London"Do you want to play a game?" I asked Sin. We were back in bed after the drama with his bitchy assistant had passed. We had both agreed that we wouldn't be opening the door to any other uninvited guests. It was better that way. Our time together was quickly ending and I was eager to maximize every second to the fullest. Our time was running out and my heart was lodged somewhere in my throat. That was how terrified I was. Tell him. The thought flittered again through my head. It had been a recurring thought. One I didn't want to address at all. "No. But you want to, so I'm gonna indulge you." He replied.I chuckle. "How do you know I want to?" "I can read your mind.""You're silly" If he could, he'd have found out the truth and kicked me out on the first day. It would have been a relief. I would have gone home angry at Cath and a little bit embarrassed. Then when Sin had simply been just a really attractive looking man to me and nothing else. "What game do you wanna play?
London."I don't really want to play games anymore," I said."I want to cheer you up, so let's play a game. I want to know, so you have to indulge me." "Okay. What's the game?" "Letters of the alphabet, from A to Z, we'll take turns mentioning a date idea or venue. Like A for aquarium and so on." He said."What does the winner get?" I asked."Shouldn't you be asking what the loser gets? Let the winners worry about what the winner gets." He winked. I rolled my eyes at him. "Oh, shut up. I'll mop the floor with your hide.""I'll believe it when it happens." He booped my nose. I glared at him which only made him laugh. "You're cute." "I hate you." "I love you." I sighed. It didn't matter how many times he said it, it still thrilled me every single time. I could never get tired of hearing him say it. I wondered if Cath felt the same way. I hoped she never missed an opportunity to tell him that she loved him too. Did she though? The question popped into my head unbidden. Had her a
London"I can't think of a single date idea that starts with the letter z," I said."Going to the zoo." He supplied to my eternal consternation. We had been playing for hours. And I had accused Sin multiple times of having researched all his answers earlier. The man was a whizz. I had run into multiple roadblocks and I was sure the amount of points I had lost was way more than the ones I had gotten. Especially as Sin kept bringing up stupid rules that made sure I always had a point deducted even when I was rejoicing about gaining one. He was a shameless crook. "Sin! You could at least pretend like you are as clueless as I am.""And why would I do that?" He scoffed."To make me feel better. I thought you loved me.""I didn't know you were such a sore loser." He laughed. "So you brought up what the loser gets and what the winner gets.""And you didn't say anything. No agreements were made." I argued. "It's my game. And for this game, the rewards are revealed after the act."I gasped
Sinclair It had been niggling at the back of my mind. That singular feeling that something was very wrong. I had been doing my best to push it away. What could possibly be wrong after all? I'd buried my head in the sand because it had all been too good and I hadn't wanted it to end. Who would?I was having the best vacation with the most beautiful woman in the world. A woman who made my heart flip in my chest every single time. I was happy. I was carefree. I had prayed repeatedly that this would never end. As someone who relied on a lot of guts and intuition in the stock business, I had learned to listen to it. If something didn't feel right I dug down and discovered the wrong and backed away. This time around, I hadn't just ignored my gut feeling, I had actively decided that it was wrong. Anything could have been responsible for her changed behavior. This could have been the real her for all I knew. But I was so wrong. So very wrong. The woman who was currently smiling at me lik
SinclairThe worst part about the whole thing was finally seeing the significant differences between the two women. It was scary to note how I, who had always prided myself on my high intelligence had been so easily duped. I felt like a big, bumbling idiot.I found myself watching her more closely, cataloging every laugh and smile. Watching for those quirks that were very uncathleen-like. Now that I was actively searching for it, the differences between them were jarringly obvious.I had thought Cathleen hadn't been talking about work because she was dedicated to this vacation, but turned out that this woman wouldn't know where to start in talking about Cathleen's work.Why did they do it?Was Cathleen just simply done with me? Was this some kind of test? My blood boiled at the thought.And what the hell was Cathleen doing in Tokyo? Was she seeing someone else? The thought made me laugh because I was also practically seei
SinclairThis thing was messing with my head. I felt like somebody who had been thrown into a dark cave, stumbling and falling over and over again as I tried to find my way out. What I needed to do was step back and evaluate this whole situation. To do that, I needed space from her. Everything in me rebelled at the thought, so used to her presence and so hungry for it. I didn't want her away from my sight for even a second, but I couldn't continue with the push and pull, my mind felt like it had been split down the middle, each side becoming two different entities of their own and having a clash in opinion. I needed to sit down and think, I couldn't afford to make any rash decisions at the moment. I couldn't lose her. She wasn't mine to lose in the first place, I reminded my subconscious. With that thought came the sickening thought that she had a life out there I knew nothing about and she may have a boyfriend or a husband for all I knew. A surge of rage like nothing I had ever
LondonIt wasn't just my imagination that Sin was acting differently. The long stares I could chalk up to nothing. The strained smiles and the stilted conversations were far from nothing. Something was wrong and I didn't know what it was.He had been the one to bring up the idea of taking a stroll down the beach, then he had pointed out that it wasn't dark enough yet. The last thing I wanted to do was walk on the beach at night. But then, maybe it'd be romantic.Or maybe some slimy sea creature will slither out and curl around my leg. I shuddered."Let's have dinner at the cafeteria." He said.I looked down at my outfit, a black sweatpants I had pilfered from his wardrobe and rolled the waist to keep it up and a brown cardigan. "I'm not dressed for dinner." I pointed out. I was dressed for the cool breeze of the beach, and I had on a sexy white one-piece bathing suit. "Let's go back to the room and have dinner brought up. We can order a bot
LondonWhen I couldn't stand being alone and miserable anymore, I pushed away my half-eaten food in disgust and decided to head back to the room. I wondered if I should get Sin something for his headache. With that thought in mind, I headed for the front desk where one of the resort servers stood.I ended up getting spaghetti and meatballs for him, along with some over-the-counter medicine. I grabbed the food before the server could, thanked him for his service, and insisted on carrying it by myself to our hut when he tried to take it from me.With a bright smile, I headed for the hut.I knew it was empty before I even entered. Sin's presence was heavy and apparent even from far away. I could feel his energy even when he stood far from me, like some kind of radio signal that only I was tuned in to. It started as tingles in my spine and shot down to make bubbles in my belly before exploding into fireworks in my ovaries.I didn't know e
One month laterLondon“What if this doesn’t work?” I wrung my hands nervously. Cath rolled her eyes. “You’re the one that came up with this ridiculous plan.” I glared at her. “Hey! You’re the one who started the whole twin switch trend.” “Gabriel thinks this is stupid too.” She pointed out. I huffed. “I can’t believe you even told Gabriel. This was supposed to be between us.” “I’m not going to rub myself over Sinclair without my boyfriend knowing.” She said. “You should just go be Gabriel’s twin then. Ugh, isn’t there like a sacred twin code or something.” She shrugged. “I’m confused about what you’re trying to do here exactly, Lon. Isn’t Sin like so head over heels in love with you that he has a tunnel vision for you.” “Well, but what if?” I whined. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Sin and I were okay, everything was perfect, and yet… yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that he could just love my sister as easily again. I knew it was just my insecurities rearing their ugl
SinclairI had just gotten back from work, a single foot inside my apartment when my phone rang. I dug it out the inner pocket of my suit jacket. “Hello.” “Am I speaking to Sinclair Donovan-Wells?”“Yes. Who’s this?” “I’m calling about Miss Albright, she’s been involved in an accident and you are…”The woman’s words trailed off. Blood rushed out of my head and I felt dizzy and unsteady. “Where? Where’s she?” I managed to ask through the lump in my throat. I was already jumping into the elevator and stabbing the button for the ground floor repeatedly by the time the woman began to rattle off the location. “Thanks.” I said and hung up. The drive over was one big blur, I must have run several red lights in my rush to the hospital. All I could think was that London was lying in a bed, hurt and she needed me. She had to be okay. She had to be. I should never have wasted so much time running around my feelings for her. I should never have even let her walk away from me, from us back
London“I need you.” Three words. Eight letters. The exact same ones from the very same person that had gotten me into the biggest disaster of my life. Maybe I was weak, pathetic, a pushover, whatever you wanted to call it. A wiser and stronger person would have blocked my sister’s number, cut off all connections to her and my parents. Because they had hurt me. The kind of hurt where after years and years of it, I hadn’t even realized that I was being destroyed from inside out. The kind of hurt where they had broken me so much that I thought I had to be the one constantly apologizing for myself. For some reason though, I just couldn’t take that final step. I wasn’t Cath no matter how much I wanted to be sometimes. I was angry and heartbroken about everything, but I knew that someday I’d want to talk about it more calmly and heal. My phone had been blowing up since everything had gone down. I had listened to my parents cry over the phone, but Cath had been radio silent except that o
London“I don’t think I’ve ever fully recovered from that night of debauchery.” Eva said as she joined me in the booth. It was the day after Adam and I’s surprisingly fun date. I had been surprised at how well he had taken my rejection, but also glad about it. I’d have hated to have been mean to drive home my obvious lack of interest. Thankfully there had been no need for that. Eva’s lunch break corresponded with mine so we had decided to have a quick lunch together. My treat, because I now had some much needed amount of money in my bank account thanks to March Madness selling out. The hype around it was still going on strong. I guess everyone was curious about the new bestselling book by a previously unheard of author. It felt good to have money, but it felt much better to be able to pay for lunch with my friends. Eva had paid all the other times we had gone out together and even though she had assured me that I shouldn’t think too much about it cause she had money to burn, I still
LondonI had been digging through my wardrobe at a loss for what to wear for my date with Adam when I’d stumbled upon this really cute pink blouse. It was an old cloth but I had never won it because it had been too big at the time I had gotten it. Almost five years later and it was now perfectly my size. It was also perfect for this date paired with dark skinny jeans and black ankle boots. It gave the vibe I had meant to go for which was cute but not too sexy to look inviting. A little stern, but still lovely. The blouse had big flowy sleeves that I loved so much. I put my hair into a low bun, applied minimal make up and a spritz of perfume, then left my apartment to meet Adam at the foyer of my building. I had set up this date earlier today when I had run into him at the dog park. My decision to talk to Sin had hardened into a sure resolve. No matter how it turned out, I knew I couldn’t go out with Adam. I just wasn’t in the right place to pursue anything with him and I had to tel
SinclairAs soon as Cathleen left, I rang Lucas up. “Hey, man. What’s up?” “Sips Plix in fifteen?” I asked. “Make it twenty, I drove out to my sister’s place.” He said. “Sure.” I hung up. Changing out of my shirt and slacks, I slipped into a dark grey T-shirt and black corduroy pants, grabbed my wallet, car keys and headed out. I needed to talk to Lucas and get his opinion on things, but in reality, I knew that even if he discouraged me from going after London, I would still do it. I needed him as more of a sounding board to know how to go ahead with getting her back than anything else. I had made up my mind that I wasn’t spending one more second moping around and waiting for some force of nature to yank us back into each other’s orbits. Lucas showed up almost ten minutes after I’d gotten to the bar. My half full glass of alcohol had been left untouched. “Hey, this had better be an emergency.” He said as he joined me at the bar. “I had to leave my sister’s cute kids halfway int
SinclairI had completely forgotten that Cathleen had access to my apartment. The first thing I usually did when I ended things with a woman was revoke her access to my place. It had always seemed unnecessary with Cathleen though. She was the last person that would show up out of the blues to exchange words or do something crazy. But then again, maybe I had always just overestimated her. I was in the living room with my laptop when I heard the sound of heels clicking behind me. I looked over my shoulder.The first thing I thought was that London was here, in my apartment. My heart leaped. It came crashing back down when my brain finally registered that it wasn’t London at all, but Cath. Now that I knew them, I could clearly differentiate them even half asleep. They were perfectly identical of course, a mirror image. But I had had London in my arms and fallen in love with every inch of skin on her body, so my soul would know her even in the dark. And this wasn’t her.I followed Cat
LondonIt was almost three am when we were all finally wiped from a night of drinking, singing along to the music Eva had queued up to her amazing surround sound speakers and laughing till our bellies began to hurt. All in all, it had been an amazing night. Eva’s bed was super large and so somehow we had all fallen into it in a tangle of limbs and hair. When I woke up, it was almost five am. My head felt like someone had taken a drill to it and my mouth tasted like it had been stuffed with cotton. I tried to silently slip into the bathroom but ended up making more noise than I had expected. The girls were either too drunk or too deep in sleep to notice because when I looked over my shoulder, neither of them had stirred. I let out a breath of relief and tiptoed to the bathroom. I quickly peed and splashed water on my face and rinsed my foul tasting mouth out before making my way to the kitchen. I gulped down three glasses of water then located an Advil and popped two down my throat.
LondonStatic buzzed in my ear at her words. March Madness had what? “I d-don’t understand. What are you talking about?” I stammered. March Madness was my singular published book, and it was a raging failure. Only about ten copies of it had been bought since it’s release two years ago. The horrible sales had made me depressed for the longest time, and my editor had also cut off ties with me afterwards. And now, she was telling me that it had sold out? I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. “Your book, March Madness.” She clarified, her voice never loosing that edge of excitement. I understood her excitement. My book suddenly making it big was like Christmas to her, it meant that she was about to line her pockets with some serious cash. And so was I. “It’s just become an overnight sensation. Six thousand copies were bought and now it’s on the New York bestseller list. Not on the top three, but I believe it could actually get there.” “Oh.” I said stupidly. “As I’m talk