CARA

I felt numb. I didn’t know if I was feeling the right feeling I would have felt if I were in my original body. I knew I was walking but I somehow didn’t feel it. It had always been this way since I found out I was residing in Bridgette’s body. Maybe because I was not familiar with my hands, arms, feet, legs—everything. It was like being half-awake—you knew what you were doing but you weren’t sure if it was real.

But like any other dreams, I was hoping I would soon wake up and adapt the motion, the feel of Bridgette’s body. I literally stumbled more than three times in her heels. My feet weren’t as long as hers and I had to struggle—while wearing the c-collar.

After some time, I finally found the trick. I just made myself believe that Bridgette was me and I was Bridgette. That way, I became aware of every muscle, joints, sensations, extremities—everything except her mind. I was still in full control of my own speech and thinking if not my movements. That would take a while for me to master.

“Your feet are quite big for these heels,” I noted, cringing with every step.

“No, it’s not. You’re just tired of walking. This is why we have to take back our cars. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

I turned to her sharply. “Don’t forget that you will be at the hospital tomorrow evening. I’ll get the car in the morning, I’ll drive to my place and we’ll go through everything you’ll have to do.”

She groaned. “I don’t think I can do it. I am not made to be a nurse.”

“Just say so and I can go back home. I don’t need to do this meeting either.”

“Fine! I’ll go to the damn hospital.”

“And remember: try to avoid Dr.—”

“Newman. Yeah, yeah. I get it. He’s your worst enemy in the hospital. Anybody else I need to know about?”

“You, but then you are in my body so I couldn’t hate you as much as I did before. It’s like hating myself.”

Bridgette sighed. “Me either. I can’t hate you for now because I love myself too much. Just look at you. You’re perfect.”

I rolled my eyes. “You give yourself too much credit.”

“Well, it’s true. I look perfect. Have you not looked in the mirror?”

“Whatever.”

BRIDGETTE

We continued to walk down the crowded sidewalk to my office. I noted how Cara was struggling with my body and I could say the same. It was not easy to be trapped in her body either. It was a good thing she didn’t have to wear high heels. But I must admit, the lady had some muscles. Her legs felt fantastic felt I could walk all day.

“Keep your head high,” I whispered beside her as we entered the big building. The guard looked at her with glimmer in his eyes and I noted that. I never even noticed he looked at me that way! “Follow me,” I said to her when we entered the lobby, walking directly to the elevators.

There were a few people waiting for the doors to open. I took Cara’s hand and pulled her aside. “When we enter my office, you have to ask for the reports I asked my secretary to do days ago. I already told her I had an accident so she wouldn’t ask you anything. Just act like I would. Go directly to the red door to the left. The one to the right is the conference room. Do you follow me?”

“What’s your secretary’s name?”

“Lora, Cora, Dora…whatever. I can never get it right.”

“She’s your secretary.”

“So?”

“So you should know her!”

“I don’t need to. For all I know, she’s already planning to leave.”

She did not have time to argue since the elevator doors opened and we had to fight our way inside. I managed to elbow a man aside to get inside the doors before it closed. The usual awkward, long silence often involved in an elevator ride reigned for a long time. I pulled Cara out the doors when we reached the fifteenth floor and she almost tumbled to the ground.

“Watch it!” She screamed.

“You weren’t paying attention. I told you where my office is, right?”

“I was busy mastering your high heels!” she hissed.

“Oh, shut up. Come on. Make it fast. We only have 3 hours left before the meeting.”

Cara let me pull her to my doors.

We stopped just outside my office door. “Now, take a deep breath or do something that would erase all that nervousness,” I said calmly. “And then get in that door.”

CARA

For a few seconds, I was motionless the moment Bridgette opened the door. I saw a small pretty woman with straight red hair look up from her desk. She immediately stood up and Bridgette had to push me to start walking.

“I need those, papers, Cora,” I said, taking a note higher than the usual.

I saw the secretary frown as she said, “Lara.”

“What?” I asked and then I felt Bridgette nudge my side.

“What are you doing? Go straight to the office,” she whispered behind my ear in a hurry.

I squarely turned to the right and saw a bright red door. That very door screamed Bridgette so I walked straight to it, turned the knob and swung it open. I entered with my head held high. Bridgette followed right after. She shut the door close and glared at me.

“What the hell are you doing? Just act like me! You didn’t have to know what she was saying.”

“I was curious. She told me her real name and in case your forgot, it is Lara.”

“I don’t care. Just do what I told you to.”

“Fine!” I looked around and turned to face her. “This is your office?”

She nodded.

I looked at the room once again. It was neat—all black and white. The only contrasting color was the door which somehow served as the best ornament in the place. Still no personal things that would indicate Bridgette had a life outside the room.

“Just wait for Cora—”

“Lara,” I corrected.

She ignored my interruption and continued, “to hand you the paper. Then tell her to get you breakfast for two at the diner across the street. Then we’ll discuss what you should do at the meeting.”

I nodded, taking in everything she told me.

“What are you waiting for? Take the damn seat and call out her name!”

Without any word, I went to the black leather office chair behind the white table.

“Don’t be too stiff,” Bridgette told me as she took the black couch at the corner of the room.

“I’m trying here, okay?”

Just as I said that, the door opened and Lara walked in with a small smile. “I’m glad to know you’re okay.”

“Thank you,” I answered but the coughing voice I heard from Bridgette told me I shouldn’t have done that. I ignored her and took the folder Lara handed me. “Get me and my friend some tacos across the street.”

“Coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

“You already had coffee, remember?” Bridgette finally spoke up with an arched eyebrow.

“Uh—yes. But I want another one.” I said strongly. After all, I was the boss. Lara had to follow my orders.

The secretary just nodded and started for the door. When it was finally shut, Bridgette stood up with that same glaring look. “I told you I only have one coffee in a day.”

“Well, I do take more than one. Deal with it.”

“Give me that folder,” she ordered, ignoring the matter. “These are the list of the guests in the wedding. Study each one of them and tell me what you think.”

“How do I start? I don’t know anything about this stuff.”

“Read about their work. You’ll learn a lot from that.”

I sighed. “Fine.”

I spent almost half an hour reading. Lara had already returned by then with our breakfast and my coffee. Bridgette started pacing the room. I knew she was getting impatient.

“So?” She asked when I finally closed the folder.

“Well, most of these people are into arts. Apart from the family, most guests work with the bride who is an interior decorator. Then there are Quinn’s friends who are mostly in the construction business. I don’t really see a point why I should know all these things.”

“As I’ve said before, these people are going to be our future customers. They are the ones we are going to impress. Knowing them, we will know how to attack the wedding plans. Convincing the bride and the groom about it will be the biggest challenge but that will not be a problem as long as you can play both of them without them knowing.”

I was frowning. It didn’t feel right. It was not in my nature to use people but I think, after everything Bridgette did to me, I should have known what she was up to.

“But you’ll be the one to do all this right? I will just be your mouth?”

“If we are still in this situation. Once we find a way to go back to our bodies, we go our separate ways and I hope it will happen any moment soon because I don’t really want to work in a hospital.”

I nodded. I was also hoping the same thing. If there was only a word to make everything right, I would gladly grab a dictionary of any language and recite everything.

BRIDGETTE

Despite the near-fail intro that Cara had earlier with my secretary, she was able to make great improvements. She even spoke like me when she ordered for more papers to be printed out and sorted.

When it was time for the meeting though, I started to get concerned. It was okay if she made a fool of herself in front of my secretary, but it would be a different story if she ever showed any signs of nervousness in the meeting like the one I was observing now.

“Please don’t make a fool of yourself. This is a very important meeting. I want to make a good impression on Natalie. We will be signing the contract. Just show her everything in this folder,” I tapped the green one to her left. “She will be happy because everything she talked about in our first meeting is here. She will love me and she will sign the contract. Our challenge is with Quinn. We both know how he feels about us so we have to make sure that Natalie can make him say yes. So this is all about pleasing Natalie. This is all about making sure she thinks we are going to do everything she likes. What I like will later on come in the picture.”

I wasn’t sure if she was listening to me. She kept nodding while scanning through the green folder. “I think I know why you change most of your clients’ plans. This one is just ridiculous.”

“You haven’t seen the others. Now, please say you understood everything I just said.”

“Yes, yes. Make Natalie say yes.”

“And Quinn?”

“Ignore him.”

“Very good. Now let’s go.”

CARA

I took the green folder and left the rest. Bridgette said that they were for later use. Right now, what I needed to bring was the green folder which contained everything Natalie wanted. I memorized every color, every fabric, food, venue and flower mentioned in the folder. It was obvious Natalie wanted everything she ever saw in a wedding to be placed in hers. It was just a rumble of everything I couldn’t picture out the actual wedding.

I also took note of the things Bridgette told me about their first meeting. She knew everything that went on, every word said and every promise made and she made it certain I knew them by heart. I was prepared with everything but Quinn. I didn’t know how I would react upon seeing him. God, it had been so long!

Bridgette hailed a taxi. Once inside, she started to talk again. “Now, we both have each other’s phone so it is given we both know the number the one has. This one,” she took her bag from me and opened it. After a few seconds, she handed me a wireless earphone. “Wear this. They will not notice you have this when you wear your hair down. Now, I will call you so I can listen into the conversation. If I want you to say anything, you will hear me through this. Do you get it?”

I nodded. I must admit, it was a pretty good idea.

“If you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything. I will tell you what to do. I will be at the café across the street. Quinn shouldn’t see me.”

“Okay.”

The taxi driver looked at the two of us through his rearview mirror. I didn’t know what he thought we were doing, but I was sure he wasn’t thinking the best about us.

Twenty minutes later, I climbed down the taxi while Bridgette stayed inside. She wanted to be sure that Quinn wasn’t there so she asked the taxi to circle another block. I was left standing outside the restaurant in Bridgette’s clothes, Bridgette’s shoes, Bridgette’s bag, Bridgette’s folder and Bridgette’s body.

 ***I'm attending a wedding soon so I think the next update will be sort of late. hehe

***Anyways, ComVo all you want!