different names for the same thing

London has long leases and huge rent that make it hard to be there and be somewhere else at the same time. If London was your boyfriend, it would be demanding, possessive and not put up with the least bit of flirting.

Today it eyes me suspiciously as I tiptoe back in. "You've been consorting with other cities," it says.

"Just visiting. Not consorting," I protest. "I slept on the sofa every night."

"Do you take me for a fool?" London growls. "I can smell them on you. And that tall, hilly, flashy one - you're wearing his shirt! You've got some nerve."

"But I was thinking of you all along," I say, knowing as the words leave my mouth that they're a lie.