiting? Are these the ones who were praying to Amethyst on the full moon?"
My girlfriend smiled, "Actually I answered those prayers at the start of the week. I didn't visit anyone in person, but I may have appeared in a couple dreams. And a few people woke up the next morning to find some problems were solved overnight."
"What?" I blinked at her in surprise.
She shrugged, "It was mostly just fixing people's ID or paperwork? Updating names or gender markers, ID photos, financial or student records, that sort of thing."
After a gulp of wine I asked, "And appearing in dreams?"
Amy blushed, "Ok maybe that's an exaggeration? I wasn't literally appearing in dreams, but a few people dreamed of me? Sort of like an omen or something, so they know I was listening to their prayers."
"If they dreamed of you, doesn't that mean you appeared in their dreams?" I asked with a frown. "What's the difference?"
"If I dream of you are you in my dream?" she asked. "The difference is I wasn't there. They saw me in their dreams, but I wasn't in their dreams seeing them."
I was still frowning as I nodded, "Ok, I get it. They saw an image or likeness, but you weren't actually visiting their subconscious minds while they slept."
After a moment I added, "So who are you and Raven going to see on Sunday then?"
"The bunnygirl we met last Sunday afternoon knows a few more people in the same boat as her," Amy replied. "She and Raven were talking online, and my angel got some names. She's verified they're all demi-humans and in need of help, I'm going to go and see if I can help them."
I thought about that for a few moments as I sipped my wine. "It suddenly feels like you're adding people to your list of followers a lot more quickly than we expected."
My girlfriend grimaced slightly, "I am, but I think it's still small enough nobody's really going to notice? And I'm not doing anything that big for these people. Someone else already did the big part, gave them their miracles, affirming bodies and all that? All I'm doing is updating paperwork."
"And considering how much the authorities seem to want to ignore them," she added, "I really doubt anyone outside their immediate circle of family and friends are even going to know anything's changed."
"Ok Amy. If you're happy with the way things are going, then so am I," I said with a smile.
She smiled back, then asked "So when do you want to order dinner? And what else are we doing tonight?"
"Wine, cuddling, pizza, and that's about it," I stated. "I guess we could find something to watch?"
"So Netflix and chill," she responded with a grin as she snuggled up close against my side.
I wrapped an arm around her and nodded, "Exactly."
