Our Hearts Entwined (12 page)

“I feel it Eric. You're all I think about as well,” she whispered again, wishing now, more than ever that she could tell him the truth about who she was. However, she kept quiet, knowing that her deception could very well be the thing that would cost her the man she’d come to think of as her soul mate.

“Are you sure you’re ok? I mean, not being slack to the way things were before, but I don’t want it to be the way it was between us.”

“What do you mean? Didn’t you love how I was?”

“I did Mia. You know I did – but this…feeling I have now. It’s different – it’s better. So much better,” he confessed, the sincerity evident in his eyes.

Reaching her hand up, Natalie smoothed her fingers down the side of his face and took a deep steadying breath to get a handle on her own emotions. “I’m me, ok? I’m not going to change into anyone else. This new girl you met a month ago – she’s here to stay.”

“I hope so,” Eric said as he leaned toward her and captured her mouth in his, breathing in her scent, raw and fresh from their recent lovemaking.

Suddenly, Natalie broke the kiss. “I have an idea!” she said excitedly. “Let’s leave.”

“Leave?”

“Yeah, leave everything – get away from it all. Just you and me, on our own, no one else. What do you think?”

“I think that would be awesome. But, what about your job? What about my job? Not to mention all our friends and my family.”

“We don’t need jobs – I have money and we can call our friends. They’ll still be here. But we could go up to the Gold Coast, live on the beach in the sunshine - learning to surf and we could scuba dive - snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. We could live an eternal holiday!”

Eric’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as he sat up in bed, trying to absorb her request.

“Hang on. What do you mean you have money? Is it from when your parents died?” he asked, a slight frown on his handsome face.

“Uh, yeah. Life insurance from the um… accident,” she answered carefully, worried she’d just blown it by running her mouth off.

“I don’t know Mi. Leave everything behind – that’s huge.”

“It’d be great though wouldn’t it? I mean, look at us – we’re 23 years old, we’ve been dating since high school and we’re still just dating. Don’t you think it’s time we move this forward – it feels right to be together, doesn’t it? Tell me you want to be with me as much as I want to be with you Eric,” she murmured, leaning in to nip at his earlobe as she slid herself on top of him, her legs either side of his waist.

As she rocked her hips against him, she continued to whisper in his ear, enticing him with her body and her voice, begging for him go away with her.

“Alright, I’ll do it,” he growled. “But I have one condition first.”

“What’s that,” she asked him in a whisper.

“Sleep with me tonight, I want to wake up to you in the morning,” he told her, her answer a small nod and smile as she took the side of her bottom lip between her teeth.

Threading his fingers through her hair, his new found need took over and he crashed his mouth into hers, flipping her on her back and devouring her once more, glad that his time with her was no longer limited.

***

“Jesus, they’re going at it again,” Josh said, rolling his eyes and turning the music up on his stereo in an attempt to block out the sounds of moaning coming from the adjoining room.

“What was that? I didn’t see your mouth properly,”
Louise asked, prompting him to turn and face her so she could read his lips.

“Sorry Lou, I just said that those two are screwing again,” he said making a circle with his fingers on one hand and pumping the index finger of his other hand in the hole to demonstrate crudely. “They have been so noisy lately.”

“Makes me glad that I’m deaf,”
she smiled, genuinely happy she couldn’t hear Eric and that new girl going at it again.

“So what’s going on between you and Mia anyway? You never speak to her and she never signs around you anymore.”

“Nothing is going on between me and Mia – I talk to her when I go and see her. She’s going through a hard time at the moment. She thinks she’s going crazy because of whoever the hell that is in there.”

“What are you talking about? That is Mia in there.”

“No it’s not Josh, Mia is my best friend. I know her. And on top of that, being deaf means that you see the world a little bit differently than hearing people do. For you, she looks like Mia, she talks like Mia, she even acts like Mia. But it’s not her.
”

“Well what do you see that’s so different?”

“Well, there’s the obvious one – she doesn’t sign when she talks to me. Remember how I told you what happened when I saw her at Shoppingtown? She practically ran in the other direction!

“Besides that, when we first met, she acted like she didn’t know me. Then there are a few mannerisms that are different, the way she always pushes her hair out of her eyes, for example. Mia doesn’t do that, if Mia’s hair is annoying her, she just puts it up with an elastic band that is ALWAYS around her wrist. This Mia – never has an elastic around her wrist - it’s not her.”

“Huh,” Josh said thoughtfully, chewing on his lip as he thought things over. “So you’re telling me, that some other girl, who looks exactly like Mia has turned up and is pretending to be her? What is she? Some long lost twin?”

“It sounds stupid, but yeah, that’s what I think.”

“Why haven’t you said anything to me before?”

“I don’t know, because I don’t have any proof,”
she pointed out.
“I’ve told Mia I don’t believe it, but she thinks a twin is impossible.”

“Well, if we need proof - let’s get some,” he said, like it was so easy.

“How? I’ve been trying to get to her handbag, but she always has it with her.”

“Leave it to me,” Josh said grinning wickedly, his dimples indenting deeply in his cheeks as he did so.

“
What are you going to do?”
Louise asked as she watched him move towards his bedroom door.

In response he simply winked and slipped out, leaving Louise sitting on his bed waiting for his return.

The moment they had entered her apartment, Mia walked directly to the bathroom and locked herself inside. Leaving Cayd standing awkwardly in her living area, unsure of what he should do with himself.

Listening next to the bathroom door, he could hear Mia inside cursing to herself about what a piece of shit her life had become. He could hear her complaining of all the time she had lost and how she couldn’t believe that Eric couldn’t tell the bloody difference.

Taking a chair from the small dining room table, he sat vigil outside the bathroom door, listening carefully to make sure she was ok. In his line of work he had seen too many people get left to their own devices when they were upset – only to have the worst scenario happen. He didn’t think that Mia was a suicidal person, but after the shock she’d had lately, anything was possible.

Eventually, Cayd couldn’t hear movement anymore and it worried him, causing him to rise from his chair to tap lightly on the door.

“Mia? Is everything alright?” he asked through the painted wood, stepping back when the door was flung open in response, revealing a now red-headed Mia. “Whoa,” he breathed, amazed at the transformation.

“Let’s see her take over my life now,” she stated, her voice barely above a whisper.

Seemingly of its own accord, his hand drifted up, and gently touched her now changed locks. As their eyes met, something passed between them, electrifying the air and drawing them closer, until they were mere millimetres apart.

Gently, he touched his lips to hers. “Stunning,” he whispered, his voice barely audible as he brushed his lips across hers.

Mia’s response was more fervent as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself into him. She had been so overcome with want for this man that she couldn’t seem to see reason anymore. He was there, and he was there for her – and that was all that mattered right now.

Moving together in a tangle of limbs, they crashed up against the wall, kissing as Mia pulled at Cayd’s shirt, freeing it from his pants and working at the buttons.

Feeling the same sense of urgency, Cayd pulled Mia’s singlet over her head and dipped his head, trailing kisses down her neck and across her collarbone, slipping his finger underneath the strap of her bra as he kissed her shoulder.

Mia’s head hung to the side as her skin felt alight with fire from his touch. Why had she never felt like this before? She’d always enjoyed making out but never had it been like this – it was as if every molecule inside her was buzzing, screaming out for more.

Pulling his shirt from his shoulders, she ran her hands over his surprisingly defined chest, marvelling in the lean bumps of his muscles as her fingers trailed over them.

When a sudden burst of song filled the room, they both stopped, feeling a sudden sense of guilt as the spell was broken and they were dragged back to their reality.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry!” Mia remarked, pulling up the strap of her bra and squatting quickly to retrieve her singlet top.

“No, don’t. Don’t you be sorry. You were upset. If anything, I should be sorry. I’m taking advantage,” he spluttered, attempting to button his shirt to straighten himself up as well.

“No it wa – ” Mia started, before her attention was pulled once again by the insistent ring of her phone. Looking back at Cayd, her face creased with emotions she wasn’t yet ready to name. She held up her hands as if in surrender. “I’m sorry,” she repeated, moving to go and answer her phone.

Cayd watched her walk away as he finished straightening himself up and didn’t know if he could ever be truly sorry for what had just transpired between them.

“
Louise! How are you?”
Mia spoke and signed when she answered her phone, holding it at arm’s length so she could be properly seen by Louise.

Cayd moved so that he was standing near Mia, he could see the phone, but he wasn’t close enough that he was captured by the camera.

“
Oh my god! You’ve been using my hair dye!”
Louise called out the moment Mia’s video feed popped up on her phone.

“
I’m sorry, it was a spur of the moment thing,”
Mia replied. “
What’s up?”
she asked, wanting to take the focus away from her transformation.

“There is something HUGE that we have to tell you.”
Louise replied.

“We?”
Mia queried.

“Yes, we,” Josh put in, moving into view.

“What’s going on?”
Mia demanded, her face set with worry.

“Are you home? We need to come and see you,” Josh said.

“Of course come around now,”
Mia replied. “
Has something happened?”

“Yeah, you could say that – but we can’t talk here,
she
might hear us.” Josh pointed out, his voice lowered conspiratorially.

“Are you serious! You know!?” Mia burst out, forgetting to sign.

“We’ll see you soon,” Louise said, nodding her head and ending the call.

***

Not ten minutes earlier, Josh had returned to the room, still grinning wildly as he hid something behind his back.

“What did you do?”
Louise had asked, gasping when he dropped the imposter Mia’s handbag on the bed in front of her.
“Oh my god! How did you get it? You didn’t go in there did you?”

Grinning he nodded his head, and started to tell his story, using as many signs as he could remember. “I burst in there and they were going at it like mad. She starts screaming and Eric yells at me to get out. I told him that I knocked and thought he’d said ‘come in’. Then I made up the excuse that I needed some cash for a Maccas run, so he threw his wallet at me and when I bent down to pick it up, I grabbed her bag too. She was so busy hiding under the covers that she didn’t see it happening,” he relayed, still smiling proudly.

“Did you look inside yet?”
Louise asked, gently pulling at the straps as if the bag might jump up and bite her.

“No not yet, I brought it straight to you.”

“Ok, well let’s see what’s inside.”
Louise slid her hand carefully into the handbag, her heart thudding solidly against her chest as she found a black Gucci purse and removed it from the bag. Turning it over in her lap, she felt unsure now that she wanted to see what it contained. Holding it out to Josh, she said, “You do it, I can’t look.”

Taking it quickly, he opened it up, obviously not having the same privacy issues as his girlfriend did. He took one look at the license inside and then looked up at Louise, eyebrows raised.

“You’re right,” he said simply, turning the purse around so Louise could see. The license inside had Mia’s photo alright, but it was from New South Wales and the name was ‘Natalie Johnson’.

“Oh my god, we have to call Mia!”

***

“They know,” Mia repeated as her eyes met Cayd’s.

“I can’t say I’m sorry to hear that,” Cayd said softly, taking a step towards her.