The One You're With

"Why don't you leave us alone? We didn't do anything to you. I'll pay Bill for the drinks he purchased. Would that make everything alright?"

"Sorry, but messing with humans is kind of a hobby of mine and you have caught my attention. Had I not noticed you snooping, I would have made the change to your sister and called it a night, for this place at least." He took a sip of his drink and raised his eyebrows in approval of the taste.

"What are you going to do to me?" Rachel trembled. She couldn't remember feeling so afraid, not in a long time.

"You don't have to be afraid. I am not going to hurt you. I am going to make your life better, maybe not by your current perspective, but as luck would have it, I can change that too."

"But what if I don't want it changed? Don't I get a voice in this?"

"Is your life so great that it cannot do with a little change? A little bit of spice? You can view me as a threat or an opportunity. It is your choice." He pointed at her boilermaker. "Take your drink for example. You do not care for the taste of beer. That it is evident to anyone paying attention, not just someone with the ability to read minds."

Rachel's face brightened slightly as she raised her glass. "Can you turn this into a decent chardonnay?"

"I could, but then I'd have to change your drink all night long or remake this tavern into the kind of place that serves the wine you prefer. Much easier the other way around. As Stephen Stills sang, 'if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with'."

Rachel grabbed the edge of the table for balance as a wave of vertigo traveled through her head, making her feel a bit wobbly.

"A toast." He lifted his drink. "To new discoveries."

Rachel tapped her beer mug against his tumbler and then took a sip of her boilermaker. The sip became a long pull. Her taste buds relishing the dark bitterness of the beer mixed with the sharpness of the whiskey.

"Go easy on that. Your deal with Gabi still stands. If you meet an interesting man before you finish the drink you have to give him an honest chance. If you finish that drink before anyone else approaches you, you'll be stuck with me and be warned, I like to play with my food."

Rachel paused for a moment before letting the liquid that was still in her mouth slide back into the glass.

"Now to get started. To warm up and show you what a good guy I am, I am going to do you a favor and then I'll do one for your sister. After that I will do myself a favor or two." He looked toward Gabi's table. She had a new drink and a freshly lit cigarette. "I gather that you don't approve of your sister pretending to be a smoker. Makes her look kind of silly, wouldn't you agree?"

Before Rachel could reply Terrance motioned with his hand in a similar way as when he'd made his drink appear.

"Take a look."

Rachel watched as her sister took another puff on her cigarette. This time she sucked on it for a couple of seconds and then blew out a long stream of smoke. She definitely wasn't pretending to smoke any longer. Even the way she held the cigarette had changed. It looked completely natural between her fingers, like it belonged there.

"How is that better?" Rachel didn't like the idea of his sister being a smoker, but she had to admit that she looked less foolish now. New memories of Gabi smoking in the past filled her mind. In this new reality, her sister had started smoking just out of high school. Both Rachel and Gabi's mom had been quite upset, but as Gabi had pointed out at the time, she was over 18 and could do what she wanted. Even knowing the new memories were fake, Rachel found them eerily compelling.

"Fake isn't the right word." Terrance said. "They're true for this reality. The memories you have of your sister not being a smoker are technically the false memories."

"How is turning my sister into a smoker doing me a favor?" Rachel snapped. "That's worse than pretending!"

Terrance's face grew dark again. "Don't be ungrateful. It's rude and I hate rude."

Rachel realized that she was on dangerous ground. This man could literally do anything to her and her sister. There were lots of things much worse than being a smoker. Wasn't that true of life in general? Things could always be worse. Wasn't it better to look on the bright side and count your blessings than grumble and complain? Whining about your situation did little to improve things she'd always found.

"I'm sorry, where are my manners?" Trying very hard not to sound sarcastic, she added, "Thank you."

"Apology accepted." His smile had returned, much to Rachel's relief. "Not it is time for Gabi's favor."

"Please don't change her anymore." Rachel placed her hands together in front of her chest like she was praying. "I beg you."

"You haven't even seen what I'm going to do. Give it a chance." Once again he made a wave with one hand.

This time it was Bill who changed. It was like watching the Hulk from the Marvel movies transform right before her eyes. Only he wasn't becoming green and he wasn't growing to 9 feet in height. He only went from a wiry five-ten to a beefy six-foot two. His posture changed too. It was more confident, like it was natural being the biggest guy in a room and therefore he had little to prove.

"She always had a thing for large, confident men," Rachel said quietly.

"Exactly!" Terrance beamed like a school teacher when the particularly slow student finally got an answer correct. He made another motion with his hand. "And now a favor for Bill."

This time Gabi changed. Over the course of a couple of seconds she lost at least 20 pounds. Her hair grew a little longer and changed color to a golden coppery red. Rachel was a little disappointed that her sister's breasts stayed as large as ever. She hated herself for being jealous of her half-sister's curves, but it didn't change the fact. New memories of why Gabi was in better shape entered her brain.

"You made her a dancer for real!" Rachel's sister was no longer selling tickets at the MGM. She was a dancer in Vegas! The Show at Planet Hollywood. "Gabi always wanted to be a dancer. She took lessons for years."

He rolled his eyes. "I know."

"On behalf of my sister and Bill, thank you."

"You are rather pleasant to work with," he said. "The last couple of people were so annoying. One of them isn't human anymore. The other is no longer animate." His eyes narrowed in thought. "I think that I'm going to try something different with you."

"You've given us so much already, you really don't need to do anything more," Rachel tried to keep her mind focused on being thankful, knowing that he could read her thoughts.

"That is besides the point," Terrance said with a smile. "Empty your purse please. I want to see what I'm working with."

"Why? Don't you already know everything about me?"

His face darkened. "Don't make me ask again."

Rachel upended her purse. In addition to the condoms and cigarettes that Gabi had given her, a travel size facial tissue, tampon, wallet, car keys, phone, hair brush, several loose coins and a variety of make up items spilled across the small table.

"Cigarettes? You don't strike me as the type. You look more like a vegan smoothie and kale salad kind of woman."

"Those aren't mine. I don't smoke. I'm not a tease." Rachel really didn't want Terrance to make her smoker like he'd done to Gabi.

"I see that you decided to go against your sister's advice of claiming that you're trying to quit. Not an unreasonable choice." He paused for a moment, thoughtfully. "I probably would've given you the cravings of a heavy smoker had you made that claim. Still, that begs the question, whose are they?" He gave Rachel a full second to respond before continuing. "Your sister has cigarettes of her own. A different brand I noticed, so they obviously aren't hers. Why would you have cigarettes with you if they don't belong to either of you?"

He waited longer this time for a response, but Rachel had no idea what she should say. He clearly knew the truth and was toying with her. What answer could she give to extricate herself from the situation?

His face brightened, like he'd just had an epiphany. "I know, they belong to your daughter, Paige. It's the only logical conclusion. You confiscated them from her just before departing tonight and that's why they are in your purse."

"No! They're not hers. They're mine." Rachel snatched the pack off the table and held them close to her chest. "Please don't do anything to my daughter."

Terrance's jaw clenched. "If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is a liar. Teases annoy me, but I absolutely detest liars. The cigarettes cannot be yours and not yours. Were you lying before or are you lying now?" His voice lowered in volume and pitch until it resembled a growl. "Which is it?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie. They're mine."

"Apology accepted, besides, your daughter isn't here, which makes changing her into a smoker a bit problematic." He flicked his wrist and several new items appeared on the table, a lighter, a box of breath mints and a small bottle of extra strength Febreze, original scent.

Rachel was hit with a wave of dizziness and a burning need deep within her lungs.

She knew instinctively that satisfaction was literally in the palm of her hands. A couple of puffs would not only quell her new cravings, but would help relieve some of the stress she was under. The temptation was nearly impossible to resist, especially being surrounded by so many other smokers. The smell she'd found disgusting a few moments ago had changed into a siren's call.

"Now, because you were quick to correct your story I am going to reward you. Instead of quitting yesterday, you quit eighteen years ago."

The lighter disappeared as did the air freshener and Rachel's cravings faded away until they were practically nonexistent. She knew that if she lit a cigarette that she'd enjoy it, but the physical need was gone.

"But you did lie to me and I cannot simply let that slide."

A red light lit up in the upper left corner of her phone, indicating that she had a new message. Nothing else changed that she could determine. What had Terrance done, she wondered. As she reached for her phone, new memories slammed into her mind, her first puff of a cigarette at a sleepover at Jessica Stanley's house, her second ever cigarette shared with her second ever boyfriend, Brandon Taylor, her mom catching her and then grounding her for a full week.

Rachel looked at the pack in her hand with new eyes. They were like a toxic relationship, a true love/hate kind of thing. She had many fond memories of her time as a smoker and even knowing that they were destroying her life she couldn't stay away from them back then. It was for her daughter's sake that she'd finally quit. The day she'd discovered that she was pregnant was the day she'd smoked her last cigarette. The pack in her hands was an impulse buy when she'd discovered her husband's infidelity. She'd managed to resist the urge to start smoking, but hadn't gotten around to throwing them away just yet.

"Can you pick someone else to do favors for?" she said as she dropped the pack into her empty purse.

"But I'm going to make you happy. You aren't very happy right now, are you?"

"Other than my divorce my life couldn't be better," Rachel said, her chin held high.

"But that's hardly true now is it? Think about it again. Are you really happy? What do you want in your life?"

Thoughts and emotions bombarded her, almost all of them negative. She resented the management team at the bank. She'd been passed over for a promotion to vice president more than once because her business degree wasn't from a top-tier college. It was like a stain on her record. She might as well have spent time in prison. The money was good, but not great, especially now that she would be on a single income and her daughter about to go to college herself. Stanford wasn't cheap and since Paige was now eighteen there wouldn't be any child support. Her ex-husband had promised to help out with tuition, but she had a strong feeling that he wasn't going to follow through.

She didn't get to see nearly enough of her daughter. Between the job and all of Paige's responsibilities, school, homework, debate team, drill team, school government, it seemed like they barely ever spoke anymore. In a couple of months she would be living in California on the Stanford campus and then she wouldn't see her daughter again until Thanksgiving. Instead of spending what little time left together, she was in a smokey tavern being supportive to her sister.

She wouldn't even be in Nevada except for Gabi's guilt trip. Their dad was a womanizing asshole and had abandoned too many women over the years: his ex-wives and his two daughters. Every ten years or so he left his wife for a younger model, leaving them to raise his kids on their own. Rachel's mom had been replaced by Amelia, a Vegas showgirl and Gabi's mom. She was then replaced by Yolanda when Gabi was six years old. His fourth and final wife was Rita, who'd managed to keep him for these last fifteen years. That he was pushing sixty when they'd married might have had something to do with it.

"See, I can fix all of that for you. No more stressing about rising up the company ladder. A closer relationship with Paige. Love in your life. A positive male role model in your life. You can have it all."

"Do I even have a choice? You're going to do what you want to me anyway."

"You want a choice?" Terrance's eyes twinkled. "Tell you what, you can stay with me and we'll work together to reshape your life until I'm satisfied that you are actually happy or you can take what's behind door number 3."

"Door number three?" Rachel's mom had used that expression in the past and while she didn't know its origin she'd come to understand that it meant a gamble, usually a risky one. She didn't like the idea of Terrance messing with her life, but it was at least a known unknown. She had no idea what she'd be getting with this other option. "What will happen if I choose the other option?"

"Not going to say, but you'll have an opportunity to gain a little more control over the changes that happen to your life."

"Number three, I guess." Rachel had a feeling that it was a trap, but she liked the idea of having some control, even if it was only a little.

"So be it," Terrance said. "Remember your agreement with your sister. If you violate it, I will return immediately and continue what we started." As soon as he finished speaking he disappeared.

Rachel looked around, but didn't see Terrance anywhere in the tavern. She grabbed her drink and took a long swallow. Once she finished it she would grab Gabi and leave as quickly as she could. As she began to repack her purse she once again noticed the red light on her phone. When she unlocked it, she saw that she had a message from Paige. It said "Gma says I can borrow car after lesson. Be there at 10?". As she scrolled up, there was a whole conversation that hadn't been there before she'd met Terrance. The conversation consisted of Rachel trying to convince Paige to drive out to the Tavern and give her a ride.

Rachel tried to make a call, but as soon as she hit the call button, her phone shut off. She powered it back on and the same thing happened. Any attempt to contact Paige resulted in her phone going dead. Luckily, Paige didn't have ready access to a car and it sounded like Rita wasn't going to let Paige borrow hers until later in the evening. That gave her over an hour to get to a working phone and let her daughter know to stay away from the tavern.

Before she could finish packing her purse, a young man approached the table. He was tall, perhaps six-one, in great physical shape and startlingly handsome. There was a calculating intelligence behind his mesmerizing blue eyes. He was also quite young. He couldn't be more than three or four years older than her daughter.

"Hi, I'm Cody and I'm hoping you can do me a huge favor. I got myself into a bit of a wager at that pool table over there." Without looking away, he pointed toward the pool tables in the adjoining room. "I bet a couple guys that I could beat them in a game of doubles and they got to pick my partner. They decided upon you. Which, to be honest, made me quite happy."

"Really, why?" Rachel found this young man very interesting, particularly the way he held her gaze with a confidence that belied his years and hers.

"You know that you're beautiful, right? So much better looking than the rest of the women here."

Rachel cocked her head to the side. "I think you are in desperate need of a pair of glasses, young man. There are plenty of women here much better looking than me and much younger. A lot of them are much closer to your own age, I might add."

"Desperate is what most of these women are, in the way they dress and the way they act, not that the men aren't just as desperate mind you. But not you and I find that very attractive."

"Besides being old enough to be your mother, I don't know how to play pool." Rachel drained the last of her drink,

"That is exactly what my opponents were hoping you'd say. But you don't need to worry about any of that. I'd consider myself a winner for some time in your company, no matter the outcome of the game."

As she stood, intending to grab her sister and leave, hoping that she'd be able to arrive at her dad's place before Paige's lesson was over, a voice in her head reminded her of Terrance's final warning. Admittedly, she did find Cody interesting, albeit young. Unfortunately, her promise to Gabi had not hinged on the person's age. She was quite certain that if she refused Cody's offer, Terrance would make her regret it.

She slung her purse over her shoulder and then flashed him a smile. "How can I possibly turn down an offer like that? I'm Rachel by the way."

She glanced over at her sister as she followed Cody to the pool tables. She was still sitting with Bill, laughing at something he'd said. It was obvious that they had hit it off. Rachel wasn't going to need a ride home after all. It looked like Gabi wasn't going anywhere tonight except maybe back to Bill's place.

There were two rows of four pool tables in the back room, each with its own light fixture hanging from the ceiling directly overhead, which kept the tables well-lit while allowing the rest of the area to have a similar low-lighting feel as most of the tavern. The walls on either side of the pool tables had a wide, chest high shelf that several of the players were using as a table. There were also a few standard tables and chairs similar in shape and height as those in the rest of the tavern and just as clean. Most of the players were standing.

It was easy to tell which table was Cody's. It was closest to the entrance and had a good view of the rest of the tavern. It also had two men standing next to it that had watched them nonstop since Cody had first approached her. Both of the men were much closer to Rachel's age than Cody's. Both of them had a rugged, blue-collar worker appearance to them. One of them was large and bulky and the other was lean as a whip, but had a fire in his eyes that made Rachel think that he seethed with an unfocused rage.

"I'd like to sweeten the pot, if that's okay with you guys," Cody said after making introductions. "Let's make it a hundred a game and to further even things out, if I sink a ball on my turn I can't also sink the eight. That'll ensure that Rachel, my lovely partner, will participate in any game we win. If she doesn't sink the eight on her turn then I can sink it on mine."

"You're on!" Jackson, the lean one, said. He had a buzz cut and wore a flannel shirt with the sleeves torn off which showed off the eight ball tattoo on his right arm.