Sinclair The walk back to the room was full of London's drunk ramblings. She talked fast about everything under the sun, hardly leaving any chance for me to get in a word edge-wise. I frankly didn't mind. I enjoyed hearing her talk, I was just worried that she was being so loud and was going to wake someone up or burst my eardrums. One of the two.She insisted on walking every time she slipped and almost fell and I made another attempt to carry her. When she almost fell the fourth time, I gritted my teeth in frustration and swung her up into my arms amidst her loud protests, and carried us back to the hut. The journey was easier once she wasn't walking on her own two feet in haphazard lines and in a blink, I was at our temporary home. I looked at it for a moment before I walked in. I would miss it when we left, it had begun to feel more like a home to me than my five-bedroom, penthouse apartment in New York which I had selected out of a catalog that I had barely glanced at and spe
LondonSomeone had shut all the windows and curtains last night, so the room was blacked out. I sat up slowly and felt like a little army was digging in my head. I groaned, my head feeling too heavy for my neck. My mouth tasted like boiled socks. Ew. I was never drinking again. "I'm never drinking again," I said."I'll remind you of that someday." Sin materialized out of nowhere. I peeked up at him and squinted till my eyes adjusted to the minimal light. He held out a glass of water and Tylenol for me. I hurriedly took it with a mumbled thank you. "Do you want breakfast?" He slid into bed beside me."No, not at all. Just the thought of food is making me want to barf." I told him. "How long have you been up?" "Not long." "Do you know what time it is?" I swung my leg over the side of the bed. "Past ten or almost eleven. You were up really late. I expected not to hear from you till noon at least." I struggled to my feet and swayed a little. It took me a second to shake the disori
Sinclair.I hadn't meant to eavesdrop, to be honest. I was a full-grown man, eavesdropping was for children and undisciplined people. I was neither. I just wanted to check on her. Make sure she wouldn't fall and hit her head or something worse. She had been unsteady on her feet as she walked to the bathroom and now there was a suspicious silence that made my body cold with fright.The door had been locked from the inside."Ba-" my words trailed off when I heard her voice.I frowned in confusion, wondering who she was talking to."I'm sorry, I can't. Sin won't let me leave his sight. He'll insist on coming along, and what logical reason would I have for entering someone's hotel room in a town where I don't know anybody." I heard her say.It hit me then, like a freight train, that she was talking to her sister, the real Cath. I recalled her trying to retrieve her phone last night and ne wrestling it out of her hands and
LondonWhat I needed to do was find a way to be away from Sinclair at somewhere that was private enough for Cath and I to meet. What I was doing instead was greedily taking in every inch of Sin, soaking in my final moments with him. I could feel my heart breaking already, and I told myself I'd been prepared for it.It didn't feel as bad as I thought it would if I was being honest.I was sad, but I was also mostly okay.Sin was the person who finally brought up the perfect idea for a twin switch back. He had heard about a local restaurant inside the town where food was served along with live music by local indie musicians every Friday night. Apparently, most people from the resort were going to be there.It would be perfect for the switch back. Rowdy enough for me to slip into the back of a bathroom and meet up with Cath. It was like fate was on my side.Or not.Because maybe this wasn't what I really wanted. 
LondonDinner was wonderful, the music at the background making it even more perfect. Conversation flowed easily between sin and I and the food was marvelous. The place was considerably small but the atmosphere was easy and full of excitement. The musicians were talented and when a woman had climbed up the stage to sing Minnie Riperton's lovin' you, the place had fallen into stunned silence followed by a deafening round of applause and Sin's mouth brushing against the inside of my wrist and then my palm. He had been doing that gesture a lot, of recent and I couldn't help but wonder what it meant. Or maybe I was just too suspicious for my own good and there was no big meaning attached to it. I couldn't quite shake the feeling though, that I was missing something of significance. I was a bit distracted and I hoped Sin couldn't tell. My dinner, though tasty was settling in my stomach like a pile of rocks. I was suddenly feeling queasy and I wondered if it was something I had eaten. I h
London “Hi.” A face similar to mine stared back at me. We stood in silence for a few seconds. I moved to give her a hug but the look on her face stopped me. I wore a stiff smile and sighed.Nothing has changed.I watched as her eyes swept my frame and took in my dress, makeup, and heels. Her eyes lit up and I watched as a thought formed.A little flame sparked in my heart. I was about to get a compliment from my sister, something I hadn't gotten in years. Instead, her lips curled into a smile that made me feel uneasy, she nodded and said, “That's my dress.” The flame died out as quickly as it came. I sighed and looked away.What was I expecting? An actual compliment? Cathleen didn't do nice. She never did. I wanted a hug, a smile, or just a bit of warmth for what she put me through, which I had agreed to because I wanted to fix our relationship. But she only rolled her eyes and said, “Let's get this over with.”I nodded and grabbed the bag with her then went to the nearest stall
London I stared at the door where my sister had just walked out from.It felt like she had taken all the warmth away from the restroom and it left me confused. I sighed and looked around, wringing my hands. I tried to steady my breath. I ran my sweaty hands down my dress and stared at my reflection. I knew I was supposed to leave the restaurant through the back door like Cathleen’s assistant had planned but I just didn't have it in me to walk out.“Is it really over?” I asked my reflection. The toilet beside me flushed and I jumped. A lady came out and smiled at me. I struggled to smile back. She walked closer to the mirror and touched up her makeup. I stood a few feet away from her, I knew what to do but I still felt confused.“I'm having an anniversary date with my husband today.” She said out of the blue.I blinked at her, confused until I realized that she was talking to me. “Oh. Congratulations.” I forced cheer into my tone but she smiled like she knew it was fake.“I have the
SinclairAs Cath-no, London left for the restroom I couldn't help the fear that grabbed me.I let out a breath.“You're just being delusional,” I told myself. I gripped the napkin and took in deep breaths.Ever since I found out who she really was I experienced extreme emotions. It was either I was so in love with her or I was so in love with her that I was scared to lose her.And this time, it's the other emotion.I watched her leave through the door, then looked away. Everything in me ached to jump to my feet and stop her from leaving but I didn't, I couldn't.She didn't know I knew and I didn't want to drop it on her like a nasty surprise.“She might run away from me.” So I sat still and waited for her to come back.I waited till five seconds passed.Then ten.Now it was a full minute and she wasn't back. I tapped my wristwatch and glanced at the door she had walked through.I needed to get her to make sure she was still her and not her.Ever since I overheard her conversation with
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