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Tilly
“Pay attention, Frannie,” I scold my identical twin sister as I adjust my phone in my hand until my face comes into full view of the camera. I hate video chatting, but it’s one of Frannie’s favorite things to do. She tells me she misses my face. I tell her to look in the mirror and she’ll see exactly what I look like. “I need to call Maya. Can we talk later?”
Frannie shakes her head from side-to-side. That sends her long brown hair tumbling over her shoulders. We may be twenty-five-years-old now and live on opposite sides of the country, but we still share the same hairstyle.
One visible difference between us is Frannie almost always has her blue eyes rimmed with a dark liner to make them pop. I opt for a sheer shadow and two layers of mascara.
It’s barely past the crack of dawn in San Francisco, but my twin already has her hair styled and her makeup applied, even though the most pressing thing on her schedule today consists of a visit to the zoo with her husband, two daughters, and our parents.
“I’m still upset that you left early.” Frannie takes a sip of coffee from her World’s Greatest Sister mug. It was a birthday gift from our older sister, Maya. I got one just like it, along with one of a matching pair of white T-shirts with the words ‘Happy Birthday to Two’ printed across the chest in pink font. Frannie is wearing hers now. I stuffed mine into the bottom of my suitcase where I’ll leave it for eternity. “Why do you need to talk to her? Does it have to do with the reason you ditched us?”
I didn’t ditch. I took off because I’d felt completely out of place. Frannie married her high school sweetheart, Grant, before she finished college.
I was the odd woman out at our birthday dinner and my parents both made a point of mentioning it every chance they could.
There wasn’t an extra bed at Frannie and Grant’s place, so I ended up stuck on the sofa bed at my parents’ condo. Waking up each morning to weak coffee and a discussion on how to find a husband gets old after five days.
It didn’t help that my high school sweetheart and Grant’s friend, Boyd, dropped by Frannie’s house for a piece of birthday cake. My parents called it fate when they saw our hands touching. I called it an accident since it happened when I was handing him a slice of cake on a small dessert plate.
It’s not like I’m going to live the rest of my life single and alone. I have a few decades left to find my soul mate. I wish my parents could see that.
Since they can’t, I called the airline, switched my flight and left San Francisco with an excuse about needing to get back to my job as a vet assistant at Premier Pet Care.
Work is not part of my plan this week. I’m going to spend the rest of my time off pampering myself with bubble baths and window shopping.
“You’re zoning out, Tilly.” Frannie leans toward the screen of her tablet. “What’s going on? You left in a rush and it’s the middle of the morning there. If you needed to get back to work, why aren’t you at the clinic?”
Dammit. I’m obviously still not thinking about anything other than Lisa’s lover.
“I really need to talk to Maya. I was about to call her when you called me. ”
The corners of her lips dip into a slight frown. I know she wants me to confide in her but I can’t. If I tell Frannie that I saw a hot stranger without his pants on, half of San Francisco will know about it by noon.
She can’t keep a secret and I don’t need the added burden of having to explain to my dad what happened last night.
He’s as old-fashioned as they come and in his world, a woman should be living at home until she’s married.
Frannie did. Maya didn’t. Instead, she moved across the country to New York City. I followed.
“Fine.” She takes another sip of her coffee, waving the mug in front of the camera. “I am the world’s greatest sister. I know you feel closer to Maya because you two live in the same city, but I love you as much as she does.”
That tugs at my heart. “I love you too, Frannie. You know that I do.”
“I know.” She tilts her head to the left. “I’m here if you need me. You can tell me anything.”
I can’t.
How do I tell her that I when I woke up this morning I could hear the distinctive sound of a man’s voice? I got out of bed, opened my bedroom door a crack and caught sight of the black-haired, blue-eyed, tattooed sex god from last night walking shirtless around my living room talking on a cell phone.
He was only wearing jeans. No shirt, no shoes, just sexiness for days.
I didn’t say anything to him. I went back to bed and by the time I got up thirty minutes later he was nowhere to be seen.
I might have spent that half hour taking care of myself with my battery-operated boyfriend while thinking about Lisa’s lover.
I shouldn’t feel guilty about that, but I do.
“Tilly?” Frannie’s voice breaks through my thoughts. “You’re drifting away again.”
I smile. “I’m jetlagged, Fran. I’ll call you tonight. Have fun at the zoo today.”
“Have fun doing whatever you ran back to New York to do.” She leans closer to the screen before her voice falls to a whisper. “Or whoever you ran back to do.”
Before I have a chance to say another word, she ends the video call by blowing me a kiss.
I immediately dial Maya’s number but she doesn’t pick up. I curse under my breath and call Julian, her fiancé. He’s always told me to reach out if I can’t get in touch with Maya, but it rings straight to his voicemail too.
I stifle a frustrated scream, race to my bathroom and jump into the shower so I can track down my older sister. I need to tell someone what I saw last night before I burst.
