TRUST ME!
by Vickie Tern
I.
"Andrew dear, why didn't you ever get your ears pierced?"
I looked up, astonished. My wife was perched comfortably in
our big easy chair, her nest most evenings when she wasn't out
selling a client some building, her legs curled up under her,
reading one of her magazines, all as usual. She was gazing at me
casually with a mixture of curiosity and mild concern, as if the
question had just occurred to her, and the answer didn't much
matter, but it might, and she figured she'd ask before returning to
her story, or article, or whatever.
"What?!" I asked. I couldn't believe it. She knew I'd wanted
to, in fantasy, but she knew that for me fantasy and fact were
separate, that I'd never have done it. And in fact she hated the
pleasure I felt when decorating myself like a woman! She never
allowed reference to it. She didn't want to know! My mind
replayed what I'd just heard, and tried to re-hear it. 'Airs,'
could that have been the word? 'Pursed?' No, nothing else made
sense. But what I'd heard didn't make sense either!
"Your ears," she said patiently. "Didn't you ever want to get
them pierced?"
"Well, yes," I replied. I wondered if I could tell her when
that was. It was a few years ago, during those intoxicated, golden
afternoons when I couldn't help indulging my love of dressing up,
just before she came home early one afternoon to discover me dolled
up curls to heels in women's clothes, coiffed and jeweled,
strutting and posing in front of a mirror until I saw her in the
same mirror, standing there watching me, shocked! At that time I
was besotted by the fantasy that I could magically become a
complete woman, and yet remain a man, no bodily alterations toward
femininity being too extreme nor too permanent. Pierced ears were
the least of the things I wanted but would never have except in my
imagination. Above all, I gloried in imagining that my Monica was
as delighted and entranced as I was when I was dressed to look like
a woman, even turned on by it. Or at least mildly interested, and
perhaps helpful.
But when she actually saw me cross dressed, reality replaced
fantasy. Long months of resentment and grief followed while our
marriage foundered. She made impossible demands I was too honest
to accept, that it was a filthy addiction like smoking I should
give up cold turkey, or taper off gradually, that a shrink could
cure me, that I should take up golf or tennis instead, that I
should settle for flashy men's clothes whenever I felt the urge.
She had cross dressing confused with infidelity, as if by dating my
mirror image I was being intimate with another woman. I argued in
turn that it was harmless, for me a source of great joy, nothing
more. Finally she understood that it was a compulsion, delightful
to me if perverse to her, but a deep-rooted, powerful compulsion
nevertheless, dating maybe even from a prenatal time of life. It
was how I was. Finally we agreed that I could keep doing it, since
I'd keep doing it anyhow, but it should always be in ways and
places where she'd never know or be reminded.
Mostly I'd kept to that arrangement. It was tricky, but
possible, and our happiness depended on it. We have a good
marriage. We're a little unconventionally matched, maybe, but
wonderfully compatible. I do most of my work at home,
cost-estimating engineering projects, because home is where I can
think more clearly than anywhere else, juggle all the variables in
my head and watch them land right side up. Then I pipe in the
results by fax or e-mail, and get other data back the same way. I
don't much need to talk to anyone. I just do it, and do it better
than anyone else. It's not something I especially enjoy, but there
are compensations.
I like the arrangement with my company because I'm a deep-dyed
homebody. Always have been. The thinking is intricate and
conceptual, and it's easy to get lost in your mind. But I love
working out the problems while doing simple homey tasks in the real
world, like making the beds or fluffing the couch pillows, or
scrubbing the kitchen floor, or sewing on shirt buttons, or cooking
up intricate dishes for my beloved wife. I know, this is all
women's work, but it helps keeps me sane. Early in our marriage we
agreed that I would look after our household routines, shopping and
cooking and cleaning, and Monica would take charge of the
exceptional elements of our marriage, like our social lives or
vacations.
This freed Monica for her work, which is selling real estate.
She dearly loves it, and is a whiz at it. She's good with people
-- she has the right combination of charm, persuasiveness, and
persistence, and she does her homework too, her endless research on
her clients and their needs and the properties she thinks right for
them. She can be devious setting up intricate arrangements for a
client to walk in, see advantages, and then think he's deciding for
himself that this or that building and its financing are perfect
for him. It's commonplace for Monica, about to close on an office
building, to schedule the closing in another more expensive but
more suitable building, lead the client in, and then let him
discover that fact for himself. This especially amuses her boss,
a smooth operator named Ben who has himself pulled off some very
big deals in town. Sometimes he can't believe some scheme she's
conceived will work, and they bet her commission on the outcome,
double or nothing. He's right just often enough to want to keep
betting and losing, and I've sometimes thought Monica schemes even
that arrangement. Her job is demanding -- it gives her irregular
hours additional to the regular work week she spends in her office.
Sometimes she's out of the house all day and many evenings, and
sometimes whole weekends. But she's hard-driving, and she enjoys
it, and she enjoys the payoff.
This was convenient. I was too frightened of discovery, too
embarrassed by my own desire, to dress feminine anywhere but in my
own home with the shades drawn. So I did the housework dressed
suitably, in a house dress, and if there were no deadlines then I
could lounge through the afternoons fixing my hair to look pretty,
or even pretend I was out on the town wearing my one
figure-clinging evening gown. After we arrived at our truce I
couldn't keep the evidence entirely away from her. A few times
panties or a bra unknown to her found their way from my separate
laundry into her drawers, and then I'd find them on my bureau to be
stowed in my own panty drawer, no comment ever made. It was
embarrassing once when we had Ben over for dinner, and Ben
commented that with all my domestic talents I'd make someone a fine
wife some day. I flushed, maybe too quickly, but Monica leaped in
to snap "No, he won't, he's already married to me," and that was
that.
Once or twice I'd forget myself, and ask her an idle question
about women's styles, what do you call a high waistline, gathered
under the breast and falling to a full skirt for example. She'd
just bought such a dress. On such occasions she'd only reply
sharply, "I told you, I'm not going to discuss such things with
you. It would only encourage your sick habit." I didn't dare
protest that my question was disinterested and innocent. I didn't
dare say anything. It would only have seemed to her to be a
deliberate extending of discussion of a forbidden topic, a flouting
of our agreement. Where my transvestism was even distantly
implied, she was not interested. Period. Until now.
"Then why didn't you get them pierced? Every girl does.
Didn't you want to be a girl?"
Why didn't I do the nearly unthinkable, get my ears pierced
and become one of the odd men who shared decorated ear lobes with
most of the women on the planet? The ten thousand reasons why not
flooded at me -- shame, fear of exposure, of jeopardizing my
manhood, of gibes from my associates, of offending and appalling my
wife when she saw the holes. Even fear of my own desires. It
seemed dangerous for me to alter my body to match my fantasy
desires, even in trivial ways -- who knew where that might end?
"Oh, I don't know," I replied evasively. That was too
evasive, obviously, so I added, "I didn't want to offend you, I
suppose, in part." Then I risked her wrath by asking her an
obvious question, and thereby actually extending the discussion,
our first since those hideous months before we'd agreed never ever
to mention anything about it again. "Why do you ask?" I asked,
delicately.
She scarcely noticed. Her turn to be evasive. "Different
reasons," she said with a dismissive shrug. Then she realized that
sounded too unforthcoming, too secretive, so she volunteered, "I
found one of your clip earrings on the kitchen counter a few days
ago, so I just wondered. It must have fallen off when you were
fixing dinner, and you never noticed. It told me you're still
dressing up day times. Though I didn't need to be reminded of
that, of course."
I took another chance. "No?" I asked. Then waited for the
storm. None came.
"Of course not. You're always leaving lipsticked kleenex in
the bathroom. And often I can smell your perfume when we're in bed,
when you don't shower first. Always the same perfume, *Enjoli,*
which is fortunate for you, or I'd suspect you'd been with some
other woman. But I found the bottle once, hidden in your toilet
kit on the closet shelf, when you left it a little bit open and the
smell had spread all over our bedroom. You're lucky I like the
scent -- I even borrow a dab now and then. Then there are other
things too, of course, like when you're careless about keeping our
bras and slips separate, or when you kick off your heels under the
bed and then forget they're there. Anyhow, when I found the
earring I began wondering what kind of a woman you would make.
Still strange looking, I suppose, because you don't shave your legs, or
fix your eyebrows, and any girl needs to attend to things like that
if she means to look pretty. Or even presentable."
"Yes," I said, still too afraid to say anything else. Despite
my bewilderment, I was in heaven! '*Our* bras and slips' she'd
said, talking about them as if we were equally feminine! *Any*
girl, as if I was one of them. And she'd borrowed my perfume! She
seemed untroubled to be talking about it. Perfectly easy in fact.
And she even seemed to be implying that I should try harder to look
pretty. If only I dared!
But there was more. "When I found your earring, dear -- those
faux seed pearls set in silver? -- it's really lovely -- you do
have good taste, I've got to grant that -- I realized it would go
perfectly with my gray suit, the one with the cinched-in waist and
flared peplum and short, straight skirt, you know it? You couldn't
wear that suit now, but it would be quite becoming on you if you'd
lose ten or fifteen pounds, I should think. Anyhow, I can't
borrow your clip earrings, because my lobes are much too small for
clip-ons. I'd only lose them. So I wondered why you don't have
pierced ears, is all. Most women do. Then we could at least
borrow each others' jewelry. We'd be like sisters."
My heart swelled to bursting! This conversation was my
fondest dream! "Oh, Monica," I began ecstatically....
Then I interrupted myself, and came fully alert. I sat up,
and looked at her. Why, after years of detesting my habit, or
ignoring it and hoping it would go away, why was it she was now
chatting with me like a girlfriend, or -- what was it she'd just
said? -- like another woman, like a sister. There was something
wrong here. This was my dearest fantasy come to life. I was
overjoyed, and my suspicions wanted to dissolve into tears of joy.
But there was still something wrong.
"Why do you ask, Monica?" I asked her again. "I mean, why
now?"
My voice rose into falsetto, then cracked on the word "now"
despite myself. I tried to swallow, and couldn't. I saw she was
looking at me intently and that she had seen and heard my
excitement, and I saw the slightest of smiles play across the
corners of her mouth before she stretched her arms out and yawned,
then began to settle her eyes back onto the magazine in her lap.
"Oh, I don't know," she said. "But I think I should help you
with things like that. You have so much to learn."
And she settled back into her reading as if fascinated by
whatever had just caught her eye there, closed off to further
discussion.
A revolution had just occurred, and she seemed no more
concerned than if she had asked me why I had tossed parmesan into
tonight's salad. She had given me the most glorious gift! Not
only had she calmly accepted my dressing up, and chatted about it,
she'd offered to participate! No, she'd said she felt she should
participate. My throat was still choked, and I tried to wipe away
the tears in my eyes without being too obvious about it. Maybe it
was just that love had finally brought her to acceptance of me as
I am? All of me? She knew I was a loving and caring husband, and
apart from my transvestism we were well matched. Maybe it was mean
and ungenerous for me to question her further.
That night we made tender, passionate love more devotedly than
since the early days of our marriage, and she seemed serenely
pleased as I held and caressed her, and hugged her close to me, and
stroked my penis in and out of her pussy until her arms tightened
on my neck and I knew she'd come. Then when we were done, and I
was kissing her face gently over and over in sheer gratitude, she
whispered "Yes, dear, I know how you feel." She kissed me once in
return, then rolled over and instantly fell asleep.
II.
The next day she quit work early When I returned from an
errand in the early afternoon I saw Monica's car in the driveway,
heard noises upstairs, and went to investigate. There she was,
just completing a fast shuffle through the guest-room closet where
I kept my skirts, blouses, and dresses. I looked questioningly at
her, but she merely looked up, appraised me at once in a single
glance, and said, "No, you're no way ready. You have some nice
things, dear. I'll bet I could wear some of your smaller dresses
right now, and you can certainly borrow some of my loose-cut
blouses and jumpers. But you do need to diet. And anyhow you
can't quite pass safely yet. We'll have to do it in stages."
"What?" I asked her, again nearly incoherent. Her talk about
sharing clothes, again like girlfriends or sisters, filled my heart
with joy. But her reference to passing frightened me. Did she
mean for me to go out on the street? To be seen?
"Darling, to do womanly things one should feel womanly, and
move with a woman's self-assurance. So right now just put on a bra
and panties and a short slip, and these slacks -- no one will
notice there's no fly, and this over-shirt -- it's loose enough to
hide your breast forms, I think. Are those sneakers unisex? Close
enough for now. But no socks -- peds if you have any. Then let's
go!"
"Monica, go where?" Again my voice rose with a rising
hysteria, this time sounding almost flute-like.
"Why, to get your ears pierced, love. So we can share our
jewelry and things. You'll love wearing some of my bangles and
dangles. And you don't need to worry at all about offending me,
not any more. I'm loving the idea already."
She went back to our bedroom, and I began to undress, in order
to re-dress myself entirely in women's clothes, as Monica had
ordered, though the outer garments were indistinguishable from
men's. Nearly. In order to go out. Out into a world of men and
women. In order to get my ears pierced. I felt excited and
terribly apprehensive, both at the same time.
Almost at once she returned. Or so it seemed. She had
changed from her businesswoman's tailored suit to a tight sweater
and a mini skirt, for Monica rather sexy apparel. I could see her
breasts push out and sag into the sweater's support in the most
seductive curves -- could it be she wasn't wearing a brassiere?
Then her nipples showed in profile, and I knew she wasn't.
"Are you going out like that, Monica?" I tried to ask
casually.
But she knew what I meant. She shook her shoulders at me and
her breasts bobbed up and down deliciously. "Just want you to be
reminded that it takes more than a bra to make a woman, Andy love.
Though that is a very pretty bra indeed, I must say. A lovely
place to keep breasts when you've got 'em."
I blushed, embarrassed.
"Just remember, it's what's inside that counts the most, pet.
For now, just put in your breast forms and hurry. Have you been
admiring yourself in the mirror again? What's keeping you? I've
changed completely and you're still only halfway there."
I hurried into my slacks, sockless shoes, and oversized
T-shirt, and as she predicted, looked merely unisex. I felt a
little uneasy about the pants, which were form fit along my calf
and snug on my ankles, and made a tight V at my crotch, neatly
dividing my balls as if they were labia. But the T-Shirt covered
the crotch, with its smooth frontage, so I slipped into my sneakers
and declared, "Ready."
"Well, not quite," said Monica. She hauled out a lipstick and
began dabbing at my mouth.
I could feel a waxy substance slipping onto my lips and
coating them, and was shocked. "Monica!" I cried aghast. "What
are you doing?"
"Oh, stop worrying, baby," she said, "You know perfectly well
what I'm doing. It's pale pink, nearly invisible. Did you think
I want to appear in public with a man who wears lipstick? You know
better than that! No, you won't get to wear proper lipstick until
it becomes you as a woman. Sooner than you might think. But with
this, you can feel you're wearing lipstick, and get used to how it
feels. Never leave the house without it. I'm sure you already
feel much more womanly because of it, don't you?"
I did.
"All right, we're going to be out for some time. Visit the
bathroom, would you honey? And sit down when you do it, just for
practice -- you'll need to pull down those pants and your panties
anyhow. Then let's go! I'll wait for you in the kitchen."
In the kitchen she handed me a small whisky on rocks. She was
just finishing hers. "Here, dear. You seem nervous -- this'll
calm you down." She went away while I sipped and swallowed. The
whisky tasted like cheap stuff, but she'd put away the bottle so I
couldn't see the brand. I prefer vodka. She returned. "Ready?"
And she swept us both out the door and into her car. "Just
sit there, now, dear. I'll drive."
She did, to a rather nondescript part of town where she parked
in front of a beauty parlor.
"I'm not going in there," I said, now genuinely frightened.
It was one thing to be an imitation woman in privacy, and enjoy the
illusion. But this was authentic woman territory, and I was not
one of them. To go in there, I thought superstitiously, might make
me more of one of them than I wanted. It seemed terribly risky.
"Oh, Andrew, don't be silly. Do you want your ears pierced by
some teenager at the earring bazaar in the middle of the mall, in
full view of everyone passing by? Or here, privately, by a
professional?"
"You're right," I replied morosely. "But Monica, I haven't
yet worked out how I'm going to explain pierced ears to clients and
people like that. Shouldn't we think these things through a little
more?"
"Andrea," she replied. "That's what I'll call you from now
on, because that's who you enjoy being, and have always enjoyed
being. I suppose ever since you were a little girl raised up to be
a boy. Isn't that so? You told me all about that a few years ago,
and I've read a lot about it since. Now Andrea, stop being
nervous. You've thought about this all your life, haven't you?
Now it's time to live your fantasy, and become the woman of your
dreams."
"Monica," I replied. "I never said I thought I was a little
girl. I said I was a little boy who liked to imagine he was a
little girl, and sneaked his mothers' panties now and then to help
with the imagining. That's all. There's a difference."
"Andrea, please, let's not quibble. I saw you dressed up to
look like a woman, and I've been through your wardrobe. You love
being Andrea. Your need to be Andrea almost cost us our marriage
a while ago. All I'm saying is, you should be the best Andrea you
can be. The prettiest. That's what we're here for."
"What is it we're here for?" I asked, now genuinely
apprehensive. To play by myself was one thing, and to play with my
wife in the privacy of our own home was so much more. But Monica
sounded serious. And this salon was serious woman space, not a
mirror in my bedroom.
"Oh, pooh! Look here. If you want to be Andrew now and then,
you can always brush your hair longer to cover your ears, or wear
just one earring the way most men do, or if you must, remove them
both temporarily. But if you want to be sincere, truly yourself,
wear whatever earrings you enjoy and show them to the world. I've
got some wonderful chandeliers and cascades you'll love, for going
out formal. Now, we're going in!"
A large, somewhat well-curved woman walked smiling toward us
past three or four chairs, each with neatly arranged rollers,
curlers, and hair driers in little pastel plastic bins. The walls
were lined with mirrors. There were plastic bottles and sprayers
everywhere, marked with elaborate French names in impossible
scripts. "Monica!" the woman said. "How lovely to see you again.
And you must be Andrea! I'm Joellen! Yes, Monica is right, you
have wonderful possibilities. Just sit right here. You can see,
Monica, I've cleared my appointments until closing time just as you
asked." I was relieved, a bit. The place looked empty.
As I sat down where she indicated, she and Monica went over to
a table with different boxes and bottles on it. Joellen showed her
some, and they began looking through some picture books, talking
animatedly in low voices, nodding frequently. After a moment they
stopped, and both of them looked at me and smiled. "Look here," I
said, "I'm here to get my ears pierced, because that's what I once
thought I wanted, and because Monica sees advantages, and I can't
deny there are some advantages." I didn't want to confess to a
stranger that the thought of wearing Monica's earrings really
turned me on, and had carried me here despite my apprehension.
"But what do you mean, I have 'possibilities'? Just the ears are
daring enough for me right now."
"Oh, Andrea, that's what we're talking about," said Joellen.
"You'll also need a hairdo that can cover your ears when you want
to hide them, isn't that true? And show them off when you're
wearing something especially pretty. So I need to cut and set your
hair. It's nice you've let it grow out, it gives me something to
work with. I think enough. Enough after your perm, anyhow."
"What perm??!!" I shouted, and started to get out of the
chair.
Monica came around and stared directly at me. "Andrea,
behave! I told you this would have to be done in stages. If I'm
going to be continue to be married to a man who likes looking like
a woman, he will have to look like a presentable woman. And that's
that! I think you get my meaning!"
I did. I quieted down.
"I tried ignoring you and pretending you were the man I
thought I married. It didn't work. Not for long, anyhow. Now
you're going to be the woman I also married, and I want you to be
an even better woman than you've been a man. But in stages, so you
can get used to things, and learn them. Understood?"
Not really, but I didn't dare do anything other than nod my
head.
"My dear," Joellen added in a quieter voice, gently. "I
thought you knew. A perm makes hair much more manageable. Then
you can set it any way you want. Swept back like a man's might even
look cute, with your face. All right?"
What could I say? I nodded to her too.
Three demoralized hours later, Joellen whisked the last of her
pink cover-sheets from around my neck and said "There! Now that's
just lovely! Nothing freakish about you at all! I think you can
go anywhere you wish, and Monica will be proud to accompany you."
Monica was herself sitting in another chair at the far end of
the salon, reading a magazine and glancing at my progress now and
then. She looked up and studied me, then nodded. "Yes, wonderful!
That's perfect, Joellen. Really lovely. Thank you. Andrea, I
think we'll move the schedule ahead and go to the next stage
tonight. You need more self-confidence. Looking the way you do,
I think you'll finish tonight feeling pleased with yourself. Just
look!"
I looked. Oh, my ears were pierced all right, and there were
little gold posts poked through the holes until the skin could heal
over. For the rest of my life there would be little pieces of
metal on my ears, I realized, or else little tell-tale dimples.
The thought should have been depressing, but to my surprise I
didn't much mind. Not at all.
Moreover, my hair was cut and curled up and back, into cute
waves softly framing my face. Oddly, now that it was curved and
waved and shaped it looked shorter -- it occupied more space around
my head, but my neck was now visible. And Joellen was right, if I
wanted to hide my ears it was now a simple matter to comb some of
the side curls back over them. I could even do it with my
fingertips, fluff out my hair a little the way she showed me. Not
too bad. Of course I'll have to try to brush it straight back when
I get home, I thought, so it looks less...well...feminine. I'd
wondered how women got that "big" hair look. Gels, sprays, and a
body perm underneath it all, Joellen had told me. I supposed that
gels and sprays could also return some semblance of a manly look.
More troublesome were my eyebrows. They were plucked thin and
high and arch, giving my face a refined and delicate cast. Neat,
well-groomed, but definitely not a man's brows. I would have no
trouble passing as a woman with that hairdo and those eyebrows.
The problem would come when I tried to pass as a man. With my face
as it is, I would look like a girl wearing a suit and jacket, I
thought. I'd always had a "weak" chin, implying a lack of manly
determination But now it just looked small. Cute. Just right.
Maybe I should grow a beard, I thought? But no. I've never had
much facial hair, and a beard would ruin the effect when I was
dressing in private anyhow. But even this thought didn't depress
me. All this was what I had wanted, more or less. And it was
certainly what Monica wanted.
"Monica," I said a little helplessly.
"A little eye-makeup, Joellen?" Monica said to her. "Just a
touch. I think we'll celebrate Andrea's new face by going out to
dinner. A casual dinner, we're not really dressed for anything
fancy. But we don't want anyone to think she isn't who she is,
now, do we."
This last was for my benefit, reminding me I had better act as
ladylike as I could, or else suffer the embarrassment I dreaded.
I also registered that it was the first time Monica had ever called
me "she". It seemed so casual and natural as she said it. Joellen
made a few quick strokes on my eyelids, and while she was at it she
added a few strokes of dark red lipstick too. "There!" she said.
"Just lovely!"
I looked in the mirror, and couldn't disagree.
"Come on, dear," Monica said, picking up her purse. "I know
you love to admire yourself in the mirror. But if you're going to
be a real woman you'll have to learn to use mirrors just to be sure
you look the way you wish, and let other people do the admiring."
As we left the shop I protested, "Monica, this is too fast.
I'm not going to be a real woman. Where did you get that notion?"
"Why, from you, dear. Isn't that what you've been dreaming in
secret, dressing up all those years? But now that you're on the
sidewalk looking like a woman, remember that people can see you.
Stand straight and hold your head high, and push out your breasts.
Young girls can slouch, but not women. You have a lot yet to
learn. You need to do more than look like a woman. You have to
behave like a woman, and move like one, and feel yourself to be a
woman in your heart. Or you'll fool no one."
"Monica, after all these years, why all of a sudden are you
encouraging me? I don't understand."
"You will, dear. Before too much longer. Meanwhile, why
don't you count your blessings?"
III.
Our dinner was uneventful, and even pleasant. No, it was
better than that. It turned out to be delightful, because despite
all of my fears about the way I looked, nothing happened. The
"first time" experiences accumulated so fast I didn't even notice
many of them after a while, and Monica had to remind me about them.
Monica drove to a modest-priced Italian restaurant, and when
I saw it was crowded I protested. "No, that's what we want, dear,
for you to be out among lots of people who are paying no attention
to you, so you can begin to get used to it. Just remember we're
ordinary girls out for dinner and a movie, or something, and don't
give it another thought. Of course if you're still nervous about
the way you look, you're in pants, so you can believe you still
look like a man. But no one else will. Joellen did a fine job
with you. Wait and see."
As she got out of the car she looked at me again. "Small
steps, dear, and for the present, one foot in front of the other,
so you sway your hips just a bit. I think heels might help. No
more flats or sneakers for the time being. And you'll need to
carry a purse from now on when we're out together. For now no one
will notice."
The Maitre D' came over. "A party of two, or are you
expecting others to join you?" Others?! The thought flashed
across my mind that this whole dinner might be another setup. A
terrified pang pierced my vitals! "Monica!" I whispered, not
trusting my voice, pleading.
"No, just the two of us tonight," she told the Maitre D'."
Then to me, seeing my face, she said. "Don't worry, dear. I have
other plans altogether."
"It will be perhaps ten minutes before I can seat you, ladies.
Would you like to wait in the bar?"
I followed her in and sat down on an adjoining bar stool.
"Oh, my, Andrea, you need to practice everything," she said. "A
lady does not climb on a bar stool one haunch at a time. She steps
up on the rail, braces with both hands on the edge of the bar, and
then settles down onto the stool with her legs together. Like a
lady." The bartender came over. "I'll have a vodka on rocks," she
said. Then she looked at me and waited. I was on my own.
"A doub...." My voice was much too high. I lowered it a
little, and decided to try gentle and breathy too. "A double vodka
on the rocks, please." The bartender turned away.
"Not bad, dear," my wife said, amused. "A little like Jackie
Kennedy, but not at all bad. There are worse models. Now, see how
many firsts already? You've been called a lady, you're out and
passing with over fifty people paying no attention to you, you've
learned to sit down at a bar, which can be an essential skill in
the months ahead, and you've used a woman's voice to get what you
want. Do you think you'll be all right using the ladies' room by
yourself later, or will you want me to come with you? Try the
men's room now, and you'd cause a riot. Maybe even get raped.
Wouldn't that be a first? From now on, dear, you have to think
about such things." The bartender set down our glasses, and she
went on. "Look at that! My but they're generous here. And yours
is a double? Well, I suppose those tranquilizers I gave you back
at the house have worn off by now, so I suppose it's all right."
"You gave me tranquilizers? Is that why I haven't been scared
to death of everything you've been doing to me?" I remembered only
at the last second to tone down my voice.
"Of course, dear. Do you mind, now that it's done? I'd never
have gotten you out of the house and into a beautician's chair
without them. You know that. And now look at us. Two girls out
together. Your dream come true. Isn't it?"
"Yes," I had to confess. My voice was a little husky. "Thank
you, dear. But you've never answered my question, why are you
being so nice to me now, after years of hating..." I hesitated,
and finished lamely, "of not wanting to know about...everything
like this."
The Maitre d' called out "Jackson, party of two," and Monica
said, "That's us. Or strictly speaking, that's you, Andrea.
Andrea Jackson, isn't that sweet? Easy to remember, too. I'll
keep my married name of course, and Andrew will too whenever he
needs a name, but Andrea needed a new name. Do you like it? It's
her maiden name. She's not married." She was teasing me again,
and I didn't know what to reply.
As we were shown to the table and the Maitre held out my chair
for me, I slipped in as daintily as I could, and smiled at him, and
sat down. "But why," I asked again. "Why now?"
"Quite simply, because I realized not long ago that a husband
who wants to feel like a woman is what I want. It's what I need.
I want you to be look and feel the way you are right now all the
time. Even more so. Much more so. Like I said, I have plans.
For both of us."
Her voice had lost all of its teasing banter. She was quite
serious, and as she turned to look directly at me and continued she
sounded even more serious.
"Andrea, do you love me?" she asked soberly.
"You know I do."
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes, of course."
"Not 'of course.' I mean really."
I hesitated, and decided to jump off the cliff.
"Yes," I said. "I trust you." I meant it. Unequivocally.
"Good," she said, and she smiled so happily it nearly broke my
heart to see it, she looked so beautiful. "Then trust me. You
won't regret it. I promise. And we may yet grow old and
feebleminded together."
"Monica, is this something serious?"
"Not any more, sweetheart. Shall we order, and then visit the
ladies' together?"
"I'd like that," I said.
The final "first time" of the night was, when we got home,
Monica asked me to fix my makeup, slip into a short, frilly
nightie, and make love to her like a woman. Previously she'd
shown no desire in oral sex, and after a while I'd quit trying to
interest her. Our sex lives together were fine, I thought. We
usually fucked gently and devotedly, one atop the other according
to mood, or alongside, and she kissed my mouth, and I kissed her
mouth and suckled on her nipples, and we both came, beautifully,
usually together. And that was it. It was wonderful. I loved it,
and thought she did too. We had no need for contraceptives or
worries about pregnancy, because Monica had no patience with
children and wanted none, I had no special feelings either way at
the time, and we had both agreed as a condition of our marrying
that I should get a vasectomy. As I did. Our sex was always
pleasant, generous, and without anxiety.
But this time as I kissed the tips of her tits she wrapped her
arms around my head and cried out, "Oh!" so passionately, and then
"Oh!" again and again, that I almost came on her belly. I'm sure
she orgasmed as I nursed her, and she clasped my head tightly to
her soft, swelling breasts, first one, then the other, then the
first again. "They're so very sensitive!" she said. Then she
said, "Let me!" and began to suckle on my teats, small as they
were. Gradually a strange and exotic feeling seemed to emanate
from her mouth into my breasts, and she reached down to pull gently
on my penis while she nursed on me. The feeling grew stronger, and
became my whole body's, and as she sucked and pulled and licked I
finally came too, in one single grand unclenching, as if all of me
was a single throbbing organ.
"Now turn, and lick it up, and lick me, my darling," she
whispered into my ear. "I want to kiss your clit."
An exceptional request, but I was enraptured, and turned and
began licking my cum from where it had spread like syrup into her
navel and all over her swelling, smooth, white belly. Slowly I
worked down to her crotch. As my tongue found her clit and my nose
began fucking her slit, I felt my limp penis enter her mouth, all
warm and wet and delicious, and I felt her tongue working over it,
and her lips wrapped around it at the base, pumping, until
half-hard, I came again. She swallowed my juice with little
squeals as her hips bucked into my face and she came yet again too.
Afterward we slept wrapped up snug in each other, a sweet tension
spreading through me each time she moved against me.
That was how we made love from then on. It was like falling
in love all over again. The next morning she asked me to shave and
use a depillatory, and I was delighted to oblige. Then she looked
so sadly disappointed when I dressed in jeans and a shirt to take
some papers to the office that I faxed them in, then changed to a
skirt and blouse, and as she requested, two-inch heels. Then
between short sweet kisses, my lipsticked mouth on hers, she told
me I felt wonderful wrapped around her, but she'd like me to use
some softening lotions on my hands, and she'd love for me to begin
a regimen of shots and pills to make my skin just a little smoother
and my body softer, more rounded. I could deny her nothing, so
that very morning she sent me to a special doctor who told me that
many women and some men prefer their bodies that way. I was
wearing a skirt and light makeup, as Monica put it, "so we can play
on the street with our little secret." I felt awkward, a little
silly, but the doctor didn't seem to notice or mind. The first
shots she gave me induced a kind of euphoria, and when I commented
on it to the nurse she said, "Yes, the doctor puts in just a little
extra so her women patients will enjoy their new selves all the
more. And to overcome possible nausea or tummy aches from intensive
treatments like yours. Don't forget to take your pills every day."
Each night we made love the way women do with each other. As
a few weeks passed my skin became smoother, and soon my nipples
became hard and pointy, sticking out from my chest, so deliciously
sensitive that I felt complete only when Monica's lips were wrapped
around them and pulsing gently. Then it was ecstasy! She kept my
penis so drained and softened that I couldn't have entered her even
if she'd wished it. But I'd almost forgotten that I ever had
wanted to.
She went in to work daily, as before, seeing clients and
selling real estate, and sitting in her office plotting how to see
and sell even more. As ever I did all the housework and
prepared all the meals, and faxed in my contracts and figures
whenever I was asked for them. But now I dressed like a woman full
time. She was always disappointed when she came home and found me
dressed like a husband and not a wife, so I gave up on being her
husband. I dieted down to where I could wear some of her prettiest
clothes, denied only her tight, snug outfits, and we acquired some
of my own for me on several afternoons spent shopping at the mall.
That was a lovely time, giggling together like schoolgirls. She'd
comment how the boys would love to see me wearing this rather
daring outfit, or that one, and we'd laugh and hug each other.
She asked me to point out fellas I thought looked especially cute,
and if she agreed with me we'd speculate how this one was hung, or
how long that one would last inside one of us, and then giggle really
wickedly.
In fact, Monica seemed to feel sorry for me that I'd had no
girlhood of my own, and she talked to me all the time about hers,
and about some of her friends'. Everything from how it
felt to shop with her mother for her first training bra to games
played with dolls, to gossip about boys and dates, and curiosity
about sex, and first crushes on guys. Then in detail that made me
uneasy at first, about her various experiences with men, cock
sucking and seducing them and getting laid, crudely or
romantically, depending upon time, place, and the man she was with.
Like one intimate girlfriend to another, she'd talk to me about her
experiences and feelings making love with different college boys,
or with various business associates before she'd met me. She'd talk
about how cocks feel in a girl's mouth or pussy, even while we were
making love ourselves. She told me how she had once taken a man into
her rear end, when he had insisted on it, and found it wasn't too bad.
"It felt all snug and comfy," she said. "And that night I swallowed his
cum at both ends."
Sometimes she'd forget herself altogether, and say things
like, "You know how it is, when you run your lips up and down
a huge cock trying to bring a guy off, and his precum keeps
dribbling onto your tongue and tasting sweetly salty, but your jaw
aches and you wish he'd headfuck you and get it over with?" It was
as if she were back in college dating, and I was her room mate. Or,
"I remember the first fully erected prick I saw -- a huge turkey neck
it looked like, but that royal purple head felt so satiny smooth on
my lips when I kissed it that I didn't care. Was your first one
like that?" Or, "Oh, Andrea, have you ever had a really glorious,
delirious fuck, felt filled so completely that the least movement
was rapture for you, and each time he pulled out became a hunger
for him to plunge himself into you again?" Monica seemed to forget
that I wasn't a woman, and when I reminded her that I could only
imagine such things, she'd cover me with kisses as if trying to
make up to me for my deficient girlhood. She really wanted to
believe I was her best girlfriend, and to share everything with me!
Increasingly my pleasure while making love to her, as we
kissed and licked and lapped and sucked and caressed each other, as
women do, blended with her pleasure remembering different men in
her past. I didn't mind -- I wanted to share everything I felt
with my new sweetheart too. I once asked her if she'd ever had sex
with a lesbian, and she said "Before we were married, yes. But
since then, only with you, my darling. I do hope to straighten you
out soon, though, so you can also enjoy men too the way I do." Had
she so completely imagined me to be a woman that she had
momentarily forgotten that her wife was a man. Or was it the other
way around? It was confusing, but either way it was flattering,
and rather dear.
Our jewelry, earrings, and accessories we decreed held in
common, and we were each delighted when we saw that one was wearing
what had been the other's. Sometimes we went to small, intimate
restaurants like two old girlfriends, or to movies. When for some
reason Andrew had to replace Andrea to visit and deal with
officialdom downtown, or go to the office, I couldn't wait to get
back home and be myself again. They were months of pure
bliss.
IV.
One morning while we were dressing, Monica for the office and
me to do some shopping for dinner that night, Monica said to me,
"Oh, never mind that. We've been invited out."
It took a moment for that casual remark to sink in and
astonish me. "What?" I said "By who? How?"
"Oh, don't look so shocked! It's nothing! I told two of the girls
we deal with at the office about you, that you're pretty much house bound
these days, and they asked me to bring you over for dinner to help
clear the cobwebs out of your mind. It's nice to meet other people
now and then. That's all!"
"That's all? Do you mean meet them as Andrew or as Andrea?"
"Of course as Andrea, silly. I'm proud of you, and want to
show you off. You've come such a long way. Though your hair could
use a touch up. Don't worry. Run over to Joellen's this afternoon
and tell her to do her magic, and I'll pick you up at six. I think
your green silk taffeta would be fine." She paused to appraise
me. "Ask her to lighten your hair just a touch, and to do your
nails. You're a lovely woman now, Andrea, and you have nothing to
hide. Time to move on."
I took that to mean she had to leave now, so the discussion
was over, so I asked hastily, "Wait a minute. Are
these...er...girls married? Will they have dates? Will there be
men at this dinner?" For some reason I felt ashamed to be seen by
men who knew I was a man. I'd sacrificed all of my manliness,
willingly, but they might be offended or amused by it, and think me
ridiculous.
"You *are* a shy one, aren't you, love. 'No' to the first
question and 'Maybe' to the second. Denise and Tinka are lesbians
who have lived together for years and are a respectable couple,
like us. Denise is pregnant, and they're both looking forward to
having the baby. Then a boy friend may show -- she wasn't sure.
A friend who's a boy, named Eric. He's the baby's father. But
there's no problem between them about it, because he's gay. He
wouldn't even screw her once, not even to please a dear friend, so
they had to use a gravy baster to deal with his donation. An ideal
stud, because all he wants from them ever is conversation. I've met
him. He's no way effeminate, just not attracted to women.
They're nice people. You'll enjoy them. And they're really
looking forward to meeting you! Tell Joellen I'd love to see you
in bangs, I think you'd look just darling. Ta ta!"
And she was gone.
I scheduled my session with Joellen for the early afternoon,
right after my weekly shot, and I felt so good when I waltzed in
that I didn't notice at first that Joellen had four other customers
having things done to them, and two other operators combing,
teasing, polishing, doing what needed doing. The place was packed!
Joellen saw me and came over saying, "There you are, Andrea dear,
just sit right here and we'll get right to you. My you look
lovely! Your skin seems so much smoother today. Are you doing
anything for it?"
"Monica thought I'd feel better if I took some shots," I said
with a nervous little laugh. "And I must say, I certainly do!"
"I'll bet!" said Joellen. "Well, let's lighten you and tidy
you up for tonight. Monica called and told me what she wants. I
agree with her about having bangs, now that your hair's a bit
longer. You'll look adorable. But now that you're really into it,
this time we go the distance. Nails, facial, waxing, everything.
Monica tells me you're never going back. Welcome to the world of
women, honey! You'll love it! We should probably talk about some
permanent changes to your face, but that can come later."
I'd never told Monica I was never going back, I thought to
myself. We'd never discussed it. Did I want to be a woman for
good? Well, right now I just loved being a woman with my wife, and
that was good enough for me for now. When I left Joellen, there
was a spring in my step, and my nails were long and red, and my
face felt so perfect it might have been lacquered on. I spent the
rest of the afternoon dressing, and practicing my postures and
gestures, walking daintily, staying loose-wristed, talking all up
and down the scale instead of in a male monotone, things like that.
I felt very good about my upcoming coming-out dinner party, and
felt like celebrating something. When Monica arrived home to
change she was pleased to hear me humming and singing in the
kitchen in my sweetest falsetto, no longer nervous. She suggested
we have a drink before we left, because the girls were likely to
serve only wine. But on top of whatever the doctor gave me I was
already two drinks ahead of her, feeling no pain at all.
I remember the first part of the evening well enough, but very
little of the rest of it, and nothing at all about how I got home
and into bed. In fact the next morning when I woke up, Monica was
already half-way out the door to work, with time for only a few
amused, cryptic remarks, something about how some girls can't wait
to make up for lost time, and how I'd certainly never need a gravy
baster. Then as I stepped into the shower I noticed that my rear
end was crusty with something or other. But I didn't realize what
until later that morning when I was rinsing some of our lingerie.
Monica's panties were only lightly soiled, with that heavy, musky
aroma I was learning to love dearly, I spent so much time with my
nose in her crotch. Mine were stiff with a clear dried fluid in
front, which I recognized as my post-vasectomy cum. I wondered how
it got there. But the seat of my prettiest panties, the ones I'd
worn last night, was stiff with dried, thick stains and streaks,
gobbets of them, and I realized it was someone else's heavily
laden sperm. What had happened? What had I done?! I spent the
day agonized, fearful I had thrown away my new precious relationship
with my beloved wife, worried I might have done some perverse thing
to disgust her, that now she would leave me.
So when Monica got home I met her at the door with a Martini,
and with many kisses and flourishes I fed her the most elaborate
meal I knew how to cook. She seemed untroubled. But she'd also
seemed untroubled the first day after she'd caught me wearing a
dress, that time we nearly broke up over it. That's how she was
until she'd calculated how to deal with a problem.
Over dessert I asked her, as casually as I could, what I had
done at Denise and her lesbian friend's house.
"You really don't remember any of it?" she asked me, her
eyebrows raised. "Not at all?"
"The early part," I replied. "The delicious dinner with
Denise and Tinka, I think that was her name. She's a wonderful
cook. Four kinds of wine, and she kept refilling my glass I'm
afraid. Denise looked huge, almost ready to deliver, but still very
beautiful, glowing, and Tinka was looking forward to taking care of
the baby when Denise goes back to work and returns to a heavy
schedule of out-of-town selling trips. But can that be right?"
"That's right. When the baby's born Tinka will take over.
That's how they mean to share the child-rearing. Tinka will do
it all. She's the homebody, loves cooking and keeping house,
and so on. Denise isn't."
"Now how is it I already know that?"
"You went upstairs with Tinka to look at her recipe files, and
promised to send her some of your own. You took a long while at
it. She told us you got to talking with her about breast feeding
as against bottles. One thing led to another, and you started
sampling the alternatives, apparently. Then fell asleep. She said
that you looked and felt so sweet at her breast that she hated to
take her nipple out of your mouth and wake you."
Monica then grinned broadly. "Don't look so agonized,
sweetheart. I didn't mind. It's a normal instinct. I love
nursing on your breasts too, such as they are, as you know. And
you on mine."
"Yes."
"Anyhow, when you were safely downstairs again and had fixed
your face, both women marveled at the way you look now, how convincing
a woman you've become. So they decided to put you to the test."
"What test?" I was afraid I was getting closer to solving a
mystery I didn't really want to solve.
Monica let out a rich laugh, and gestured to her coffee cup.
I hastened to refill it. "Why my dear, dear Andrea, you really
don't remember?" She scrutinized me closely. "No, you don't, do
you! What a shame! Every girl remembers her first, but it seems
you don't, so now you'll have to have your first all over again.
In a way that means you're still a virgin!"
"Monica, please!" I couldn't tell if she sounded sympathetic or
mocking. "What did I do? Did I do anything wrong? Will you
forgive me?"
"Come to the couch, and we'll cuddle, and I'll tell you
everything, love."
Like a guilty puppy hoping for forgiveness, I followed her
into the living room. She lay down on the couch with her head on
the arm rest, and I lay down alongside her, tears now running down
my face.
"You need to use waterproof mascara, darling, if you mean to
be so emotional in the future. And I can tell you're wearing
Enjoli for me tonight. That was very considerate."
"Monica, whatever I did, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I don't want
to lose you! Tell me you still love me!"
"Of course I do, pet. And there's nothing to be sorry about.
It was everything I'd hoped for for you. Except that now you're
going to have to do it again, so you'll have memories of it to
carry into your old age."
She waited until I stopped sobbing into her shoulder, then
continued. "Denise decided that Eric could provide an ultimate
test of just how feminine you'd become. You remember Denise's
sperm donor? Eric? No? Not even his face? Well, Eric must be
the world's strictest homosexual, who loves boys and men of all
kinds, and women of no kind. Who won't ever let a woman touch him
for any reason? Well, when you came back downstairs again Eric had
just arrived, expecting to meet my roommate, the woman I've been
living with lately so far as he knew. Tinka described what you'd
just been doing, how lovingly you'd been suckling at her breast,
and Denise wondered aloud if you would suckle on a prick just as
lovingly."
"I was trying to stay neutral, so I just said I didn't know.
But Eric knew from the moment you walked back into the room that
you were not born female, and he seized the opportunity. 'Here,
Andrea darling, suckle this,' he said to you without a second's
hesitation, and he pulled out, well, I must say, a monster prick.
My dear, you may not have a woman's chromosomes, but you certainly
have a woman's instincts and desires. Without a second's
hesitation you dropped to your knees between his knees and kissed
the tip. Then you felt his crown all around with the insides of
your lips, running your tongue all around that silky smoothness
I've talked about now and then. Then you licked and sucked Eric's
whole shaft so lovingly and passionately that we each of us wished
we were men, while we watched, so you could do us too. It was the
finest blow job I've witnessed, with far more intensity and finesse
than I've ever been able to bring to the job. But as you know,
I've never been much interested in oral sex. Until recently."
"Then when Eric reached his climax, you swallowed him up
without a slurp. It seemed as if he were pumping gallons down your
throat, and you swallowed it all, as if grateful for it and hoping
for more. I got so wet watching you that I would have leaped on
Eric myself, if he'd have let me. He'd never, of course.
"Then after the shortest possible recovery, less than five
minutes, while you were still licking his cock clean, he gently
turned you around and laid you belly down across Denise's hassock,
and lifted your dress and pulled down your panties, and with your
own saliva still drenching his cock, he entered you from the rear.
You gave such a delicious groan as he went in. I was so happy for
you. And you groaned again as he pulled out and then re-entered
you, and then again, faster and faster as he fucked you, until you
reached a crescendo and your groans had become pulsating shrieks as
he came, and you came, simultaneously. No girl ever lost her
cherry more gloriously! And you don't remember any of it? What a
terrible pity!"
"So darling, in a way you passed the test wonderfully. Your
behavior with Eric was immediately, instinctively a woman's. But
you failed the test too, because he immediately took you to be a
drag queen or transsexual woman, not a genetic woman, and
immediately got the hots for you. We argued whether that in itself
was relevant evidence of your true femininity, but Eric said he
feels the same way about Sylvester Stallone, so we decided that it
couldn't count."
"Then Tinka proposed a tie breaker, and it was so effortless
that I'll remember it all the days of my life. She was helping you
adjust your panties again, and we were wondering whether you needed
a tampon or maxipad to get you home, there was so much of Eric's
cum flowing out of you, when suddenly she lifted your dress all the
way over your head, and lowered your slip off your shoulders, and
took off your bra, and sat you down on the floor and sat down
alongside you, and took you by the shoulders and began to suckle on
you. You know, your little titties really aren't much more than
pointy nipples yet, but there's enough there to fill someone's
mouth, and Tinka began nursing. Denise joked "Tit for tat," but
then we fell silent, because something so beautiful happened.
Obviously you were going on instinct alone. Your mind wasn't
really there, hadn't been for some time. But your arms came
up as if by a miracle, and you ever so gently, so lovingly
cradled her head in your arms, and pressed her face to your
breast, and held her, and rocked her ever so slightly. Tears
came to everyone's eyes. Even Eric's. I suppose no one can be
unmoved by the sight of a mother gently nourishing her infant.
That's what you seemed to be doing with Tinka."
"Darling, everyone agrees you have true womanly instincts,
that you are absolutely convincing, absolutely persuasive. And now
think of it! You've also had sex with a man, and enjoyed it.
You know what it's like. Now if you want to flirt with a guy and
then feel an urge to go the distance, you can, like any other
woman. I don't mind, as long as it's with a man, as long as I'm
the only real woman in your life. You're the only woman in mine.
Please, dear. Take me to you right now. I want to pleasure you.
I do love you."
What could I say? What could I do? I lowered my blouse, and
unhooked my bra, and nursed my darling first on one of my pouting
nipples, then the other, while the most delicious feelings arose as
her mouth pulsed on me. I looked down on her dark, curved hair,
and I have never felt so tender, so utterly warm and joyous. I
whispered my affection and she kissed me, and I kissed her. And
then we went to bed and made love as only women can.
V.
A month or so later we were still at it. I had forgotten what
it was like to wear men's clothes, and Monica seemed to be so
utterly enraptured by my femininity that I couldn't think of
displaying anything else to her. True, I had been unfaithful to
her when I had made love to Eric, and Eric had made love to me.
But somehow that didn't seem to be a violation of my marriage vows.
It wasn't with another woman but with a man, a gay man, and I
wasn't even aware of it, at least afterward. So Monica thought
what the other women thought, that it was merely evidence I had
become one of them, except for the technicality that had made it
possible for me to relate to Eric. She only regretted that it
hadn't happened years earlier, when I was still a teenage girl, so
I could have weaved romantic dreams around my memory of it. She
only regretted that I had no memory of it at all.
I was still doing cost estimates on various projects and
faxing in the results, and still earning a good income, but no one
in the office had seen me for many weeks, and I was thinking of
quitting and just setting up full time as a homemaker for the two
of us. It was what I much preferred doing. And keeping myself
pretty for Monica took time.
Monica encouraged me. She was working very hard, many days
and evenings spent out with clients showing them real estate. But
that was what she loved to do, so it never seemed taxing to her.
She was herself her firm's top salesman, and we were banking most
of her high commissions on each sale, because we didn't need them
to live on. Financially we were set. As she pointed out, the
difference between more money than you need and a lot more money
than you need is no difference at all. We had no children, and no
plans for children, nor any possibility of having them, so it was
pointless for us to save for their futures. We lived in our own
present. I had begun faxing recipes back and forth with Tinka, and
I longed to have more time to try out more of them. We neither of
us again referred to the incidents of that night when my mouth and my
rear end lost their virginity -- that too was in the past.
At least we never again referred to that night until the week
I finally quit my job. We both were looking for some way to
celebrate my elevation to homemaker full-time, when coincidentally
Monica learned she had won a quarterly sales competition run by her
firm. The prize was a long weekend free in the most luxurious
resort hotel in the state, complete with a suitable new wardrobe,
for ourselves and also for any other couple we chose to bring along
for company. We selected Denise and Tinka, the only other couple
we'd seen since that lovely evening some months back when Monica
had changed her mind and heart about my cross-dressing, and had
led me into the womanliness I now loved, and she apparently loved too.
Then we all had a fine time selecting new lingerie, dresses,
skirts, blouses, shoes, accessories, makeup, everything a woman
needs to be stylish and beautiful and playful at a resort. Denise
reserved her credits against the day her figure would return to
some semblance of acceptable, and Tinka's new wardrobe stressed
nursing bras and front-buttoning blouses. But once again, Monica
and I were like schoolgirls vying with each other to purchase the
most tasteful yet sexy outfits we could find, giggling together the
whole time. It was such fun!
The night before we were due to leave, Denise had a false
labor scare, the first of several as it turned out. So Denise and
Tinka didn't dare come with us. We decided to hold the two double
reserved rooms by renaming the occupants Mr. and Mrs. Sloan, my
married name with Monica, and Ms Jackson, my "maiden" name. We
hoped Denise and Tinka would change their minds, but if not, maybe
we'd find some other use for a separate room. "Maybe you'll get
lucky, and you won't want me around," Monica said. I kissed her
reassuringly.
Apparently, something else did occur to Monica. As we
approached the hotel desk she whispered to me "Just follow my lead,
and go along with whatever I say."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Never mind," Monica replied. "You trust me, don't you?
Remember?"
"Yes," I said. "Absolutely!"
"Then act sexy. Feel sexy. Swish your hips. See if you can
distract the registration clerk. Since you're here as a girl,
start enjoying the fun parts of it."
I tried, but the main person distracted was me, because I
never noticed that Monica was registering us into two separate
rooms, until the clerk announced, "There we are. 407 Mrs. Sloan,
and 409 Ms. Jackson, adjoining rooms with a door that can be
locked on either side. Will your husband be joining you later
today, Mrs. Sloan?"
I was taken aback, but Monica seemed to be expecting the
question. "I don't know when if ever, " she said to the clerk.
"But just a moment."
Then she turned to me, and looked me straight in the eye, and
said, "Andrea dear, what do you think? Think carefully now. Will
my husband be here this week end, as far as you know?"
A strange question. I wi