The room was empty except for Robin and the desk attendant. The morning’s arrivals had all happened bright and early, while he’d still been sat on the bus. His alternate was probably sat in the waiting room, leafing through old magazines with a look of awe on his face (in a world that’s so different from your own, even trash can be fascinating). He walked to the desk and gave his name.
“I’ll just go and get her.” The attendant replied.
Robin waited, a little confused. The message had told him that he was meeting an alternate version of himself, not just someone who held his position. “Maybe they got it wrong,” he thought to himself, “Or maybe it’s-” He didn’t get to finish that thought as the attendant had opened the door and was calling his name into the waiting room. He heard a female voice answer and then the shuffling of magazines back into piles. A few moments later, the attendant stood aside to allow her to exit the room.
“Miss Robin Ver of dimension ZZ9-221984.” The attendant announced. The woman standing before him was alternate version of himself. From a dimension where his father’s sperm had offered up and X chromosome instead of a Y. Robin studied her, trying to see where they were similar. They shared the same dark brown hair and greyish-blue eyes. Her haircut was even similar to his, short and somewhat spiky in an unkempt and lackadaisical fashion. She was at least a thought shorter than him though, and very much a woman. She had curves in all the right places and even the short hair didn’t send her looks too far in the direction of “boyish”. Robin’s nothing-but-black suit, shirt and shoes were replaced by a dark grey blouse, a pencil skirt, tights (at least by Robin’s guess, he couldn’t see the tops of her legs), some plain black heels, and one of those little cardigan things that didn’t even fully cover her arms.
“Um, hi…” the other Robin said, “I’m Robin.”
“Oh, yes!” Robin was ejected out of his ruminations, “Sorry about that. It’s just that I’ve never been a woman before, I mean…”
The other Robin laughed, “I get what you mean. I’ve met male versions of myself before. A fair few, in fact. There seems to be woefully few female Robin Vers out there. Or maybe they all just went somewhere else for work.”
“Maybe they did. Well, it’s lovely to meet you and welcome to ER7-724272.” Robin offered his hand and she shook it and smiled. “Shall we head up to the office? You do work in team 5, don’t you?”
“Yep. Arts researcher, just like you. Or so they tell me.”
“And they’d be right!” Robin (the original) smiled and led the way through the building. As they walked, they talked politely about things, such as how he didn’t really need to lead her as the building was almost identical to her own. She occasionally pointed out things that were different; a vending machine that stocked a different brand of drink, a picture that hung on an opposite side, a plant that someone had killed by pouring something rather nasty into the pot at a recent office party. They also exchanged brief life stories about themselves, mostly a snippet from one of them, followed by a reply of “same here, but…”. The stories had similar plots, a pleasant childhood in Bristol, before moving to London for University and finally ending up at The Library. She’d done slightly better than him, ending up with a 1st, rather than the 2.1 he just barely scraped. His musical career had mostly consisted of playing guitar in a variety of short-lived, local, metal or punk bands, whereas she’d been a blues singer who’d really had a chance of going somewhere, but she’d decided to focus on her studies.
They arrived at the office and made their way to the cubicle they’d share. “It’s even in the same spot!” The female Robin exclaimed. “So I still get that lovely view out of the window. Oh, but that church isn’t there.”
“Take your pick.” Robin said, indicating the extra computers spread around the circular desk. “I’m on 1, obviously, and some guy from RR6-565677 has been using 4 a lot recently.”
“One of us?”
“No, not another Robin. His name’s Terry, I think. Don’t think he’ll be back for a few days, said he had a lot of material to gather. All The Beatles are still alive and making albums where he’s from, apparently.”
“The Beatles?” The female Robin looked confused.
“Yes. Surely you guys have them?”
“Don’t think so. But maybe they’re just not that big and I haven’t heard of them…”
Robin laughed “Maybe! I’d love to know what those guys did instead! Here, I’ll pull up something for you to have a listen to.” He sat down at his machine and started clicking away, scrolling through masses of music that had never and would never exist in his own dimension. Finally he came to what he was looking for. “Here we go.” With a click of the mouse, and a turn of the speaker’s volume knob, “Hey Jude” was flowing out of the tiny computer speakers he’d been provided with. The female Robin listened intently, a slight smile forming on her lips.
“I know this one!”
“Oh, so they do exist?” Robin looked a her hopefully.
“I don’t think so.” She gave him a troubled look. “I think it was churned out by one of those awful pop factories in the late 20th. I can’t for the life of me remember who was singing on it. Not that it matters really.”
“Oh dear. It’d be a real shame if they were reduced to that sort of thing.”
“It was probably a cover or something.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “Give me all you can on them and I’ll do some research when I get back.” She took a seat at 2 and started her voyage of discovery into the works of one of the most successful bands of all time, who were almost nobodies where she came from.
Robin watched her work and he smiled. She was definitely very attractive. He was sure he couldn’t look anywhere near that attractive if he tried. The more he studied her, the more he could see resemblances, but every one of them had a feminine bent that made him believe she must be someone else. But obviously the checks had been done. They had to be. The Library needed to know if you were going to be working with an alternate. The simplest way was via name and position in the company. They were both Robin Ver and they both worked as Team 5’s arts researcher. But that wasn’t enough. Names could belong to anyone. There was definitely another Robin Ver living in this dimension already who was in no way an alternate of himself (he occasionally got e-mails or online requests from people looking for the other Robin Ver, though he was unable to direct them elsewhere as his searches for him had also been fruitless).
Their work day rushed along and they got along well on that first day. They sat and ate lunch together and they were joined by another Robin Ver, this one being from TD7-454533 and instead being an historical researcher for team 2. He’d been visiting for a while and informed them that this was the last time he’d be there as his team’s project was finishing up and they’d be moving on to editing and publishing the data they’d collected. Robin (the original) had gotten to know him quite well and expressed his sadness at seeing him go.
“Well, you’ll have to pop over sometime!” said Team 2 Robin, “We’ll have a night out. Drinks will have to be on me, obviously.”
“Ah yes, no monarchy over there, so our money won’t even pass for good.” said Robin.
“And maybe the young lady could join us?”
“Oh, that sounds lovely!” the female Robin replied. “I’ve yet to experience the UK as a republic outside of research texts.”
“Good good. I won’t bring the wife. She seems very much of the opinion that one of me is far too many at the moment.”
“Ah yes, Jenny Saunders,” the original Robin mused, “I was heartbroken when she ditched me. Guess I dodged a bullet there!”
“You certainly did, my boy!” Team 2 Robin gave him a fatherly punch in the arm, despite their identical ages.
“Jenny Saunders? She got very drunk and tried to kiss me at a party once!” the female Robin exclaimed. They all laughed.
The rest of the day was an enjoyable one for Robin. There was pleasant conversation throughout the afternoon between him and the alternate Robin and he was sad to see her to the departures department at the end of the day. She assured him she would be back though. She had lots of surface data to sort through and compare to what they had back home. Then she’d be back to do some in-depth research and provide him with some data for comparison. He told her he’d be very much looking forward to it.
His bus home was on time and he spent most of the journey thinking of her. It was then that he first began to consider some kind of relationship between them. The thought shocked him at first, but it kept nagging at him. She was definitely very attractive and they shared a lot in common. It wasn’t unheard of for employees of The Library to begin relationships across dimensions, but with an alternate? That’s surely just a little fucked-up? Robin began making narcissism and masturbation jokes in his head and was still giggling when he got off the bus.
Robin had a dream that night. It began with him and the female Robin working in the office, like they had been that day. Almost instantly, it changed. Female Robin stood up and had a predatory look in her eyes. She pushed the computer terminals off the desk one by one and then leapt upon it. She pulled Robin towards her and kissed him deeply and passionately. They began to undress each other. Pulling at each other’s clothes, taking off only what was needed. He ripped open her blouse and pushed up her skirt. She was wearing stockings in his dream. She lay back on the desk and he removed her underwear, discarding it on the floor. He climbed on top of her, leaning in close to hear what she was whispering.
“Fuck me.” Robin exclaimed as he awoke. He felt dampness against his face and instinctively wiped his mouth, but it was dry. He realised it was sweat and sat up. His could feel the hardness of his penis against his underwear. “Fuck” he said again and fell back to lie on the bed again. He masturbated to the fading images of his dream. To the thought of fucking an alternate version of himself. To the sound of her whispering in his ear. To her stockings. To the look of hunger in her eyes when she’d taken hold of his neck and kissed him. He came to the fantasy of fucking himself. The euphoria subsided and he fell into a restless sleep haunted by doubts. But at the back of his mind hung that look. He wanted to see that look for real.
