Pre-note: read the other chapters in this series first prior to this one. Thanks to all for your reviews and praises and patience! sorry for the long delay, I've been busy and ill. Please vote! thank you.
+++++++++++++
Now, where was I? Ah, yes! I had Mary in a trance.
I had just a split second to decide what I was going to do, because my heart was racing too fast. I mean, I did love this girl. So, I decided just to wing it, but slowly. One step at a time. I had to start first with the reason she let me put her under at all, to help her stop smoking.
"OK, Mary, from now on you will stop smoking, and never will smoke again. You will feel great about it, and will not crave any more. If you get any side effects from the cold turkey, they will be easy to handle and ignore. Do you understand?" I asked.
"Yes" she told me.
"Good" I uttered, as I wondered how would I proceed next. One thing I learned during that brief time I had with the ring and this power that came with it, is that you have to be careful in how you do things. Spider-man was right, with great power comes great responsibility. "Mary, answer this question, and be totally honest with me. Do you have romantic and sexual feelings for me?"
"Yes" she spoke. I was elated at hearing from the source, there's no better feeling in the world.
"Mary, why won't you let me get close to you?" I asked.
"I'm afraid that you would think less of me, and that I'd lose you a friend. Your friendship is very important to me. I also didn't know if you liked me in that way." She said, like a computer with lips.
"OK, is that your own view or what you've been told by other people?" I asked.
"Both. I am also afraid that you may have become my friend only to get in my pants." She said.
The light was starting to shine, but it was a shock that she'd think that at all.
"OK, Mary. Listen to me, here's the truth. I always have been your friend, and will always be your friend. I started out just like that, but my admiration for you lit on fire. I didn't become your friend to get in your pants. I became your friend because I wanted to be your friend. But now, I love you as more than that. I will never think less of you at all. Don't feel afraid to get close to me. I love you. Those things and ideas those mega-creeps had put in your head, making you feel unimportant, are pure bullshit. Just like those stories about Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster, OK?" I told her.
"I do believe in Bigfoot." She said.
I let out a sigh of frustration after my jaw dropped. Come on! Bigfoot? For crying out loud! "You got to be kidding me! OK, new plan. You don't believe in Bigfoot anymore, and you also don't believe in any of those things those guys told you OK? you are important."
"OK, Got it." She said.
"so, now, you are free to act on your own feelings for me, without bad ideas or misconceptions blocking you." I said.
"I understand." She said.
"OK, I hope that does it. Now, when I tell you to, Mary you will wake up from this trance. You will feel great and full of energy. You will remember telling you about not smoking, but that's it, and do that other stuff I told you as well, OK?" I said.
"yes" she said.
"OK, now wake up Mary!" i told her.
She opened here eyes from the trance like state, blinked them in confusion like she had just woken up, and looked around. She then faced me, and first seemed confused, but later smiled. "Tom? What...did you....did it work?"
"What do you remember?" i asked.
"I remember you telling me about not smoking, and....that's it I think." She said.
"Yes, that's it. Care for a cigarette?" I asked holding out her latest box of cigarettes out in front of her.
she looked at them at first with the same smile she gave me, but just as she reached out, she looked at them again with disgust. "Yuck! what am I doing? " she said.
"It worked! We did it!" I exclaimed.
"Oh, my God! You're right! it does work for me, and I don't care for them anymore." She said, not before giving me a big hug, unlike many other hugs with her I have enjoyed, but then soon after turned different. she was much closer to me this time, and she held onto me longer than normal.
"No problem." I simply said, still holding her, and just noticing the difference in this hug.
"mmmmm....." she started moaning lightly.
"Are you OK?" I asked her.
"Great. You're the best friend a girl could ever want, and you smell wonderful." She said. this comment threw me off, as I must have forgotten the slight dash of cologne I wear all the time. I had no idea how to proceed after that without feeling clumsy.