Chapter 1
“Have you lost your mind?”
“It’s a great idea.”
“It’s a dumb idea. We haven’t done that since we were
children.”
“And we always got away with it.”
Allison Leamon eyed her sister in exasperation. Except for
the expression Ann’s was expectant, Allison could have
been looking at her own reflection.
Ann was sitting Indian-fashion in the center of her
sister’s bed. Allison turned her back on Ann and began
taking the hairpins from the bun on the back of her head.
She shook out a mane of deep auburn hair that fell to her
shoulders in thick waves that matched her sister’s.
“Bette Davis has played twins who swapped places in a
couple of her movies. Something terrible always happened.”
“That’s the movies; this is real life.”
“Doesn’t art imitate life?”
Ann sighed in vexation. “Come on, Allison. Will you or
won’t you?”
“I won’t. I can’t believe you’re serious about having this
operation in the first place,” she said, pulling a
hairbrush through her hair.
“I don’t want to go through the rest of my life flat-
chested.”
“We’re not flat-chested,” Allison argued, assessing her
own figure in the mirror.
“We’re not overly endowed either.”
“Who wants to be? They’ll just sag in a few years, then
you’ll wish you didn’t have them.” Laying the brush on the
vanity, she turned to Ann. “Please reconsider, Annie.
Don’t dothis.”
Ann laughed. “You’re always so damned cautious and
practical. Don’t you ever have one frivolous thought? Just
look at yourself now that you’ve let your hair down.
You’re gorgeous. Don’t you want to be?”
“I’m not gorgeous. And no, I don’t particularly want to
be. Looks aren’t important.”
Ann pressed a hand over her heart and addressed the
ceiling. “I know,” she said theatrically, “it’s what a
person is like on the inside that counts.”
“Make fun of me all you want, but that’s the way I feel.
I’d much rather be considered intelligent than a knockout.”
Ann frowned in aggravation. Her sister was hopeless. All
Allison cared about was her laboratory, her electron
microscope, her Bunsen burner, any old organisms that
could be cultivated in a petri dish! “Are you going to do
me this favor or not?”
“No. I don’t want any part of it. Why can’t Davis know
beforehand?”
“Because I want it to be a surprise.”
“He likes you the way you are. Why else would he be
marrying you?”
“Do you know one man who wouldn’t like his woman to have
large breasts?” The moment the question left her lips, Ann
began shaking her head. “Forget it. I withdraw the
question. You don’t know any men.”
“I know quite a few men,” Allison said loftily.
“And they’re all brainy and weird!” Ann shot back.
“They’re scientists.”
“As I said, brainy and weird,” Ann mumbled as she plucked
at a loose thread on Allison’s bedspread. The sulking
lasted only a few moments before she lost her patience. “I
want a breast enlargement. It’s for my self-esteem. Davis
will go absolutely bananas when he sees the improvement.
I’m asking my twin sister to help me out a little and
she’s making a big deal out of it.”
“No pun intended, I hope,” Allison said dryly. At Ann’s
fulminating look she relented somewhat. “You’re hardly
asking me to help you out ‘a little.’ You’re asking me to
pretend to be you while you sneak off and have the
surgery.”
“Only for a few days. Only until the bandages come off.”
Allison covered her own breasts, one with each hand, and
shuddered. The whole idea repelled her, but it was Ann’s
business. She only wished Ann hadn’t involved her in
it. “What about your job?”
“I’m taking a week’s vacation. No problem there. You’ll go
to work as usual. It’s only in the evenings when you’ll
need to be with Davis.”
“What will you be doing, hiding in the back bedroom?”
“I’m staying in the clinic. It’s expensive, but I’d rather
stay there than at home.”
Allison pushed away from the dresser and began to
pace. “Annie, this is crazy. You and Davis ... well,
doesn’t he expect certain, uh, you know...”
“You mean bedroom privileges?” Allison blushed. Ann
laughed. “I’ve covered you on that. I told him the
gynecologist changed my birth-control-pill prescription
and that we weren’t supposed to sleep together for three
weeks until we knew they were going to take.”
“That’s absurd!”
“As a biologist in genetics you know that, and as a woman
I know that, but Davis doesn’t know it. He griped like
hell, but he accepted it. So you won’t have to worry about
him trying to get you into bed. And for crying out loud,
it’s only for three or four days!”
Allison nervously twisted her hands. Ann had always been
able to do this to her, talk her into something common
sense warned against. “Switching places was an amusing
game to play on Mom and Dad, even teachers, but I have a
premonition that something dreadful will happen.”
“You’re a fatalist. Nothing’s going to happen.”
“And you want me to move into your condo?”
“That would be the most convenient arrangement. Davis
could always find me, or rather you, there.”
What remained unsaid, but understood, was that Allison’s
absence from her own apartment would go unnoticed. She had
no one calling for her in the evenings. “I’d have to wear
your clothes,” she said unenthusiastically.
“Which will be a vast improvement over your wardrobe.” Ann
eyed Allison’s navy dirndl skirt and tailored white blouse
with undisguised distaste.
“I’ll have to wear my contacts all the time and they give
me a headache.”
“Better a headache than those owlish glasses you wear.”
“And my hair...”
“Will you stop! Your hair looks terrific loose and natural
instead of knotted into that old-maid’s bun.” She hopped
off the bed and confronted Allison with both hands on her
hips. “So will you or won’t you? Please, Allison. This is
important to me.”
Everything was important to Ann. She lived from crisis to
crisis. She didn’t do anything by half-measures. She
plunged right into every critical event, usually dragging
her unwilling, less adventuresome sister right be- hind
her.
Allison turned to the mirror and gazed at her image. Could
she pass for Ann? Ann who never met a stranger, but a
potential friend? Ann who felt at home in any situation?
Ann with the bubbling personality and more charm in her
little finger than Allison possessed in her whole body?
Ann walked over to stand beside her. Since Allison wasn’t
wearing her glasses, and with her hair curling over her
shoulders like Ann’s, they were identical.
And it was only for a few days. And Ann was her twin, her
only sibling. And lifetime habits were hard to break.
Allison smiled wryly. “Do you realize that for the rest of
our lives people are going to be looking at our boobs in
order to tell us apart?”
“Oh, Allison. You’ll do it?” Ann spun Allison around and
gave her an exuberant hug. “I knew I could count on you.
Here’s my engagement ring,” she said, twisting it off her
finger and putting it on Allison’s. “Don’t dare lose it.
Now let me tell you about tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Davis and I are meeting his best friend for dinner. They
grew up together, blood brothers and all that. I’ve never
met him, and Davis wants to show me off.”
“Oh, Annie,” Allison wailed.