Aggie checked herself internally. Her stomach rumbled with hunger. A good sign. Her eyes were heavy with sleep but at least they didn’t burn with fever. Aggie swallowed. Easy. No lump, no rasp. She could go to Jimmy tonight. They could sleep together. Aggie smiled when she remembered the scope that simple word covered. She doubted they would really sleep at all.
Angela had told her of Jimmy’s suspicions, that he thought she had a dual personality. In a way, his misperception made their deception easier. Aggie felt a pang of remorse for deceiving him, but after all, this was a man who thought he could buy a woman. He deserved a trick or two with his treats. She would play along, maybe even agree to see a psychiatrist, then she would screw his brains off till he didn’t even remember the offer. Her smile broadened as she opened her eyes.
Drat. She heard Andrew snore in the living room. Her young former lover would have to go. She wondered how she had ever thought herself in love with him. He was sweet, but he wasn’t even a man yet. Someday he’d fall for a cute little redhead and they’d make adorable babies together. Aggie’s exasperation faded with the picture. She hated to just dump him on his ass. He really was sweet.
Aggie slid out of bed, pulled her bathrobe around her and padded to the restroom. When she opened the bathroom door a few minutes later, she sniffed the air. Coffee. Somebody else was awake.
“Hi!” Andrew greeted her as she walked into the tiny kitchen. He kissed her on the forehead.
“Morning breath,” he explained. “Do you want to go out for breakfast?”
“How did you know I wasn’t Angela?” Aggie asked.
“You let me kiss you,” Andrew answered with a grin. “She would have walked back into the bedroom the minute she saw me.”
“Is she that bad?” Aggie asked. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Andrew replied, then his male ego butted in. “She’s probably jealous.”
Aggie almost laughed. Instead she took too large a swallow of coffee and burned her mouth.
“Do you want to go out to breakfast?” Andrew repeated, oblivious to her agony as she spit the hot liquid into the sink.
“No,” Aggie glared then she relented. “Why don’t you go to the bakery and get us some cinnamon rolls?”
“Sounds good to me,” Andrew agreed. “I’ll get some bagels for Angela. Can you lend me some money?”
Andrew’s impecuniousness had never bothered Aggie before. Now his dependence nearly drove her up the wall. Still, he had remember the bagels for Angela. Aggie dug in her purse and pulled out a colorful bill.
“What’s that one?” she asked.
“I think it’s a ten.” Andrew examined the paper closely and found the numeral. “Yup. Ten ought to do it. I’ll be right back.”
Aggie took her almost drinkable coffee into the living room.
“When are you going to tell the boy wonder to go home?” Angela’s sleepy voice drifted out of the bedroom. She was awake.
“Don’t call him the boy wonder,” Aggie called back. “He’s twenty-five.”
“A baby.” Angela wandered into the room scratching her hair. “I need a shower.”
Aggie’s twin filled a mug and brought her coffee into the living room where she sat on the sofa.
“I thought you wanted a shower,” Aggie commented.
“Coffee first,” Angela explained. “So I won’t drown.”
“It’s going to work after all, isn’t it Boo?” Aggie couldn’t quite dampen the hope in her voice. Five nights with Jimmy. She would think about the sixth night later.
“Cross your fingers,” Angela agreed. “You have to tell the boy wonder to go.”
“His name is Andrew. He’s getting you bagels.”
“Maybe he can stay. I’ll call him bagel boy.” The twins laughed.
By the time Andrew returned, Aggie was in the shower. Angela convinced him for a few minutes that she was her twin. When he tried to put his hand up her sweater, she called a halt to the charade. Aggie emerged hot and clean to a sulking young ex-boyfriend who didn’t know it yet.
Angela left with their father and Mary to the conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park. Aggie spent the morning listening to Andrew’s complaints about her sister. She finally took him in desperation to Science World, really a child’s amusement, but he was fascinated by the ingenious displays. Aggie found her interest caught despite herself and spent a pleasant afternoon learning about acoustics and dinosaurs. She dragged Andrew out and back to the hotel at five o’clock. Zero hour approached.
Without explanation, she left Andrew alone in the living room at 5:30 and disappeared into the bedroom. When she emerged dressed in a short tight jean skirt and a long pale peach sweater, her resolution was firm. She would tell him now that he had to go back to Cincinnati, that their association was through. As she turned the corner into the living room, she saw that Andrew had fallen asleep on the sofa. She breathed a sigh of relief and guilt and left him a note on the coffee table. She couldn’t tell him to leave in a note, so the words just read, Be back later. Don’t worry.
Don’t worry. She repeated the words to herself like a mantra as she directed the taxi this way and that. The charade of a roundabout cab drive seemed redundant at this stage, but Angela still hoped to keep their hotel location a secret. Aggie secretly suspected that their father had already spilled the beans to his seawall friend Jimmy. Jimmy. Mmmm. Aggie leaned back into the seat and imagined the coming evening.
Jimmy waited inside the lobby as Aggie had expected, but with him was another man. The stranger was almost a dead ringer for photographs Aggie had seen of Sigmund Freud, tall, thin and stooped with a sad knowing face and a pipe. Either Freud or Sherlock Holmes without his hat. Jimmy opened the door for Aggie and then introduced them.
“Aggie, this is Dr. Topas. Dr. Topas, Aggie Trout.”
Aggie shook the offered hand. Something about the name niggled at her memory.
Jimmy kept up a stream of small talk as they entered the elevator. Aggie thought furiously. Ha, she remembered in triumph as they stopped at the apartment floor. I’ve read Shakespeare, too. Sir Topas was the name of the false monk in Twelfth Night. Twelve nights? She silently saluted Jimmy’s ingenuity and resolved to play the game to the hilt.
“Dr. Topas is a specialist in multiple personality disorders,” Jimmy explained as he helped Aggie out of her coat. She nodded solemnly. He had the wrong term, but it was a good stab. “I’d like you to talk to him. Maybe we can banish the second personality forever.”
“Which one do you want to keep?” she asked innocently.
“The one that’s here now,” Jimmy answered without hesitation. Aggie was glad he somehow knew. “Let’s all sit in the library.”
Aggie and Dr. Topas followed Jimmy into the book filled room. Aggie saw the bogus doctor’s eyes caress the wealth of books. An academic, perhaps? She wondered how Jimmy had persuaded him into the charade. Jimmy seated Aggie under a light and placed the doctor and himself in shadow. He waved for the doctor to begin. Aggie sank back into her chair. This should be fun.
“Aggie,” the doctor began. “Do you mind if I call you Aggie?”
“Please do.”
“Aggie, I want you to think back to your childhood.”
Aggie closed her eyes and pretended to remember. In reality she was trying to dream up a barely plausible tale.
“You are twelve years old Aggie,” the soothing voice said. “Tell me about where you live.”