Twelve Nights (12 page)

“Danny doesn’t talk much,” Aggie commented. “He’s a little
odd, but he’s sweet.”

“One brother’s ‘nice’ and the other’s ‘sweet’,” Angela
teased. “I’ll buy you a thesaurus for Christmas.”

“Shh,” Aggie hushed her. “Here’s the interview.”

The recorder had worked well through the purse.

I’m afraid there’s
been a mistake.
A deep rich voice filled the room.

“Mmmm,” Angela commented. “I like him.”

“He’s okay,” Aggie agreed. “He’s the lawyer. Mr. Urbano. He
rejected me.”

“I thought you said…”

“Just listen,” Aggie interrupted. “I’ll tell you the rest
after the tape.”

The twins sat in silence as the tape replayed Richard’s
questions and Aggie’s responses. The ninety minute tape had run out during
Aggie’s walk with Danny to the Beach House Restaurant. Angela’s twin recalled
as much as she could of her lunch-time conversation with the two Buko brothers.
When she was finished, Aggie handed Angela her copy of the contract. Angela put
on her glasses and read the pages quickly but carefully.

“When did you get glasses?” Aggie asked.

“A few months ago. Shh.” Angela returned to the document.

“I didn’t wear glasses when I read the contract in the
restaurant today. Jimmy knows I don’t need them.”

“I’ll manage,” Angela insisted impatiently. “I don’t think
he wants me to read to him. Oh, God.”

“What?”

“It’s all or nothing.”

“I tried to argue that one. He wouldn’t budge.”

“So if he’s really bad and I can’t hack it after a few days,
I get nothing.” Angela swallowed down the anxiety that rose up her throat.

“He’s not really bad, Angela,” her sister insisted. “I liked
him.”

“Then you go!” Angela challenged.

“No thanks. I’ll get my man the old-fashioned way.”

Angela noticed but refrained from commenting on the fact
that her sister didn’t mention her boyfriend, Andrew. She read further.

“You got him down from twenty-four to eight hours a day.
Good.”

“Actually, Danny helped. He suggested the hours.”

“I start at six o’clock tonight.” Angela looked at her
watch. “That’s two hours!”

“Is there anything on the sex list you would have said ‘no’
to?”

Angela heard the anxiety in her twin’s voice. She read the
list again.

“I don’t like anal,” she commented. “The rest is okay.”

“I told the lawyer I didn’t like the idea of discipline,”
Aggie explained. “Spanking.”

“Spanking’s okay,” Angela said.

“You’d better pretend you don’t like it.”

“Yes,” Angela agreed absently. She looked down the rest of
the list. Nothing she couldn’t handle.

“I don’t even know what some of this stuff is,” Aggie
commented.

“That’s okay. You’re not the one doing it.”

“What’s a fist fuck?”

“When the person puts his fist inside your vagina.”

“Ouch.”

Angela laughed when her sister crossed her legs. “Usually
another woman does it. Most guy’s hands are too big and inflexible.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that one then. Jimmy
isn’t the type to delegate.” Aggie paused. “I don’t think….”

The twins sat in silence for a moment. Angela didn’t know
what her sister was thinking. She herself was waiting for the anxiety in her
belly to metamorphose into arousal. She would be having sex in about two hours,
she estimated. She had better get the juices flowing.

“I’m going to stay for the twelve days.” Aggie’s words broke
Angela’s concentration.

“Thank you.” Angela realized as she heard her sister’s words
how much she had dreaded being abandoned. The truth was she was nervous. A guy
who spent three hundred dollars a night thought he could ask a lot. What would
a man who spent ten thousand expect? She stood up and shook herself, an old
trick to relieve tension.

“Okay,” she announced. “Time to get dressed. Let’s pick out
something sexy.”

“No,” Aggie disagreed. “Wear the same outfit I wore today.
He liked it.”

“He’ll expect me to wear something more arousing, Aggie.”

“No, he won’t.” Aggie spoke with conviction. “He expects a
librarian, not a prostitute.”

“I have to remember that,” Angela agreed.

“Besides, the outfit will reinforce that it’s the same
person. He won’t look at you as closely.”

“There’s nothing to see. We look exactly the same.”

“Your eyes could change color,” Aggie reminded her.

“That’s true.” The twins’ eye color changed by some internal
chemistry to match their clothing, shifting from gray to hazel to almost blue.
“By tomorrow he’ll be used to me. Then I can wear other colors and it won’t
matter. You’re right, I’ll wear the gray tonight.”

Angela and Aggie reversed their usual roles as the librarian
helped her twin decide on accessories and makeup. They settled on a simple
pearl necklace and a matching pearl ring, a light dusting of powder, pale
lipstick and some mascara. Angela felt too much her real self to be
comfortable. She realized that she preferred to put on her hooker glamour
before she met a man for sex. She felt vulnerable.

The twins agreed that Angela should take a taxi from the
Vancouver Hotel, rather than walk the few hundred yards from their hotel to the
apartment. She climbed into a cab in the basement of the Sylvia and directed
the driver to the larger hotel. Inside, she took an elevator up to the fifth
floor and then back down. She lingered in the lobby. Then at 5:50 she climbed
into another cab and directed the man to 2071 Beach Avenue. Aggie had noted the
address on the building as she left.

The anxiety in her stomach refused to abate but instead
built as the taxi inched through the late rush hour traffic. By the time the
cab pulled up to the apartment, she was squeezing the elbow rest in a death
grip. Her legs wobbled when she swung them out of the back seat of the cab. She
clutched her purse, rooted to the curb as the taxi nosed back into the traffic.

“Aggie!”

The eagerness in the man’s voice startled Angela. She turned
and saw him holding open the door to the apartment block. He was short, almost
dumpy, with a fleshy face and thick black and gray hair. This must be Jimmy. As
she came closer, she saw that his eyes glowed with warmth. She had never seen
that look in a john’s eyes. Her anxiety turned into a hard lump in her stomach
as she realized that the man really liked Aggie. He wasn’t here just for the
sex. He actually liked her. The evening would be ten times more difficult than
she had thought. Angela pasted what she hoped was an Aggie-smile across her
face.

“Jimmy!” She opened her arms wide.

The man’s smile lingered but the glow in his eyes dimmed.
What had she done wrong? She turned her offered hug into a hand on each of his
broad shoulders. Then she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Yes, that’s
what Aggie would have done. The man put his hand on the small of her back and
ushered her into the apartment lobby. She began to walk to the elevator, but he
steered her instead down a side hallway. When he pushed the button on a smaller
side elevator, she wondered what else Aggie had forgotten to tell her.

Inside the elevator, Jimmy pushed an unmarked button and
then turned Angela to face him. She unbuttoned her coat, trying to be innocent
and seductive at the same time. After all, it was warm in the elevator. It was
a natural thing to do.

“I’m glad you wore the same outfit,” Jimmy commented. Angela
mentally thanked Aggie. “I’ve been imagining you out of it all afternoon.”

Angela smiled in relief. After all, he was a man. She could
handle men. She tried to imagine what Aggie’s reaction would be to the
suggestive comment. She ducked her head in mock-shyness, then looked out under
her eyebrows.

“I noticed you liked it,” she commented.

The man smiled and the glow came back into his eyes. She had
said the right thing.

“I like you, Aggie,” he said and Angela believed him. “We’re
going to do this right.”

Angela closed her eyes and leaned into his chest. Remorse
swept through her. It should be Aggie here with this man. She knew that down to
her bones. She resolved that however she had to, she would persuade Aggie to
take her place the next night, and that for tonight, whatever they did, she wouldn’t
let him come inside her. She didn’t want to live for the rest of her life
knowing she’d screwed Aggie’s man.

They stepped out of the elevator into the most unusual
apartment Angela had ever seen. Apparently, the entire floor was given to the
one suite. The apartment had its own circular lobby floored in gray marble
banded in black concentric circles. The ceiling was… Angela struggled for an
adequate description. The ceiling was weird. Sculpted in ever narrowing circles
as it rose, it culminated in a round skylight. Angela could hear the light
patter of rain.

“Wow,” she commented.

“Do you like it?” Jimmy asked. “Everybody said I was crazy.”

What would Aggie think of the bizarre entrance? Angela
thought it would appeal to her sense of humor. She would love it.

“I love it,” she smiled. “It tells me you have a sense of
fun.”

“And no taste,” Jimmy laughed. The sound boomed out from his
chest and while startling, was comforting in its naturalness.

“Show me the rest of the apartment,” Angela invited.

Jimmy took her on a tour. The living room directly ahead was
a semi-circle filled with circular furniture. Angela shook her head and
chuckled. The dining room was another semi-circle with a circular table. Floor
to ceiling windows provided what in daylight should be a spectacular view of
English Bay. To the left of the dining room was another windowed room, this one
with a glass dome for a ceiling. Inside was a circular, of course, pool, with a
banked running track around the edge. Angela wondered what Freud would make of
all the circles. A nesting impulse, perhaps?

Jimmy led her back across the central lobby toward a room to
the right of the elevator. The bedroom? Angela’s knees wobbled and Jimmy put
his hand under her elbow. No, she saw with relief; he was taking her into a
library. The room was rectangular and glowed golden from subdued lighting over
the carved oak bookshelves. Angela knew her mating instincts were correct when
she saw the rows and rows of books. This was a serious library, and this man
was made for her sister. He had more books in here, lovingly displayed, than
Aggie had in her branch of the Cincinnati public library.

“Have you read all these books?” she asked, awed.

“Most,” Jimmy shrugged. “So, Madame Librarian, do you
approve of my library?”

“It’s wonderful!” Angela didn’t have to feign her
enthusiasm. Her eyes locked onto a tall shelf loaded with thick volumes. She
walked over and selected a volume.

“Modigliani,” she breathed reverently.

“You like art?”

“I majored,” Angela stopped herself. “I would have majored
in art history if I could have.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“No jobs.”

“I’m a collector,” Jimmy commented. “This is just a small
portion of my collection.”

“You need a librarian,” Angela commented, forgetting that
that was exactly what she was supposed to be. The comment sounded self-serving,
though she’d meant it to be offhand.

“Exactly,” Jimmy smiled. He must think she was flirting. As
far as she knew, Aggie didn’t flirt, but Jimmy didn’t seem surprised. Then he
changed the subject. “Are you hungry?”

Angela hadn’t had time to eat in her rush to get ready.

“I’m starved.”

“Good. I had dinner delivered from one of my favorite
restaurants.”

They walked through a small door in the side wall of the
library and ended up in a shiny modern kitchen. No circles here, except for the
pots and pans hanging from the ceiling rack.

“Shall we eat in here?” Jimmy asked.

“Please,” Angela smiled. The room was much cozier than the
more formal dining room. “Shall I set the table?”

Jimmy motioned toward a tall hutch. Inside Angela found
everything she needed, earthenware plates, tall crystal glasses for water and
wine, gleaming silver cutlery and soft linen napkins. She set two places on the
small round oak table tucked into a bay window. Meanwhile, Jimmy pulled dishes
from the oven. The smells wafted from beneath the covers and Angela’s stomach
rumbled.

“I hope you like Hungarian,” Jimmy commented as he lifted
the lid from a ceramic casserole.

Aggie was the more adventurous eater of the two twins, but
Angela agree readily that Hungarian was fine. The food smelled delicious.
Moments later, she found it tasted as good as it smelled. Angela relaxed as
they ate. The hot food and Jimmy’s calm demeanor combined to ease her anxiety
back into a forgotten corner of her mind. They talked of many things, travel,
art, books. At first Angela tried to be Aggie, but soon she was caught up in
their conversation and answering as herself. She noticed that Jimmy’s eyes grew
sharper as they talked, but decided that his alertness wasn’t suspicion. He was
as involved in the discussion as she was. Aggie was right; he
was
nice. Too nice to fuck the wrong
twin.

Eventually Angela was too full to eat another bite. Always
on tricks before, she had been careful not to eat even if offered a meal. A
full stomach didn’t help with the sex later. She wondered why she hadn’t
remembered her rule tonight. Because the evening had none of the earmarks of
prostitution. But the final expectation would be the same. Hungarian spices
rose back up her throat. How could she avoid the inevitable?

She and Jimmy rose in silence and placed the dishes in the
sink. Then he turned to her and took her hand.

“Shall I show you the bedroom?” His voice was husky.

“Yes,” Angela breathed.

They walked back through the lobby and toward a closed door.

“Can I go to the bathroom first?” Angela asked.