‘Nice to meet you, Mr Ledger,’ says Flick as she turns away, all smiles and innocence and a moment later the pair of them are bounding up my stairs together in a giggling rush, and I’m left standing in the corridor all alone again as my children flee, still reeling from the shock.
*
‘Oh my fucking god, Mackenzie,’ says my sister as she slams my door shut behind me. ‘He’s even hotter in person.’
‘I know right?’ I say, my hands over my mouth as I hop up and down on the spot.
‘Tell me everything,’ she says as she grabs my hands and spins me toward the bed, practically throwing me onto the sheets as we tumble down next to each other and lie facing. Then I draw my hands up in front of me, clasping them together as I look at her, my mirror image, my other half, my best and closest friend.
Identical twins, growing up together on a military base in Hong Kong before moving around the world and living in more countries than either of us can count has left us closer than even the closest of siblings. We’ve never had anyone but each other, and to say that I share everything with my sister is an understatement. We once shared a womb, it’s not like it’s ever been any other way.
‘So two days ago he disappears,’ I start. ‘Middle of the night he leaves, says he needs to go off to some facility where he works. He’s military intelligence-‘
‘Obviously,’ says Flick.
‘And so I’m left with the girls. We wake up, we do all the usual stuff, soccer practice, choir, school, toddler yoga-‘
‘Standard,’ she says.
‘And then in the evening, I suggested we have a film night. The girls were cut up because he left without saying goodbye-‘
‘Asshole.’
‘Right,’ I nod. ‘So we watch Beauty and the Beast.’
‘Apt.’
‘And afterwards, once the girls are in bed, I sneak into his bedroom.’
‘Goes without saying,’ she grins.
‘This is where it gets interesting,’ I say, lowering my voice. ‘I found his diary.’
Felicity’s eyes go wide. ‘And you read it?’ she says quietly.
I nod. ‘Just this week. About me.’
‘What did he write?’
‘Poetry, I think? I don’t know, I’d barely started reading before he walked in.’
Her eyes go wide. ‘What happened?’
‘He was furious,’ I whisper. ‘He wanted to know what I was doing, why I was in there, what I wanted, what I’d read. I didn’t have an answer, I could barely speak. He just kept shouting, but he wasn’t being loud, he was…’
‘Seething,’ says Flick.
I nod.
‘So what did you do?’
I blush, looking down. ‘I got up on the bed, and I bent over.’
Felicity’s eyes shine and go wide as my words wash over her. ‘You dirty slut,’ she laughs.
I bite down on my lower lip and flush with shame as I keep going. ‘I pulled down my panties and I didn’t say a word.’
‘And he spanked you?’