I grabbed the peeler from her and skinned the carrot in my hand as I talked. “Jake loves carrots. I don’t.” “Garret and I don’t care for the... either.” In silence, we both focused on the stalled dinner preparations. When I was done peeling a few carrots, I peeked up at Hillary. She was holding a massive English cucumber in both hands, and I chuckled. “That’s humungous.” Hillary glanced at the two foot long vegetable. “It is. I was just thinking of …” She paused and I asked, “What?” “You have no. She also had a great sense of humour and was happy to talk about anything and everything. Only the clothes sellers that run women’s magazines do not understand just how much such a woman features in men’s fantasies.The conversation that night ranged from geeky to the long story of how a colleague, Paul, had spent a previous evening going from woman to woman to try to hook up, eventually sleeping with the only person left: a male student with dreadlocks and a ripe odour. Emma and I had been. “I think my entity left,” he said surprised.“Hello Mage Martin, you are correct. The entity that was in your ring had agreed that the one in the vambrace could take over. Paladin, we would like you to add the extra spells to us too please,” the voice said.“You guys do know these spells makes it harder for a Mage to be naughty don’t you?” Darcy responded.“Yes, we think your Queen Wizard was very wise. They are good spells and any Mage worth wearing one of us shouldn’t have any trouble living up. She seemed a lot colder than usual, but I told myself it was due to not speaking to each other for a year. We made some small talk, and I suggested we meet up. She asked where, and I suggested we meet at her place. She paused for a bit, and then agreed. I told her I'd be there in 30 minutes and hung up.On my way there, I thought about our past relationship. I hadn't slept with another woman since I had broken up with her, but I prepared myself for the fact that she had probably had another.