Thursday the 12th of February: The Office



“Got any plans for Valentine's day?” Vicky asked as she finished signing in. Fiona looked up at the other woman and shook her head.



“No,” she replied disappointed. “A certain someone never asked,” she frowned.



“That’s a shame,” Vicky nodded sympathetically. “Though it’s Twenty-Twenty-Six, you could always ask him out,” she added as she used her pass to unlock the door to the right of Fiona and walked through.



Fiona spun her chair around so it was now facing the hallway instead of the entrance. “Why should I? If he was interested he should ask me,” Fiona retorted.



“True,” Vicky gave a half nod. “We both know he’s interested, some guys are just clueless.” She smirked. “Speak of the devil,” Vicky pointed behind Fiona back towards the front door.



Fiona spun the chair back around to see Adam coming into the building. Fiona made herself look busy as she began to sort out the mail. She paused for a moment when she saw a pink envelope without a name. Curious, she opened it and found a Valentine’s card. “Be Yours?” Fiona was confused by the text on the front. She opened the card and read ‘Be your own Valentine’. Below there was a mirror reflecting her freckled face and green eyes back at her. Before it turned into an upside down image of Adam, with his combed black hair, tidy facial hair and brown eyes.



“Whatcha got there?” Adam asked, standing at the reception desk. Fiona closed the card, and put it to the side.



Fiona looked up at Adam and saw that he was eyeing her off like he usually did. “A Valentine’s Day card,” Fiona looked up expectantly. She didn’t see a name for it so a part of her hoped it was from Adam.



“Oh is it today?” Adam’s question was genuine. “I don’t pay attention to that stuff.” The answer he gave deflated Fiona a little.



“It’s on Saturday,” Fiona corrected. “It didn’t even say who it was for or who it was from,” she answered as she picked the card and envelope back up. A ticket fell out of the envelope. Adam stood there for a moment watching as Fiona read the ticket. “Enjoy dinner with yourself, this Valentine’s day,” she read the ticket out loud. On the other side were details on the time and address for the dinner. “Must be some weird promotional stunt,” Fiona dismissed as she put the ticket and card in the draw. “Anyway, is there anything I can help you with?” Fiona looked back up at Adam who was lingering like he usually did.



“No,” he gave his usual answer and then swiped his card on the door and walked down the hallway.



Fiona watched him go, wondering what his deal was. He seemed interested in her and if he actually made advances she probably would accept. She figured Vicky was right, he was clueless.

Friday the 13th of February: Adam’s Apartment

Fiona found herself looking at a strange mirror that only showed her naked reflection. She looked at it with curiosity as it shimmered. She reached out her hand and touched the surface, sending a ripple through the surface, revealing that it wasn’t solid. Curiosity got the better of her as she pushed her hand forward into the mirror, causing the rest of her to be pulled through.

Behind the mirror was a long corridor, with glass windows on all four sides revealing many glass hallways floating in the abyss. She watched one of the other glass hallways as she saw two lights appear at both ends. The lights remained still for a moment before traversing to the other end, crossing through each other in the middle. When the light made it to the other end of the hallway the lights and hallway disappeared.

Instead of moving forward, Fiona turned around back towards the mirror. It was now a glass window looking into her bedroom where she slept. She put her hand on the window to see if it’d let her pass through but it remained solid. Without a way back, Fiona decided to move forward. As she walked down the hallway she saw a shadow approaching her, it was shaped like a man but had no form. She froze in terror as the shadow passed through her. She turned back around seeing it was now standing over her body. She tried to say something before being pulled by an unseen force.



The sound of a cat purring woke Fiona from her dream as she felt a scratchy tongue liking her toes followed by teeth. ‘I don’t have a cat,’ Fiona thought as her mind began to wake up. She opened her eyes and looked as a cat with a face that was half ginger, half black, looked up at her and approached still purring.



Fiona ignored the cat for the moment as she caught sight of her surroundings. This wasn’t her room and she had no idea how she got here. Her vision also seemed clearer than it usually was and she didn’t have strands of red hair in her field of vision. She sat up and felt strange, like there was something missing. Her heart raced as she pulled the covers off and froze.



“What…” she paused as she heard her voice. “This can’t be real,” she said as she patted down her flat and hairy chest. “This isn’t happening,” she rolled out of bed. She looked around for a mirror in the room and saw there wasn’t one. She got out of the bed and felt the need to go to the toilet. ‘At least there’d be a toilet in the bathroom’, she thought to herself.



The bedroom only had one door, so there wasn’t an en-suite she could use. The door was also partially open, which explained the cat. She hoped no one else lived here as she stepped out of the room, revealing she was in an apartment. The living room, kitchen and small dining table were all in a single room. She found the bathroom door easily enough as it was the only other door in the apartment, besides the front door. When she walked in she spotted what she was looking for. Her reflection gave her pause as she recognised the face in the mirror instantly. It was a face she had seen daily. She was now Adam.

Saturday the 14th of February: The Restaurant



Fiona had been Adam for over a day and a half. They hadn’t met up physically since the swap as Adam worked Fridays and she didn’t. Adam asked her to work as he couldn’t afford to take the day off. Fortunately Fridays were slow and Fiona had enough of an understanding to do Adam’s job. Fiona also needed Adam to take care of her shopping as well as attend her dentist appointment. To his credit he did so without complaint. This left no time for either of them to meet up in the evening.



While working as Adam, Fiona had found something strange at his desk, it was a card like the one she had received yesterday, only this one was blue instead of pink. It also had the same tickets for a dinner reservation. Fiona wondered if this was somehow what caused the swap and mentioned it to Adam. He agreed that it had been worth looking into and said he’d meet her tomorrow night.



This morning Fiona had tried to meet up with Adam but he hadn’t responded. She had even gone over to her place, but Adam wasn’t home. When she tried to contact him all he said was he’d see her tonight. The whole situation made Fiona anxious and also made her wonder what Adam was up to.



Now Fiona was outside the restaurant where she and Adam had received reservations via tickets. The marketing strategy seemed strange to Fiona, as who hands out reservations like that in general and especially for Valentine’s Day.



“Do you have a reservation?’ a young woman interrupted Fiona’s chain of thought. Fiona nodded and pulled it out of her pocket. “Come this way,” the woman gestured for her to follow. Fiona was escorted past a line of upset individuals, and taken inside the restaurant to a table of two.



“I don’t think…” Fiona paused for a moment. “My date has her ticket on her, she left it at work.” She explained as she took her seat. The waitress gave her a polite smile.



“Don’t worry, we know who’s paired with who,” the waitress meant to put Fiona at ease but instead confessed to being responsible for the swap. “Your date will be escorted to you once they arrive.” Fiona went to say something else but she had already walked off.



The rest of the restaurant was packed with couples ranging from their twenties to their sixties. There were a few empty tables as well as ones waiting for their dates. She noticed a woman nearby with messy hair and wearing a T-Shirt and jeans, while another had smeared makeup. She was beginning to wonder if everyone in this restaurant had been swapped, which also made her curious about the young woman sitting with an older man twice her age.



Fiona sat nervously for a good fifteen minutes before she saw her body being escorted by the same waitress from earlier. She almost did a double take when she saw her former body. Adam was wearing a teal dress that showed too much of Fiona’s body. She was shocked to see how easily he was walking in heels, and how well her hair had been braided into a single french braid. As Adam got closer she saw her nails were expertly painted and had done her make up extremely well.



“Sorry I’m late,” Adam apologised as he took the seat across from Fiona. “It took a while to get ready.”



“You didn’t need to go all out,” Fiona scowled. Not only because Adam had ghosted her all day but because he put in this effort when he didn’t need to.



“But I wanted to look nice for our date,” Adam’s tone was as sincere as it had always been. “I see you’ve shaved.” It wasn’t an accusation, just an observation.



“Oh… sorry,” Fiona apologized. “It felt too weird and I figured it’d grow back in a few days.” She knew she should’ve asked for permission for an alteration like that.



“You look good,” Adam complimented her. It felt weird being complimented like that, Fiona wasn’t sure if it was because she received it as a guy or that Adam was complimenting himself.

“What would the lady be having this evening?” the Waitress cut in. Fiona went to answer but realised she was probably talking to Adam. As Fiona looked up she realised that she was the one being addressed.



“Oh uh…” Fiona hesitated as she hadn’t seen a menu. She then told the woman her favourite meal.



“Excellent choice,” the waitress acknowledged and turned to Adam. “What will the gentlemen be having?” Adam answered with something that Fiona didn’t really enjoy. “I will have it brought out shortly.”



“They know we’ve swapped right?’ Fiona leaned towards Adam and spoke in a hushed voice. “I mean with the way they’re acting, they have to know.”



“Of course, they sent out the cards,” Adam didn’t seem all that concerned.



“Well then they’ll know how to fix this,” Fiona went to stand up but Adam grabbed her wrist causing her to pause.



“I’m sure they’ll explain how afterwards,” Adam assured her. “For now why don’t we enjoy our date?”



“Our date?” Fiona looked at her former body flustered.



“Of course, the card said ‘be your own Valentine’. I guess that means they want us to date ourselves,” Adam smiled.



Fiona looked at Adam confused, her or more accurately his heart was pumping faster. “You’re okay with this?” She asked as she bit her bottom lip.



“Of course, Fiona, you’re a beautiful woman, with a wonderful and kind soul. You’d need to be an idiot not to see that,” Adam commented. The words hit Fiona in a way she didn’t expect. Adam grabbed her hands and looked up at her. “Will you be my Valentine?”