Dinner was lovely so far; apparently they were friends with the owner and got a table with a splendid view of the courtyard. There had been a slight hiccup when Melissa tried to order a steak, but her dress quickly pinched her and she corrected to have a light fish meal instead. Susan was enchanting to Melissa and she quickly found herself falling in love with the woman; any thoughts of returning to her life as Jon were fading fast. The former model was in the middle of a funny anecdote about an intern who accidentally barged into a top level meeting with a birthday cake intended to go to someone in accounting, five floors down. It seemed her wife worked as the CFO of McMillan Industries now, which peaked Melissa's interest.
"How did Mr. McMillan take that?" Melissa asked, mostly curious to see what Susan thought of the man who used to be her husband. She definitely wasn't getting protective of Susan or anything.
"The old goat?" Susan retorted. Melissa giggled uncontrollably, snorting wine out her nose. Her necklace dug in hard into her neck until she stopped; a lady didn't spew things out of her nose. She dabbed herself with a napkin. "Yes, the old goat, was he upset?"
"Oh he wanted to fire the poor kid," Susan answered breezily, "We had to distract him with a fake call from the Japanese branch so Stevens could rush the boy out of the room before Roger got his name."
"Ugh, I hate you have to work for such a jerk!" Sarah chimed in, ignorant of the fact that until today she called the jerk in question daddy. Melissa nodded approvingly; she was liking the Sarah she'd raised, much better than the original.
"Now darling," Susan responded, "we don't always get to choose our bosses. Besides he's hardly in the office most days; he's usually off playing golf or whatever."
"Isn't that annoying mom? Having him not put any work in?" Athena asked as she swallowed a bite of her vegetarian lasagna. Apparently somethings persisted between realities.
Susan laughed a bit, "not at all. I prefer having him out of the way so we can actually get work done."
Melissa grinned mischievously and slid her foot forward to play footsie with Susan under the table as she spoke, "Well he's pretty old, maybe he'll retire soon? I happen to know someone incredibly qualified to take over." Susan blushed a bit, but her daughters assumed it was just from the praise. She was going to absolutely go to town on Melissa tonight with her favorite strap-on. "Well you're biased, babe," She shot back with a smile. Melissa felt both affection for her wife and a burst of pride at how much happier Susan seemed with her than she had with Mr. McMillan.
Melissa pulled her foot back (it wouldn't do to get too overexcited in public) and turned to her daughters and switched the subject, "Any big plans for your first week back at school?"
Athena shrugged, "Nothing too exciting for me. Just class and fencing practice. Lexi and I might go to the zoo on Saturday. Her little sister's on a zebra kick." Melissa nodded encouragingly, cataloguing the facts that Athena was A. a fencer and B. Close friends with Volleyballer Lexi Star instead of the Goths in this world. She'd have to dig into what Athena's relationship with Zoe was like now later.
Sarah was more enthusiastic in her response, "We've got the back to school pep-rally tomorrow which I'm super pumped for! Then on Thursday I'm volunteering down at the shelter with Karyn. And on Friday we're going to see that production of My Fair Lady; I think the plot's a little dumb but Karyn's super into the music."
"So you and Karyn are ... getting along?" Melissa asked cautiously. Karyn and Sarah had hated each others guts before and she wasn't sure how her wishes would have shifted that in particular. She supposed having her for a second mother instead of Roger for a father had made Sarah a much nicer person, but would it shift their reality that much?
Sarah gave her mother a strange look, "Of course we get along, mama, she's my girlfriend. Did you think we were fighting or something?"
