Switched

"You should do it."

"Is that what you want to do when you switch us back?"

"When the time comes, I think I can handle it. And in the meantime, it gives you a meatier job."

"I mean I enjoy the work, but..."

"It doesn't challenge you. This may not be quite what you were doing, but still gives you more."

"That makes it sound like you aren't planning on changing me back any time soon."

"Megan is teaching you something about a real relationship with another person."

This was true. Megan and I spent every night in bed together. We spent our free time either going out together as a couple, or hanging out together at the apartment. I really enjoyed being with Megan and loved having her as my significant other. Still, she and I knew it was short term, and only until Stephen relented and let me have my life back.

"I will miss Meg when we switch back, but in my heart, I'm a man, not a woman."

"Take the job, love Meg while you can and we'll see what comes."

.......................................................................................

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. After three months, I was the official day manager and it felt like Megan and I were really in love with each other. I was more torn than I ever expected to be at the thought of switching back. Yes, I still felt like I should be a man, but the cost of doing that was rising by the day.

Stephen asked Megan and I to meet him for dinner. We arrived at the restaurant to find Stephen there with Toni who was another analyst in the office where I had worked. Stephen and Toni were holding hands when Meg and I walked up. I was scared about what that might mean.

Megan and I were often very affectionate when we were out, and now Stephen and Toni were quite affectionate there in the restaurant. Toward the end of the meal, Toni and Meg went to the restroom together, I wondered if I should join them but I got a subtle indication that Stephen wanted me to stay. To say I was nervous was an understatement.

"As I settled into your life, I began to be attracted to Toni."

"She's very attractive, I just never..."

"And she knew the reputation you'd developed."

"I almost never dated women in the office."

"Still, people knew."

"But she went out with you?"

"It took a lot of work, and some very hands-off dates before she had any trust."

"What does that mean?"

"I did some deeper research into the spell I used."

"I thought you knew..."

"The longer one stays in the new body, and the more one does things appropriate to the new body, the more we identify with it."

A chill ran down my spine, but another part of me felt ecstatic. "So you really feel like a man now?"

"I do and I'm in love with Toni."

"What about me?"

"Are you saying you don't want to stay with Megan?"

"I love her. I just wished there was some way..."

"There is. We both remain as we are, and with the people we love."

"Part of me is happy, and part is in mourning."

"Ride with the happy. Love Megan. Marry her."

"Remain a woman, working in a coffee shop."

"I cast another spell, to try to see the future."

"What did you see?"

"Me married to Toni, you married to Megan, and you owning first one coffee shop, and then a chain of them."

"How could I afford to own a coffee shop??"

"Trust fund, which I'll give up in remaining Stephen."

"Trust fund?"

"More than enough money, particularly when Dave has to sell for personal reasons."

"I was dreading giving up Megan."

"And now you don't."

"So we stay as we are?"

"I had a premonition, the night that you, me, and Megan were together that this would happen. I didn't tell you because I was afraid it would scare you."

"As much as I love Megan, I'm a little scared now."

"And you'll be nervous when you and Megan get married, but you will."

At this point, Toni and Megan returned from the restroom. Megan looked at Stephen and at me, and had a worried expression. She sat down next to me, I took her hand, then leaned forward and kissed her. I leaned close to her, so she could hear, but Toni couldn't.

"Stephen says we will get married. How do you feel about that?"

Her eyes got very wide, she had a broad smile and a tear ran down her cheek. She leaned in and hugged me tight and kissed me longer than any kiss we'd ever had.

"I'll take you, but only on good behavior."

"Damn, you mean I have to start behaving?"

She kissed me again.

...........................................................................................

Five years later, we are married. We own our string of coffee shops, and I am nursing our first baby. I agreed to have the first one, but told Megan that she had to have the second one. As it turned out, there was just enough of Andrea in me, that I can manage a little bit of magic myself. I will never have the powers that Andrea once had, but that's okay.

We are still friends with Stephen and Toni and they have a baby as well. They were part of our wedding, as we were part of theirs. In order to gain anything, we often must lose something else. I've gained the kind of love that I'd never have gotten if the switch never happened. That more than makes up for what I gave up.