For a moment I think about her and John and I’m panged. I try to erase the visual of them sleeping in the same bed, accidentally brushing up against each other. And I want to snap, But things are going very well between you two lately, right? But I think better of it.
Jordan gives me an empathetic smile, almost as if she relates, and then she looks at Casey. “And you, Casey, I didn’t get as much for you. It’s almost as if you’re . . .”
“Empty?” I offer without thinking, looking down to avoid the sharp look Casey throws my way.
“Yes, empty works,” Jordan says and looks at Casey sympathetically. “Care to talk about it?” she probes gently. “You can’t lock everything you feel down there forever,” she says as she points to Casey’s gut.
Casey is visibly uncomfortable but holds Jordan’s stare. “I’m okay,” she says simply and Jordan nods, unwilling to push the issue any further.
I change the subject back to the switch. “Well, if they’re so smart, then ask them how we switch our bodies back, what exactly we should do to reverse this spell.”
Jordan smiles sincerely. “I’m sorry, I know you guys want me to wave a magic wand, but I don’t have that answer for you.”
We both remain silent, waiting for her to reveal something, anything.
“There is something that might help. They are telling me that you already have the answer to switching back and it’s right in front of you. You need to think about why you switched in the first place and that will lead you to how you switch back.”
“Are they saying anything else? Anything? Do we have to pee in the same fountain? Do we have to drink from the same cup? There has to be something,” I plead.
Jordan closes her eyes and is silent for almost a full minute before she speaks. “There is something else. They’re saying the word promotion.”
“As in a promotion at work? Or promoting something, as in publicity? What exactly do they mean?” Casey asks eagerly.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know. They just keep saying it over and over. But I don’t know the context. I suppose that’s for you to figure out.”
Casey’s shoulders slump and I rub my temples.
“Doesn’t anyone get that we don’t know the answers here? That we’re not going to figure this out?” I say to no one in particular. “Can you at least tell us, or can they tell us if we’ll—”
Casey finishes my sentence, “—be able to switch back?”
Jordan closes her eyes for a moment and I hold my breath. This could be it, the moment that changes everything. When she pops them back open a few seconds later, she says apologetically, “When the universe is off balance it always wants to right itself. But whether that happens or not is up to you.”
CHAPTER 15
* * *
casey
I hang up the phone with the caterer and check one more thing off the list for John’s party. With Destiny helping out with the venue, I’ve been able to handle almost everything else, including getting the invitations out on time. I’ve tried to keep all of our interaction confined to email. Talking to her on the phone, pretending to be Rachel, makes me worry that I’ll slip up and she’ll realize whom she’s really talking to.
I’m both relieved and concerned that I’ve gotten so comfortable in Rachel’s life so quickly. While it makes the day-to-day much more bearable (I’m no longer asking the kids where everything is, causing them to wonder if early dementia has set in), I worry that the longer we’re in each other’s bodies, the harder it will be to get back to who we were. Although I think I can safely say no matter what happens, I probably won’t ever be the same after this experience.
I’d stayed up half the night trying to figure out what the word promotion had to do with switching our bodies back. There wasn’t a chance I’d be up for one anytime soon—not with Dean and Fiona constantly bad-mouthing and sabotaging me. And I wasn’t exactly getting any younger. In fact, there was part of me that wondered if I was going to get axed when I turned forty. And Rachel didn’t even have a job. Well, a paying job anyway. Rachel’s kids make my job at GossipTV seem easy. And on top of it all, she’d been working for free for years. Bitch needs a raise!
I’m still sitting at the kitchen table, lost in thought, when Audrey bounds in the door with a huge smile on her face, Sophie stomping in behind her. Audrey’s always been quiet and sometimes sullen, even as a baby. I remember coming over to John and Rachel’s apartment when she was a newborn, watching Rachel struggle and silently counting the minutes until I could get back to being an irresponsible twenty-two-year-old. Now, having become a pseudo-mom to Charlotte, I feel terrible that I wasn’t helpful. I had no idea what she was going through and never made an effort to understand what it was like to give up everything she’d worked for to raise a family. I see now that she made a sacrifice. My GossipTV life seems so far away to me, and each day I feel a little more detached and find myself caring a little bit less about how long I can stay on top of the dog pile there.