ONE MONTH LATER

"I'm glad they let me rebook," I said lazily. A stray shaft of morning
sunlight had come through the laughably thin curtain and across the bed.
I held an idle hand in it for a moment, enjoying the warmth on my skin.

A mumbled affirmation came from the bathroom at the same time as a knock
on the door. By the time I'd pulled a hotel dressing gown around me and
yawned my way into the corridor, room service had gone, leaving a silver
tray with two cups of coffee - and two biscuits in the shape of hearts
iced in pink.

"Ugh," I said, carrying the tray and in closing the door with my foot.
"For the record, I'm going to say again that I specifically did not
choose the couples option. I thought it might be a bit presumptuous."

Katie emerged from the bathroom, drying her hair, wrapped in an equally
big dressing gown. "It definitely would have been presumptuous."

She sat down on the bed and picked up one of the biscuits.

"I guess they just saw us and thought... that's a couple, right there,"
I said with a shrug. "Look at them, how could they not be a couple? That
would be madness."

Katie dunked the biscuit in the coffee and ate it noisily.

"Oh god," I said, genuinely taken aback. "I had no idea that was how you
ate biscuits. I'm going to need some time to absorb this."

"Shut up," mumbled Katie, leaning forward and kissing me with a mouthful
of biscuit crumbs. "So, what do you want to do today?"

We had one full day left of the mini-break. Yesterday we'd planned a
morning in the spa followed by swimming, but instead we'd gone out for a
walk and just... talked. Then an expensive lunch in the hotel restaurant
after which we'd gone back to our room genuinely intending to have a lot
of sex, but we'd eaten too much and had fallen asleep instead. We'd made
up for it in the evening though. There'd been a lot of stuff to work out
and we'd... worked it out. We were discovering each other all over again.

I picked up the brochure. "Yoga class?"

She pulled a face. "Those things always sound good, but usually it's a
load of old people in lycra stretching and farting." She looked at me
curiously. "I never asked. How are you coping with not being twenty-one
anymore?"

"I already coped with it once," I pointed out. "So, the second time
round it wasn't so bad."

I wiped away the biscuit crumbs Katie had left on my face and lay back
on the bed. Katie lay next to me. Her hand crept into mine. We stared
into each other's faces.

"I booked all these things thinking they'd bring us closer together," I
said after a while. "And now I don't think I can be bothered to do a
single one."

"Fine by me," said Katie.

"How are you doing?" I asked. "Now you've had a few days to get...
accustomed."

Katie propped herself on one elbow and looked down at herself. "I did
like this body anyway. Which is fortunate."

"It's a very different point of view now though, isn't it?"

"The same body though," she said mildly. "Although to be perfectly
honest, all I can see is dressing gown. I suppose we both need to put
some clothes at some point."

"Not necessarily," I said. I undid my dressing gown, pulling my arms out
so it stayed behind on the bed as I walked, naked, to the shower. The
thick pile carpet felt luxuriant against my toes. I looked back as I
stepped into the wet room.

"Are you coming?"

I'd woken up on the living room floor; I knew that much. The first body
I saw was Francesca's. Her real body, the one I'd been walking around in
for the past five days. I wasn't in it anymore. It blinked, yawned,
stretched and looked around, then, seeming to realise something had just
happened, it looked down at itself, urgently patting arms, legs, chest.

"Oh my god," it said happily. "I'm me again!"

I rubbed my face. I still felt groggy. People around me were sitting up,
now. First Rob's body, then Banshari's. Banshari's poked itself in the
boob with a finger.

"All right then," it said in a Welsh accent, so I guess Rob had got its
wish. Rob's body sat up, looking bewildered, until the actual Rob gave
it a high five, at which it grinned, so I guessed both of them had got
their wish.

Someone else was coming too now. Someone wearing jeans and an old t-
shirt, sprawled in an armchair, who had once been Francesca, and for a
long time before that, me. Whoever that person was, it extended a hand,
looking curiously at it.

"Huh," it said in a voice that had been mine, once, then coughed and
grabbed its throat. "Huh," it said again, then looked over at me and its
eyes widened.

"Oh wow," it said sounding a little strangled.

I stared back at it. I felt a little more alert now. I could tell, for
example, that the bodies in front of me were Francesca, who seemed to be
back home and very happy about it, Rob and Banshari, still in each
other's bodies, and ditto. And mine. My original, male body, but
apparently not with me in it.

Even more confusingly, I couldn't honestly say I felt any different. Or
not all that different from earlier in the day, anyway. I held a hand up
and stared at it. Long slim fingers, although unlike Francesca's, they
had no nail varnish. A fine silver bracelet around one wrist I vaguely
recognised. I looked down. I was wearing a crisp fitted shirt and jeans
dyed such a deep indigo they may as well have been black.

Slowly, I reached up. My hair was pulled back in a high ponytail. My
face felt... like a face. High cheekbones, soft smooth skin.

My body, my old male body, was still staring at me, I noticed
distractedly.

"I think," I heard Katie's voice say, although it was me saying the
words, "I think I see what's happened."

We considered trying the ritual again, but it was Katie, of all people,
who ruled against it. Afterwards, she took me aside into the kitchen.

"I saw Francesca's face," she said. "She needs to get back to her life."

I stared at her, confused. "But what about your life?"

She looked at herself, frowned at the crumpled t-shirt Francesca had
thrown on just an hour or two ago. "I said I wanted a change, didn't I?"

"But..." I stammered, "this isn't a few days or whatever. This is it.
This is probably forever. Do you really want me walking around in your
body for the rest of our lives?"

"I want to be with you," she said. "Whatever you look like, whatever I
look like. We're still us inside. That's what I realised, after you'd
been over as Francesca and we'd... got together. I liked you, it was me
who kept wanting to change, to keep running away. Well, this is the best
of both worlds. I get to start over but see you every day as well. But
how do you feel about it?"

I thought it over. I'd been terrified of change this whole time. I'd
wanted to get back with Katie as much because I didn't want to be alone
as because of what she meant to me. The idea that Rob might not want to
go back to being dependable old Rob, my big blokey flatmate who was
always there for me, had scared me just as much. But when I thought of
this change, of stepping into Katie's shoes for good, learning to pick
up where she'd left off while helping her navigate through whatever I'd
been calling a life... it didn't scare me at all.

"Um, full disclosure," I said. "This morning, Francesca and I kind of...
once thing led to another..."

"Oh my God," said Katie.

"More than once," I said miserably.

Katie frowned, looked up as though she was running some sort of mental
checklist. "That's probably why I feel so relaxed," she said finally.
"Are you saying you're a couple now?"

"No!" I said quickly. "It was just... I don't know. A mutual attraction,
for a while. We decided to work it out, that was all."

Katie nodded, put the kettle on and made two cups of tea. I couldn't
believe how calmly she was taking this. Maybe it was the post-sex
endorphins currently flying around that brain. Maybe it was knowing this
was a thing before it happened took the sting out. Or maybe there were
depths to Katie I knew absolutely nothing about.

I caught my reflection in the kitchen window. While Katie was occupied
with mugs and teabags, the large grey eyes that had been hers looked
calmly back at me. Finally, Katie handed me my tea. I sipped it and we
stared at each other for a while.

"My period starts in three days," she said finally. "So, I'd better talk
you through that, I guess."

To everyone's surprise, the next morning, Rob and Banshari were back in
their original bodies again. Until the following morning. Then there
were a few days when nothing happened, and then they switched again. It
became apparent that Katie turning up like that had really messed up the
ritual, or maybe things had just worked out for the best, because it
seemed to suit them just fine.

The next few weeks were as much about logistics as it was settling any
metaphysical questions about who was who now. Katie and I moved into her
flat. Rob and Banshari settled into Banshari and Francesca's house and
Francesca moved in with Gemma, whose original flatmate had now moved out
and offered her the space out of the blue. Apparently, they were friends
now.

Rob did have to hand his notice in at the university though, because to
no-one's surprise, they became a couple. Fortunately, Banshari had
enough money swilling about to set up Rob, or whoever happened to be Rob
at that point in time, as a personal trainer with a part share in a new
gym that had opened up, an arrangement that suited them fine.

After half-term, Katie and I considered calling in sick, or handing in
our notices and trying to start somewhere new. But in reality, our
students needed us, and we'd recorded enough online seminars we could
bluff our way through the last few lectures. In the evenings, Katie
marked her old students' work in my name and I marked mine in hers. At
first, we'd assumed that when the new term started, Katie would transfer
to the Design department while I moved to English. It would have been...
unusual, but unlikely anyone would have connected the dots. But the more
time I spent watching Katie's old design lectures, the more interested I
became, while Katie was more than happy to work through my reading list
accompanied by my notes. So, it looked as though next term, I'd be able
to step seamlessly into her shoes while she stepped into mine.

Already, despite being pretty much the same height and build as
Francesca, I was noticing how Katie's body operated in some strikingly
different ways. More highly-strung, for a start, a lot of tension
building up in her shoulders by the end of the day. More prone to
headaches, and that first period had been even less fun that I "d had
any right to expect. I had to watch my diet, too - Katie had made me a
list of foods that affected her in a tedious variety of ways.

But while Katie's body lacked some of Francesca's springiness (and man
was I careful not to make any direct comparisons), the sense I'd had
before, of a female body somehow having less of a filter to the physical
world, went double here. Textures felt twice as intense under
fingertips, smells and sensations now somehow piped straight to the
brain in a way that thoroughly derailed me at least twice a day. No
wonder she taught design.

I'd barely been in the shower any length of time before Katie joined me.

You don't want to stay in here too long," I said. "My fingers will get
all wrinkley."

"My fingers now," said Katie, squeezing eye-wateringly expensive product
into the palm of her hand and moving it gently over my stomach. Then she
leaned in, pressing her lips against the back of my neck. I shuddered a
little at the sensation of her stubble but didn't pull away. It was
something I was going to have to get used to. Her strong fingers were on
the move now, stroking my hind quarters - a little wider and heavier
than they'd been before, but I wasn't complaining - then slipping round
the front. I let out a little involuntary gasp - Katie's body was
turning out to be a lot more vocally appreciative than Francesca's -
then moved her hand aside firmly, turning round so I was now facing her.
All right, so my eyeline was now level with the base of her chin.

I stepped back, let her take a good look. "How am I doing?"

Katie had been right. You couldn't eat the way Rob and I did and expect
it not to show. Within a fortnight, we'd both added half a stone each to
Banshari and Katie's bodies and been told in no uncertain terms to rein
it in. Rob had tried to talk me into attending his and Banshari's dance
classes, but I decided I wasn't ready for that yet, and picked up
Katie's running gear instead.

Katie didn't say anything for a while. Shit, had I put that weight back
on? I looked down at my boobs, which seemed okay, then twisted around to
check out my arse, as best I could. Everything seemed fine. Then I
looked back at Katie and realised that on one level at least, she was
appreciating the care I was taking with the body that had once been
hers.

"Ah," said Katie, her voice suddenly tight. "Yes. Not sure I'm ever
going to get used to that."

I went up on tiptoes and kissed her, feeling my breasts pushing into her
chest even as she pushed against me somewhere down below. I looked down,
lightly running a finger down the part of my body that hadn't been mine
for some time.

"I'm glad I changed my mind and came round to your house that time," I
said.

Katie frowned at me. "Andy," I added, trying it out for the first time.

Her face cleared. We'd agreed we'd have to start using our bodies' names
eventually.

"Me too, Katie," he said gently pushing me back until I was against the
glass wall of the wet room. His brown eyes looked deep into mine. "I
think a fresh start was a good idea."

His face moved down, light stubble scratching gently against the side of
my neck as he kissed me. He said something else after that, but all my
concentration had moved to his hand sliding down between my legs and I
gasped and never quite heard what it was.