Page 52 of Date and Switch

She tossed her head back and laughed.

“Let’s say three months. If I get it done sooner, I’ll try to coordinate delivery with you. But let’s assume I bring it to New York with me, yes?”

In three months’ time, possibly more, I’d have a couture gown designed exactly to my specifications. What was this life I was living right now?

thirty-three

Date & Switch Blog

Day: We’ve Lost Count of the Days!

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Hello all. You’ll have to settle on an update from Bryce today. My little travel companion had too much fun today and imbibed in quite a lot of Linie Aquavit. At this moment while we push off from Norway on our way to Greenland, our Siren of the Sea has been blissfully shepherded into a very deep, undisturbable sleep. And by deep and undisturbable—I mean a marching band could walk through here. The Spirit of the Spirits have her in their chokehold. There’s minimal chance she wakes up until tomorrow morning. For reference, we haven’t even eaten dinner yet. Rookie mistake to drink unknown foreign alcohol when the last meal you had was a bagel and cream cheese and some coffee as we exited the ship for our day’s adventures.

Our weeks in have Europe passed in a blur. When we weren’t gorging our faces with cheese and wine in the south of France, and then again in Spain, we indulged in every variation of chocolate known to man in Switzerland.

The Matterhorn was a sight to see. While Sera will partake in anything you suggest, she definitely is not comfortable in things she can’t control. It was the New Zealand Helicopter all over again. Once she was actually flying down the mountain on the slide in Kandersteg, she was a ball of laughs. The way up? I’ve seen arthritic pack mules make it up the trails of the Grand Canyon faster and with less reluctance.

While the cruise line has never truly clarified what is going on in the world, our ports of call change daily. We missed a great deal of the Eastern European countries, as well as skipping over Russia and various stops around the Black Sea.

After Greenland, we head back south to England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and after that I’m not entirely sure. If we had done the rounds the correct way, we’d then depart from Southampton across the Atlantic back home. The captain told us he’d be updating us once we got to Greenland.

We’ll keep you updated as we get updated. Until then.

Bryce and Sleeping Beauty

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The moment I hit publish on the blog, Sera’s FaceTime started to chime. It was her sister Felicity, and I knew based on everything going on with her she would not want to miss her call.

“Hey, Felicity. Sera had too much to drink in Bergen today. She’s out cold.”

She sat at what I assumed was a kitchen island, sipping coffee. We’d become so caught up in the whirlwind of the trip I’d forgotten to ask Sera about what Felicity planned to do and how long she’d be staying with her brother.

“How are you doing?” I asked.

Despite being fraternal twins, Felicity and Sera looks eerily similar. They both had the same burnished sunset hair that curled any which way it wanted when wet, but also would go surfboard straight if a brush ran through it. They both quirked the left side of their mouth up when they didn’t want to discuss something and had this strange little habit of touching their fingertips one at a time as if counting, when they were nervous.

“I feel like I have a million paper-cuts all over my body and someone keeps dipping me in rubbing alcohol.”

“I know that feeling all too well,” I admitted. “Is your brother around? Is he hanging out with you? You know watching bad TV or whatever it is that you would normally do together?”

She looked over her shoulder, I assumed towards her brother deeper in the house.

“Yeah, he’s actually been pretty great.”

“Good. Believe it or not, even though you don’t think it makes a difference it does. It helps to keep you kind of in the now and not sitting, staring off and drowning in all the ways you can drive yourself crazy. If it wasn’t for Penn and his continued insistence he come stay at my house in Boston, it probably would have taken much longer for me to find right side up again.”

“Well and then there was the TikTok heard around the world.”

The sisters had the same quippy kind of effervescent humor. I imagined what a holiday looked like in the Miller household. Were all of them like the sisters? Was their brother Rex similarly as outgoing and bubbly?

“Hey, you’re stealing my twin time.” I heard Sera’s muffled voice under the covers.

“Felicity, I think our little party girl just might wake up after all. If there’s anything you need from me, please reach out.”

“Well, since you asked—is there room in that suite of yours for one more?” She giggled. “I feel like we’re all riding the my life blew up and I need to get away bus, so really it’s only fair right?”

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