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Wow, future wife! That sounds weird! Erica thought as she watched Sarah cook. Wonderful, but weird. I always thought I'd be the wife, and I will, but I'll also have a wife! I certainly never expected that! As her eyes followed Sarah around the room she realized all over again how beautiful she was. Sarah stopped, glancing over her shoulder, and smiled widely before returning to her work.

“What's with the grin?” Mike asked.

Erica hadn't realized she was grinning like a fool until Mike pointed it out. “I'm happy, that's all.” she said.

Mike grinned, “Yeah, I can see why. You two were made for each other!”

Erica blushed and looked away for a moment, and then looked back at Mike. “What about you and Jill? You're pretty well joined at the hip.” she replied.

“Yeah, but compared to you two we're an old married couple!” he said with a laugh.

Erica laughed, too, and then thought about what he'd said. “When are you going to pop the question?” she asked shrewdly.

Mike coughed and looked surprised by the question, “What do you mean?

Erica snorted, “Come on, you know what I mean! Both of you must have thought about it since I proposed to Sarah. And I've seen the expression on your face a few times when we were talking about wedding plans.”

Mike looked conflicted for a moment, and then leaned forward to whisper his reply, “Okay, but I don't want you to tell anyone else what I tell you, okay?” Erica nodded and leaned forward with interest. “You're right, I have been thinking about it. I'm sure Jill has, too, but she hasn't said anything. I don't know if she's waiting for me, or what. But I've been spending some time looking around jewelry stores for an engagement ring. But I'm not proposing until after the two of you get married. I don't want to distract anyone from your wedding.”

“That's sweet, but I'm sure Sarah wouldn't mind a little distraction. Especially if it's her best friend getting married, too!” Erica said.

Mike nodded, “I know she wouldn't. That's the way she is. But I really want her wedding to be something special. She's had a hard life up to now, and I want her to be the focus.”

“You're a good friend, Mike. But as soon as our wedding is out of the way, you've got to propose to Jill. No keeping her waiting, okay?” Erica said.

Grinning, Mike said, “What do you think I planned on doing? Besides, this gives me some time to find the right ring. It's proving to be more difficult than I thought.”

“Hmm, I have a thought about that. When I was looking through the stuff at the tomb I saw a few rings that would make good engagement rings. Maybe one of them would suit you?” Erica said.

“Maybe, but how would I get a chance to look at them without Sarah or Jill knowing what I was doing?” Mike replied.

“That's easy!” Erica said with a grin. “Tiffany was planning on selling some of the stuff she got there on eBay, and Sarah thought we could do that, too. But we'd have to go back to the tomb for that. So we go back to move all that stuff to the empty world and take photographs of stuff we want to try and sell, and you can use that as a cover to look through it and find an engagement ring.”

“That's a good idea.” Mike agreed. “I'm sure Sarah, in particular, could use the money. Her transformation has been rather expensive for her. And you guys could use the money for planning your wedding, too. Let's get started on that right after dinner!”

“Get started on what?” Tiffany asked. Mike and Erica looked up in surprise, but Sarah was still on the other side of the room and seemed oblivious.

“Your idea, to sell stuff from the tomb.” Mike replied.

“Oh, yeah. I've been wanting to get started on that, but I need a camera so I can post pictures of what I'm selling. I've been meaning to ask if any of you have a camera I could borrow.” Tiffany said.

“Jill has one, and we could all work on it together. In fact, now that I think of it, we should establish some kind of business for this. For tax purposes.” Mike said thoughtfully.

Erica nodded, “I could get started on that tomorrow. It shouldn't take me long to set up a corporation and set us all up as owners and officers of it. Then we can make up paychecks when we sell something or whatever. Then we only have to worry about the corporation's taxes, ours will be deducted from the paychecks just like our regular jobs.”

“I almost forgot what it was that you're studying; of course you'd know how to do all this!” Mike said. “But why officers? Do we really need that?”

“Sure, every corporation has to have officers. It's no big deal, though.” Erica replied.

“Hey Mike, could you get Jill?” Sarah asked. That broke up the discussion and soon they were all eating. Mike brought a chair out of Jill's studio so they'd all have a place to sit at the table, or on the table in Vash's case.

I believe Mike and Erica have an idea that has merit. Vash said as he ate off of Jill's plate. Mike had gotten in the habit of putting a lot more on Jill's plate than she would eat so Vash could eat off of it.

You heard that, huh? Yeah, we were talking about setting up a business to sell the stuff from the tomb. And anything else we might want to that we find in other worlds, for that matter. Mike thought.

Tiffany was already planning on doing this, but if we work together we can get a lot more done. We can use Jill's camera to take pictures of everything so we can sell it online. I'll set up a corporation to handle the tax aspects of it. We'll need to go to the tomb and move everything to the empty world, though. Erica sent via Sarah.

Won't we get in trouble with the IRS or something selling that stuff? Jill asked as she stabbed a piece of meat just before Vash could get his claws on it.

No. So long as we report our income and pay the appropriate taxes on it, they won't be involved at all. We're not actually breaking any laws by selling it, anyway. We'd only get in trouble if we sold it and kept all the money without reporting anything to the IRS. Then we could get in trouble! Erica replied.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I could use some extra money to finish rebuilding my wardrobe. Which reminds me, I need to get rid of all my old clothes. I'll never wear them again! Sarah said.

It all sounds great to me, I probably would have gotten myself in all kinds of trouble if I'd tried to do this alone like I'd planned. Tiffany sent. Her mental 'voice' was difficult to hear for the others, but she could be understood if she concentrated enough. Fortunately she didn't have the same problems hearing them.

Why don't we pack up all of Sarah's old clothes after dinner, and then go move everything to the empty world? Erica suggested. The others agreed and they finished eating.

“What are you doing Sarah?” Mike asked as he was washing dishes. She'd been handing dirty dishes to him to wash, but she was holding a plate and staring at it. To his surprise what looked like a small portal opened up and moved across the surface of the plate. The bits of food on the plate disappeared into the portal and the plate was soon completely clean. “Did you just use a portal to wash a plate?!” he exclaimed.

She shrugged, “I just wanted to see if I could do it.” She handed the clean plate to Mike and went back to the table to retrieve the rest.

Jill decided to get in on the action and levitated all of the remaining dishes on the table. Some settled into Sarah's hands while the rest flew slowly over to Mike who grabbed them out of the air one at a time with a bemused expression. Sarah cleaned the ones in her hands and put them away while Mike washed the others. Jill even cleaned a few with telekinesis once she was only holding a few up.

“Are you two done showing off yet?” Erica asked with a grin. They grinned and began drying the dishes Mike had washed the same way they'd cleaned the others. It soon became a competition between the two of them and Sarah began portalling the dishes to put them away in order to compete with Jill's levitating them away.

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To Be Continued…