So what do you think of a guy who has been divorced twice and is only twenty five years old. Two time loser? Unlucky? Sitting with a bottle of some fruity fortified alcoholic drink in one hand, I contemplated that very question while reading over the final divorce papers for my second marriage I held in the other.

How this marriage ended didn’t come as a terrible surprise, not really, well at least I can tell myself that now. Lori and I met at a baseball game. As we both disliked baseball, dragged to a game because of work, we seemed to have something in common. Sometime during the fourth inning we snuck out and instead had a nice dinner. Was hating a particular sport an appropriate building block for a relationship? Lori seemed to think so.

Eight months later we were married. A rather small affair, although neither of my wedding ceremonies had been large but the marriages themselves lasted about as long. Although I’m sure my first marriage counted in the grand scheme of things, it had been a mistake from the very beginning. Two stupid children who thought, at least on my part, that they were in love. It ended when I found out that my wife had also been loving one of her college professors.

Looking back I’m not sure if my marriage to Lori had been any wiser. We enjoyed our time together well enough but our lives always seemed to be going in opposite directions. I wanted children; she thought children were no better than animals. Lori wanted to move to a larger city, I was quite happy with living near a smaller one.

When promoted to be the assistant VP of Marketing for the Pacific Coast region, Lori didn’t give our marriage a second thought. She didn’t even bother to ask me if I wanted to join her. At that point, I knew our marriage had come to an end.

After coming home from work and finding the papers in my mailbox, I decided to get a good drunk on. Seemed like the thing to do, really. Deciding not to waste the good stuff, I headed off to the local convenience store returning with several bottles of an interesting drink called Mustang Red; lovely stuff, tasted like cough medicine.

About half a bottle later, the decision not to drink the good stuff, like my marriages, seemed to be a bad idea. Heading towards my liquor cabinet, the doorbell stopped me. For some reason I knew exactly who stood on the other side of the front door, I wasn’t wrong.

Kaylee took one look at me and frowned. “You’re drunk.”

Grabbing the bottle out of my hand, she glanced at the divorce papers for a moment before gathering all of the other bottles and dumping their contents into the kitchen sink.

“Hey, I paid good money for those.”

“What? Like two dollars a bottle.”

I grinned sheepishly. “Something like that.”

As Kaylee just happened to be my best friend, it came as no surprised that she knew something had happened to me. She always seemed to know, somehow.

We first met in kindergarten. She had just laid two older boys out, flat on their backs that had been picking on the new kid, which happened to be me. I have often been told she has a mean right cross.

Around the fifth grade, at the age when one really begins to notice the difference between girls and boys, I asked her to a school dance. Somewhere in my little preadolescent head, I thought that perhaps later there would be more to our relationship but it never happened.

Several years passed she off handedly commented, while we were admiring the pretty people on the beach, that she only liked girls. Who knew that she had also been admiring the same scantily clad bodies that I had been?

Now I should have been devastated at by that admission, but I took it in stride. In fact, I had a sneaking suspicion already. Kaylee had confessed to me earlier that back in Kindergarten she actually thought I was a girl. So, I was small for my age. That changed when I hit fourteen, but my love for Kaylee didn’t.

Did I have any other choice? She had always been there for me, and I would always be there for her. So did that change our relationship? My long term plans needed a little adjusting perhaps, but at the core, she would always be my best friend.

When my first marriage ended, Kaylee showed up, to comfort me. So, at the end of my second marriage I expected no less.

Closing my eyes, I took a seat on the couch and enjoyed the buzz.

“Are you OK?” Now sitting across from me, Kaylee looked concerned. “Sorry, but I didn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Define OK. Anyway, that’s why I was drinking at home, alone.”

I don’t think she got the hint.

“Anyway, it’s not like I could get into a car accident on the way to my bedroom. How bad could it have been?”

“Drinking that stuff, alcohol poisoning most likely. “ Kaylee had never been impressed with people who drunk in excess.

I raised my hands in surrender. “Fine, I get it; I am not allowed to wallow in self-pity.”

Kaylee climbed over the coffee table, and hugged me, resting her head on my shoulder for a moment. It felt good, we always connected, a shame really.

“No, you’re allowed to do that, however I need you to be sober. I have an important question for you.”

Shifting in my seat, wishing she would continue the hug, I raised an eyebrow. “Couldn’t have waited until tomorrow huh? Ok, so what’s up?”

“I need you to be my date for Valentine’s Day, specifically for the dance after the fund-raiser.”

For years, the LGBT community held its annual fund-raiser in a small hotel on the outskirts of town. Since becoming chairperson, Kaylee decided to move it into the heart of the city.

Along with her longtime girlfriend Meredith, Kaylee convinced other business leaders to help with the event. Working hard throughout the year, the two managed to finally take over all of the ballrooms in one of the larger hotels in the city.

Overjoyed at her accomplishment, Kaylee had wanted to share that success with her girlfriend. She even went as far as to speak to me about wanting to make their relationship something more permanent, that was until Meredith moved back home. As much as I wanted to be there for Kaylee, there was only one answer to that question.

“No.”

Did I mention that the after party dance just happened to be a girl’s only affair? Guys were welcomed, providing they were appropriately dressed. Not that I had a problem with guys dressing up as women, some of the best people I know were cross-dressers who worked for Kaylee. It just didn’t happen to be my thing.

“Eric…”

“Kaylee, I would look silly in a dress.”

My best friend looked at me for a second then giggled. “True, although I think that we could make you presentable enough. Would you go with me if you were a girl?”

I rubbed my face for a moment; perhaps I had drunk too much. “If you’re trying to confuse me your doing as great job; what do you mean if I were a girl? Speaking with your friend Teresa, I know transitioning does take some time and even then...no thanks.”

“No.” She looked nervous as she reached into her bag, placing a fist size grey stone with gold lettering on the coffee table.
I stared at the rock for a moment before laughing. “Why of course, magic; how silly of me.”

Kaylee and her mother owned several what would be called New Age stores around the state. I didn’t believe in any of it of course, although from what I had seen, there appeared to be good money in all of that hocus pocus. Standing up, I started to walk away, thinking I need to find my good bottle of Calvados when Kaylee dragged me back to the couch.

“Yes, magic.”

“So, you’re telling me that you’re some sort of Witch, right?”

Kaylee let out a long breath then looked right into my eyes. “Yes but I don’t call myself that. If you need a name you can call us Practitioners. Simply put, I have a gift.”

“You mean like being able to snap your toes as if they were your fingers.”

Didn’t seem right, Kaylee had magic and all I could do was snap my toes. Not that I actually believed she had any magical ability.

“So, why don’t you just wiggle your nose, or wave your wand? What’s up with the rock?”

“I can see that you’re skeptical.”

“You think?” I laughed; starting to stand up again, Kaylee dragged me back down. “OK, fine. Let us say I believe you, which I don’t. Why don’t you just wave you hand and turn me into a girl?”

Actually, for some reason I really wanted to know what was up with the rock.

“Magic doesn’t really work that way, normally we cannot change big things. And even then, it takes the entire Circle to perform such magic. Plus, considering how much energy it can take, a spell such as this one can only be performed once every decade or so.”

“I see, so you can’t make yourself wealthy by wishing for a pile of gold.”

“Not really, we make little changes, influence outcomes for the betterment of our lives and for the lives of others.”

“So that’s why you didn’t cast a spell on Meredith to make her love you and stay.”

Kaylee smiled sadly. “No, we are not allowed to interfere with matters of the heart. Such things never work out well anyway, usually coming back at us three fold.”

“Rules of three.” Being well read, I have heard of such things before but then again, Kaylee had read the same books. “So your Coven…”

“Circle.”

“Sorry, your Circle has placed a spell on that rock to turn me into a girl.”

“Yes.”

Sitting back, I didn’t really know what to believe. Sure, there were stranger things in heaven and earth, but did I really believe that my best friend could cast magic?

“I thought all Witches were Wiccans or something.” I knew Kaylee still attended one of the more reform churches in the area.

“My Circle doesn’t require you to be a member of any one religion or sect. Our group happens to be one of the more diverse Circles in the region, actually.”

“There is more than one group, of course there is. So I assume that all of you practitioners use magic to keep us Muggles from finding out your powers?”

Kaylee smiled, I really did love her smile. “Something like that. Now, before we go any further I don’t want you to think that it’s permanent. The spell will only last until the sunrise after the party.”

“Sort of like Cinderella. Ok, so, if I’m a girl it’s only going to be for about a week right?”

Frowning she nodded, did I actually see hope in her eyes as well.

“So let’s say this is all real and you turn me into a girl. Won’t that interfere with other aspects of my life? I do have a business to run you know. The party isn’t until this weekend right; unless of course, the rock isn’t going to be used until Friday?”

“No, don’t worry; the magic will take care of that. And yes, we could wait until Friday but I thought being a girl for a week wouldn’t be too bad.”

“If you say so, as long as it’s not permanent, I would love to go to the dance with you.”

Something told me that she might be telling me the truth. If Kaylee had been the type of person to play practical jokes, I would believe her less. However, she had taken her last break up awfully hard. Truth be told, I loved her, would always love her and if this gave Kaylee a little bit of happiness, I was game.