Chapter 23.

About mid afternoon we had a visitor, Wishes' friend Carrie called around to see her. I spent a few minutes making small talk with her but it was very clear that she wanted to talk to Wishes alone so after a few minutes I made my excuses and went out to the kitchen where I had left my laptop.

I sat at the table for a while and tried to make some sense of the work I had done last night until I heard what sounded like a slap.

Hurrying into the living room I saw Wishes standing facing Carrie. I don't think I've seen Wishes look so angry as she glared at her friend. Carrie stood with a shocked look on her face, one hand held to her cheek where an angry red mark was forming.

"I think It's probably best if you left now Carrie." I said quietly and gently took her elbow to guide her towards the door.

Carrie shook off my hand and turned back to Wishes.

"You're gonna regret that you bitch!" She snarled. "You wait and see how many friends you've got left when I get through with you."

"Just go Carrie," Wishes said softly, "just go."

I tried to show her out but she shot out of the door so fast I was just left to close the door behind her.

When I got back to the living room Wishes was still standing there trembling. I gently took her in my arms, I suddenly found myself supporting her as she sagged against me. I held her as she started crying softly.

A little later she pulled back and gave me a soft kiss.

"Thanks love," she sighed and rested her forehead against mine. "I can't believe I slapped her, I've never hit anyone before."

"What not even in the playground at school?" I asked smiling at her.

Wishes chuckled softly.

"Well maybe when I was at primary school but I don't remember it."

Leaning back I brushed her hair back from her face then wiped at the tear tracks with a finger.

"So what caused that?"

Wishes sighed.

"Carrie said that now that I was into girls it was her turn, like I was some kind of toy! I tried to explain to her that it wasn't that I was suddenly into girls but that I had fallen in love with you."

Wishes grimaced,

"Then she said that she didn't give a shit why, that she had waited years to get between my legs and now she was going to show me what I had been passing up all these years."

"She kissed me Linda!" Wishes looked sadly at me. "It was nothing like when you kiss me, your kisses are so gentle and tender, loving."

Wishes kissed me and for a long time I tried my hardest to prove her right.

"When Carrie kissed me it was harsh, almost vicious, even Mark kissed me better than she did."

Wishes' cheeks coloured a delicate pink.

"So I pulled away and slapped her face, Oh Linda I can't believe I did that."

Smiling I led Wishes to the kitchen and made a pot of tea.

"I think she deserved it love, she should have just accepted that it wasn't what you wanted."

That evening as we cuddled in front of the fire listening to some soft jazz music I thought of something I would like to do with my time while Wishes was working.

"I think I am going to pop up to the community college tomorrow love." I told Wishes, she smiled and kissed the tip of my nose.

"What do you want to study?"

"I was thinking about really learning to cook. I can just about muddle by in the kitchen and I know you don't like to cook, and of course you aren't going to have the time anyway."

Wishes giggled.

"You mean I can't cook don't you?"

"Can't cook, don't like to cook, I think it probably amounts to the same thing. If you enjoyed cooking you would have picked up more than a takeaway menu." I said laughing, I got hit with a cushion for my troubles.

On Friday I signed up for a two day a week cookery class that would run for ten weeks. After I had passed the course there were several other ten week courses covering different cuisines available.

While I was busy Wishes took a trip up to the university, partially to work out how much time she had to allow for the trip but also to set up her gear in the little corner of her professor's office where her desk was.

With Wishes at the university on Monday I dove into the housework to ease the boredom, and I guess loneliness. I had gotten very used to having Wishes with me all day long and it was a bit of a shock to the system to be alone again.

By lunchtime I was finished and at a loss with what to do so I popped around to see Alhana for a couple of hours.

Over coffee I told her about my worries about loosing my personality as Linda's memories gradually took over.

"It's nature trying to heal itself," She told me, "At the moment you appeared in your new body the world deviated slightly from it's original path but with a slightly hiccup as you had no history. So the world has to create the rest of Linda's life to bring things back on course."

"I can't say for certain but I think although Linda's memories will probably become dominant it won't change your personality, I think instead the history is being created to fit who you are. In the end there will always be a spark of Graham left though, or else there would have been no point in giving you a new life."

I was a bit skeptical but all I could do was to trust her. Before I left Alhana and I had arranged for me to come over to her house a couple of afternoons a week for her to teach me some simple home cooking recipes that she knew Wishes liked.

We settled into a comfortable routine, Weekdays I would see Wishes off in the morning then do any housework that was needed. Late mornings I usually visited with a few of the neighbours that I gradually got to know. I actually got to know some of the people that had lived near me for several years, something I had never done as Graham. I was surprised to find that almost all of my neighbours knew that Wishes and I were a couple, I had no idea that people were so aware of things that went on around them.

I soon made a good friend in Julia three doors up the road from us. She didn't live here when I was Graham, she and her husband Simon had moved in last year after getting married. Julia was partially disabled having lost her lower left leg in a motorcycle accident as a teenager, she walked well with an artificial leg and most of the time you couldn't tell it wasn't a real leg.

After I had gotten to know Julia we found we had something in common in a way, she had believed herself to be a lesbian until she found herself attracted to a man, not Simon he came into her life later.

As Julia had been made redundant a few months before I returned to my house we got together most days at either of our houses.
Of course not all of the neighbours approved of Wishes and I, but they weren't offensive about it we just never became friendly.

After lunch I would either drive up to the college for one of my courses or spend some time writing except on a Monday when I usually went to see Alhana.

Then it would be home to prepare dinner and welcome Wishes home from work. To some people it would be an unfulfilling life but I was very happy with it.

I looked forwards to the weekends when Wishes would be at home.

Most weekends we went out on a Saturday night usually to a party or the local pub but about once a month we would go to Silks. It was at a party that we found out what Carrie thought her revenge would be, She turned up on Mark's arm telling everyone who would listen that now he had dumped Wishes they were an item. It was quite amusing because most of the people at the party had been at the other party when Wishes had "outed" herself so they knew that wasn't what had actually happened. Poor Mark looked embarrassed to be there, he took a moment while Carrie was in the loo to apologise to us both for his behaviour at the previous party, which was nice of him.

Mark was never seen with Carrie again after that party and a couple of months later met a nice girl from Tintagel. He moved up there to be with her so we didn't bump into him too often but whenever we did it was quite amicable.

For a couple of months we went out now and then with Miranda and Carol, but after a few evenings out we drifted apart. They were heavily in to gay rights while we were just two people in love who didn't really worry too much about rights as such.

But we did become close friends with Ashley and Sally from the dress shop in Plymouth. On the first Saturday of every month either they would come down to us and we would go to Silks or we would go up to Plymouth and stay with them in their flat and go to a gay bar in the city centre called *ust. We would dance together for most of the night, swapping partners frequently along with a lot of kissing and heavy petting. We never took it any further than that, by unspoken agreement we would just wind each other up all evening then when we got home take our own partners to bed.

I would never have guessed how exciting it could be to be lying in your lover's arms as you listened to the sound of your best friends making love in the next room. I know it turned me on a lot hearing their passionate loving but it lit a fire in Wishes that would burn all weekend.

Over the winter I joined a gym and worked out a couple of times a week, I was determined to keep this new body of mine as fit and healthy as I could. I only lost a couple of pounds but dropped a dress size as my body toned up.

My memory loss seemed to stabilise after a time, most of the defining memories that had made me who I am were still there but seemed somehow different, they were kind of distant, shrouded in mist but still there.

Our pleasant routine continued happily until early May when my world was turned upside down.