“I’m going to stay for the twelve days.” Aggie’s words broke Angela’s concentration.
“Thank you.” Angela realized as she heard her sister’s words how much she had dreaded being abandoned. The truth was she was nervous. A guy who spent three hundred dollars a night thought he could ask a lot. What would a man who spent ten thousand expect? She stood up and shook herself, an old trick to relieve tension.
“Okay,” she announced. “Time to get dressed. Let’s pick out something sexy.”
“No,” Aggie disagreed. “Wear the same outfit I wore today. He liked it.”
“He’ll expect me to wear something more arousing, Aggie.”
“No, he won’t.” Aggie spoke with conviction. “He expects a librarian, not a prostitute.”
“I have to remember that,” Angela agreed.
“Besides, the outfit will reinforce that it’s the same person. He won’t look at you as closely.”
“There’s nothing to see. We look exactly the same.”
“Your eyes could change color,” Aggie reminded her.
“That’s true.” The twins’ eye color changed by some internal chemistry to match their clothing, shifting from gray to hazel to almost blue. “By tomorrow he’ll be used to me. Then I can wear other colors and it won’t matter. You’re right, I’ll wear the gray tonight.”
Angela and Aggie reversed their usual roles as the librarian helped her twin decide on accessories and makeup. They settled on a simple pearl necklace and a matching pearl ring, a light dusting of powder, pale lipstick and some mascara. Angela felt too much her real self to be comfortable. She realized that she preferred to put on her hooker glamour before she met a man for sex. She felt vulnerable.
The twins agreed that Angela should take a taxi from the Vancouver Hotel, rather than walk the few hundred yards from their hotel to the apartment. She climbed into a cab in the basement of the Sylvia and directed the driver to the larger hotel. Inside, she took an elevator up to the fifth floor and then back down. She lingered in the lobby. Then at 5:50 she climbed into another cab and directed the man to 2071 Beach Avenue. Aggie had noted the address on the building as she left.
The anxiety in her stomach refused to abate but instead built as the taxi inched through the late rush hour traffic. By the time the cab pulled up to the apartment, she was squeezing the elbow rest in a death grip. Her legs wobbled when she swung them out of the back seat of the cab. She clutched her purse, rooted to the curb as the taxi nosed back into the traffic.
“Aggie!”
The eagerness in the man’s voice startled Angela. She turned and saw him holding open the door to the apartment block. He was short, almost dumpy, with a fleshy face and thick black and gray hair. This must be Jimmy. As she came closer, she saw that his eyes glowed with warmth. She had never seen that look in a john’s eyes. Her anxiety turned into a hard lump in her stomach as she realized that the man really liked Aggie. He wasn’t here just for the sex. He actually liked her. The evening would be ten times more difficult than she had thought. Angela pasted what she hoped was an Aggie-smile across her face.
“Jimmy!” She opened her arms wide.
The man’s smile lingered but the glow in his eyes dimmed. What had she done wrong? She turned her offered hug into a hand on each of his broad shoulders. Then she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Yes, that’s what Aggie would have done. The man put his hand on the small of her back and ushered her into the apartment lobby. She began to walk to the elevator, but he steered her instead down a side hallway. When he pushed the button on a smaller side elevator, she wondered what else Aggie had forgotten to tell her.
Inside the elevator, Jimmy pushed an unmarked button and then turned Angela to face him. She unbuttoned her coat, trying to be innocent and seductive at the same time. After all, it was warm in the elevator. It was a natural thing to do.
“I’m glad you wore the same outfit,” Jimmy commented. Angela mentally thanked Aggie. “I’ve been imagining you out of it all afternoon.”
Angela smiled in relief. After all, he was a man. She could handle men. She tried to imagine what Aggie’s reaction would be to the suggestive comment. She ducked her head in mock-shyness, then looked out under her eyebrows.
“I noticed you liked it,” she commented.
The man smiled and the glow came back into his eyes. She had said the right thing.
“I like you, Aggie,” he said and Angela believed him. “We’re going to do this right.”
Angela closed her eyes and leaned into his chest. Remorse swept through her. It should be Aggie here with this man. She knew that down to her bones. She resolved that however she had to, she would persuade Aggie to take her place the next night, and that for tonight, whatever they did, she wouldn’t let him come inside her. She didn’t want to live for the rest of her life knowing she’d screwed Aggie’s man.
They stepped out of the elevator into the most unusual apartment Angela had ever seen. Apparently, the entire floor was given to the one suite. The apartment had its own circular lobby floored in gray marble banded in black concentric circles. The ceiling was… Angela struggled for an adequate description. The ceiling was weird. Sculpted in ever narrowing circles as it rose, it culminated in a round skylight. Angela could hear the light patter of rain.
“Wow,” she commented.
“Do you like it?” Jimmy asked. “Everybody said I was crazy.”
What would Aggie think of the bizarre entrance? Angela thought it would appeal to her sense of humor. She would love it.
“I love it,” she smiled. “It tells me you have a sense of fun.”
“And no taste,” Jimmy laughed. The sound boomed out from his chest and while startling, was comforting in its naturalness.
“Show me the rest of the apartment,” Angela invited.
Jimmy took her on a tour. The living room directly ahead was a semi-circle filled with circular furniture. Angela shook her head and chuckled. The dining room was another semi-circle with a circular table. Floor to ceiling windows provided what in daylight should be a spectacular view of English Bay. To the left of the dining room was another windowed room, this one with a glass dome for a ceiling. Inside was a circular, of course, pool, with a banked running track around the edge. Angela wondered what Freud would make of all the circles. A nesting impulse, perhaps?
Jimmy led her back across the central lobby toward a room to the right of the elevator. The bedroom? Angela’s knees wobbled and Jimmy put his hand under her elbow. No, she saw with relief; he was taking her into a library. The room was rectangular and glowed golden from subdued lighting over the carved oak bookshelves. Angela knew her mating instincts were correct when she saw the rows and rows of books. This was a serious library, and this man was made for her sister. He had more books in here, lovingly displayed, than Aggie had in her branch of the Cincinnati public library.
“Have you read all these books?” she asked, awed.
“Most,” Jimmy shrugged. “So, Madame Librarian, do you approve of my library?”
“It’s wonderful!” Angela didn’t have to feign her enthusiasm. Her eyes locked onto a tall shelf loaded with thick volumes. She walked over and selected a volume.
“Modigliani,” she breathed reverently.
“You like art?”
“I majored,” Angela stopped herself. “I would have majored in art history if I could have.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“No jobs.”
“I’m a collector,” Jimmy commented. “This is just a small portion of my collection.”
“You need a librarian,” Angela commented, forgetting that that was exactly what she was supposed to be. The comment sounded self-serving, though she’d meant it to be offhand.