Very slowly, awareness came to me. It felt like I was climbing out of a deep dark pit and for a time I just lay there, eyes closed, breathing. ‘Wow, that was one strange dream,’ I thought, as the fuzziness of sleep faded. Then I became aware of something tickling my nose, every time I took a breath.

‘A fly?’ I wondered, and reached up to swat at it. The move felt uncoordinated and odd. For some reason the fly was still there so this time I reached for my nose, and felt, hair? At first my mind didn’t understand and I gave the offending follicles a tug. The sensation of someone pulling my hair at my temple didn’t make sense.

I opened my eyes and for a time they refused to focus. Then, blearily, I saw a thin, pale, arm. I blinked several more times, but instead of disappearing the arm, and the soft delicate hand attached to it came into focus. A hand holding a lock of blonde hair about two inches from my face. ‘Who is that?’ I wondered, and let go of the hair. To my surprise the hand released the blonde tresses. My mind felt like it was stuck in molasses, I turned my hand and watched the slender appendage respond. I spread my fingers and watched the girl’s hand move, my mind absently noticed the blue nail polish.

Still, dazed, I reached up with my other hand, distractedly noting that I was laying on my back propped up slightly with a couple of pillows. My left hand joined my right and now I saw that both hands were covered in a kind of glittery dust. My heart started to race and I looked down. I was wearing a t-shirt that shifted from black to yellow to red as my eyes slowly worked their way down to my stomach. Then my breath caught. There right in the middle of the yellow part of my shirt and then sliding off to my left was a pile of crystal dust.

I reached down and touched it and saw that it was the same dust that was on my hands. Then my brain kicked into gear. I remembered, the airport, the odd, yet sexy Kristina, and her new age crystal. I felt my breathing get faster as my heart started to race. I remembered, sitting in my room at the Marriott and the impossible light flashing from the crystal. And I remembered, floating up out of my body, flying over London, and dropping into a strange bedroom.

“No fucking way!”

The sound of the woman’s voice was the catalyst that broke the spell and I lurched from the bed rolling to my right away from the wall and froze. The full length mirror attached to a white wood door held the image of a girl. Sleep tussled blonde hair fell just past her shoulders, contrasting sharply with the black fabric at the top of the t-shirt, a shirt that fell to her mid-thigh. I took a step forward and new sensations assaulted my male brain. The shirt was too big and had slid to the right exposing a pale white shoulder blade.

It’s funny how the mind works in stressful situations. With one part of my brain I noticed the oddest details. Sunlight, streaming in from a pair of windows. Texture, the sensation of the worn purple carpet under my bare feet. Flowers, the faint floral scent of a woman’s perfume. As if in slow motion I turned my head, scanning the room. The large poster, a time lapse of Time Square hanging from one wall, caught my eye. I turned and took a step toward it, and as I moved I felt my shirt shift and noticed the soft chafing of the cotton t-shirt against my sensitive nipples. The sensation distracted me and caused me to freeze in place.

While all of this was registering with a part of my brain, a larger part of my mind clung to the vision of the blonde girl in the mirror, her mouth hanging open in stunned surprise. I turned again to face the mirror and watched the girl move, her chest shifting with the movement.

‘Chafing?’

The word associated with the odd sensation floated through my mind and as if of their own volition my hands slowly rose to my chest. There are a few moments in life, indelibly burned into a person’s memory. Learning to ride a bike. A first kiss. Scoring your first touchdown. That first hunting trip with Dad. And groping your new breasts after waking up in the body of a girl.

My mind seemed to snap into sharp focus as I felt the heavy breasts against my small hands. This wasn’t the first time I’d touched a woman’s boobs but it was the first time I’d felt hands probing a part of me that shouldn’t have been there! My nipples started to respond, growing hard under my fondling and I felt the skin around my breasts tug in response to my groping.

Then I heard a woman scream. In a detached way I wondered if she needed some help. The world was contracting around me as I got tunnel vision. I knew I was about to pass out and slid to my knees and closed my eyes breathing deeply. For several seconds I knelt there, on the floor my hands clutching the carpet in front of me for added support. I could feel the breasts dangling away from my body as gravity did its thing. The t-shirt offered no real support.

“What the hell is going on?”

This time, when I looked up, and saw the image of Kristina on all fours looking into her mirror I didn’t panic. I crawled forward very aware of my udders as they swung freely below me. When I moved I also noticed, for the first time, that I couldn’t feel anything between my legs. I reached out and touched the mirror and watched as Kristina touched my fingertips.

“This can’t be real! I can’t be a girl, I can’t be in Kristina’s body.”

But the image in the mirror and the sensations assaulting my beleaguered brain told me I was lying to myself. I don’t know how long I just stared but then I noticed the carpet was digging into the soft skin on my knees and the pendulous weight of the breasts was starting to hurt my back. I pushed myself into a kneeling position and the shifting of my chest, as the breasts settled back against my ribs, almost made me laugh. I glanced again at the mirror and this time saw Kristina kneeling legs spread apart flashing her black panties and a part of my mind told me I should bring my knees together, girls aren’t supposed to flash their delicate parts. Instead, I slowly stood up.

Everything felt different. From the shifting weight on my chest to my strangely wide hips and the missing presence between my legs. My balance was, just, off, and I reached out to steady myself against the door. For a second I stood there, breathing, trying to get my equilibrium.

‘As impossible as this is,’ I thought, ‘it’s either the most life like hallucination or it’s real.’ Then I remembered the note Kristina had left me last night. Something about her not being mean but she had to do this . . . and that she’d get in touch with me later. Did she mean, THIS? Did she take my body and leave me in hers on purpose? I felt a flash of anger and wanted to break something. I spotted a laptop on a small desk to one side. I had to fight the urge to pick it up and throw it against the wall. But that would be stupid. What if she planned to use it to communicate with me? I carefully moved to the desk and settled into the black modern chair swiveling to face the computer.

I touched the space bar and the computer woke up and wanted a password. I looked around and spotted an envelope, on the back written in purple ink was the word: 1_JustIn85

I typed it in and the windows operating system came up. There was an open video and the frozen image of Kristina, wearing the same shirt and body I was now wearing.

“She must have recorded this last night before the switch.”

The sound of my voice, higher, and very female gave me a weird feeling. I clicked on the icon and the video started. Over the tiny computer speakers Kristina’s voice sounded similar, yet different, from what I’d heard just now when I spoke.

“James, I’m really sorry about all of this.” she glanced to one side and in the semi-dark room I could see the blue-violet crystal doing its thing like a disco light. “I can't tell you what’s going on, for your safety, and mine. Ignorance is your best protection. That's why you'll make a better me, right now, than I possibly could... Well, forget about that. Basically, I just need you to pretend to be me for a couple of weeks. Then I should be able to swap us back. I’ll explain everything when we swap back. I’ll call you tonight and fill you in on what you need to know to pretend to be me.” Again she glanced away at what I was guessing was her crystal. “It’s almost midnight. If what I learned about the crystal is correct that’s when we’ll swap.” Kristina put something in her mouth and then lifted a glass of water and saluted the screen. “See ya on the other side.” she giggled and then drank the water. For a second I thought that was it but then she got serious and looked back into the screen. “James, as soon as you’ve watched this, delete it. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more, just trust me, everything is going to be okay. Oh, and thank you!”

The video froze. I sat there trying to think but my mind refused to come up with a reason for swapping bodies with someone. She was young, healthy, and from what I’d seen of her bedroom, normal. Why would a normal twenty something girl want to swap bodies with a strange guy? It made no sense. I hit play on the video and watched it two more times but I was still in the dark.

“Fine,” I said looking at the image of Kristina on the screen. “I’ll play along for now, but you better have a damn good reason for this.” Then I added, “Not that I’ve got any choice.”

I pushed away from the table and stood up and as I did I felt an urge from my lower region. It was kind of a pressure, but it felt different, not gas, and not like I needed to drop a duce. Then it hit me, I . . . er . . . this body needed to piss. Now that I’d identified the feeling it got stronger.

“Damn it.” I growled and moved to the door with the mirror.

I opened it and saw a walk-in closet. Feeling frustrated I spun toward the other door and the movement of Kristina’s breasts startled me. I’d turned quickly, for the first time, and there had been a sharp tug against the skin above the breasts and then they’d jiggled left, right, left before they stopped. I reached up without thinking to grab them, “Shit! It’s like they’ve got a mind of their own.”

Holding the breasts, I still couldn’t get myself to think of them as mine even though they were attached to the body I wore, and moved to the wooden door. I opened it carefully and looked out. The narrow hallway led away to the left and toward what I was assuming was the rest of the apartment. When I looked to the right I saw another door and, based on its heavier look, I assumed it led out of the apartment. ‘I’ll avoid that one for now,’ I thought. The idea of going outside right now was one I didn’t even want to think about.

Then the need to pee forced me to step into the hallway. I glanced down the hall and to my left and spotted an open door. Through the door I saw a small bathroom and most importantly a toilet. I took another cautious step, and the cold laminate floor sent a shiver up my spine and I saw that my arms had sprouted instant goose flesh. I took another step on that cold floor and felt my nipples start to tighten up again.

“Damn it, it’s not that cold!” I said, in my girl voice.

Somehow the swearing just didn’t feel the same. I moved into the bathroom and tried to ignore the way my chest moved as I groped around for the light switch. Once the light came on I turned around and shut the door, even though I could tell I was alone, I just felt like I needed the extra security. The idea of pissing as a woman made me feel strangely . . . vulnerable. I hated that feeling. I spotted a mirror over the bathroom sink and avoided looking into it. Instead I looked down at the toilet and for a second I didn’t know what to do. Never before had a piece of porcelain seemed intimidating. Then the urge to pee hit me and I was a little slow clenching up my bottom. I could feel some fluid leak out, where nothing was supposed to leak!

“Fuck it! If half the population can sit to piss, I can too.”

I turned around and slowly pulled the black panties down and hiked up the t-shirt before settling onto the toilet. For a second I wondered if I’d have trouble peeing. But the pressure had built to the point where all I had to do was sort of unclench muscles that I’d never had and the body did what it was supposed to do. When I heard the sound of liquid hitting liquid it occurred to me that I could press my legs together. This made the weird situation even stranger. I’d never be able to press my legs together like this, but it sort of shielded a part of this body from me. I just wasn’t ready to acknowledge, much less look at, what I knew was between my legs.

The feeling of relief wasn’t as intense as it was for me in my body and I noticed that it was a lot messier now, as my bottom felt a little damp. I rested my elbows on my knees and leaned forward putting my face into my hands. I noticed, distractedly, that my arms were now pushing against the sides of my breasts and they could actually touch each other. I felt a lump in my throat and for an instant I wondered if I was about to cry. I’d never felt so emasculated. Then I got angry!

“Fuck that! I’ll be damned if I’m going to start crying over having to sit down to take a piss!”

Again the incongruity between my feminine voice and my words struck me as wrong. I spotted the toilet paper and pulled off a wad, I knew women had to wipe after, and I remembered from high school bio that front to back was best. Carefully, almost afraid of what I was going to find I reached behind my back and patted the new skin. The feeling was indescribably odd. Where I should have a cock and balls was flat smooth skin, with a tight fold, and a softness that I didn’t want to think about. The area was sensitive to the touch and suddenly I felt like I was exploring instead of wiping. I dropped the toilet paper as if it were on fire and leaned forward to pull up Kristina’s panties. By the time I got them to my knees I noticed that the gusset was damp. I suddenly didn’t want them anywhere near me and tossed them into a corner of the bathroom.

The t-shirt was long enough to cover my new crotch but I could feel cold air hitting sensitive skin. I did my best to ignore that and moved to the sink. I quickly washed and dried my hands, and then paused to study my reflection. For the first time I really looked at Kristina’s face. I lifted a hand to lightly run my fingers over the sprinkle of freckles that appeared to be fading now that it was winter. Then my breath caught as I saw her eyes. Sort of a pale blue or light grey with a circle of brown around the iris. They were beautiful eyes, the kind of eyes that a guy could fall into and never escape. Then almost to distract myself from my eyes I ran the tips of my fingers over my straight perfect nose and then to the full pouty lips. Lips that even Angelina Jolie would have liked, although they were starting to look a little chapped. I felt around the inside of my mouth with my tongue noticing differences between this mouth and mine. My new incisors were less pronounced and there was a gap between Kristina’s two front teeth. I gave the mirror a tentative smile and discovered that my new pearly whites lit up Kristina’s face. ‘Even the slight gap is sexy,’ I thought.

“I’ve already spent more time today looking in the mirror, than I do in a month.” I groused, starting to feel a little narcissistic.

I turned around, trying to move slowly and smoothly to keep the damn breasts from bouncing all over creation. I opened the door and thought about exploring the rest of Kristina’s apartment but the cold air on my bottom made me cringe at the thought.

I returned to the bedroom and started searching for clothes. Kristina’s dresser drawers proved to be a waste of time, they were full of junk. The dresser had a pair of doors and when I opened them I spotted what appeared to be underwear boxes. It took a little snooping but between the boxes and the closet I managed to find another t-shirt, blue and not too girlie, a pair of grey sweat pants, fresh panties, and a pair of socks. I slid the dark blue panties up my hairless legs until they fit snuggly against my flat crotch and round bottom. For a second the sensation totally creeped me out and I wanted to scream.

“Take it easy Jimmy-boy,” I told myself and winced at the sound of my voice. Then with a sigh I pulled off the multi colored t-shirt and unable to stop myself from looking down.

Breasts.

BREASTS.

I HAVE BREASTS.

I could feel myself starting to freak out and clamped down on that emotion.

“Man up, damn it!” I snapped. “You’ve seen tits before.” ‘Yeah, my inner voice responded, but never from this angle.’

Now that they weren’t hidden under the t-shirt I was mesmerized. The soft pale skin, with dark reddish nipples and areolas the size of silver dollars, the breasts looked much bigger from this perspective. Yesterday when I’d been checking Kristina out, I thought she had a nice figure. Now I hated it. Yet I was fascinated by it. Drawn to it. I couldn’t resist reaching up to touch them and the dual sensation of touching and being touched, sent a shiver down my spine. The nipples reacted by tightening up, like a pair of tiny erections. I looked away from my new cleavage and saw the mirror.

As if some force were pushing me I slowly walked to it and stared at the girl. She was pretty. Not supermodel gorgeous, but girl next door pretty with a nice figure. Suddenly, I felt silly for being so overwhelmed. They were just breasts after all. Then as if to prove it was no big deal I sort of shook my shoulders. This resulted in the boobies swinging back and forth. Caught up in the moment I started jumping up and down. If I’d thought those things could bounce before I was really shocked now. I’ve seen how breasts can bounce but it was completely different having them moving around on my chest! And after a second it hurt! The weight pulling up and down could be sharply painful if I landed too hard. I couldn’t help laughing and my laughter turned a bit hysterical and then my brain sort of kicked in and I froze.

“What the hell am I doing?” I asked my reflection. I shook my head and my hair whipped around. “Alright, if I’m stuck for the moment I need to do something about these.”

It took a few minutes to find a dark blue bra and then I just stared at in wondering what to do.

“How am I supposed to put you on?”

Then I remembered watching my Jill turn it around and slip the bra around her waist. I followed suit hooking the clasps in front of me where I could see them. Although I discovered that I couldn’t just look down at the bra. I had to lean forward to get a view of my navel, because my tits were in my way. I fastened the tiny hooks and the spun the bra around so the cups were now in front. I slid an arm through each strap and pulled the bra up.

“Ouch!”

As I’d pulled it up I felt the underwire bite into a small mole, or growth just under my right boob before it slid into place. I rubbed the rough skin and then returned to the mirror. This time I really looked over this body and it hit me, I’d been thinking of THE breasts as MY breasts for the last few minutes.

“Oh, crap, I need to get out of this body before I become a girl!”

And then I started laughing as I looked at my nearly naked and obviously female body.

“You, dumb ass, you are, at least for the moment, a girl.”

I thought about posing in front of the mirror for a minute. Now that I was clad in underwear I felt safer and then I realized that my emotions were all over the place. One second angry and in denial, then next I felt emasculated and wanted to cry, and then I was giddily playing with my new rack.

“I’m an idiot.”

I turned away and picked up the t-shirt and pulled it over my head. The sweatpants were next and I was a little surprised at how tight they were as I pulled them over my hips but the waist didn’t feel too tight. Then I figured it out,

“Kristina’s hips are bigger than her waist.”

It was also weird to have sweatpants that once pulled up, fit tightly against my crotch. I sat down on the edge of the bed to pull on my socks and this time when I bent over I noticed that my tits didn’t swing around like before. ‘I’ve got a whole new appreciation for what a woman goes through getting dressed!’ I thought.

I stood up, and took a deep breath, and went exploring. I stepped into the hallway and went straight toward the living room-kitchenette. As I did I noticed the angled-roof and figured that I must be in a top floor apartment. I glanced around and saw a cozy little place with feminine touches everywhere. I moved through the living room to the kitchenette and paused when I saw all of the magnets on the refrigerator door. They were from all over the world, Dubai, Prague, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, St. Petersburg, Oslo, Stockholm, Rome . . .

I opened the fridge and spotted two bottles of wine, a red and a white. A small bottle of milk, orange juice, plus an assortment of veggies, eggs, and yogurt.

“All this chick’s got is rabbit food.” I muttered.

Then my stomach growled and I realized I was hungry and dehydrated. I picked up the OJ and glanced around for a glass. I spotted a glass display case, ‘a vitrine?’ I wondered and saw some glasses inside it. Then I shrugged and twisted off the top drinking right from the jar. The OJ was much sharper with more of a bite than I’d been expecting. I could feel orange juice trickle down my chin to land right were my t-shirt tented out. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand gulped in some air and forced out a belch. It wasn’t as deep or full as I normally achieve, in fact it was kind of high and pathetic, but it was a burp!

“At least I can still belch on demand!”

Somehow this simple act made me feel more like . . . me. Then I wondered about the taste of the OJ. Would everything taste different to me now? It made sense, I had new taste-buds at the moment. I glanced at the time on the microwave and almost dropped my glass! Two p.m.!

I had no idea how long I’d been awake but it couldn’t have been for more than an hour! I’d been asleep for more than twelve hours! Then I remembered watching Kristina take a pill and she’d said something about that in her note to me. Before I had a chance to do any more exploring I heard a phone buzzing from the bedroom. I rushed back through the house and felt the strange sensation of my chest moving around as I ran. I got to the phone and saw that it had gone to voice mail and that I had a missed call from someone named “Lana.”

“Who the heck is that?” I wondered out loud.

Then I realized I’d been hoping that it was Kristina calling. I picked up the phone and carried it with me back to the living room. For the next hour I snooped and tried ignore my new body as much as possible. Kristina had family pictures along with knick-knacks on various shelves, tables, and cubbies. A woman, in her forties bore a strong resemblance to the face I now wore. I assumed this was her mother. There were pictures of friends. One, a brunette girl, about the same age as Kristina, figured prominently in several pictures and I wondered if this was Lana. There was a photo with the woman, I assumed was Kristina’s mom, which contained the image of a younger teenage girl and an older guy. ‘Sister, and father?’ I wondered and sat the picture back down by the entertainment center.

This girl obviously had a family and people who cared for her. Why would she need to swap bodies with a total stranger? It was a puzzle that made no sense. Then I heard the phone buzz again from the coffee table by the sofa. I went to it and saw that it was my number.

I hit the talk button, “You BITCH! What the hell are you doing in my body?!” I was shocked by the venom in my voice.

“Hey, just take it easy, girl, okay?”

The voice was mine, but the inflection was off and so was the pitch. Later on I’d wonder if this was because of the way I heard my voice, the way it sounded over the phone, or if Kristina’s hearing interpreted pitch and sound a little differently than my body did. It was also possible that Kristina in my body using her normal speech inflection and style and that made me sound different. However, at the moment I was too pissed to care.

“Don’t be a condescending ass. I’m not your girl! I’m the man whose body you stole.”

“I didn’t steal it, I borrowed it. I plan to give it back. I have no desire, whatsoever, to be a guy. Believe me! So don't think I'd just give up my own body that easily if I didn't really have to, okay?"

“Okay, how about switching back right now?”

“I can’t, not right now.”

“Can’t or won’t? You bitch.”

“CAN’T! And if you keep calling me names I’m going to hang up. Technically, you're still talking to a lady, so behave yourself, damn it!”

For a second I froze. If she hung up I had no way of finding her, she could be half a world away. “Don’t hang up.” I paused, and added, “Please.”

There was a long pause, “Okay, see that wasn’t so hard. I called to explain a few things and to try to help you.”

“Sure, you can start with why you did this and why you can’t undo it right now.”

There was a deep masculine sigh, “I can’t tell you why I did it, but I can tell you that I can’t undo it right now, because I only had the one crystal.” There was a long silence, “Are you still there?” My old voice sounded concerned.

“Yeah, I’m here. So you can’t tell me why and you don’t have another crystal so you can’t undo it. Do you expect to have one soon?”

“To be honest, I have no idea. Look, if I tell you any more about what’s going on it’ll put you in danger.” There was a pause, like she expected me to say something. Then when I remained silent she continued, “I left you the password to my computer have you checked it out yet?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’m in a hotel and can skype with you. If you get the computer and accept my call we can get started.”

“Started? With what?”

“You’re going to go through my flat and find the things I tell you to look for and hold them up to the screen. I’ll tell you the names of the people in the pictures and your relationship to them. Then we need to talk about my work, my friends, and my schedule.”

“You can’t be serious? There’s no way I can pass myself off as you. I don’t know anything about you!”

“I’ve got two weeks’ of holiday time. I’d already put in for the time off before you met me in the airport. So for the next two weeks you don’t have to worry about job.”

“So I can just hide out here?”

“Well, yeah, but I don’t recommend it. You’ll go crazy in that tiny flat. Plus, if you look at this as a unique opportunity and relax you might even have fun. Being a girl isn’t all bad!”

“Sure, riiiight, I’ll have lots of fun being a girl. If I was born a girl I’d probably be happy being one, but I was perfectly happy being me! I’m not sissy or a transgendered guy!”

“Look, I’ll call you back on Skype, in ten minutes.”

It was after nine p.m. when I ended our Skype session. I’d thought about yelling at her some more but there wasn’t much point to it. Assuming she was telling me the truth, I was stuck for at least two weeks. If she was lying I had no way to prove it and no way to force her to switch us back. So when the Skype video call came in I opened my mouth to speak and then closed it. I was looking at . . . me. It was the oddest thing.

“Hi,” Kristina said, and waived at me by holding up her hand and rotating it in a kinda princess waive.

“Stop, that.” I snapped, harder than I intended, “Your making me look, girlie.”

At this she gave me a lopsided grin and with the two days’ worth of beard it gave her a roguish look. Suddenly, I understood why my girlfriend always encouraged me to skip a day or two of shaving when I could.

“Wow, this is so weird!” Kristina said, her voice full of awe. “I’ve seen myself in pictures and videos but this is different. Watching you move and talk . . . And I’ve got no control over my body and no idea what you’re going to do or say. Oh, and you’re making me look, butch.”

“Watch it, or you might become a narcissist as well as a body thief.”

She ignored my comment and stuck her tongue out at me. “Come on, you can’t tell me that this isn’t cool. I mean, being able to look at yourself from someone else’s perspective?”

I sat back and tried to fold my arms, and only managed to squish my boobs. At that Kristina let out a little laugh and covered her mouth. ‘Was that a giggle,’ I wondered, and shook my head.

“What do you need me to do until you can swap us back?”

“You need to stay in London and be me. If someone from work comes by and wants to talk to you, do it. Just remember you’re on holiday so you don’t have to go into the office.”

“Okay, fine. Sit around this apartment for two weeks. I guess I can do that.”

“It’s a flat, not an apartment, and I’ve got friends and family. They’re going to try to get in touch me, I mean you.” At this she giggled again but continued quickly, “You can probably stall them with texts and emails for two weeks. But just in case you can’t we’d better go over a few things.”

With that Kristina started telling me about her life and what I’d need to know. After ten minutes I stopped her and went in search of pen and paper. Once she was done brainstorming her life at me, she insisted that I pick up the computer and carry it from room to room. That way she could stop me when she saw something and explain. Pictures, relatives, friends, where she put her purse and a firm order not to eat meat while in her body. Once the session sort of ran out of steam I asked the question that had been nagging at the back of my mind.

“Where do you work and what do you do?”

My question caught Kristina off guard and I could tell she wanted to tell me it was one of those things I didn’t need to know.

“Before you say it, I do need to know. How would it look if your mom, or your bestie, Lana, asked me about work and I didn’t even know the name of the company? And didn’t you say something about someone from work might stop by?”

After a moment Kristina relented. “New World Research and Development Corporation. I’m a graphic arts designer and I specialize in three dimensional imagery.”

I shook my head, and for a second was distracted by my hair swishing around. “Yeah, I could never pull that off. My degree was in history before I went into the service.”

There was a pause and then Kristina said,

"James, there’s a guy. Mr. Douglas Stonewall. He’s the head of the research department. He and I aren‘t exactly on good terms. If it wasn't for my qualifications he'd probably fire me, so if you have to go in to my office, stay away from him. Besides, he might ask you about a current project and since you have no experience in my field and wouldn't answer in the way he expects, I might find myself out of job when we swap back. Just, please be careful, okay?

I looked at her for a second. There was something different, Kristina’s posture, it was more upright, more serious. Something didn’t add up. ‘At first this girl is running, devil may care, and ends up halfway around the world, in my body, and now she’s worried about her job?! What the hell is really going on?’ I wondered.

“Sure, I don’t plan to go in at all. Remember?”

“Good. Now what can you tell me about your work? I never really thought about it, but I can’t go to your place or your work. I’ve got, well, other things I need to do. Can I take some holiday time?”

“I figured. As soon as we get off here I’ll log into my email and send Geoffrey a report on the Ireland deal. I’ll also tell him I’m taking a vacation here in the UK before I come home. He’ll be good with it.”

“That’s all I can think of for now. What can you tell me about your life? What do I need to know?”

I shrugged, and the movement of my breasts reinforced the reality of my situation. “It doesn’t sound like you’re going to my house. It sounds like you’re heading to Mexico so I doubt you’ll run into anyone I know. My girlfriend, Jill, might try to call or text. Just let it go to voice mail and then let me know what she wants. I’ll send her an email, and if I need to I can pull up instant messenger on Yahoo and do a chat session.”

“Won’t she get suspicious?”

“Yeah, probably, but somehow I think my life, including my love life, isn’t all that important to you.” When I said it I could see that my remark sort of hit home. “But what can I do? It’s not like I can call her and reassure her, and you can’t call her. You might sound like me but you won’t know what to say or how to say it, she would be suspicious in ten seconds.”

“Look, James, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mess things up for you, I’ll get us swapped back as soon as I can.”

For a second I just stared at her. I was still pissed but I could also see that she was sincere. I remembered last night, she’d been scared, no she’d been almost panicked. Whatever it was she was running from, it had her freaked out to the point where she hadn’t been thinking clearly. I sighed and relented.

“Look, Kristina, Jill would never believe us if we told her what’s going on. I’ve gotten stuck on business trips before so this won’t be so odd. I’ll send her a note to let her know I’m stuck in the UK for a couple of weeks on business.”

Kristina nodded looking relieved. Then after a second of silence, “So what do you do? Really.” Kristina asked sounding curious.

“I already told you. I’m an agent with a security consulting firm. And, no, we’re not part of “Black Water.”

Kristina nodded, “I don’t really know what that means, but fine.” Then she glanced down at her watch and back at me. “Look I need to get going. I’m really sorry to drag you into my problems and my life, literally, hahaha,” I couldn’t help smiling ruefully at her comment. “But you did say you wanted to help me, remember?”

“Yeah, but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind, and you know it.”

“You’d never have believed me if I’d explained. Hey, I’ve got to go. Bye.”

Then before I could respond she ended the call. I set there for a few minutes looking at the computer screen and then sighed. The sound was soft and girlie and it made me want to grind my teeth. Instead, I logged into my gmail account and started sending off emails.