10. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Scarlett
Iwake up to the sound of the shower running in the bathroom, and I roll onto my side to see Sapphire made her side of the bed when she got up.
Of course she did. She’s so tidy.
My old bomb site of a bedroom used to make her so tense.
She deep-cleaned it once, just once, and I had to tell her never to do it again.
I couldn’t find a damned thing after. It was torture.
My chaos was organised; I knew where I could find things.
The solution was for her to stay out of my bedroom.
It’s not always easy to know the right thing to do when you have such polar opposite viewpoints, but I can’t help the instinct that’s telling me it would do Sapphire some real good to be around the kind of guys who won’t push too hard, but who’ll be able to see she’s in dire need of a little TLC from someone who’s not a complete asshole.
She wants to forget what happened with Ben, and I think this will help her do that.
I get up and move over to the bedroom door, leaning out when I hear the shower stop running.
A couple minutes later, the door opens, and my twin steps out into the hallway, wrapped in a towel. She looks at me, and I see that same look in her eyes that I saw last night before she asked me what I was thinking about.
“What?” she asks, raising an eyebrow as she moves toward me.
“I think it would do you good to get out of the city,” I tell her, hand moving down the doorframe to feel the smooth finish of the wood. “Just for a little bit.”
She stops and stares at me. “I’m not switching places with you just because you lost a bet, Scar.”
Well, I should have known she’d figure out what I was angling for.
I did bring up the past last night for a reason.
I don’t think she knows why, though, and I hope to hell she doesn’t figure that out, because if she does there’s no way she’s going to agree to this.
“We’re not going to get in trouble this time, Saph. All that would happen is you’d get a chance to relax and get over that cheating asshole while you do something you love to do anyway.”
“I have work to think about,” she complains.
“I know,” I cut in quickly. “I can take care of that stuff for you. That’s kind of how this whole switching thing works, Sis.”
She frowns at me, and I know she’s thinking about it.
I press my lips together while I wait for her response.
“It’s not a normal week for me,” she reveals, hugging herself as she clearly still thinks it over.
We’re both basically writers for a living.
Well, she is in title, and I am in theory.
It wouldn’t be a huge switch for me to write an article or two.
We even took some of the same classes at our separate colleges.
“So, you’re not about to rush into the office with a deadline to meet?” I ask.
“If I was, I’d be late. I have a couple days off.” She pauses for a second before she goes on. “I’m supposed to get on a plane on Saturday. My boss wants me to do one interview that includes travel before she offers me the job I’ve been working toward.”
I blink at her slowly, feeling her own horror echoed in my response. “A plane? Doesn’t she know …”
“She knows. I mean, I think she figured it out herself.” Sapphire shrugs.
“That’s fucked up. She shouldn’t be trying to force you to do something you have a genuine phobia about, Saph.”
My anger starts to rise just thinking about it.
That bitch has no right to bully my sister like this!
I’m ready to go hunt down her office address, when Sapphire touches my shoulder.
“She’s not forcing me, Scar. She told me she wants to give me the job, but that I have to do this, just once, before she can give it to me. It’s one thing. One little thing.”
She’s not being forced? When she can’t get on a plane, and they’re asking her to do it anyway …
A light above my head flicks on suddenly, and I can’t help but smile.
“Oh my God, Saph. This is actually perfect.”
She blinks at me. “Perfect?”
“I can take that flight for you, and you can clean that house for me.”
It’s like this whole thing was fated.
We were meant to switch for this.
I know it. I can feel it in my bones.
Sapphire doesn’t look so sure. “I don’t know, Scar. It’s been so long since we did something like that, and this … It isn’t nothing.”
“There are no bad consequences to this, Saph. You get the chance to recover from your breakup, and I don’t have to put up with the humiliation of losing a bet to my dumb, boring neighbors. It’s a win-win situation.”
And there’s nothing she could say to make me believe otherwise.
“If something bad happens …” Saph starts.
“Nothing bad is going to happen. What’s the flight itinerary?”
“I need to switch on my laptop to check, but you’d have to be gone for a week.”
“Ooh, a week on location. Is it just one interview?”
“Just one,” she says, making it feel like she’s the one keeping a secret now.
She hesitates for a beat too long. She’s definitely holding something back.
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Who are we interviewing?”
She bites her lip before she says, “You would have to actually act like me, Scar. I know you think on some level that the act doesn’t matter because no-one’s ever going to think it’s not me when you look exactly like me …”
“Scouts honor, hand to God, I’ll wear your clothes and your attitude.”
I close my mouth and wait impatiently, bouncing a little on my toes.
I want to tell her to trust me, but apparently those two words have a negative connotation when it comes to me saying them, so I keep them to myself.
She blows out a breath. “Fine. I’ll clean your neighbor’s house, and you can interview Chaos Burning for me.”
My mouth drops open, and I stop bouncing as I take in what my twin just revealed.
She did not just say Chaos Burning, as if those two words have no meaning.
“Chaos Burning? You’re supposed to interview my favorite band in the universe, and you don’t tell me?” I feel a little hurt, but only a little, because she literally just told me I’m getting to switch places and interview them in her place.
“Well, I only found out yesterday, around the same time I was breaking up with Ben and trying to talk myself into going on that flight.” She gives me a wry smile.
That makes sense, and honestly, even if it didn’t, I’m already over it.
I feel like running around the apartment screaming.
I get to meet Chaos Burning!
“I can’t believe this. I get to meet them. Holy hell, Saph. You’ll never have to buy me a Christmas present again.”
“You’re welcome, I guess.” She motions to the doorway I’m blocking. “Now, can I come into my room? I’d kind of like to put some clothes on.”
I nod and move, and she steps inside.
“Oh. Wait.” I dart out to the living room and come back with my clothes.
She gives me a blank look when I hold them out to her. “What …”
“About the whole switching thing, I’m supposed to start that cleaning job tomorrow,” I admit. “So, we should probably trade places today.”
She lets out a laugh. “I can’t believe we’re really doing this.”
“I can. It’s perfect.”
She takes the clothes out of my hands. “Okay, but I draw the line at underwear. I’m not walking around wearing your thongs.”
“And I won’t wear your granny panties,” I promise.
She snorts. “I don’t have granny panties.”
“Anything looks like granny panties compared to a thong.”
I walk over to her closet, keeping my back to her while she gets dressed.
She has way more modesty than I do, so I give her privacy while I take a good look through her closet, picking out clothes I can wear when I meet my all-time favorite band.
If I’m honest, it sucks a little that I need to be someone else for this, but I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to meet them on my own anyway, so it’s a minor gripe.
I would have done anything for this chance.
Taking a flight and having a fancy, relaxing vacation while I pretend to be my reserved, professional journalist twin sister is a sweet price to pay to have the opportunity of a lifetime just fall into my lap.
“Wow, these jeans are tight,” Sapphire comments behind me.
“You get used to it,” I assure her. “Plus, they slacken off a bit once you’ve been wearing them for a while.”
I turn around to find her tugging at the side of her leg, obviously uncomfortable in my clothes.
Considering I talked her into this I feel a twinge of guilt over how uncertain she seems.
I bite down on the urge to tell her we don’t need to do this.
Something inside me is so damn sure that we do, and that was before she even mentioned Chaos Burning.
Sapphire is just nervous because we haven’t done this in ages, that’s all.
“There’s one thing we’re going to need to fix,” I admit.
“Fix?” she asks, looking back up at me.
“Do you ever see me without lipstick?” I ask.
She lets out a breath. “Oh. Right.”
“I’ll go shower while you get used to my jeans. Dry your hair. I’ll do your makeup when I’m back.”
I leave the room, heading to the kitchen first.
There’s one more thing I’m going to need to do before I switch places with Sapphire.