I had always liked the carpet in my room. It was light blue and soft on my bare feet. The only time I ever let my feet be bare was inside my bedroom, so the soft carpet was extremely appealing.
I sat cross legged on it now with the mirror leaned up against the wall.
This body wasn't mine.
It moved when I did and the face had the same dull confusion on it that I felt inside, but this wasn't me. How the hell was I going to pull off being a woman?
I pulled a strand of hair away from my neck and let it fall back again with a bounce. "Weird," I muttered. Even my eyelashes were weird now.
My eyes traveled further down my body to take in the plain white tee shirt and baggy shorts. I wasn't going to be able to run around dressed like this. I told Pete that I was my cousin; she would be rich too.
I was going to have to get new clothes.
I didn't know shit about women's shopping habits. I had never had a serious relationship before. I had fucked plenty of women but we never went shopping afterwards.
While I sat there, mentally breaking down over clothes, the front door of the apartment clicked open. Shit. Was that Pete? It was too early for him to be home.
Who else could it be though? Pete and I lived quietly here alone; no one ever came over. My heart thumped hard; I wasn't ready to see him again. What would I say?
Sorry for running into your office like a crazy person this morning; it's been a weird day.
I hurriedly scrubbed the tear stains off of my face. No matter what I said, I didn't want him to think all I did was cry. Pete was gay – he probably didn't handle women very well.
After a quick pat down of the wild hair that girl-me had, I made my way out to the living room. Pete stood there, just inside the door.
"Hey Pete," I waved awkwardly, a wide smile plastered on my face.
"Oh," he breathed out heavily. His eyebrows lowered on his forehead. "You're…uh…here."
"Yeah." My smile was slipping, I could feel it falling off my twitching lips.
"Why?"
"Actually, I was thinking I could stay here for a little while." A while – as in, until I got my dick back.
Biting down on his bottom lip, he moved past me without answering. What, did he think I would leave if he ignored me?
"Look, I'm sorry … about earlier," Pete stammered. "I didn't realize…"
"I'm sure it was a shock to see me." Looking at it from his side, I probably would have called security too.
"Why didn't you say who you were?"
That was an obvious question to ask – one that I didn't know how to answer. Staring into his familiar face, the lies that I had readied earlier froze at the back of my throat.
"I couldn't tell you who I was." The witches spell makes it impossible.
"Why not?"
"Because I was in shock." I told him, each word separated by an awkward pause. It was way too obvious that I was lying.
"Your name is Nicole, right?"
"Yep." Maybe I should have come up with a better name.
"And your cousin is Nick?"
"Our moms were close," I blurted out. Pete knew I was never close to my mom, why did I say that?
"Why were you in shock, Nicole?"
Was he really not going to say anything about the mom thing? "Shock?"
"You said you couldn't tell me who you were because you were in shock."
Right.
"I…uh…" Fuck. Why was it so hard to come up with a good lie to tell him? "It…something happened at the airport this morning." Because I would have flown here, right? That made sense.
"You came dressed like that." Pete's gaze darkened as his thoughts played out. "Something happened to you? Were you robbed?"
Of course. Why didn't I think of that? It was the perfect excuse for the shock and for the lack of clothes. "Yes," I choked out, "I was robbed at the airport."
"Are you serious?" His eyes narrowed.
"Yeah," I nodded quickly. "I would never lie to you."
"Did you call the police?"
"I talked to airport security. They're looking into it and they'll call me if anything turns up."
"Speaking of calling," he cleared his throat, "what's your number? I'll put it into my phone."
"They stole my phone too." I Pressed my lips tight together.
"Then how will they call you when they find your bags."
"I gave them the number of the hotel." I was getting so damn good at this.
He looked away from me to where my bedroom door was hanging open. That wasn't like me at all. I wanted to run and slam it closed but I resisted the urge.
"Why did Nick leave?" Pete suddenly demanded.
"He… he told you…family troubles."
"What kind of family troubles?" his scowl deepened. "They've never needed his help with anything before. Why now? What's going on?"
"I have no idea. Me and Nick aren't close."
"Not close?" His eyebrow shot high on his forehead. That was a bad sign.
"He didn't tell me shit. He just asked me to come here and help you with the hotel until he comes back."
"He told you to come here to help?"
I nodded. "I've worked in hotels my entire life."
"Why would he send you here if you aren't close?"
"I volunteered."
"But you said…"
"Just…" I held up my hand to cut him off. "I'm here for a while – he's not. That's all." Shit, going around in circles with Pete was going to get me in trouble really fast.
"Hmm," he grunted.
"So…can I stay here with you?" He never answered me before.
"I think you would be more comfortable if you got a room at the hotel."
"I'm not sure how long I'll be here though, this seems better than living out of a hotel room. Please?"
"Nick doesn't like people in his room."
That was true. After loosing so much in just a day, I couldn't imagine also loosing my bedroom and the comfort of seeing Pete every day. "He already told me it was ok. He doesn't care."
"Well…" His nose crinkled as his tongue ran over his bottom lip. "If Nick said it was ok…"
"He did."
"Then I guess it's alright for now." His lips went through the motion of smiling at me as he nodded.
Relief came instantly with that small nod. Everything so far today had gone ridiculously wrong but at least I could stay with Pete. Now I just needed some girl clothes.
"I can't go to work like this." I yanked the tee shirt away from my body, then let it fall back into place. "What should I do?"
"The airport might not find your things for a few days…"
Or never since I never had any to begin with.
"…so you should probably buy a few new outfits."
"I don't know how."
"Excuse me?"
"Are there any shops here in town?"
"There's a pretty nice place about twenty minutes from here. I can give you directions."
No way. I couldn't go in there alone. "Will you come with me?"
"Uh…" Pete searched my face and must have found something pitiful enough there. "Sure."
"Thank god."