What began as a terrible day for me turned out to change my life forever, for the better.

It was a rainy afternoon. I just got out of my office, a publishing house. I was working there as an accountant. But since I also have an affinity for writing, I was also part-time working as a novice author, writing a manuscript for a novel that, hopefully, my colleagues from the new stories department would soon be interested in publishing. I was about to give up that day. After several revisions, the head editor finally decided to tell me just now that they wouldn’t be interested in taking my work anymore. He tried taking me down not-so-gently, telling me that my writing was not that terrible, it’s just that the premise of my story wasn’t, to be honest, really interesting.

I kind of agree with them. After all, that novel was just a collection of my daydreams. It was a story of my life if fate had better plans for me, if there were choices I took differently, or if I had more opportunities available for me. A glimpse into a parallel universe where I was happier and more successful. When I was young, my mother told me that I had a twin, who she left in foster care as she couldn’t support both of us. I had been thinking of that ever since, what his life could have been like. Sure, it is interesting for me, as it is all I think about in my mundane life. But that may not translate well to the readers.

I made my way into a random coffee shop. Not really a fan of coffee because of my intolerance, but I thought I needed the ambiance to clear my head after such a bad day.

I ordered a cup of hot chocolate from a tall, twinky, blond-haired barista. “Adrian”, his name tag reads. All the while, he was smiling to me in a more than customer-friendly way, while lightly giggling and tapping his cashier partner. It bothered me a bit, but I chose to ignore it.

“One hot chocolate for Sir…” he trailed off dramatically, while drawing small hearts on the cup with a Sharpie. “Jacob?” He tried to guess. Well, that was random.

“Jeremy.”

He and his partner looked at each other said at the same time, “JEREMYYY.” And then he seemed to collect himself again and calmly, professionally, asked me to take a seat while I wait for my order.

Weird. Very weird. He’s cute. Definitely my type. But that interaction was really, totally weird.

When he gave me my hot chocolate later on, he seemed really nervous. His cashier friend from his station cheered him on, for whatever reason.

“Sir Jacob, I might lose my job for this,” he paused and gulped, “but it will be totally worth it so… Can I have your autograph, please?” And with that he held out a book to me.

“Is this some kind of a joke?” I responded annoyed. Not today please, not when my manuscript just got turned down. And with a slightly more raised tone, I said, “And why do you keep on calling me Jacob?”

“I’m sorry… You’re really not… Jacob Andres?”

“WHO?” I wanted to say a lot more, but aside from it being weird and already having a terrible day before that, I was starting to feel sorry for him, too.

“I’m sorry again, you must have just looked very much alike.” With teary eyes, he opened the book he was earlier holding out to the page where it shows the author.

“Holy. Forking. Shirtballs.” I exclaimed incoherently. The author, Jacob Andres, looked very much indeed like me. A much refined, with better skin care, photographically enhanced, successful writer version of me. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. “Can I borrow this for a sec?”

I read the blurb of the book. It was a romance novel about an accountant and aspiring writer named… Jeremy.

Who just got his novel rejected so he went to a… coffee shop.

And met his love interest… Adrian.

Adrian. I almost did not notice him as he sat across the table from me while I got lost in the premise of this novel. A glimpse into my life, from the other end of the twin connection.

“Hey,” I began to reach his hand, “Don’t spoil the ending for me, ok?”