Aka Amy

"So what do you think?" Emma asked, after taking a sip of her coffee. "End of your first week of full-time employment, how do you like it so far?"

It was just past one on Friday afternoon, and the two of us were in a little restaurant down the street from the clinic. Emma invited me out for lunch and I figured it was a good opportunity to get to know her better.

I smiled, "I feel like I should be asking you that question. I've worked with Bev for over a year, all that's changed is starting this week I'm putting in more hours. You're the one who's new to the clinic."

She smiled back, "True. I have a lot more work experience in general though, albeit in a very different job."

"I can't argue with that," I responded. Then I answered her earlier question, "So far so good. It's not that different yet from last summer? I'm sure that will change as I pick up more clients and things get busier, but for now it's nothing new."

I paused for a gulp of my soda then asked, "How about you? How are you finding it?"

Emma grimaced slightly, "This week has been more than I'd bargained on. And it's not quite the work I envisioned, but I know nobody anticipated these circumstances."

"Yeah," I gave her a sympathetic look. "Rosa's supposed to be back on Monday though, so you won't have to cover for her anymore. I hope this hasn't been too much of a disruption for you?"

She shook her head, "It's fine. And it definitely beats waitressing, hands down."

The conversation paused as the waitress arrived with our food. She also brought me another glass of cola, and topped up Emma's coffee.

Then as we started to eat I asked, "If you don't mind sharing, I'm curious what inspired you to switch careers? And why psychology? Or why the interest in plurality?"

After swallowing a mouthful of her salad she replied, "Without going into too much personal detail, I found out someone very important to me is plural. I started doing what research and reading I could on my own, and when the opportunity came along to quit waitressing and further my education I chose psychology to help me better understand that person's situation."

She continued, "As it turns out their circumstances are probably unique, and they don't seem to require any help in that aspect of their life? They're among the lucky ones for whom being plural isn't a problem. Still, the education left me in a position to try and help others, so that's what I've decided to do with my time."

I was positive the person she was talking about was her daughter, but I knew better than to ask. From other conversations we'd had over the past few days I knew she didn't meet her wife until after she started university so it couldn't be her, and Emma hadn't mentioned any other family. I'd also noticed sometimes she referred to her daughter in the singular, other times she used the plural daughters, which suddenly made more sense to me now.

One thing I was curious about though was what she meant about their plurality being unique. I decided not to pry though, or at least not right away. Maybe I'd ask in the future, after we got to know each other better.

Instead I smiled, "That's wonderful. And I'm glad the person didn't need your help after all, and that you've decided to put your talents to work helping others."

Emma smiled back, "What about you Tess? What inspired you to become a therapist?"

"Oh," my smile faded. "In a way it's a similar story to yours. Someone I was close to in high school came out as trans, and didn't get the support she deserved. In fact I was the only person who tried to help her. I learned all I could and did my best, but her family, the teachers, other kids, they were all against her."

I sighed and shook my head, "This story doesn't have a happy ending so I'm going to stop there Emma. After that, I knew I wanted to help other people like my friend. That's why I want to help young gay and trans youths. I don't want anyone else to go through the sort of things Daisy had to endure."

Emma gave me a sad, compassionate look as she reached over and put her hand on mine. "Tess I'm so sorry. I can only imagine what that must have been like. And you're right, no-one should ever have to deal with that. Least of all children or teens."

She lowered her voice as she added, "My daughter's oldest friend had to flee an unsupportive home after she started her transition. I honestly can't understand how parents could threaten or bully their child like that, especially over something so fundamental to their child's sense of self."

"I know," I sighed. "I hope your daughter's friend is ok?"

Emma nodded, "She's fine. I took her in at the time and helped her out. Nowadays she and my girls and the rest of their polycule all share a house in the suburbs east of Toronto."

There was actually a lot to unpack in that statement, but I smiled and responded to the first part of it. "Wow, that was really generous of you. I'm glad you were there to help her."

My coworker shrugged, "She and my daughter were best friends all through high school, I couldn't turn her away. Especially not after finding out how her parents were acting."

I realized she just did it again, in one sentence she referred to her 'girls' plural, then the next it was 'daughter' singular. I was tempted to mention it or to just outright ask, but I held off. It really wasn't any of my business and I didn't want to come across as being too nosy.

"It's still generous of you," I insisted. "Not everyone would have done that."

"That is a shame," Emma sighed. "Maybe if more people did, there'd be less of those unhappy endings you mentioned."

I sighed as well, "Yeah. Good point."

The two of us ate in silence for the next couple minutes before she spoke up again, changing the subject to something happier.

"You mentioned the other day that you just got back from vacation last week?" Emma asked. "Where did you go?"

"We spent the first half of the trip in Ireland then finished up in Wales," I replied with a smile. "It was my first time over there, and it was a lot of fun."

She smiled, "I bet. Who were you travelling with? And why Ireland and Wales specifically, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Originally it was just going to be my fiancée and I," I explained. "Then we invited her sister, and her sister's beau as well. And the main reason for the trip was to explore our heritage? My granny came over from Ireland back in the sixties, I wanted to see what it was like where she grew up. It turned out even better than I expected too, we met a cousin I didn't know about and now we're talking about maybe visiting again next summer?"

"And Amy's family originated in Wales," I continued, "So we visited the places where she had history as well. Plus we also did some sightseeing? We saw some castles, lots of historic sites and buildings, even a couple museums."

Emma asked, "What parts of Ireland and Wales were you in?"

"We started in Dublin and went south through County Wexford. Then we took a ferry across to Pembrokeshire, toured a bit of south Wales, and finished up in Cardiff," I told her.

"Nice," she smiled. "I've only been to Europe once, Carol and I went for our honeymoon? We started in Paris then spent six weeks last summer touring through France, Germany, and ended up in Italy."

"That sounds really romantic," I grinned.

"It sure was," Emma replied with a sly smile. "I'd love to visit the British Isles though. My family originally came from England, but I don't know any more details than that."

She asked, "Was Ireland expensive? Or Wales? And did you have any difficulty booking a flight to Dublin and the return flight from Cardiff? Me and Carol ran into some trouble getting reasonable airfare last summer, going to Paris but coming home from Venice. They wanted to treat it as a couple one-way flights instead of a return trip, since we weren't flying home from the same place we started."

That left me stumped for a moment, since I couldn't exactly tell her my Goddess girlfriend teleported us specifically to avoid hassles with airlines and airports. After a second I shook my head, "Amy took care of all the travel arrangements actually, I stayed out of it. As for cost, I suppose the hotels and some of the restaurants seemed expensive to me? But I don't have a lot of experience with hotels, so I can't really compare."

Emma asked, "Amy is your fiancée, right? What sort of work does she do?"

I nodded, "Yeah she's my girlfriend. She's not actually working yet, she has one more year of college to go. She's studying to be an EMT."

"Oh good for her," my coworker smiled again. "So your trip to Ireland, was that a graduation gift?"

Once again I hesitated. I could guess she was curious how me and Amy could afford the trip considering I just told her my girlfriend wasn't working and Emma knew I only just started full time employment. Then again, I was a little curious about her as well. A six-week European honeymoon couldn't have come cheap, same with three years of university.

And knowing she was a single mother working as a waitress prior to that left me wondering what happened that she could become a full-time student, let alone take long expensive vacations. For that matter she wasn't even working full-time now, she was only planning to be in the practice two or three days a week. I'd almost think she was retired and just working occasionally to help pass the time.

"I suppose it was," I finally responded. "Both myself and Amy's sister Hailey graduated last month, so the four of us were celebrating that."

"That's nice," Emma smiled. "I guess your girlfriend is on good terms with the rest of her family, if the two of you were vacationing with her sister and her friend."

"Sorry if I'm being too nosy Tess," she added. "I'm enjoying talking with you and getting to know you better, but sometimes my curiosity gets away from me."

I shook my head, "It's fine. And Amy gets on well with her sister. Her parents, not so much. She's only seen them once since she came out to them last summer, and it didn't go well."

She grimaced, "Ah. I'm sorry to hear that. How about you, any siblings?"

"Nope," I smiled. "I'm an only child. And things with my mom were a little stressed for a while, but we started to patch things up between us a couple months ago. She lives in Calgary now with her second husband, so I don't actually get to see her much."

By that point I figured I may as well ask a few questions of my own, since that's the way the conversation had been going. So before she had a chance to respond I grinned and added, "My turn. What are your daughters' names? Do you get on well with them?"

Emma smiled, "They're Mara and Mira. And yes, I think we have a very good relationship. We talk on the phone regularly, and they always come to visit for holidays and birthdays. They usually bring all their girlfriends with them too, so it can get a little hectic at times. It's nice though, having the house so busy now and then."

"You mentioned they were part of a polycule," I commented slowly, "I've known a few people in poly relationships but never experienced that myself. Are they both part of the same group?"

She hesitated, and for just a moment I saw a look in her eyes that make me think she just realized she might have overshared a little.

To try and put her mind at ease I added, "I'm not judging or anything Emma, I promise. I'm just curious. Like I said, I've never been part of a poly relationship myself, I only know what I've heard from other folks."

"Same," she replied. With a little colour in her cheeks she added, "I admit I've been tempted though. My wife and I both in fact. We're friends with someone we'd be very interested in getting closer to. We've even talked about maybe inviting her into a relationship with us? But we've held off because... Let's just say there's other complications."

After finishing her coffee she answered my question, "As for my girls, yes they're both part of the same group. Depending how you count them there's five or six in the polycule, and from what they've told me and what I've seen, it honestly looks like a very nice arrangement. They're all very close friends with each other, they go on dates as a group or as couples, and they all contribute to their household in different ways."

Hearing her say the number varied left me even more convinced her daughter was plural. I assumed Mara and Mira were two different identities within the same physical body. And from that perspective it made more sense that they'd both be part of the same polycule, since they weren't actually sisters.

We'd both finished eating by that point so the waitress came by to check on us. Emma looked to me and suggested, "We should probably wrap this up and head back to work?"

"Right," I agreed.

When the waitress returned with the bill both me and Emma offered to pay for each other, so we ended up just splitting it rather than arguing. Then we headed out together, for the short walk back to the clinic. Both of us had cars, Amy let me have hers for the summer and Emma had a little silver family car, but it was a nice day and the restaurant was near enough that we both preferred to walk.

As we made our way back to work Emma suggested, "Maybe Carol and I could have you and Amy over for dinner one night, if you like? I'll mention it to her, I'm sure she'd love to meet you. And I'd love to meet your fiancée."

"Sounds good," I smiled. "I'm already looking forward to it."