“It seriously feels sooooo good on my stump.”

“Your... what now?”

“My stump, Jacob.”

“I’m not sure I understand..”

“What is there to understand? I said it feels good on my stump, that’s all.”

“What did… See I told you not to...” He sighs. “Just.. Don’t touch anything else, please. I’ll be here in a minute.”

Jacob pulls in the driveway and almost jumps out of his car. Entering the house, he walks into the bathroom where Jen is standing in front of the mirror, fiddling with her hair.

“Where is it?” He asks nervously.

“Your cream? Right here.” She pushes a large plastic jar towards him using the end of her left arm. “I don’t know how much it cost you, but man does it work wonders.”

“You tell me…”

Jacob lifts Jen’s arm closest to him in his hands, which now ends in a stump slightly up from the wrist. He looks at the jar of cream, then back at the stump. He runs his finger across it, dumbfounded.

“Could I get that back? Thaaaaank you.”

Thinking nothing of the sudden disappearance of her hand, Jen goes back to pampering herself. Jamming her tube of mascara in the crook of her elbow, she twists it open and brings her face an inch away from the mirror. Her abbreviated arm, busy holding the plastic cap of the mascara, hangs in midair with her stump pointed upwards. Jacob can’t believe what he’s seeing.

“Well, at least it works.” Looking at her remaining hand, he pauses and frowns. “How did… Didn’t you put any on your other…. I mean, on your hand?”

“I thought about it,” she says before taking a few seconds to finish off her second eye, “but I have this gash in my palm that isn’t quite healed. So I put on a glove.” She puts her makeup away and kisses him on the lips. “I’m going out with Emma in a bit, wanna come with?”

A cold sweat runs through Jacob’s mind. “NO you can’t…. I mean…” He takes her stump and hand in both of his. “She can’t see you like this…” As the words roll off his tongue, he knows it was a poor choice of words. She frowns and gasps.

“What’s wrong?” Hand and stump jerk upward as she turns towards the mirror again, poking her cheeks, examining her hair. “Do I have something in my teeth?” She smiles wide.

“No no no, I mean I wanna... keep you.. all for myself.”

Her panic melts away in a flash. She turns her head slowly towards him.. “Ohhh.” Her eyes narrowing, a wicked twinkle in her eyes. “I see.”

Placing her hand on her hip, she offers him her stump. Taking half a second to look at it, he extends his hand to tug on it after what he hopes wasn’t too long an hesitation. They kiss lavishly, his hands slide down to grab handfuls of her rump while her own hand ends up on the side of his face. Teasing him with the tip of her tongue, she plucks herself away, delicately contouring his jawline with the rounded end of her arm.

“Did you have something in mind?” Hooking her shortened arm behind his neck, she grabs him by the balls and pulls him down back to her height. “You need to decide quickly if you want me to cancel with Emma..” Going for another kiss, she instead sensually bites down on his lower lip, letting go of it when they hear her phone vibrate. “That must be her, I should probably go…”

Reaching towards her phone, Jacob snags her hand from the air and holds it tight. She stammers back, a beautifully fake shocked expression plastered across her face. He reaches for the phone himself as she tries in vain to break free of his grasp. When her stump comes into view, he easily takes hold of it and squeezes ittogether with her immobilized hand.

“Well that’s just unfair.”

He grabs her phone. “Sorry, some things came along, I’m out. Send.” He grins and releases her arms, leaning in for a kiss. “You’re stuck with me all night, Sugar Queen.”

“Go on, then. Get ready. I’m not gonna wait for you all evening.” She winks at him and slaps his butt, pushing him out of the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

In the span of a minute or two, Jacob puts on a fresh pair of pants, a dark-green short sleeved button up shirt, as well as slapping on a new coat of deodorant and strategically placed sprays of that perfume he knows Jen absolutely loves. He fixes his straight brown hair in a tight ponytail, slaps the wrinkles off of his shirt and throws on a light jacket for good measure. Satisfied, he heads out of their room.

Still locked in there? he thinks to himself. And she’s the one telling me to hurry up. Shoes on, keys, wallet and phone pocketed, he taps the tip of his shoe on the floor impatiently.

“Jeeeeeeeeen! I’ll go join Emma myself if you don’t come out soon!”

“I’m coming! I’m coming!”

The sound of her footsteps growing closer, Jacob checks his phone for the time. “That’s what she said.” He chuckles. “Are you dri…ving?”

“Ha, ha. Very funny, Jake.” She tiptoes down the few steps that separate the living room from the rest of the house, vigorously rubbing her stump against the palm of her hand. “Have you seen my… Oh okay never mind.”

“If you’re cold already I suggest putting on something else over that top.”

“Why do you say that? Are my nipples showing?” She looks down and pushes him back. “You just wanted me to look at my rack, is that it?” She snickers. “No I changed my mind and figured I’d cream my hand too. All this disinfecting at work is making my skin crack like crazy.”

“Alright then.. Ladies first.”

“Let’s stay around here, we can find a nice little terrasse by foot. It’ll be nice.”

Jacob swallows hard. He follows behind her as she keeps spreading the cream on every existing square inch of her hand. In between the fingers, on the back, even a short way down her wrist.. When the oily, glistening appearance of the cream finally fades from her skin, he can see the magic operate in real time. He only hopes they won’t cross paths with someone they know, or the conversation might be hard to follow.

“So, where to?” She asks naively, shrinking stump and hand on her hips.

“How about some place new?” It’s his best bet, he thinks to himself. “How about the Moulin Rouge?”

“Meh. I heard it’s really pricey.”

“You can’t be too picky, Jen. We gotta try new spots if we want to discover new fun places to go and have a drink. Plus, maybe we can get you a special discount.” He blindly slides his fingers in between hers and finds it hard to maintain a good grip. Looking down, he sees most of them have already withdrawn inside her palm. “Come on, you're the one using French to sound cool."

"Single tab on you?" She asks without turning around, looking in the opposite direction.

"It would be my pleasure."

She faces him again and frees what's left of her hand to take a few steps back. In a matter of seconds, it vanishes entirely, leaving nothing attached to the end of her arm but a stump as smooth as if she had been born with it. Her left arm has also fallen further to the incantation bound to the hand cream, and now barely even articulates past her elbow. Pinching her shortened stump against the base of her top, she clumsily pinches the fabric  tugs it to the side.  She bends her legs slightly and bows, much like an aristocrat from the 1800s. She offers him her longest arm.

"Shall we, my lord?"

He hooks his arm into hers. "Nothing in the world would bring me more pleasure than this."