“After… that,” he started, his voice was no longer angry, there was no intensity and there was no gentleness either, he was definitely amused, “I hesitate to mention money again, but you’ve a separate bank account with a goodly amount in it.” He pointed to the paper on his desk that he’d been studying when she’d arrived.
She stomped back around the desk to stand beside him, snatched up the bank statement and stared at it. It was Tash’s school fund.
“It’s clear you could have used that money, I’m wondering why –” he began.
“I never touch that. That’s Tash’s school money,” Lily answered his unasked question, tossing the bank statement down on his desk.
He stared at her, eyes blank. “I’m sorry?”
She turned to him and put a hand on her hip. “Tash’s school money. Tash is a gifted child. It’s not just me who thinks so as a doting mother, so do her teachers. They told me she’d benefit from a special school. Those schools cost money, lots of money. I’ve been saving –”
Something shifted in the room and that something emanated from Nate and the power of it made Lily stop speaking. It was something she didn’t understand but Nate didn’t look amused anymore, he also didn’t look blank. His eyes were burning into her so intensely she felt they’d scorch her skin.
“You did without to save money so Natasha could go to a school for gifted children?” he asked.
Lily felt a shiver slide across her skin at the tone of his voice. Again, she couldn’t put her finger on it, didn’t know what it was but it meant something to him, something profound.
“Of course,” Lily said quietly, knowing, in her experience of families, in her experience of people, an experience she didn’t know was vastly different from his, that any mother would do the same. Those two words were said with the kind of certainty that someone would declare the sky blue and the earth round. “Can I spend my seven million on that?” she ventured carefully.
Tash could go to the best school in the world with seven million pounds.
Nate didn’t answer her. In another abrupt change of mood, he swept her in his arms and held her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. He buried his face in the hair at her neck and for long moments he didn’t speak and he didn’t let her go.
“Nate,” Lily whispered, “I can’t breathe.”
At her words, his arms loosened but he still didn’t let her go.
Finally, after whole minutes slid by, he lifted his head and looked into her eyes and what she saw made her not able to breathe again. It was raw and aching and the weight of it fell on her like an avalanche.
“No,” he said softly, “I’ll pay for Tash’s school.”
She nodded immediately, not wanting to do anything to deepen that ache in his eyes.
“I’ve already noticed she’s advanced for her age,” he went on.
“Significantly advanced,” Lily told him.
He smiled, that awful look thankfully melting from his face, it warmed and he bent his head to kiss her lightly.
“Significantly advanced,” he agreed against her mouth.
“Like her father,” Lily continued, staring close up into his eyes.
“Like her mother,” Nate parried.
She shook her head and put her hand to his cheek.
“What am I going to do with you?” she whispered.
“Help me select a school for our daughter,” he responded without hesitation. “I’ve already made a shortlist.”
Her eyes rounded at his announcement then she grinned and leaned into him, dropped her hand from his cheek and wrapped both her arms around his waist.
“Okay,” she answered.
Lily pressed her cheek to his chest and she felt him rest his on the top of her head.
And, Lily realised, joy beginning to bud in her heart, that she’d done something ages ago, something that was for Tash, something that no hugs, no afternoon phone calls to his office, no expensive motorcycles could do.
What she’d done for their daughter, his daughter, rent a huge, gaping hole in his armour.
She closed her eyes tightly and felt hope.
“Lily?” he called against her hair.
“Yes?” she whispered, her eyes opening.
“Please don’t buy me a King Charles Spaniel. I’m not fond of small dogs.”
She closed her eyes again, this time with laughter.
* * * * *
The motorbike roared up to the front of the house, Nathaniel’s tall, lean body on the front, Tash’s small, lean body holding tight to him on the back.
Fazire did not like motorbikes. He had not liked Will’s and he did not like Nathaniel’s. What was in Lily’s head when she bought that bike, Fazire did not know. To Fazire, motorbikes were certain death on two wheels.
After her father stopped the bike, turned it off and shoved down the stand, Tash jumped off the back and pulled off her helmet like she’d been doing the exact same thing every day since the day she was born.
Fazire, Laura, Victor and Lily were standing at the front of the house watching the father and daughter pair. Lily went forward as Tash ran to her.
“Did you like it, doll baby?” Lily asked as she arrived at her daughter.
“I loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it!” Tash cried, throwing her arms around Lily and jumping up and down, shaking Lily with her excitement. Then she stopped jumping and she leaned back, her arms still around Lily’s waist. “I tried to make him go faster but Daddy wouldn’t, no matter how much I begged and pleaded,” she finished dramatically.
“Thank goodness for that,” Laura muttered, with feeling, under her breath.
Fazire’s eyes turned to Laura and they shared their first look of complete accord.
“Your turn,” Fazire heard Nathaniel’s deep voice say and his eyes moved back to the tall man and he saw that Nathaniel was looking at Lily.
“Oh no,” Lily said, backing up a step then two, “I’m too old for bikes.”
“Oh Mummy, you must go! You must!” Tash cried, rounding her mother and putting both hands on Lily’s behind and pushing forward while Lily still retreated, Nathaniel advancing on her.
“Nate –” Lily said warningly and Fazire understood why. Nathaniel’s face had a set look and he was grinning.
Fazire sighed.
Lily was going to be next on the bike.
Fazire heard a squeal, quickly followed by another one as Nathaniel made it to Lily and lifted her up, swinging her around and with quick, long strides he carried her toward the bike. The first squeal was Lily’s, the second squeal was Tash’s and the little girl was jumping up and down again, clapping.
“Go Daddy, go!” she encouraged.
“Don’t forget her helmet!” Laura called, turning to rush into the house.
“On their first date, he took her on his bike,” Victor said beside him and Fazire’s eyes moved to the man at his side. Victor sounded like he was talking to himself and Fazire realised this was true when he saw the faraway look on Victor’s face. “He never brought her back and I knew he wouldn’t. That night, after he called to tell me she wasn’t coming home, I never would have thought it would have ended so soon.” Abruptly, Victor stopped speaking.
Whether this was because the pain of the memory or something else, Fazire didn’t know but something flashed on the other man’s face as he watched the pair and Fazire’s eyes swung back to Nathaniel and Lily.
“Oh my –” Laura breathed, now back and holding Lily’s helmet.
Nathaniel was zipping his leather jacket on Lily and for some reason Fazire saw this brought tears to Lily’s eyes. After Nathaniel was done with the zipper, Lily threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Not a soft, demure kiss but a kiss the like little Tash shouldn’t see. Surprisingly, because Fazire knew Nathaniel was very careful with these sensitive, private matters, Nathaniel’s arms closed around Lily, pulling her deep into his body, his head slanted and it became a kiss that little Tash really shouldn’t see.
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“Fucking hell,” Victor murmured words Tash shouldn’t hear but she’d heard a lot of them that day also from her father.
Fazire’s arm shot out and he pulled Tash to him and covered her eyes with his hand.
“Fazire!” Tash shouted, trying to yank his hand away and Lily and Nathaniel realised what they were about, their lips disengaged, though their arms didn’t, and the pair looked at their audience.
Fazire could see Lily blush.
“There are children in attendance,” Fazire snapped across the expanse, dropping his hand from Tash’s eyes.
Nathaniel’s gaze sliced to Fazire but other than that he made no response.
“Fazire!” Tash shouted again, planted her hands on her hips and gave him a pouty look. He glared right back at her. They were locked in a staring contest which Fazire would win because he had lots of practice with Becky, Lily and seven years with Tash not to mention, he was immortal so he had all the time in the world.
Laura moved forward with the helmet and Tash lost the contest as she turned, crossed her arms on her chest and looked toward her parents.
“Can you let Tash read to you tonight? We might be awhile,” Nathaniel said to his mother.
“Of course,” Laura replied, clearly pleased with the offer to spend more time with her granddaughter.
Nathaniel turned to Natasha and he didn’t have to say a word. She ran forward and gave goodnight hugs and kisses. The one to Lily was a hug about the waist and a kiss from her mother who bent down to do it. Nathaniel lifted her up, Tash wrapped her arms and legs around him and kissed him soundly on the mouth before she pressed her cheek to his shoulder and, after a few moments locked together with Lily looking on, a smile on her face, Nathaniel set her down.
Then Tash stepped back to hold Laura’s hand. Nathaniel got on the bike, Lily got on behind him, wrapped her arms around him tightly, put her chin on his shoulder and they shot from the curb far faster and far, far more dangerously than he’d gone when Tash was on the bike with him.
“He’s the bomb,” Tash whispered, watching them go.
Fazire had had enough. He turned to Victor.
“We must speak,” he announced.
Then without waiting for Victor to reply, Fazire stomped into the house, down the stairs into their new family room.
It was just like the old family room except it had a bigger, fluffier, more attractive corner couch with a big ottoman in the front that could sleep three small, active children. Fazire liked this couch, the old one was comfortable but he could retire on this couch. This couch was more comfortable than the hundreds of cushions that made his bottle a home. There also was an enormous flat screen television set affixed to the wall. Fazire liked this television too. His Westerns came alive on that television. Clint Eastwood looked like he was actually in the room. There were also nicer, sturdier, more attractive bookshelves and more of them so he could have much more space to fill photo albums and put framed pictures.
In fact, Fazire liked the whole house. He liked the KitchenAid mixer and blender. He liked the new refrigerator which was like the ones in America that actually had room enough to fit food in it for more than a day. He liked Lily’s office and the fact she had time to write.
He liked a lot of facts about Lily. The fact that Lily was smiling again. The fact that Lily was laughing again. The fact that Lily’s face rarely looked pinched and worried about money or Tash or anything.
Anything, that was, except when she looked at Nathaniel.
Fazire had decided he’d done his job well; it just took a long time for it to realise. Like a gestation period for babies. Lily had asked, with her wish, that she and her lover go through trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, Fazire was a wee bit too good at granting his wishes (he always had been, he thought with little humility). When he tied Lily’s life to Nathaniel’s with her wish, he’d chosen the exact right man and she’d been given everything she wanted.
However, at fourteen years old, she didn’t understand that all those terrible troubles the heroines in her books went through in real life hurt. That the words were just words on a page, but in real life, the pain was immense. Trials and tribulations to prove your love were exactly that, trials and tribulations.
And Lily wasn’t through with hers. Neither was Nathaniel. Not just yet.
Victor followed Fazire into the room and closed the door behind him.
“What now?” Victor asked, wary eyes on Fazire.
Fazire wanted to float. He really, really wanted to float but he kept his feet on the ground for now.
“Tell me,” he commanded in his best genie-voice.
“Tell you what?” Victor asked, not, unfortunately to Fazire’s way of thinking, a human who liked to be commanded.
“Tell me about your boy.”
Victor’s body grew tense and he did not respond.
“I can fix him,” Fazire announced.
“What did you say?” Victor asked.
“I can fix him. You tell me about him, what’s stopping him from giving himself to Lily, I can tell Lily and she can wish for it and I can fix him,” Fazire explained.
Fazire didn’t want to do this, not in a million years. He didn’t want to go back into his bottle and be passed along to the next greedy, grasping, vengeful human. He wanted to watch Tash grow up. He wanted to watch Tash’s daughter grow up. And her daughter and –
“You’re mad,” Victor cut into Fazire’s dismal thoughts.
“I’m not mad. I’m here for a reason. I know you humans think I’m strange and I don’t care. I think you humans are strange because you humans are strange. However, I’ve got a purpose in Lily’s life and I’m quite prepared to –”
“We humans?” Victor asked, watching Fazire closely.
Fazire nodded, crossed his arms on his chest above his belly and tilted his head back to stare down, or more to the point, up his nose at Victor. “Yes, you humans.”
“And what are you?” Victor queried.
“I’m a genie,” Fazire announced.
Victor’s brows snapped together, he stared and then his face got a little scary even for Fazire who wasn’t scared of anything.
“You think you’re a genie,” Victor said slowly and incredulously.
“I am a genie.”
“You think you’re a genie and you’re living with my granddaughter, Lily, my son –”
“I am a genie,” Fazire repeated.
Victor stared at him for long moments then he crossed his arms on his chest and said quietly, “Maybe we need to find you a home, someplace comfortable –”
“I have a home. This is my home and then there’s my bottle and –”
“Dear God,” Victor breathed, his brows coming unknitted and he looked no longer frightening but concerned.
Fazire sighed. There was nothing for it.
Therefore he floated. He crossed his legs under him and he snapped his fingers so his human clothes immediately changed to his genie clothes including the fez, gold armbands and earrings.
Victor’s concerned look was gone. His head was tilted back to stare at Fazire drifting five feet up in the air and Victor’s mouth was open.
“Sarah, Lily’s grandmother, was my first mistress. She gave her wishes to her daughter Becky, Lily’s mother,” Fazire explained, staring down at the stunned and speechless Victor. “Becky couldn’t have babies so she made a wish and I made Lily. I made her perfect and sweet, just what you see. But I wanted her to have humility –”
Fazire explained how Lily used to be, even magically floated a photo album out, an act which startled Victor and made him take two steps back, and flipped it to the right pages so Victor could see the chubby, plain, adolescent Lily, something else that made Victor look like he could not believe his eyes. Then Fazire told Victor about Lily’s wish and where Nathaniel came into this mess.
“It was the most complicated wish ever,” Fazire informed Victor. “Now that he’s back and it seems her wish came true. I
was channelled last night and told I was nominated for Best Wish of the Century Award. So far this century, I’m the only one nominated. I figure I could win. No one has ever had a wish like that.”
Victor stayed mute, didn’t utter a sound throughout Fazire’s explanation.
Fazire floated closer to him and closer to the floor.
“Now,” he said softly instead of commanding it because it meant a great deal, a great deal to Lily. And even though it also could mean that Lily would use her last wish and he would go away, he wanted to give this to her, he wanted to fix Nathaniel, he wanted it for Lily and, these last few weeks, watching the tall, proud, intelligent man and how he looked at and treated Lily and his daughter, he wanted it for Nathaniel too. “Tell me about your boy so I can fix him.”
Victor closed his eyes slowly.
Then he opened them again, sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands.
Fazire snapped his fingers and he was in his human clothes. He floated low until his feet touched the floor. He walked over, sat on the opposite side of the couch to Victor and he waited.
Then Victor’s head came up and he looked at Fazire. He seemed startled for a second as he hadn’t realised Fazire had changed back but he recovered quickly.
“I can’t believe you’re a genie,” Victor whispered.
“If you tell anyone, I’ll have to kill you,” Fazire lied. This was entirely untrue but he’d always wanted to use that line.
Victor shook his head.
“Does Tash know you’re a genie?” Victor asked.
Fazire nodded.
“Does Nathaniel know you’re a genie?” Victor went on.
Fazire shook his head.
“Fucking hell,” Victor breathed.
“You really shouldn’t use that kind of language, especially with a youngster in the house,” Fazire admonished.
Victor just kept staring at him.
“Tell me about Nathaniel,” Fazire prompted.
Finally Victor relented. “I’ll tell you about Nathaniel but you have to give him time. And Lily time. If they don’t seem to be working it out on their own –”