A World To Give

Nelson steps in to help out his company when his twin sister, Rowan,
unexpectedly leaves to take another job. While assuming her identity, he
realizes that there is a lot more to the world than he’d previously known and
he decides to take some chances he never took before.

Nelson discovered a whole new world!

---

Author's Note: I have returned to BCTS and have dropped off an entirely new story for you all to peruse. I do hope it grabs your attention and tickles your fancy. I would also like to thank Sephrena for encouraging me to continue my writing to keep my sanity as I delve into these newer works and deal with life, such as it is. Please, read, enjoy, and perhaps leave me a tasty treat of a comment? Please? ~Clara.

Image Credit: https://perchance.org/beautiful-people
 
 
Chapter 1
 
The phone vibrated again. He glanced at it and saw the same name that had called five times earlier. He just was not interested in talking to her right now. He was not typically that kind of person, but she had really irritated him this time, and she was excellent at irritating him when she wanted to.

He pushed the red button on the phone screen, and it stopped vibrating.

Seconds later, it rang again.

Was she ever gonna stop?

Again, he pushed the red button.

The phone remained still and quiet for a solid minute before the vibrating started again. This was too much. She knew he was working on the figures for the upcoming sales-pitch for the company and didn’t have time for this foolishness. She made her decision on her own, without consulting him, without telling him that she made the decision, so she could deal with it herself.

He pushed the red button.

Then a phone vibrated again, he pushed the red button and then shut the phone off. He would turn it on again in a few minutes, but at least this will give him some respite. He returned to his computer.

About three minutes later, someone knocked at his door. It couldn’t be her, he thought. she was persistent, but she wouldn’t have come over if he had ignored all those phone calls. Obviously, he did not want to talk to her, so he certainly did not want to see her.

Since he didn’t expect any visitors at this time of day, especially on a Sunday, and the only packages he expected to be delivered were from Amazon, and they didn’t knock, there was only one explanation. It had to be her.

He would ignore it.

Then the shouting started:

“Come on Nelson, open the GODDAMN door! I’m not going away. Open up or your neighbors will all think that something horrible is happening out here.”

He thought about calling the police, but that would just make things so much worse.

“C’mon! Open up!” She shouted and banged and banged and banged.

Finally, with a groan of frustration and anger, he stood up, hurried to the door, opening it just far enough to put his face through the opening. “What?”

“Open the door and let me in, Nelson,” she said with that mix of exhaustion and irritation that she’d mastered when she was a child and still used when talking to her brother.

“Why should I?”

“Because I need to speak to you, and you won’t answer your phone. So, instead of dealing with my life, I’m here to talk to you.”

“Maybe you should have talked to me before you resigned.”

“What does me resigning have to do with you?”

“Are you serious?” He was truly shocked. “Because I got you that job, Rowan. Because I stuck my neck out for you and you should have at the very least told me you were leaving before you walked out and left your team hanging in the midst of one of the biggest negotiations that the company has ever been involved in.”

“Oh, for the love of…” she used that tone again. “Nelson, I worked for Global for three years and I did nothing but great work for them.” She sighed. “Look, I’m willing to talk to you about this, but not through this door. Let me in. It’s freaking cold out here.”

He shook his head to display his disbelief, but he stepped back and opened the door wide enough to allow her to enter. Unfortunately, she also brought in a blast of cold, Massachusetts-in-February air.

“Thank you,” she said, without any hint of thanks in her voice, as he closed the door. She entered the living room, took off her winter coat, dropping it over a chair, and took off her warm, knitted scarf, and her hat, shaking her always perfectly bobbed, dyed red/gold hair then proceeded to the kitchen where she started his Keurig coffee maker and set about making herself some coffee.

“No, please… make yourself at home,” Nelson said, sarcastically.

She chose not to acknowledge the remark.

“Ok,” he said as she fussed with the preparations for her drink, “you’re in my apartment. What did you want to say?” He was really hurt. Not only was she leaving Global Security, she was also leaving him, and he wasn’t really ready to deal with that.

She sighed. “Look, Nelly,” she said, using the nickname she’d used since childhood, and he’d hated since childhood, “I have a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for one of the largest firms in the world and I’m not going to apologize for taking advantage of that opportunity.”

‘And leaving us flat when we’re days away from closing on one of the biggest deals we’ve ever negotiated.”

“A deal I got to this point, Nelly. I hunted down the company. I hunted down the CEO. I did all of the hard work on that deal. Now it’s up to the rest of you to close it.”

“Look, Rowan… why didn’t you at least give me a heads up that you’d be leaving? I found out when Jessie called me all pissed off about this! I look like a complete idiot to everyone. This is cyber-security, Rowan. We are selling ourselves to our customers by proving that they can trust us, and come to find out, I can’t even trust you!”

Rowan pulled a mug of hot coffee out of the Keurig and went to the refrigerator for some half-and-half.

“Ok, Nelly, I apologize about that. I was actually on my way over here to tell you about it when everything hit the fan. See… when the Headhunters from ‘Bannon and Wick’ first contacted me about taking a position with them, I never thought it would amount to anything, but… well, over the last month or so they became very persistent and with the vast increase in pay, the opportunity to travel all over the world, and their appreciation for the work I’ve been doing… I mean… how could I say ‘no,’ right? And when I finally said ‘yes,’ I didn’t realize they’d need me in the UK for training by Tuesday. It just all happened so fast. I was going to tell you first, but they sent Jessie an email before I could.” She sipped her coffee. “You understand, don’t you?”

Nelson shook his head. Of course he understood, but now he was caught in the middle of all this nonsense. It was going to be a hard few weeks at work before this all blew over. “Yeah… I guess…” he mumbled. “You picked a terrible time to go, though, and I’m going to get a lot of heat over it…”

Rowan nodded. “I guess. Sorry about that, but there’s not a single person working at Global that wouldn’t make the same decision, Nelly. I guarantee that.”

He sighed, a bit resigned. “Alright… but I’m still going to have to calm down Jessie tomorrow morning. She was really ticked off when she called me to tell me you’d quit.”

“There’s no reason for her to be mad at you because I left.”

“Of course there is, Rowan! I vouched for you! This company has been very good to me. They hired me with no experience. They paid for my PhD. They made the life I now have possible for me, and I vouched for you when they hired you. How many times have you heard Jessie call Global a family company? Maybe a thousand times, right? And that’s because she believes that it is. For you, this is just an opportunity. For her, it’s a betrayal. And I’m part of that betrayal in her mind.”

“Well, she’ll just have to get over that,” Rowan shrugged. “It’s not a family, it’s a career and my career just took a step in a new direction. She’ll come around on that. I’ve already told her I’m leaving; I’ve already apologized for no notice… I can’t make her be rational.”

Nelson shook his head. Jessie wasn’t always the most rational person he knew, but then again, neither was Rowan. They were very similar – both very sure of themselves, both very unhappy when challenged, both very prone to flying off the handle. They were just too much alike and that was a problem for Nelson.

“Yeah, well, it’s easier for you to say all that than it will be for me tomorrow morning. She’s already called an ‘All Hands On Deck’ meeting for nine o’clock. She’s very concerned that you leaving may cost us the O’Connell account.”

Rowan smirked. “I guess I should be flattered that I was that valuable. Funny – she never made me feel all that valuable before.”

Nelson rolled his eyes. “Don’t be petty, Rowan. You know that you were an important part of the company. You told me as much on many occasions, and you received plenty of bonuses for your hard work. You’re leaving because you got an offer you couldn’t refuse – not because you were unappreciated at Global. You’re leaving a huge hole, and you know it. A lot of us are going to have to work a lot harder to land the O’Connell account now.”

Rowan looked at the clock on Nelson’s stove. “I can’t stay, Nelly. I have to be in London by Tuesday morning. My flight is at ten-thirty tomorrow morning and I need to pack.”

Nelson nodded. “Yeah, well…” then something occurred to him. “What are you doing about your apartment?”

She swallowed a sip of coffee. “Funny you should ask.” She smiled. “Would I be asking too much if I asked you to drop by every few days until I get back? It’s on your way home, anyway, and all you’d have to do is bring my mail up, water my plants and just check on things to make sure no pipes have burst, or anyone has broken in, or anything like that.”

Nelson snickered. Rowan lived in a beautiful apartment, in a gorgeous building, in a nicer part of town than he did, and she was on the fourteenth floor. So, the chances of a broken pipe or a break-in going unnoticed were slim to none. But… she was his sister, so…

He shrugged, then nodded, then said, “Yeah… ok.”

She smiled and laid a lanyard with two keys on it on the table. “Thanks, Nelly.” She smiled that almost flirtatious smile that she had used on him since they had been babies in the same crib. She knew it always worked on him. Hell, she’d probably used it on him when they shared their mother’s womb. “I knew I could count on you.”

That was when it hit him: She was leaving. Really leaving. Like, going an entire ocean away. They’d seen each other nearly everyday since they day that they were born twenty-three years earlier. Nelson had been born at 8:07am and Rowan at 8:54am.

They’d slept in the same room together every night as children. They’d both graduated three years early from high school, Nelson as valedictorian with a GPA just 0.025 points higher than the salutatorian, Rowan. They’d both gone to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) together and finished their bachelor’s degrees in two-and-a-half years before earning their master's degrees the very next year.

They’d both lived at home all the way through WPI because their mother, God rest her soul, couldn’t help pay for any portion of their educations. She barely kept a roof over their heads and the lights on as they grew up. To tell the truth, the lights didn’t always stay on. As they entered the work force, the twins helped pay the bills until Nelson bought his condo where their mom lived until her passing just over a year earlier.

Heck, they even shared the same names! He was Nelson Rowan Egan, while she was Rowan Nelson Egan. Their mother, who’s maiden name had been Nelson, felt this was a special gift to her children. It wasn’t always.

Rowan, who did not continue on to earn a PhD, worked at another firm for a year or so until Nelson encouraged her to move to Global. It was a good move, too. More money and more challenging work. She had really enjoyed her time there, but now new opportunities and new challenges awaited.

“I’m going to miss you,” Nelson said, taking the keys. Socializing didn’t come easy for Nelson. Having Rowan as a buffer between him and the rest of the world had always been a comfort. Now she was leaving.

“Aww, Nelly,” Rowan gave him a sad smile, then hugged him. “I’ll be back in a few months and we’ll see each other.”

“Yeah, but it won’t be the same.” He felt a lot more emotion than he would have expected. “You’ll work at Bannon & Wick, and I’ll work at Global… mom’s gone, so there’s no reason for you to come over here… we’ll both get busy… it just won’t be the same.”

Rowan sniffled. “We’ll see each other, Nelly. I promise. Now, don’t cry because then I’ll cry and I don’t have time for that today.”

He chuckled a little. “You know, everyone always said we were geniuses, but I don’t think that’s true. I think we’re just average people, but we’re really competitive and we’ve always had each other to compete against. Without each other, we might lose our competitive edge.”

“I doubt that,” Rowan laughed. “We’ll just have to compete against the whole rest of the world instead of each other.”

Nelson nodded and laughed. “Maybe now you’ll have a chance to win your competitions instead of always coming in second to me.” He knew that this jibe would set her off, and that’s what he’d wanted to do.

“Oh really!?” She laughed. “Well, you may have done just a fraction better than I did in school, Nelly, but let me remind you that I was always better at sports and that I am substantially taller than you.”

“Like I ever cared about sports,” Nelson said, chuckling, “and as for being ‘substantially taller’ than me… I hate to break it to you, Rowan, but three-quarters-of-an-inch in not exactly ‘substantial.’”

“I don’t know, Nelly,” she grinned. “I was five-foot-four-and-a-half inches at my last doctor’s visit, and I weighed in at one-hundred-and-fourteen pounds. How much do you weigh?”

The news surprised Nelson. It meant that Rowan had gained another inch and several pounds since they’d last compared sizes – which had probably been in college. At five-foot-two-and-three-quarters and one-hundred-and-six pounds, Nelson was definitely falling behind in the growth and BMI competition.

“About the same,” he responded, noncommittally.

“I bet,” she laughed. She hugged him again. “You know…” Rowan sounded playful, “Melissa, that cute nurse that lives a couple of doors down from me, told me that her divorce was finalized last week.”

“So?”

“So… I know you think she’s attractive…” she let that hang.

“So?” Nelson repeated.

“Oh, come on, Nelly!” She let out an exasperated laugh. “If you’re dropping by my place, you’ll probably be running into her.”

“I know this is going to sound repetitive, but… so?”

“So, ask her out for crying out loud.”

“Why?” Nelson’s question wasn’t quite as obtuse as it may have seemed. The truth was, he’d never really thought much about a romantic relationship. He thought women were wonderful! They were attractive, the smelled nice… many of his closest friends were women. But was he not interested in getting romantically involved with anyone, female or male. Not at all. He just wasn’t attracted to anyone in that way. He never had been and he had never really understood romantic relationships.

She sighed a frustrated sigh and shook her head. There was no point in pursuing this conversation. “I gotta go, Nelly. I really do feel bad about all this stuff with Global, but…” She shrugged. “I’ll call or text you when I land.” She kissed his cheek. “Love you.” Then she pulled on his shaggy mane of hair. “And get a haircut while I’m gone.” She smiled.

‘Love you?’ That was odd. They didn’t say things like that to each other. Maybe he should respond in kind, though. She was leaving after all.

“Love you, too, Rowan,” he said, feeling very awkward. “See you soon.”
 
 

 
 
“As you all probably know by now,” Jessie began the meeting, exactly at nine o’clock the next morning, “Rowan has left us very suddenly and we need to be ready for Wednesday’s meeting with Bill O’Connell from O’Connell and Associates. My first inclination was to put Nelson in charge of the presentation because he knows more about our systems than anyone…”

Nelson’s heart clenched in his chest. The presentational aspects of the business were not really his expertise. He was all about numbers.

“…but he’s more of a tech guy than a presentation guy…”

Oh, thank God!

“So, I’ve asked Nadine to handle Wednesday’s presentation. I hope we can all help her pick up the slack that Rowan left behind.”

There were grunts of approval around the huge table where all the members of the company sat or stood.

Jessie, who usually looked like a model, but looked as if every hour of her forty-eight years of life had been a struggle on that day, looked at Nelson with an almost scolding stare. “Nelson, after this meeting, I need you to meet with Nadine and get her up to speed on all the technical aspects of this project. Ok?”

“Of course,” he nodded.

“Then I would like to see you in my office at one-forty-five to talk about a few things.”

“Of course,” he repeated, but this time he was a bit concerned about the purpose of that request/command.

“Ok,” Jessie looked at Nadine, “What do you need?”

Jessie sat and Nadine stood. She was a pleasant looking woman in her mid-thirties. Always wearing a smile. A born salesperson. “Well, it’s been a long night, but so far, I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on things. As you all know, this will be a virtual meeting with Bill O’Connell, so we need a good looking, digital presentation…

The next few hours were a blur of problem-solving ideas and offers of support to help Nadine prep for Wednesday’s meeting. By the time they broke for lunch, it was after one-thirty. So as the rest of his colleagues headed to Delis and Pizza places to grab their lunch, Nelson took a moment to use the men’s room before his meeting with Jessie. He didn’t need to use the facilities; he just needed somewhere to be alone and prepare, and his office didn’t offer that kind of sanctuary.

At one-forty-five exactly, Nelson knocked on the door frame to Jessie’s office. “You wanted to see me?” He said, stating the obvious.

Jessie was seated at her desk. She removed the cheap reading glasses that sat near the end of her nose and said, “Come in, Nelson, and close the door.”

He did.

“How did everything go in there?” Jessie asked as Nelson sat.

“Ok, I guess. They all agreed not to tell Bill O’Connell that Rowan has left the company, which I feel is a mistake.”

“Actually, that was my suggestion.”

Well, he’d walked right into that. “Oh.”

“And why do you feel that we shouldn’t hide Rowan’s departure from him?”

“Because it’s a lie and I don’t think lying to a client is ethical.”

“We just won’t mention it. That’s all. I think of it more as a sin of omission than a lie.”

“And if he asks directly about why she’s not the one in charge of the meeting?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Jessie sat back and thought for a moment. “So… you had no idea that Rowan was planning on leaving?”

“Not a clue.’

“And did she explain why she has left us in the lurch this way?”

Nelson gave a summary of his conversation with his sister to Jessie. Then speculated, “I guess they didn’t give her a lot of options in the new job.”

Jessie nodded, then said, “We have a lot invested in you, Nelson.”

He gave a small nod.

“I hope we can count on you to do whatever needs to be done to help us close the O’Donnell deal.”

Nelson nodded. “Of course. Anything at all.”

Jessie gave him a wry smile. She liked this kid. She always had. “Good. Thank you, Nelson. That’s all for now.”
 
 

 
 
The rest of that day was spent prepping Nadine on technical issues for the impending meeting with O’Connell. By the end of the workday, Nelson was exhausted and more than anything wanted to go home, have something light for dinner, and conk out in front of the TV with a documentary playing quietly, but he thought he’d better check on the condition of Rowan’s apartment. She may have had to leave in a rush, and her plants may be dry. So, he headed that way.

The plants were dry, but that wasn’t the biggest issue when he arrived. Rowan’s apartment looked as if squatters had moved in and emptied her closets and drawers all over the place. Of course, that wasn’t the case. He knew right away that his sister had just been in a big rush to leave and had probably tried on a hundred pieces of clothing before deciding what to bring with her, then ran out of time to put thing away.

Just then his phone rang. It was Rowan. He answered it.

“I’m guessing that you called to ask me to pick up the ramshackled mess you left behind.”

“What?” Rowan sounded confused. “No. I called to say I landed and got to my hotel safely. I thought you’d like to know.”

He gave a small laugh. “Of course I wanted to know. How was your flight?”

They chatted for a few minutes about the trip, etcetera, until Rowan said, “I gotta get to bed, Nelly. It’s late here and I have to get up early. I just wanted to let you know I was here and that I miss you and… I love you.”

This last declaration once again caught Nelson by surprised. Of course, he loved his sister, and he knew she loved him, but they just didn’t say it very much, and this was the second time in two days. She had stuttered a bit before saying the words, and he had to admit that the words didn’t come all that naturally to him, either.

“I… love you too,” he finally managed to say.

“Just leave the mess,” she said, with a big yawn embellishing the last word.

“Uh huh,” he said. He knew that she knew that he couldn’t leave the place looking as it did. She had gone to The UK knowing she’d come back to an apartment that was cleaner than the apartment she’d left. And that was okay. She’d had to rush out; he’d take care of the mess.

It was past eight in the evening when he finally left to head back home. Good God, Rowan was a clothes horse! Her closet, the closet in the guest room, the hall closets were all filled to bursting, AND THAT WAS WITHOUT THE CLOTHES SHE’D TAKEN WITH HER! Nelson had just the essentials: two pairs of jeans, two pairs of beige chinos, two suits, a dozen polo shirts (his typical work uniform was chinos and a polo, with jeans replacing the chinos on a casual days), and four dress shirts. Beyond that he had four ties, eight pairs of socks, eight boxer shorts, and eight ‘A’ style tee shirts. You had to have eight of each under garment just in case you had to postpone laundry day occasionally.

He was glad to see, however, that Rowan’s closets were organized by types of clothes. Business/work clothes in her bedroom closet, casual clothes in her guest room closet, and specialized clothes (clothes for vacations, outings, etc.) in the hall closet. It took a while, but everything was either on a hanger in a closet or folded neatly and placed in a drawer when he locked the door behind him and headed down in the elevator.

He picked up a salad with some chicken on it from a restaurant near his place and settled down in front of his TV to watch an American history documentary on a streaming service while he ate. By ten-fifteen he’d eaten about half the salad and fallen asleep on the couch, where he remained until seven the next morning when his phone alarm went off. Thank heavens it was set to go off at seven every weekday. A shower and a check on his face to see if a shave was needed – it was not. He rarely shaved more than once a month and even then, it wasn’t really necessary. Then he headed to his favorite coffee shop for a muffin and coffee before heading back to the office.

“Doctor Egan?” The barista called when his coffee was ready.

Nelson raised his hand and leaned through a few customers to grab the cup and the plate that held his cranberry-walnut muffin. He headed for a table.

“Nelly?” A voice called.

Nelson turned and saw Melissa, the nurse who lived down the hall from Rowan, sitting alone at a small, round table.

“Oh…hey,” he said, surprised to see her.

“Join me,” she smiled. “I heard them call ‘Doctor Egan’ and I thought ‘that sounds familiar,’ but I couldn’t think of who that would be. I guess I don’t think of you as a ‘doctor.’” She chuckled.

“Yeah,” Nelson nodded. “Most people don’t, but there you go! The ‘Dr’ is on the nameplate on the door to my office and I use it in restaurants because it usually gets me quicker service. Other than that, bring a PhD in applied mathematics isn’t a very cool thing.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Melissa smiled. “I think it’s pretty cool.”

“You’re the only one, then” Nelson said, oblivious to the woman’s flirtations.

She was a small woman, maybe an inch or so taller than Nelson. About Rowan’s height. Slender, but with some curves. A plump face and a warm smile.

There were a few awkward moments of silence – awkward for Melissa that is. Nelson busied himself with preparing and then nibbling at his muffin. Finally, Melissa broke the silence. “So, Rowan is in the UK for awhile, huh?”

Nelson nodded. “A few months anyway.”

“So… you’ll probably be coming by her place now and then to check on things…?”

“Yeah. I guess so.”

Another awkward moment. Then – “Maybe we could have dinner sometime or something like that. You know… since you’ll be there anyway.”

Nelson shrugged. “Yeah… I guess… maybe…”

He didn’t seem too pleased with the idea, but Melissa knew that Nelson was a bit of and odd duck, so she didn’t get offended by his ambivalence. “Great!” She said, as if he’d been excited by the idea. “I’ll… umm… I’ll catch you in the hallway some time when you’re at Rowan’s and we’ll set up a time, then.”

“Ok,” Nelson said, still not realizing that he was committing to a date sometime in his future.

“Ok,” Melissa smiled. ‘Well, I gotta get going. I’ll…” she stood and pulled her jacket on over her nurse’s scrubs. “I’ll talk to you at Rowan’s then.”

Nelson nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “Ok. See ya.”

Melissa smiled. “Yeah. See ya.”

She left with a smile on her face. Nelson went back to his muffin and quickly forgot about the conversation.
 
 

 
 
That morning was more of the same as Monday had been – prepping Nadine for the meeting on Wednesday. After lunch, Nelson retreated to his office and his own work; work he enjoyed much more than this ‘sales’ nonsense.

At 4:51pm, Jessie appeared leaning into his doorway. “Have you spoken to Rowan since she left?”

Nelson looked up from his computer screen. “Ummm, yeah. I spoke to her last night. She called to tell me she’d landed safely.”

Jessie nodded. “You know, Nelson… I said some things to Rowan on Sunday that weren’t very nice, and I feel pretty bad about it.”

He sat back. “I’m pretty sure Rowan feels the same. She seemed to feel pretty bad about having to leave in such a rush.”

Jessie sighed and nodded. “If you’re talking to her… tell her… you know…”

He nodded. “Ok.”

Jessie nodded again. “Listen, Nelson… I know that you’re more comfortable hiding in this office than dealing with sales, but tomorrow is a really important day, ok? So, we’ll all be standing by to help Nadine any way that we can.”

“I know,” Nelson said. “Like I said, Jess… I’m here to help any way that I can.”

“Thank you, Nelson.” She straightened up. “See you in the morning.”
 
 

 
 
Nelson went by Rowan’s apartment again that evening. He’d done well picking up her clothes the previous evening, but there were a few dishes in the sink that he hadn’t gotten to, so he figured he’d at least load and run the dish washer so that there was nothing to attract flies or cause an odor.

As he left the elevator and headed toward’s his sister’s door, he remembered the conversation he’d had with Rowan’s neighbor, Melissa, earlier in the day. He didn’t really have the energy to have another session like that again just then, so he tip-toed past Melissa’s apartment, then entered Rowan’s place, opening and closing the door as quietly as possible.

He made it.

He let out a hushed sigh of relief.

He loaded the dishwasher and turned it on. Then sat for just a couple of moments before heading home. He sat on the couch and looked at the view out Rowan’s window. It was a nice view. The frozen water of Lake Quinsigamond looked very nice in the early darkness of the mid-winter, and the lights of the city of Worcester beyond made a lovely, relaxing scene. He’d always liked this place but thought that it was grossly overpriced due to this view and the quality of the apartments' design. ‘Good enough’ had always suited Nelson. His place was ‘good enough.’ His furniture was ‘good enough.’ And that was good enough for him.

He was just starting to rethink his point of view when there was a knock on the door.

Damn! Melissa had heard him! How? He’d been so quiet.

Oh, well. Nothing he could do now. He’d have to go talk to her.

He stood and headed for the door. He was about to open it when he heard Melissa’s voice coming from down the hallway. “Can I help you?”

Then a man’s voice answered her and the man’s voice was just outside the door.

“Oh… umm… yes… hi,” the deep voice said. “This is Rowan Egan’s apartment, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is, but she’s not there. She’s away.”

“Away?” The voice asked. “For how long?”

“I’m not sure,” Melissa’s voice answered. “Awhile, anyway.”

“That’s odd.”

“Did you have a date with her tonight?”

“Not exactly. I have a meeting with her tomorrow, and I just thought I’d come by and take her to dinner to kinda… break the ice, I guess.”

Nelson’s stomach flipped. Was that really Bill O’Connell out there? He didn’t know what to do at that point. Why was O’Connell even there? Nelson placed his ear against the door to listen but didn’t dare look through the peep hole for fear that O’Connell might detect movement inside the apartment.

“Tomorrow?” Melissa sounded confused but didn’t explain any further. Finally, she said, “Those are beautiful roses.”

Nelson heard the man chuckle. “I thought so. Would you like them?”

“Oh, I couldn’t…”

“Of course you can,” the man said.

Nelson heard some movement and a little shuffling of things in the hall. Then he heard the man speaking as he moved back to Rowan’s door. “I’ll just leave her a note. Thank you for your help.”

There was the sound of movement outside the door and then a business card slid under the door. Then he heard movement away from the door.

“Have a great night,” the man said.

“You too,” Melissa replied. “And thank you for the flowers.”

The elevator chimed. “My pleasure,” the man said. “Enjoy them.”

He heard the elevator door close followed immediately by the sound of Melissa’s door closing.

Then silence.

After a few seconds passed, Nelson bent and picked up the card. On one side, the words:

 
‘O’Connell & Associates
William O’Connell, President’
 

There was a telephone number, email and mailing address as well.

On the back, he’d handwritten, ‘Hi, Rowan. I had such a great phone convo with you last week that I thought I’d swing by and say hi and maybe grab a drink before tomorrow’s meeting. Sorry I missed you. See you in the morning. Bill.’

As quickly as he could, Nelson grabbed his phone and touched his sister’s name. It rang three times before the groggy voice of Rowan came through.

“Nelly?” She mumbled. “What time…? Nelly it’s past midnight here. I was sound asleep. What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” he said anxiously, but quietly. “I was at your place, doing the dishes when Bill O’Connell showed up at your door with flowers. That’s what’s going on!”

“Bill? Flowers? How sweet. Wait… how did he get my address? Ok, that’s a little creepy, but the flowers are still sweet.”

“Geez, Rowan! Were you and O’Connell dating?”

“No… of course not. I flirted with him over the phone a little, but it was all just harmless fun.”

“Yeah, well he obviously thought it was more than harmless! And why is he even in town? Tomorrow’s meeting is supposed to be virtual and in the afternoon. He said he’d see you at the meeting in the morning.”

“Well, how should I know. You’re the one who spoke to him.”

“No, I didn’t,” Nelson said, then related the story of how he listened at the door.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Nelly. This isn’t really my problem anymore. I’ll call him in the morning and explain why I left the firm if you’d like…”

“No!” Nelson said too loudly. Then he lowered his volume and continued. “Jessie was very specific about how she wanted to handle information about your departure and she made it clear that O’Connell in not to know that you’ve left.”

“Then there’s nothing I can do, Nelly. Look it’s late and I have to be up very early. I gotta hang up. Call me if you want me to talk to O’Connell and explain things. That’s about all I can do. I really need to get back to sleep now, Nelly. So… ‘night.”

The line went silent.

Damn! There was no choice. He needed to call Jessie now.
 
 

 
 
“Great! Just GREAT!” Jessie half shouted. “And Rowan says that she had no idea he was going to make a move on her?”

“None,” Nelson replied, not happy to be the messenger in this case. “How do you want to handle this?”

“No idea,” Jessie huffed. “I need to think through this. I’ll need to talk to Nadine, too. What time did he say he’d be there?”

“He didn’t. He just said, ‘in the morning.’”

He could almost hear the gears grinding in his boss’ head through the phone. Finally, she said, “How early can you get here tomorrow?”

“Any time you’d like.”

“Ok… why don’t I pull together a meeting for seven tomorrow. I’ll send out an email and try to get a quorum there, but… I’ll call Nadine now and maybe the three of us can get in earlier than that so we can get things rolling.”
 
 

 
 
It wasn’t a restful night. Jessie and Nadine each called several times. His anxiety level had been high since O’Connell arrived at Rowan’s door, but after the constant calls and the lack of sleep, Nelson’s anxiety level was off the charts – and he hated that. He liked things to be organized and orderly – like numbers. Some people – people like Rowan – thrived in chaos. Nelson didn’t. This was not going to be a good day; he could feel it.

He was in his office at six-fifteen, and he was not the first to arrive. Nadine and Jessie were already in the conference room with computers opened and lots of ideas flying. Because of his rush to get to the office, he’d not had time for coffee, and his tired brain definitely needed a caffeine kick that morning.

He’d just put a pod in the coffee maker and grabbed a Rice Krispies Treat from the cupboard when he heard Jessie call him into the conference room.

“Morning,” he mumbled as he entered, still in need of coffee.

Each mumbled a similar greeting.

He sat in his usual place at the conference table, to Jessie’s left, and Nadine sat across from him.

“How’s it going?” He asked.

“Well, we have an idea,” Jessie said, but she looked a bit uncertain.

Apparently, the idea was a secret, because no one felt the need to share it with him for a solid minute. Finally, Nadine said, “Ok… so… my wife came up with this idea, and both Jessie and I think it is our only shot to pull this off today.”

Nelson glanced at Jessie who nodded. “Now, keep an open mind,” she said, “and remember that you told me that you’d do anything we needed to do to land this deal.”

Nelson nodded, but he suspected that they’d somehow come up with a plan that would require him to do a ton of extra work.

He was right.

“So, as you know,” Nadine resumed, “Kris, my wife, runs the salon at the corner of South Street and Cooper Ave, about a block from here.”

Nelson nodded, but the truth was that he not aware that Nadine’s wife ran a salon. In fact, until that moment, he didn’t even know that Nadine had a partner of any kind, let alone a wife. He had nodded only as a means of indicating that he was listening.

“Almost all the girls here go to Kris for everything, hair, nails… whatever.”

Nelson nodded again.

Jessie added, “Rowan goes to Kris, too. So do I.”

Another nod, but things were still not clear to him.

Nadine glanced at Jessie who made a gesture to continue.

“So, I told Kris about our situation here, and she suggested that we just present a ‘replacement Rowan’ to Bill O’Connell. You know… just for today. You know… have someone done up to… look just like Rowan… and… meet with O’Connell.”

Silence.

“What do you think?” Jessie asked.

“I don’t know,” Nelson shrugged. “It seems a little… sketchy, if you know what I mean. I think we should just tell O’Connell…”

“Out of the question,” Jessie interrupted. “He’s already on the fence and I need him to come over to our side. Rowan gave him the confidence to work with us, so we cannot take that relationship out of the equation.”

Nelson nodded. “Ok… so then, if you get someone to dress as Rowan, and O’Connell is kind of crushing on Rowan, then whoever she is, she’ll have to be exactly like Rowan. Look like her…”

The women nodded.

“… move like her…”

They nodded again.

“… talk like her…”

Another nod.

“… the whole shebang.”

“Exactly,” Jessie agreed.

“Do you have a girl in mind?” Nelson asked, oblivious.

“We have the perfect girl in mind,” Nadine smiled.

“Who?”

“You,” Jessie said, decisively.

“ME!?” Nelson practically screamed.

“Yes, you,” Jessie said, calmly.

“Why me?” Nelson looked at Nadine for assistance, but none came.

Instead, Nadine said, “Because you and Rowan have pretty much identical faces, you’re exactly the same size, you sound just like her on the phone, and when the two of you walk through the office together, it’s uncanny how similarly you move. You probably don’t even notice it, but everybody else sure has, and we’ve all talked about it a million times, too.”

Nelson was beginning to feel trapped, but also very confused. “But…” he sputtered, “… there are sixty-three people working in this company, in this office, on this floor, and only four of them are men. Why can’t a woman do this!?”

“Because we only have a couple of hours to pull this all together, Nelson,” Nadine said in a rather calm and oddly logical tone, considering the situation. “Kris says that she can dye your hair and cut it to look just like Rowan’s, and deal with whatever else needs to be done in just a few hours’ time. She’s already at the studio waiting for us.”

“This… this is crazy,” Nelson shook his head. “This is nuts! First off, Rowan and I do not have ‘the same face.’ Yeah, we look similar, but that’s all.”

“You look nearly identical,” Jessie said, shaking her head.

Nelson HATED the word ‘identical.’ Being a twin that looked SIMILAR to his twin sister was frustrating enough. The word ‘IDENTICAL’ when used to describe twins had connotations that did not apply to Rowan and him. They were fraternal twins. End of story. He chose not to argue that point at the moment, though.

He continued, “We do not sound the same…”

“Of course you do,” Jessie said, getting a little impatient. “If it weren’t for caller ID, I would never know the difference between the two of you on the phone.”

“… and I definitely DO NOT walk like Rowan does.”

“Yes, you do,” Jessie said, banging her palm on the table to stop Nelson. “Look, Nelson, I wouldn’t ask you to do this if there was an alternative, but there isn’t. There is only one person who can be our ‘Rowan for the day,’ and that’s YOU. Now, you said you’d do ‘anything’ to help. Were you just spouting hyperbole, or are you going to man-up and be a woman for a few hours?”

He looked around the empty office for help, but there was no one there to call on.

He thought about stating that they were asking way too much of him, but then he remembered how the company not only paid for his PhD, but also made sure that he had the time off he needed to complete the degree AND the time he needed to deal with his mother’s health issues when she was sick. This company had always been there for him. Jessie had always been there for him.

He owed her an awful lot.

He sighed.

How bad could it be? A few hours of pretending to be Rowan, then they’d secure the O’Connell contract and… and then…

“Ok,” he finally said. “I’ll do it, but as soon as we have his name on the dotted line, we come clean. We tell him that Rowan is gone and not coming back. We just… kinda… back-date the day of her departure. Ok?”

Jessie thought for a moment. “We’ll have to wait a few weeks, but yes… we’ll tell him. Until then, we’ll just say that she’s out of town, or something. You may have to do a little bit of follow up on the phone, but we’ll figure out how to keep you out of sight. Ok?”

What choice did he have?

He nodded. “Ok.”

“Awesome!” Nadine said, pulling out her phone and sending a text. “Let’s get going.”
 
To Be Continued...