“Oh. My. Gooood!” She melts against the counter as she chews, her eyes welling up with happiness. “Do you know how long it’s been since I tasted a real doughnut?” She devours the rest of it, committing to the test fully. “This is amazing.”
“Well, let’s hope for both our sakes that your celiac didn’t switch with you because that was far more than a small trial bite, you psycho.” I run my hand down my face, mentally preparing for how the hell we’re going to cover this up when she slips into a gluten coma in my body.
“I don’t want to switch back. Ever.” She moans as she grabs her glass of water and chugs it.
“That’s just the endorphins talking. We are still going to switch back. We cannot live like this.” I throw my arms out.
It’s kind of hard to be upset about whatever’s happening when this is the most relaxed she’s been around me in years. We’re just talking and interacting without the feeling of impending heartbreak hanging on every word.
I cannot fuck this up.
“Well, how are you feeling? Can you usually tell this soon?” I ask, looking for some neon sign to appear above her head, spelling outglutenwith an arrow pointing at her.
“Sometimes.” She shrugs. “The water will help process it faster, but honestly, so far, I feel great!” Her eyes glimmer. “Maybe another one would help speed this along.”
Reaching into the box, she grabs a white frosted long john with rainbow sprinkles. “Ooh, these were one of my favorite kinds.”
“Last one, and then you need to stop shoveling so much sugar into my body. It’s not used to it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I watched you down almost an entire cheesecake at Maeve’s graduation party.” She waves my concern away effortlessly, as if she didn’t just admit to watching me at that party.
Don’t draw attention to it. Just take the moment and move on.
“In the meantime, we need to figure out how we’re going to get through the day without getting checked into a mental institution if people hear us talking to one another like this.” I grab my phone from the counter next to her.
It doesn’t recognize my face, for obvious reasons, so I just enter the code. I’ll need to add her face in as an additional person. “Are we going to have each other’s phone or our own?”
Her eyes widen, which piques my interest. “Ourown.”
“Okay.” I open the Notes app on my phone and start a new one. “What’s on your schedule today? Things that can’t be canceled or missed.”
Her eyes widen, and she pauses mid-bite. “Oh God. I have skating class tonight.”
“Can you call out?” I ask her, and she glares at me.
“No. I’m their coach. If I call out, then class is canceled. And they’re learning a new skill today, and they were all so excited. I can’tnotshow up and let them all down.”
She frowns at the possibility, tugging at my heartstrings, and I quickly make my mind up on what to do.
“You’ll teach it to me beforehand, and I’ll teach it to your class.”
Her eyes soften for a second as she considers my offer. “Well, thatmightwork. But you don’t know any of their names, any of the skills they already know. You don’t know the parents or any of the problems certain kids have been having.”
“Then teach me all of it. Everything I need to know to pull it off,” I offer without thought. I’d do anything to make her happy.
Besides, I know more about figure skating than she thinks. I spent years watching her skate, far more intently than she ever realized.
She holds my stare for a moment, and I can see a storm brewing behind her newfound hazel eyes. “Maybe. I don’t know. I feel like it might be too risky. What if someone figures out something weird is happening?”
I laugh. “I doubt their first guess would be that we switched bodies. They’d probably just think we’re having an off day.”
“Fair.” She bites down on her bottom lip in thought. “Do you have anything today?”
“Nothing that I can’t miss,” I answer her honestly. I mean, even if I did, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend quality time with her. “I’m free today, so we can try to sort this out.”
“Okay, good.” She stands up taller. “First things first. We need to set some boundaries.”
“Like what?” I ask, starting a new note to jot them down for us.
