Genie-Us

Chapter 4

"Are you certain?" his voice turned even silkier and irresistible.

For a long second, I could only stare at him. This man or genie or whatever the hell he was, by God, he was just too much for me to deal with. Too handsome, too perfect, too everything that I didn't need in my life.

"Just change back, and tell me about this mysterious realm of yours." I tried to keep my voice bland, but by his smirk, I knew he didn't believe me.

In another blink, Jene returned to his apparently traditional genie garb. I didn't know if it was worse or better. It made him look more unreal, so I guess it was better for me. The last thing I needed was to find this hunk of genie too attractive.

"If you are willing to listen, then I shall talk." Jene said.

"I need to eat, so you can talk to me while I cook." I gestured to the kitchen.

Grabbing the ingredients from the fridge and pantry turned into a great distraction for me. Noticing the rice, I decided to whip up a risotto. Aunt Chloe was the one who had taught me how to cook. That made me think of earlier.

"How did my aunt know you?" I swivelled around to ask Jene.

"Your aunt. How do I explain her?" Jene mused to himself for a long moment. "She had a curiosity about how your stepbrother came to have an involvement with your family." As Jene spoke, his left hand twitched. His words sounded like someone grasping for an impossible answer.

"She never liked Harrison, but then neither did I."

"That truth I have understood for quite a while," that amused him, although I didn't know why. "She enquired about why such a... now what was the word she used?" he went quiet for a moment. "Ah, yes, turd. She enquired about why such a turd would continue to have the use of my lamp. Once I explained the situation, I realised that she wanted to know about the well-being of her family."

"It's good to know that she's still looking out for me. She was the closest I'd ever come to having a mother. My mum died soon after I was born. It's always been the three of us. Dad, Aunt Chloe and me." I reminisced.

"About your aunt." Jene went back to appearing as green as he did when we discussed my name.

"What about her?" I gave him my full attention.

"Perhaps we should discuss it another time." Jene cleared his throat.

"You're starting to worry me with that look." I pointed at his pained expression.

"Try not to concern yourself. We should start our discussion of the Realm." Jene quickly changed the subject.

"Fine, get on with it." I said as I started to chop up mushrooms.

"The Realm is on another plane of time from your known world. Before you can go there, I have to apply a barrier of spells around you for your protection." He paused the moment my phone beeped.

I grabbed hold of my phone, waved a hand for him to continue, and glanced down at the text. 'You ready for us tonight?', my friend Tammy Lee sent me, and I groaned.

In a few hours, my life had gone belly up in the most obscure way, and I wasn't sure how to answer her. My friends expected a party with it being the end of another term. I had always offered my place as our party residence. Now what was I going to do?

"Whatever is the matter?" Jene asked, disturbing the rush of thoughts that had overtaken me.

"I promised my friends that we'd have a pool party to celebrate the start of summer holidays." I replied.