I'd glad I have a good memory!
Last night, June asked me whether I wanted to help decorate the Great Hall for Yule. I thought she meant whether I wanted to joint the groundskeeping crew and the other volunteers who put up the tree and the other decorations all in one night as a surprise for the yearlings. I did it a few times as a novice, and really liked it, but last year I had a different assignment. I was supposed to distract my wife--she was a yearling at the time, and Charlie thought she couldn't be relied on to be oblivious (high praise, from him) so he asked me to step in.
Yes, I distracted her exactly the way you're imagining I did, and in the morning I told her that the newly-decorated Great Hall was a product of the magic we made.
And yes, this year when I said yes, I wanted to decorate the Great Hall, she said "good--I'll clear my schedule and take a shower." And I am a very lucky man that I didn't have to ask what she was talking about.
Except I really had wanted to join the groundskeeping crew for the night. It's not that I don't enjoy, um, decorating by magic, it's that, not to brag, but I get to do that fairly often. There's only one chance a year to be an elf making the holiday happen, and I miss being one of the groundskeepers here. But I didn't feel comfortable saying no to June. I didn't want to offend her.
I should say that yes, we've talked through what was bothering her over Thanksgiving. She is, as I suspected she might, getting resentful of how fully we've moved into "my" world, leaving hers behind. Which is not what we did, and she knows it's not what we did, which is why she didn't want to talk with me about it, but she felt that way anyway, and I think I can understand why.
So I suggested we spend Christmas with her family, since she gets a long enough break from work so she can travel, and while I'm pretty sure the issue is going to blow up again later, for now she's happy with me and, yes, wanted to magically decorate the Great Hall with me.
So, no, I did not want to beg off.
I was a little worried about developing some resentment of my own, though, and I didn't see how I could possibly be a very good lover if I was thinking something else I'd rather be doing. But one of the great things about this place is how accepting they are about sex. I mean, you can actually talk about it and the conversation doesn't feel crude or puerile. So, when I was brushing my teeth before bed, I bumped into Raven (she lives in a different dorm, but she's been seeing someone in my dorm and was visiting) and she asked me whether I was going to join the group downstairs, I told her my problem. She took it seriously.
"Well, we'll be working all night, why don't you just join us afterwards?"
"I don't know," I told her, "that feels...selfish, or something."
"That's because you're being selfish. You're thinking first we'll do your thing, then we'll do what I really want to do. Don't think that way. Think about how both can be for both of you."
"She was saying she felt a bit like an outsider, here, like being at school is my thing."
"Did she? Well, make her an elf. Tell her being a Yule-elf is like being a were-wolf and bite her or something."
No, I didn't tell June elfhood is contagious, but we did work something out, and the Great Hall was well-decorated by morning.
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