"Okay," Tephros sighed. "So be it."

 

One moment he was naked, and in the next heartbeat, he was wearing a pair of skintight, black leather pants that laced up the sides from ankle to hip. His wide chest, muscular arms, ripped abs, and graceful feet were still bare, and – unfortunately for Alex – he looked even sexier than he had completely naked.

 

He was still just as blue, too.

 

"What's your next wish?"

 

"Shirt. Put on a shirt."

 

"Nope, no can do. No duplicating wishes, remember? You've already wished me into clothing. It isn't my fault you weren't specific enough."

 

"Damn it!"

 

"Anything in particular you want damned, or are you thinking of the entire universe in general?"

 

"Wait! That wasn't a wish," Alex cried, shaking his head. He had nothing against the universe in general, and didn't want to damn everything and everybody in it simply because he was having a psychotic episode.

 

"Look, Alex, why don't you get up from the floor and sit down? My knees are starting to ache, squatting here like this. I've been cooped up in a snow globe for fifty years and would really like to stretch my legs."

 

Alex forced himself to his feet, his legs shaking under him like a pair of spindly twigs, but managed to make it to the table and slide into a chair. "I don't know what else to wish for! I've seen enough movies to know wishing for money or power never works out. It always comes around to bite the wisher in the ass."

 

"True. Glad you figured it out on your own. Nobody ever believes me when I tell them," Tephros said. He stood next to the table, stretching his arms over his head and arching his spine. Alex could hear his vertebrae crackling. "Here's something to remember: I can't make anything out of nothing. If you wish for an end to world hunger, I'd have to empty every granary, slaughterhouse, supermarket, and convenience store on the planet. To water a desert, I'd have to empty a sea. Get the picture?"

 

"Yeah, I got it. Why couldn't I imagine bugs on the wall, or talking sea monkeys, or something? Why does my delusion have to come with strings attached?"

 

"For the gods' sakes, what do I have to do to get you to believe I'm real? It's beginning to get insulting!" Tephros growled. He pulled out a chair next to Alex's, sat down, and reached over. His long fingers cupped Alex's chin, forcing him to look up to meet Tephros' glittering black eyes.

 

Tephros' fingers were warm against Alex's skin, and the contact sent a bolt sizzling from Alex's face to his groin. He gasped, his eyes flying open. "Sorry! I can't help it. I'm not trying to insult you, but you have to understand how incredible this all is. Genies don't exist. Blue men don't exist. You can't possibly be here. The only