Amid the laughter of their colleagues, Justin threw his arms around Ben’s shoulders and the two of them wrestled for a couple of minutes before breaking apart. They wandered into the kitchen, where a new pot of coffee was being made. Suitably equipped with caffeine, Ben sat at the table to take a closer look at the calendar. It felt a bit strange to think people all over the state, maybe all over the country, would be looking at one—no, two—pictures of him, shirtless. As well as the cover image that featured both twins, each had their own month. Ben was Mr July and Justin was November’s feature image. The rest of the year was filled with men from other bases; Ben had met a couple of them at joint operations.
The station alarm sounded and Ben was on his feet in a second. He dropped the calendar on the table and walked to the waiting truck. He was needed somewhere. That was more important than anything else.
At the end of the day, a small shed fire easily extinguished, Ben drove into the centre of Tamworth to pick up some things he needed. As he walked past a gift shop, two girls came out. He guessed they were about twenty and they were pretty. He smiled at them and they smiled back. As he walked on, he heard a sudden exclamation behind him.
‘OMG! It’s one of them. From the calendar.’ There was an explosion of giggles.
‘I wonder which one it is.’
He turned to look at them and winked. As he continued on his way, more giggles followed him.
Not every case of mistaken identity had ended like that. The older he and Justin had become, the easier people seemed to find it to tell them apart. Something in their faces, maybe. Or the way they spoke or moved. Back at school, no one had really known who was who. He’d taken advantage of that so many times. Pretended he was Justin to join a cricket or football game. Once or twice, to kiss a girl. But eventually, he was always found out. He was the younger brother … the lesser brother.
If only they hadn’t been in the same class. He might have made it on his own. Had his own friends. Kissed those girls as himself, instead of pretending to be someone else. But his mother’s lie had ensured he had grown up as the second Turner twin. The other, less important one. The younger brother who simply followed where Justin led. And that habit, once developed, had never been lost. He still did it to this day.
***
Justin beat his brother home at the end of the day. He’d been out of the station most of the afternoon, talking to the owners of the shed that had burned and giving them advice on how to avoid a reoccurrence; when it was the middle of the fire season, and this hot and dry, even a small shed fire was enough to start something that threatened everyone. From there, he’d driven straight home. When he walked inside, he dropped his copy of the calendar on the bookshelf. As he looked at it, he wondered if Anna had seen it. If they’d sent each of the models a copy, then surely she should have received one as well? Bree was certain to have received one. Maybe she’d shown it to Anna. He wondered what she thought as she looked at that cover. And hard on the heels of that, he wondered if she had been thinking about him at all since he left. He had certainly been thinking about her.
There was one way to find out. He reached for his phone and, aware that Ben might be home any minute, he walked through the kitchen and out onto the back patio. Traditionally, that was where either brother went when privacy was required.
He flicked through his contacts and chose a number.
The phone rang once. Twice. On the third ring, he was composing a message when a familiar voice answered.
‘Hello? Justin?’
His heart did that crazy thing it did each time he saw her or even heard her voice. ‘Hi, Anna. How’s things?’
‘Fine. Still dry. We could really use some rain. It’s good to hear from you.’
His heart was still doing that thing. ‘A copy of the RFS calendar arrived in the mail today. Did you get one?’
‘Bree brought one over for me.’
‘What did you think?’
There was a long silence. He waited, feeling not unlike a teenager with his first crush.
‘Justin, are you fishing for compliments?’
He laughed in an explosion of the breath he hadn’t realised he was holding. ‘Maybe.’
Anna chuckled, a simple, warm sound that wrapped around him and drifted away, leaving him feeling happy in its wake.
‘They’ve used a few different studs and fire stations,’ Anna noted. ‘The photos are very good.’
‘And …’
‘There are some very nice-looking men in the RFS.’
‘And we made the cover.’ Even to himself, Justin sounded like he was boasting.
‘Which is why I’m not going to tell you how great you look. You know that already.’
It was his turn to chuckle. ‘I was wondering …’
‘Yes?’
