1. Twins, Part 1

Lavinia and Michelle are twins, but they aren't identical.

They look different, and they seem different, too.

Lavinia, the outgoing one, doesn't have kids.

She's wearing a headscarf as she speaks to me from her home in South London.

Michelle, who lives nearby, is more of an introvert.

She's got a teenage son.

Tumbling curls frame her face.

Not long ago, they had a bit of a falling out, Michelle says.

We've always struggled with birthdays because she's outgoing, extrovert, and always wants to do something, and I don't.

I just want to eat a Victoria sponge cake with a candle on and have a glass of prosecco and be at home and be a homebody.

And this year, because we've had an argument, the silver lining means that I get to do exactly what I want to do on my birthday, which is nearly nothing.

You know, I mean, you will know that people are fascinated by twins and the connection that they have with each other.

Do you feel that you have a special connection?

So first off, there's a little bit of magic there.

I can feel when she's upset, and she can feel when I'm upset and vice versa, and there's a lot of synergy there.

Lavinia's felt it, too.

There were times when she, like, spilt hot water, and I felt it.

Do you get what I mean? But I didn't know it had happened.

Like, on her leg, and then I felt it.

So you could say twins can be similar, but you could also say twins can be polar opposites.

And so I feel like Michelle and I have kind of followed each other through life in the sense of I lived in Barcelona, um, when I was 24, 25, and then not long after that Michelle moved abroad to Iceland.

So I moved to a hot country, she moved to a cold country, but we still moved abroad more or less in the same timeframe, you know? We both started businesses.

I started my business first, and then she started.

I moved out of home and got my own place.

She moved out not long after.