Wimp
by Vickie Tern
She's right, I guess. I'm simply not assertive enough. I'm way
too agreeable, way too much inclined to go along with whatever
anyone suggests and hope for the best. Whatever comes, I make do.
I can't help it, I'm a nice guy, always have been, or anyhow I once
was. I know now that I should've been a little less trusting. A
lot less I suppose. I should have insisted on knowing what was
going on. But who knew? And it doesn't really matter, it's just
as well. How I've ended up isn't too bad. Really, it isn't, I'm
not complaining! It's not unpleasant, not at all, don't get me
wrong, I'm not really protesting or anything. In fact the chances
are Cameron was right when she told me I'm a lot better off than
before. "You just weren't cut out for what you were," she said.
"So be grateful!" I do try.
No one else seems to think anything's wrong, that anything odd
happened. Nobody at work, none of the other girls, the ones I hang
out with nowadays. Certainly not Cameron.
Cameron's her last name, I don't even know her first name, but
everyone calls her that except at work where she's always Ms.
Cameron to subordinates like me. "The 'Ms.' keeps people
distanced, if that's where I want them," she explained when she was
telling me not to call her "Cameron" any longer.
Ms. Cameron was once my girlfriend. The one big thing I did in my
life was talking her into letting me move in with her. Bugging her
into it, maybe. I kept telling her how I wanted to until one day
she relented. So for some months we lived together and I took care
of her place, and even though we were never intimate I had hopes.
I wanted her to be my girlfriend.
Then she really did become my girlfriend. We lived together the
way girlfriends do, told each other secrets, shared our clothes
and make-up, you know. Until she got married to Gary.
Now she's only my boss. She tells me to remember that whenever she
says "Jump!" I've got only one answer, "How high?" She points out
that we're no longer equals even socially, that I need to develop
my own life completely apart from hers, the way she has from mine.
Mostly I already have.
"You don't feel even a little bit responsible for me?" I once asked
her when we were still living together, because by then I knew
she'd set it all up knowing I'd go along because that was the
course of least resistance.
"You urged yourself on me," she replied. "So you're responsible.
You should have known you were asking for what happened. And
anyhow, I've done you a favor. Be grateful. I've done what
girlfriends always try to do for each other."
This puzzled me. She was saying we were girlfriends, which we
were, though she was still my former girlfriend, or I'd hoped she
would be. But when she did me this favor I was supposed to be her
boyfriend, not her girlfriend, anyhow I was trying to get to be her
boyfriend, and I still do consider myself her former boyfriend, in
a way. But when I told that to the other girls at lunch the other
day, they just laughed and told me to forget about it and get
myself a steady boyfriend of my own, that it's past time.
She was still a girlfriend when she told me how I'd brought it on
myself. We were still living together until the house she was
planning to live in with Gary was ready and they could get married
and move in, and I'd finally go into my own place, a small
bed-sitter she found for me downtown. "Something a little more
like what you can afford on your salary," as she told me. "Where
you can walk to work. But still, respectable, so you can invite a
friend to come in for a drink if you like him."
None of this is what I'd once hoped for. Some evenings I'd
remember those old dreams and I'd sigh with that breathy moan they
taught me at Charm School, "very feminine, drives men wild" they
said, and that's proved true enough. But all Cameron ever did when
I made noises like that was glance at me, then grin to herself and
go back to her magazine or TV show or whatever.
One night I must have given out a really pathetic little yip
without even realizing it, because she closed her book Snap! and
suggested abruptly that we go out for a bite to eat and then do
some more furniture shopping for her new place, then maybe go to a
club and meet some new people so I could practice more of what I'd
been learning about feminine sociability. Because we both knew
that in public from then on I'd need to behave as if I really were
what I look like, what people think I am. When I objected she
just said impatiently in that honeyed voice of hers, "For God's
sake, Jamie, do quit moping. Get over it! It's done! You're a
girl! And you may not know it yet but you will love it! You
already do in some ways, I can tell."
She wasn't wrong, not altogether. I didn't love it, but I'd gotten
used to it, and I could see that there were certain advantages.
Though sometimes I'd feel like such a fool! I mean, take for
example her insistence that once a month I do what all the other
girls in the office do so I'll be fully sharing their lives, and
insert tampons into me same as they do, and take a teaspoon of
Ipecac to simulate cramps same as theirs. "Then you'll appreciate
how a girl feels down there. And also you'll get used to things
getting put into you down there. It'll seem more natural."
Well, it didn't, not at the time. Not the "Super" size, anyhow,
only the "Junior Miss." And not the dildos she wanted me to use
before every date just in case, to give me a taste of the real
thing. Though I must say, pushing those soft rubber tubes in and
out of me has always felt sort of ... well, friendly, if you know
what I mean. Delicious. I'd look forward to it.
So being a girl wasn't too bad at all, but it still didn't seem
right. And I couldn't talk to her about any of it! She didn't
want to know.
I tried once when I came down to breakfast still wearing that
shortie nightgown she'd loaned me, thinking that it was time for me
to get my own, and soon. She looked me over top to bottom, chewing
her toast, and she listened to me begin my speech.
But only the beginning. She heard that much, then frowned and
interrupted, "Don't tell me, Jamie! You should have told everyone
months ago when it still mattered. You should have taken a stand
right then, at the very beginning. Acted like a man! Told Sheila
right off, and then the next day told the women at the salon and
the doctors at the clinic too, everyone! But no, they all asked
you if you really wanted this, or that, and you kept replying "Sort
of," and "I guess." You agreed to everything! You were a good
sport, the way you always are! You went along! So you did it to
yourself!"
"Yes, but I've never been perfectly sure that ...."
She just looked steadily at me. "It does seem to me a little late
for you to rethink your commitments. For God's sake, Jamie, just
look at you! Soft and round and getting more so, face and body hair
permanently gone, not that there ever was much. And your breasts
coming in so nicely, just look at them, your nipples already poke
out further than mine! And your weenie's now not much more than
just that. I know, I see it often enough, what there is left to
see. You can't go back."
I just stood there. She was right, I knew it.
She turned back to her morning paper. "Jamie, we've had this
conversation before. What can I say? Suit yourself! Just don't
expect me to stand by and cheer because you think you can breach a
contract you signed in full knowledge of its consequences and then
somehow scramble back to where you were and where we were! To
where you wished we were! After everything that's happened?" She
shook her head at the absurdity. "No way!"
Now she stood up. She was already dressed, I saw, wearing one of
her business suits. On a Saturday? "I've got to go in for a few
hours this morning," she said. "Gary's coming over this afternoon
for drinks and talk and, you know, to fool around. I've asked him
to bring his friend Marty for you again. You remember Marty? You
loved being with him last time, I remember, whatever it was you two
found to do." She smiled confidentially. "I'm sure he showed you
how being a girl has its advantages."
I remembered. Marty hadn't known that I'd started using dildos to
get off when my penis wouldn't stiffen any longer, but he did know
it was my first time with a man, so he was very considerate. He
poked only part of himself into me, to get me used to the feel, and
then he lay there quietly. Even so he was huge, I could barely
walk or sit the next day. Cameron probably thought we'd gone all
the way. "Next time, Jamie!" he'd told me when he finally pulled
it out. "Next time I'll fill you full of me. Till then you just
think about it. Imagine what it's like. I want you to yearn for
it!"
I had thought about it. I still wasn't sure. But yearn for it or
not, apparently 'next time' was later today. I reconciled myself
to it. I suppose I wanted it.
Cameron then looked around. "Meanwhile, Jamie, do us both a
favor," she said. "While I'm gone clean up around here, would you?
Thoroughly? And start a laundry -- we're both running out of clean
undies, or haven't you noticed?"
Then as she left she added, not looking back, "And while you're at
it, for goodness' sake do something with your hair. Whatever do
they teach you all those afternoons you spend at the salon instead
of at your desk? And please don't come down again without putting
on at least a little makeup! Take some pride in your appearance!"
Then for emphasis, "Jamie!" The door slammed.
She didn't want to hear any more complaints, girlfriend or no
girlfriend. She was right, I guess. What was done was done, no
denying it. Accept it, live with it.
She was right, a few months earlier when things were a lot
different, that was when I should have said something. I was still
Jimmy then, a man who by sheer persistence had finally managed to
talk her into letting me move in with her. Though I now know she
agreed only because it suited her convenience. Once in, a few
months passed with me trying to get up nerve enough to ask her to
marry me. Though somehow whenever I started the subject she'd
shunt it over onto something else, some movie we'd seen, an
annoying change in her company's work regulations, phone calls from
old college friends, this old friend of hers named Gary who'd
showed up in town. Other stuff. It was as if she didn't want to
hear about marriage. Maybe she didn't?
Then that one day everything changed. We were getting dressed
together in the pre-dawn dark, getting ready to go to her office,
me for the first time. Cameron's a marketing supervisor for
Honeybelle, that huge Cosmetics manufacturer, you've seen their
stuff everywhere, their head office is a huge high rise building in
this city and Cameron had already been promoted to Senior Manager,
in charge of a whole floor full of analysts and salespeople and
bookkeepers. I was applying that morning for a job as her
secretary/receptionist. As a job it doesn't sound like much, I
know, but it really was rather special, she assured me, because
everyone on the floor would have to come to me to get to her. It
didn't matter that I wasn't a girl like all the other employees on
that floor -- under fair employment practices rules, men had an
equal chance to qualify for any job that came available at
Honeybelle, if they wanted it, if they were suitable.
And I needed the work. My savings were about gone. Soon after
Cameron and I began living together I'd lost my job. The software
company I'd worked for went belly up, and all sorts of programmers
like me found themselves on the streets with no prospects. Most of
them left town. I'd gotten a few out-of-town offers too, and each
time Cameron had urged me to take them. But now that she and I
were finally living in the same apartment, I didn't want to leave
her. It would mean an end to our relationship. And I was in love
with her. As she was with me, I wanted to believe, though she'd
just shake her head whenever I hinted it hopefully.
When she finally agreed to let me move in with her, it wasn't the
usual arrangement. It was very conditional. "There's a maid's
room off the kitchen," she'd said. "That'll be yours. You don't
enter my bedroom at all except to straighten up and make the bed
and collect my laundry. You take over all the household chores,
cleaning and so on, cooking full dinners whenever I eat in, that
sort of thing. That's the arrangement. That's how you'll pay your
way."
I'd been glad to, because it gave me plenty of opportunity to show
her what a great husband I'd make.
"Don't expect intimacies of any kind," she'd stipulated. "If I
should ever feel anything like that I'll tell you -- you don't ever
ask me."
I told her that sounded fair. So I never did ask, even though she
never offered. But I still had hopes. And almost immediately, I
couldn't believe my eyes, I was granted a kind of intimacy anyhow.
The very next morning I found her sitting in the kitchen wearing
only her bra and panties. She glanced up at me, then resumed
reading the newspaper and sipping her coffee. I sat down and
continued to stare at her.
She'd sighed and looked up again, then said in a level voice,
"Jimmy, stop staring, it isn't polite. Maybe you don't understand.
Just because you're living here now and looking after things for me
doesn't mean I'm going to change any of my habits. This is my
apartment. I expect you not to notice how I'm dressed or
undressed. If you can't ignore it I'll have to ask you to move
out."
So I didn't notice, not so she'd notice anyhow. Sometimes she
actually went around nude, even when I was in the same room
vacuuming or maybe running her bath. She had a sensational figure,
thin but with astonishing curved bulges jutting out on her hips and
chest and rear end. Once I heard her on the phone chatting with
someone in a teasing tone of voice, some guy maybe, and when I
passed through the room I could see that the whole time she'd been
stroking her clit and wriggling her hips ever so slightly. Her
fingers and labia, you know, that slit women have down there, they
were glistening wet. But she just looked up at me and then through
me as if I weren't there, and smiled at something the other person
must have said, and diddled herself some more.
She'd seen me naked often enough too. And with a hard on a few
times, when she was nearly naked and looking ravishing and I
couldn't help it. But again, she never seemed to notice. Her eyes
passed over me as if I were a piece of furniture. She didn't seem
to care.
Even so, there I was, living with her. Shacked up, like they say.
It was a beginning. I figured it was only a matter of time.
Once I was out of work I had lots of time to keep her place in
perfect order. But still, I was a layabout. In the months that
followed she'd sometimes get short-tempered about my hanging out
reading the ads, interviewing for jobs for which I was
overqualified and under-enthusiastic, then not getting them anyhow,
or else doing nothing. Oh, I'd looked, but there were software
designers all over the streets going begging. Literally! I'd
passed one sitting on a street corner with a piece of cardboard
around his neck reading "Will hack for food!" and I'd carefully not
looked back at him. Someone's joke, I supposed, though maybe not.
But this Honeybelle thing was a real job opening. Rosemond, her
previous secretary-receptionist, had just quit to get married and
relocate out of town. At Cameron's request I'd designed and sent
the couple a computer-animated congratulations e-mail, a cartoon
hen mounting a cartoon rooster. "She'll laugh," Cameron had said.
"It probably is that kind of relationship, too. She's smart and
assertive and he's good looking but nobody." She'd then looked
hard at me but said nothing. I felt uneasy. Watching me closely,
she then told me that I had an inside track to replace Rosemond if
I was willing to work as her secretary until something more
suitable showed up. "Apply for the job, and I'll see that it's
yours."
Well, what Rosemond did was no big deal. I could file, and I could
type a blue streak flawlessly, an essential skill if one's
profession is really writing software. And I could be pleasant
enough with people waiting to see her, and certainly I could answer
the phone and keep her appointment book, and so forth. No problem.
And I was much better-suited than an applicant she'd seen
yesterday, Cameron told me. That's what had given her the idea.
I wasn't as tall, she said, but like this other applicant I was
slim and blonde and had small, pleasant features. And I move with
a kind of sprightly good cheer people like, she pointed out. Girls
have always thought I was cute. "You'd adapt well, I'm sure of
it," she said. "And I hate to say it, but right now you're more of
a nobody than even Rosemond's fiance. He at least has a job."
We agreed that it would be good for me to get out of the house, and
that full-time work as her secretary wouldn't interfere with my
domestic chores. "You may not be doing menial things for me here
much longer anyhow," she said, looking meaningfully at me. "I'm
thinking of changing our relationship, making other arrangements."
My heart leapt up at the implication! At last? I didn't know at
the time that she and Gary were already engaged. I didn't even
know there was a Gary anywhere in her life.
So I'd made an appointment to talk to Personnel about Rosemond's
job, and we were getting dressed to go in together, when she
suddenly stopped and looked at me.
"That was shrimp we had last night, wasn't it?"
I paused. "That's right," I said. "You know we did. It was your
idea."
"Not a good idea, I see."
"You thought it was," I replied, a little puzzled. "You bought it
and brought it home for me to cook, remember? You didn't remember
about my reaction to it last time? It was delicious. You took
such pleasure in it, you kept urging me to have more and more, and
I did, too!"
I couldn't help myself -- that New Orleans Creole recipe I'd used
was just marvelous. I'd figured the dish would go for two meals,
maybe even also a lunch, but between us we'd finished the whole
casserole! Mostly, I'd finished it. I was taking a chance with a
food allergy -- shrimp usually give me a facial rash, though only
for a day or two. More serious I thought was the pigging out,
because I was on a strict diet, trying to stay slim. But with
Cameron so enthusiastic about it I'd enjoyed the dish for once
without worrying about either my allergies or my weight.
I'd gone down twenty-five pounds since I'd first gone jobless,
trying to look lean and mean for my interviews. In fact, as
Cameron was asking me about last night's shrimp I was pulling up a
pair of pants from a business suit I hadn't worn for months, and
noticing that the waistline was now far too large. I tightened my
belt and it looked as if I'd tied a sack around myself. Pin the
waist up in back so it'll seem to fit in front? No, then all that
material would sag around my rear, and I'd look thirty years older.
I let them fall to the floor and went to my closet to find another
pair. Another business suit, also no good. A pair of flannel
slacks? Doubtful. And all the rest of my pants were casual wear,
jeans and khakis to wear whenever it doesn't matter. Useless for
a job interview.
"Didn't you once tell me you were allergic to shrimp?" Cameron
asked while watching me rehang my oversized pants and stare
helplessly at my problem. "I seem to remember." Then without
another word she went to her own closet and took down a pair of her
own slacks, a dark shiny fabric I always enjoyed seeing her wear,
tight around her butt and thighs but flared and loose below the
knee. It had panache, the way she did! "Here, try these," she
said, holding them out. "They'll fit."
"Cameron, they're cut for your figure! I'd feel foolish!"
"They're pants. You'd feel even more foolish applying for a
secretary/receptionist's position looking like a hip-hop hobo. A
neat appearance is even more important for that job than fast
typing. It's great that you've slimmed down, but you should have
realized before now that your suits aren't suitable any more."
She smiled. I didn't. I held her slacks up to the light and
looked them over. The waistline was about right, but the material
did seem a little floppy.
"Don't worry," she said. "This pair is man-tailored. They may fit
a little snug on your butt, but snug is better than sloppy, and the
material stretches to form fit, it won't pull or sag. Wear that
big tweed sports jacket you've got -- it'll hang down far enough to
keep men from staring at your rounded rear, if that's what's
worrying you. Just don't waggle." She smiled, then added, "It'll
also hide the fact that there's no fly. Your pants are no problem.
But just look at your face. That's what we've got to deal with.
Those shrimp have done you in, Jimmy!"
A glance in the mirror confirmed what she was saying. Overeating
all that shrimp had made my skin red and blotchy. I knew it was
temporary. But my interview was this morning, and I now had the
flushed complexion of an habitual drunkard.
"God, what'll I do?" I looked at her a little wildly. She was
right, the pants were no problem at all in comparison.
"What I'd do, I suppose," she replied. "Slip into those pants and
sit down over there, and I'll take care of it. No, not with those
boxer shorts, they'll bunch and the legs will look lumpy! Here!"
She reached into her drawer and took out a pair of her panties.
"These'll keep your bottom neat. Don't worry about the lace on the
waist band and the legs, they're so your panty line won't show. You
wouldn't want that, would you?" Now she grinned broadly.
"Cameron, this isn't going to work!" I said. "I can't...."
"Look, Jimmy! This is your best job opportunity in months. Only
two interviews required, me and Personnel, and I've already told
Personnel you're who I want. Get past Personnel and come work for
me, and look what we'll have! Two incomes again! And together all
day long at the office! And once you're in-house, you'll be the
first to hear about other jobs closer to your special skills. It's
perfect!"
"But what about my face?"
"Tuck your package between your legs, those panties have enough
lycra and spandex to keep them there. Good! See now, I knew those
pants would fit. Nicely form fit in the crotch and rear, yet your
panty line doesn't show at all! Here, sit here and let me attend to
your face. You gave yourself a really close shave this morning, I
see. Maybe that's why that rash is so visible? But first bind
your hair back! Brush it a few times, then use this!" She handed
me one of her ponytail scrunchies. "That's it. Before anything
else we need to get our hair off our faces! No, higher up, so it's
off your neck too."
I pulled my long hair back as instructed, then sat down at her
makeup table, back to the mirror and facing her as she pulled up a
chair. "Rose beige, I'd say," she said, reaching behind me toward
the massed bottles alongside the mirror. "Lucky I have it in the
Honeybelle Colorfast line -- it's like paint, it won't rub off."
"What is?" I wasn't too happy about this, but I knew that once
Cameron decides on a course of action she follows through. And she
was right. I needed this job, and I felt sure that once I was
working with her we'd come to feel closer. I was sure of it. It
would end the little strains that had developed in our
relationship, and return me to something like respect. Maybe even
admiration.
"This foundation. Covers all blemishes and discolorations. There!
Look!" She stopped stroking my face with a small sponge and sat
back. "Almost done! Beautiful complexion restored!"
Was she teasing me? I turned and looked into the mirror. The
blotches were indeed gone. But instead I saw the face of a store
window mannequin, my face a uniform pale tan, forehead, cheeks, and
nose. Even my lips and eyebrows had disappeared under the even
coating.
"I look spray-painted," I told her. "Artificial! Like a display
dummy! Cameron, this isn't going to...."
"Oh yes it will! I wear this foundation to work every day, and it
looks perfectly natural! Just wait! Only a few more touches to
return you to a state of nature! No more talk--we're running late
as it is!"
Appalled as I was, I sat still as she reached behind me for
different items and applied them swiftly, touches of another shade
of foundation here and there, then a dark beige lipstick to recover
the shape of my lips, pink blush on my cheeks but also underneath
to create shadowed cheekbones, and a few strokes of eyebrow pencil.
"There, now your brow arch is very becoming, and you don't look
plucked hairless any more. But your eyes have nearly disappeared.
I'd better make them a little more bold! Close them!"
I did, and felt a soft crayon lining the edges, then something
feathery across my eyelids. "Look up!" and I could see her
clearly, concentrating intently as something wiped my lashes, wet
for a moment, then dry. "There! Now close again!" I felt a
powder puff and smelled a faint flowery dust in the air. "That's
what blends everything! Keep them shut! Don't breathe for a
moment!" And I heard a hissing and felt momentary moisture, as if
she were hair spraying ... my face? "My little trick!" she said,
satisfied. "Now none of it will rub off or wash off. You'll need
to use makeup remover tonight, just like all of us girls. I have
plenty. Now you can look at yourself!"
I turned again, and did. "There's my matinee idol," she added.
"My pretty boy! Perfect!"
What I saw in the mirror was perfect, all right. And that was the
problem. Men's faces take character from their imperfections,
jutting masses covered with mottled skin. But not mine. It was me
all right. But I saw large doll eyes staring out innocently from
a face that was blushing as if at some overly-intimate suggestion,
My eyebrows were thin, delicate, raised quizzically. My lips were
their natural color, nearly, but darker, and perfectly outlined
against my smooth, flawless, ivory-beige skin, somehow more ...
plump. I looked natural, yet artificial. Smooth. Like a girl made
up for work or a date.
"Cameron," I began.
"Never mind, Jimmy! You're fine. Trust me. Maybe a little cute,
but that's you, and now you're well-defined, perfectly groomed, the
way a receptionist should look when greeting important people and
telling them to wait until they're called. Honey, that's the best
I can do, and it'll do! Would you rather go in splotchy and
mottled, looking like an old lush? A diseased drunk? You look
good now! Lovely, if you must know. Finish getting ready. No, no
tie with that sports jacket, an open necked-shirt, and wear your
tasseled loafers, not those formal lace-up clod hoppers. I usually
wear pale pastels with those slacks -- here's the pinkish sports
shirt I got you a few weeks ago, wear that! Let's go, we're late!"
I hesitated at the front door. "Go, baby!" she urged me. "I know
what you're thinking. You're thinking that Sheila -- she's the gal
who'll interview you -- will wonder why you look so ... so good.
Well, don't worry about it. If she thinks maybe you're gay, the
way you look, well, it won't hurt. Effeminate won't hurt either.
We don't discriminate at Honeybelle, in fact she's lezzie herself.
Tell you what, I'll bring you in and make my speech and we'll make
sure she does only what the procedures require, test your typing
speed and fill out your employment forms and so on. Stuff like
that. Because I have a busy morning, and I need you at your desk
right now, practically! Let's go!"
And then I was on the front walk, heading toward her car. My face
felt a little stiff -- the make-up, I supposed. My pants felt
strange as I put one leg in front of the other, their loose cuffs
flapping on my ankles, their smooth upper legs snugly hugging my
thighs, and I realized that the way the stretch fabric gripped me,
my tight-clad bottom was rotating under my oversized jacket. My
God, I thought, I bet my rear end moves like Cameron's now!
Suddenly it came to me! The pants were skin-tight, no pockets! No
wallet! I had no documents! I patted down my jacket in a mindless
reflex! Empty, of course.
"I've got them, Jimmy," Cameron said as my hands danced over my
body. "All you need really is your social security card and your
driver's license with your old address on it. It's best if it
isn't on the record that we live together. Nepotism, favoritism,
whatever. It makes for divisive office gossip. I'll drive."
ii.
A half-hour later we'd parked in her reserved space in the
underground parking garage and were heading up in the elevator. It
stopped at the first floor and an older man got on. "Ladies," he
said, touching his hat to both of us, then turning to face the
door. I looked at Cameron, shocked! She looked back grinning as
if it was some huge joke she wanted to share.
When the man got out a few floors higher, I said to Cameron, deeply
worried, "I was afraid of that!"
"Whatever for?" was her reply. "Does it matter? You look nice.
Employable. The rest is unimportant, I told you, gender is not a
basis for discrimination at this firm! Stop looking so furtive.
Just get yourself hired! Confidence is what you need to display!
Shoulders back! That's it! But, ahhh, baby, you'd better
button your jacket if you're going to thrust out your chest that
far. It's too obvious that you're ... under-endowed."
"Wait a minute," I said. "Under endowed for what? For a man?
What do you mean?"
Cameron looked at me regretfully for a moment, biting her lip, not
quite sure how to reply, when the elevator door opened. We stepped
out. There across an expanse of deep-pile red carpet was a large
elliptical reception desk with a gorgeous, dark-haired young woman
seated behind it, her face even more carefully made up than mine.
But she looked small compared to the image behind her on the wall,
a huge, floor to ceiling photo of a glamorous woman's face,
hollow-cheeked, eyes beautifully shadowed and staring dreamily at
everyone leaving the elevator, welcoming me. I recognized it, the
Honeybelle logo face, reproduced on every tube and jar on Cameron's
dressing table. I saw too, that that was how Cameron had done my
eyes. Wide with wonder and deeply shadowed in mystery.
"Ms. Cameron!" she said. "Good morning! And you're Jamie, of
course! Go right through, Sheila's expecting you!" She smiled at
me. It was a smile unlike any I'd ever previously received from a
woman. Encouraging. Not flirtatious, not cautious, not even
merely gracious. Instead, intimate yet unguarded, warm, somehow
even conspiratorial, as though there were some huge secret we
shared. Sisterly, that was it. I realized that she thought I was
one of her kind. A woman. She was encouraging me as if one woman
to another.
We proceeded down a corridor. I was still wondering why the
receptionist had called me "Jamie" and not my name, "James" or
"Jim," and what her smile might mean, when we paused at a large
double-glass door marked "Personnel." Cameron suddenly opened her
purse and took a smaller clutch purse out of it. "Here we are,"
she said, handing it to me. "Your papers are in this. Some mad
money too. You'd better take it now." Then she opened the door and
we both walked in, each of us, I suddenly realized, carrying
purses.
There were several desks in a rather large room lined with filing
cabinets. Behind one was a striking woman, also impeccably made-up
but older, with a streak of gray in her well-coiffed hair and an
experienced gleam in her eyes as she rose to come around and greet
us. "Oh, good, Cameron, here you are! Jamie is it? Welcome to
the company, my dear! I suppose I can say that even now, since
Cameron has already made it clear that you're the person she wants
to hire, and hiring the people their bosses want is what I do!"
She grasped my hands in both of hers and glanced down at them for
a moment, then back to Cameron. "You can go to your office now, if
you like, honey. We'll need about a half-hour here for the
formalities, then I'll send Jamie up to you and you can explain her
duties to her."
"Jamie" again. And "her"? Cameron turned to me. "Just go with
the flow, Jamie." She emphasized the word, that was my name. "To
get along, go along, you know? No problems! I want you up there
whatever! Do you understand me?" She held my gaze.
I didn't, but I looked back and nodded anyway. She seemed
satisfied. "Lovely! See you soon!" And she was out the door.
I was alone with Sheila. She now looked at me almost
affectionately.
"Cameron's really something, isn't she? She's one of our rising
stars here. Whatever she wants, she gets. I think that's the
first thing you need to know about her, at least during business
hours. You'll be paid to do whatever she wants you to do, the
fewer questions the better, and with no hesitation. Is that
clear?"
Finally, a moment to speak. "Yes, of course," I said. My voice
sounded a little high and tight to me -- why was I nervous? "I
understand that. But there's a misapprehension here, maybe because
of my appearance this morning, some...ahh...skin cream I've had to
use today. My name is James, and no one calls me 'Jamie.' I...."
"I beg to differ, Jamie," Sheila interrupted. "Cameron called you
'Jamie' just now, didn't she, and what did I just tell you? What
Cameron wants, Cameron gets! In this case she wants a
secretary/receptionist named 'Jamie,' no questions or exceptions!
"You just said you understood that!"
"I do," I said, chastened.
She settled back in her chair and looked up at me. "Then too, I've
already had your name-plate made out as 'Jamie.' So that's that.
Now understand please, there are many questions I'm not allowed to
ask you, about race, age, marital status, gender, sexual
preference, things like that. It's against the law. So I'd rather
not hear you mention them or try to explain them either. I've seen
your resume of course. It's impressive, all that computer
experience. You may feel a little underemployed as a
receptionist-typist here, but as I'll explain we intend to use your
special skills as well. And Cameron is on the move and slated for
bigger things -- if you work out I'm sure she'll carry you with
her. You could end up serving as an administrative secretary on
the fourteenth floor. Right now that depends on how well you meet
her expectations and Honeybelle's!"
"I see."
"Sit down at that desk, would you Jamie? And copy any page of that
book there into that word processor. Let's see something of this
fabled speed and accuracy."
I sat down and glanced at the computer screen. One of the more
complex office word processors, but quite familiar to me. I opened
the book at random. Dense text, tables, and a mathematical formula
toward the bottom. I sighed, and began, and under a minute later
I looked up, done. Sheila came over, scrolled the screen to
inspect what I'd entered, made a print copy,, then wordlessly
motioned me over to the chair alongside her desk. Then sat down
silently, at last impressed. I thought she would be.
"A job like that is best done with a scanner and character
recognition," I commented. "A scanner would take one-tenth the
time. Then your secretaries can pay more attention to tasks
requiring human judgment."
"That's true, Jamie," Sheila said, for the first time abandoning
her brassy declarative speaking style. "And that's why you won't
just be Cameron's receptionist. We'll want to hire you as well as
a kind of informal technical adviser to all the girls in the typing
pool, all the stenographers. We need someone so easygoing that they
never hesitate to ask you to show them the best way to do things
like that. When we discussed replacing Rosemond last Friday we
both agreed that was desirable. So that's also in your job specs.
Cameron's office closes at four. At that time each day you'll
drift over to the secretarial pool to join them until they quit at
five, help out the girls that've gotten behind, but mainly hint or
suggest ways they can finish their work more efficiently when you
see what they're doing. Low key, informally, of course, so no one
feels they're being criticized. Can you do that?"
"Of course."
"For that same reason we want you to become their good friend.
You'll join one or another group of them for lunch every day, chat
with them, be sociable and helpful, become one of them. If any
want to pause for a drink after work, that too. Cameron's agreed
to spare you for those obligations, though she'll keep you busy
otherwise. Is that satisfactory with you?"
I nodded. Any job requiring that I mingle with informally with
girls in a typing pool had to be satisfactory. Quite flattering to
my male ego. Cameron was taking a big chance, testing my fidelity
to her that severely! I wasn't sure I was up to it!
"You see, Jamie, there's another motto we follow here in addition
to 'to get along, go along' and so forth. That's 'one hand washes
the other.' We need a woman to serve as an in-house computer
trainer, and Cameron needs you to replace Rosemond. You're
qualified for both jobs, so you'll do both. I agreed, so Cameron
agreed. Your salary will be commensurate."
I looked addled, because I felt addled. What was she saying? "I'm
not..." I began.
"I told you, Jamie, I'm not allowed to listen! I don't want to
know anything about sex, gender, religion, anything like that!
Please. Now, there's something else you need to know., a strict
company policy. We do hire men as back office people, of course,
but our products are made for women. So all of our secretaries,
receptionists, typists, and any other of our employees who will be
seen by the public are expected to serve as showcases for our
products. The Fair Employment people allow us this exception in
hiring for just that reason. For you to serve as Cameron's
secretary/receptionist, I needed to know that you have an
attractive face that can be enhanced by using Honeybelle. I see
that you do. We'll show you how to use our products to best
advantage, of course -- tomorrow you'll begin that part of your
training. We have a salon where you'll spend a fair part of the
day. Cameron assured me you're qualified for the real work, so you
are, so that's that!"
What could I say? I blinked a few times, and realized that my
lashes were still heavy with the mascara Cameron had laid on to
make my eyes look more bold. My doll's eyes.
"I do hope you're not a snob, that you won't feel superior to these
girls. We want them to feel you're one of them in every respect.
So you'll need to take up similar interests and concerns, make them
your own. At lunch with them every day you'll chat with them about
their problems, their programming skills, their periods, their
boyfriends, pop singers, any topic that arises, and you'll share
with them whatever similar stories you can -- Cameron will make
suggestions. You'll socialize with them in whatever ways may help
them build the confidence they'll need to do whatever you suggest
they learn to do. Now, I need to hear you say it plainly. Can you
work here under these circumstances?"
She paused. I said nothing. I was feeling a little betrayed. She
seemed to be saying that I'd need to behave like these secretaries,
even wear Honeybelle products to work every day. And Honeybelle
doesn't make men's cosmetics. I didn't think they did, anyhow.
She was saying I'd need to look like a girl? Cameron wanted me to
take this job for my own good, for the good of our relationship, I
was sure, but still!
"If you say you can, there'll be no turning back. For example
tomorrow the salon girls will teach you the best ways for you
personally to wear and display whatever we sell, so you exhibit it
and can demonstrate its use if called on.. The salon will want to
remake your look, not too high-styled but a little more stylish
than it is now, just enough so you'll blend in with all the other
girls."
My mind raced. Blend in? She did assume I wanted to look like a
girl! Or that I was one already? If this job meant that I have to
spend the day in make-up, how could I get it off before coming
home? Loiter after the girls leave at five I suppose, until I'm
alone? But then how would I get Cameron's dinner ready?
Well, if I'm working again, that home-making task won't be mine
exclusively any more. We could eat out more. But with me looking
a little effeminate?
"Now understand, what they do in that salon is not casual. You've
noticed I'm sure that we're all impeccably groomed. We all have
our hair done weekly and our faces and nails every few weeks, as
necessary. I notice that your nails have never been touched.
Well, they'll need to look as nice as the rest of you. Our nail
products are practically irremovable and indestructible,
especially the ones we target toward hands-on employees like
secretaries who need nails that are easy to maintain. I notice too
that your hair is rather prettily held back by that scrunchy, and
that the scrunchy matches your blouse -- no, that's a shirt, isn't
it? Well, even so, we'll want to restyle it altogether, to show
our own hair products to best advantage. You saw how pretty Dana
is, the dark-haired receptionist on this floor who faces the
elevators? She's wearing our new brunette tone. You'll need to be
more of a honey blonde, I'd think, to show yourself to best
advantage. And with your pixie face, a cap of curls might well be
perfect! So feminine, you'd look adorable. But that'll be for the
salon to decide."
I'd completely forgotten about that scrunchy! I usually gathered
my hair in back with ponytail elastics, not with the band of frilly
pink ribbon Cameron had handed me! Men don't wear scrunchies! I
touched it, a little embarrassed. Sheila seemed not to notice.
"What our salon can't accomplish, our clinic can and will, and the
treatments and medications they advise are all free to employees.
Then there're your orientation and training courses, we call it our
Charm School. They'll take up a lot of your time this week.
Simple things most girls already know but we have our own ways,
how our secretaries need to sit and move, manners when approached
by visitors male or female, these all reflect on our products.
We'll invest some considerable time making you over into someone we
can all be proud of, a Honeybelle girl, a model of femininity and
grace. That's why your first contract, the one I'm prepared to
sign with you right now, will run for six months, with you
guaranteeing us the first three months of your services. After
that, if you should want to quit, you'll have three additional
months of paid leave to recover whatever you can of the way you
were before we hired you. If you want to. Surely you'll agree
that that's generous!"
She opened a file on top of her desk and placed my typing test on
top of a stack of papers -- I saw that Cameron had given her my
resume, because there it was. She pulled out a rather formal
looking legal document, five pages of small script, set it in front
of me, and laid a pen alongside it. I said nothing. The whole
deal sounded very generous to me, but also a little kinky. I'd
need to sacrifice a certain amount of masculine ego, apparently
wear make-up and a wig during the day and submit to their
posture-training, or whatever it was. Seem to be a girl. But
Cameron must have known those things and she'd urged me to apply
for this job anyhow, so she didn't mind. Maybe she was testing my
sincerity? What had I to lose?
Cameron had also made it clear that she expected me to say and do
whatever is necessary, and Sheila had made it equally clear that
whatever Cameron wants, she gets. Well, she wanted me working with
her even under these circumstances! So I wanted that too.
"Any questions?" she asked. I shook my head.
"Here's your six-month probationary contract then. Notice the
complete health package -- it includes skin care and whatever
cosmetic and body surgery seems desirable for you to look your
best. Notice too that we're offering you half-again as much salary
as your previous employer, because you're at least that much more
valuable to us. Someone with your abilities who is willing to work
as a mere secretary/receptionist among the others is rare indeed.
Especially if that someone comes to us sponsored by our brightest
rising star!"
I looked at the contract, lying on the desk under my nose, and at
the pen alongside it. It added up to a huge amount of money, and
it was sitting on that desk and waiting only for my signature!
Infinitely more money than I'm earning now, I thought ruefully.
"When I sign, what happens?"
"I'll send you upstairs immediately to start your day's work.
Cameron will no doubt tell you specifically what she requires, and
you'll do whatever she asks of you. Cameron gets what she wants.
Then tomorrow we'll retrofit you for the job, so to speak, as I've
described it. Salon, clinic, and training center. Cameron will
have to do without you all day tomorrow, but you'll be quite a
different person when you resume with her on Wednesday. When she
sends you to get acquainted with the other typists and
receptionists you'll fit right in by Wednesday. You may still feel
a little woozy from Tuesday's procedures, but ditzy behavior never
hurts when you're dealing with that age group. "
"And if I don't like the job, after three months I'll be paid for
three more months while I undo everything?" What did I have to
lose? "This is what Cameron wants?"
"While you undo what can be undone. And yes, it's precisely what
Cameron wants, Jamie."
I didn't even read the contract. Cameron gets what she wants, and
I wanted Cameron. So why not? I picked up the pen and signed on
the last page, as indicated.
"And here," Sheila said. "And here! And here too! And initials
here!" I did as she asked. "Now on this sheet sign 'Jamie' here,
not 'James.' I did, wondering why.
Then she grinned broadly. "There, now you're officially 'Jamie.'
and that makes all the other signatures legal. Our lawyer will
file the name change at the court house tomorrow, but it's done!
Congratulations, dear, you're a Honeybelle girl now, at least for
the next three months! Welcome to the firm!"
A Honeybelle what? Was that just a figure of speech? More likely
it was the indifference to gender her job required. I'd be girly
enough, I supposed, what with wearing Honeybelle cosmetics all day
long.
She co-signed or witnessed each signature, then clamped a notary's
seal on the last page and handed me a copy. "Just lovely, Jamie!"
she said. "Your parents certainly created a chance for confusion
when they named you 'James.' But with this name-change on the
record no one will doubt who you are when you answer the phone. A
little voice training will help too, but I suspect just being among
the girls day after day will put a bit more sweetness into the way
you sound. You'll say 'Honeybelle, Ms. Cameron's office, Jamie
speaking,' so often it'll become second nature."
"Ahh, Sheila, do you think that I....?"
Sheila paused from her gracious commentary and eyed me closely, for
just one moment. Penetratingly! Then she turned away, and as she
stowed her copies she said in level tones, "I don't think, Jamie,
I know. I'm paid to know things. What I know is what this
contract says. Read it yourself tonight!"
She laid her hand on my arm, reassuringly it seemed. "Just one or
two more things, honey. "Tomorrow we begin your body modification
regimen along with your beauty treatments, so you'll ...ahhh
...curve more invitingly in the right places. Men who visit our
administrative offices like to see secretaries and receptionists
who are well-turned out. Your breasts and hips are rather ...
ungenerous at the moment, but certain clinical procedures can
change those proportions fairly quickly."
This sounded serious. I got alarmed. "Sheila, listen!"
She didn't. Instead, she continued with what I realized was her
set personnel orientation speech. Maybe she'd delivered it so
often that she didn't even notice how inappropriate it was in my
case? Had she really mistaken me for a woman the whole time? That
damned makeup Cameron had put on me? And this scrunchy?
And Cameron's slacks? My jacket had fallen open, and as I looked
down I saw that in my sitting position their tight cut swept across
my groin down to my crotch to reveal ... nothing! No bulge. A
woman's 'V'! Those lycra panties held my cock and balls back
under and out of sight so efficiently that down there was ...
nothing at all. And the slacks revealed that fact shamelessly! If
I insisted now that I was a man, why would she believe me? I saw
she'd followed my line of sight and had glanced indifferently at my
crotch! And seen no more there than she expected to see.
Then she looked back at my face, her own still registering
impersonal cordiality. "If after your probationary three months
you agree to continue, we'll go further. We'll offer you a new
contract for five years with an option to renew, if you'll agree to
submit to a more thoroughgoing reorienting. We'll not only greatly
enhance your desirability, the girls tell me the treatments also
enhance desire. Our married women have the most satisfied husbands
in town, I hear -- and those husbands who can't keep up with their
wives don't seem to mind it if the wives seek supplementary
attention elsewhere. One woman took on five men in a single
evening and felt as regal as a queen the whole time and just as
horny afterward, she told us. Her husband needed some attitude
adjustment, but he did finally admit he was proud of her. You may
not be that kind of girl of course."
This was more extreme than wearing make-up and fraternizing with
young girls. Had I made a mistake? I found my voice. "What
happens if I agree to none of this now, Sheila? If I just walk
out?"
Sheila looked shocked! "Why, you've signed! You'll be in breach
of contract and out of a highly desirable job! And I must add,
unemployable anywhere else ever! Think what sort of reference we'd
be forced to enter under your name in the national employment
database we use! To say nothing about how Cameron would feel about
it! This job was tailored for you! You can't mean it!"
Sheila was not the person I had to talk to, I saw. She was far too
proper, too company-rules oriented! I smiled at her reassuringly.
Cameron would tell me which rules were inflexible and which ones
bent.
"Oh, I see! You wanted to shake me up a little! Well, you
certainly did! I'd better let you get to where Cameron needs you!
One more thing only...." She glanced once again at my crotch and
then rose to walk me to the door. I stood up and followed. "We
have a strict dress code here, honey! No more slacks during
working hours, not even slacks as dressy and provocative as the
ones you're wearing! No crotches or rounded rear ends -- and yours
are both very becoming, incidentally. Skirts and blouses and
dresses only. If you fancy a low neckline, only a hint of
cleavage! It's all in this handbook, read it! Your new office is
on the tenth floor, and I'm sure Cameron's waiting for you!
Goodbye for now, Jamie, and again, welcome to Honeybelle."
As I walked to the elevator, wondering if I'd been too hasty and
what to do about it, she came running after me. "Honey, you forgot
your purse!" she called out. And as she handed it to me she gave
me a wry, sly smile, as if she'd just eaten a cage full of canaries!
"You'll love it here," she said. "Whatever you're thinking now, in
three months you won't want it any other way! No one ever does."
I found that statement consoling and depressing all at once, but
I'd already decided to go with the flow and see what happens.
iii.
When the elevator opened on the tenth floor and I got out, Cameron
was waiting for me in the lobby.
"Cameron," I began, eager to get any misunderstandings straightened
out at once.
"In this building I'm Ms. Cameron to you, Jamie! Never forget
that! May I see your copy of the contract you signed?" She held
out her hand.
"Yes, of course!" I handed it to here, subdued.
She studied it briefly, and then looked at me. "Let's be clear
about this. Here are all the standard clauses for our women
employees, and you signed every one of them, Jamie. Did you think
we were just fooling around? We manufacture and market beauty
products. This says you've agreed to model them for us while you
work here! It gives our beauty consultants and medical staff full
authority to re-make you into the most attractive woman they think
you can be. Here and here! Moreover, "Jamie" is now your legal
given name, here's where James signed it over. Goodbye James! What
else? Tomorrow a complete makeover -- the salon will harmonize
your appearance with our Spring cosmetics campaign, which happens
to have as its motto, "No girl can ever be too blonde." Also, I
see, tomorrow you'll begin your three-month hormone regimen for
skin tone, body reshaping, and breast augmentation. And voice
training, you'll learn to moan into the phone as if you were in
heat -- we like our junior staff to sound that way. Let's see,
yes, the whole range of whatever's needed to fit you in with the
girls in the typing pool, so they'll feel you're one of them. We
have two kinds of makeover, "adaptive" for employees who just want
to work here and "intensive" for those who want to make their
careers here. With "intensive" many of the changes are permanent.
Guess which one you chose. Were you so eager to look like a
starlet, Jamie? You didn't negotiate out of any of these
conditions? I see you agreed to the full array!"
"Cameron...!"
She glared at me.
"Ms. Cameron, I figured this Sheila knew what was appropriate. You
discussed things with her, didn't you? What was suitable for me
and what not? I thought she knew I was a man, but it was
confusing. When I signed, it became clear that she assumed I was
a woman and was being hired as a woman!"
"Of course! Because when you signed, that's what you became!
That's what you are for the next three months, Jamie! That's what
you'll certainly be by the end of the three months. Did Sheila
happen to mention what happens if you try to break this contract?"
"She said I'd become unemployable!"
"Correct! Anywhere in America or Europe, we have branches
everywhere, and we belong to all sorts of consortia for identifying
unreliable employees. Though no one ever wants to leave us for
employment elsewhere anyhow. And we don't want them to, if only to
keep our trade secrets secret. What do you think our girls usually
do when they've finished their probationary three months?"
"I don't know."
Was she angry? Annoyed? I couldn't tell. "My dear! You have no
idea? They always sign up again! Always! For the full five
years! And management never needs to urge anything! Everyone
loves it here! We encourage them to provide each other all sorts
of inducements and gratifications, personal, social, sexual,
whatever! I see you're committed to spend hours and hours weekly
with other women at your level! Well, you'll love it! Sweetheart,
somewhere inside your panties are a man's balls, I know because I
saw them there this morning. But right now you can bend over and
kiss them goodbye. From now on they'll only be in your way."
She paused, and her voice sounded amused. "I see you've even
signed up for the optional weekend retreat in how to attract men!"
she noted. "That'll be nice for you! From what the girls tell me,
the field trips are unforgettable!"
"Ms. Cameron, please!" I was distraught! What had I done? How
could I get out of this?
Finally she took pity on me. "Well, Jamie, we'll talk about all
this tonight," she said. "Maybe you didn't understand a few
things. Settle yourself at your desk and look over Rosemond's
notes to her successor and see if you can prepare my schedule for
the rest of today and for all day tomorrow, because you'll be
getting your first beauty and clinic treatments all day tomorrow!
Tomorrow evening I'll take you shopping, because believe me, after
tomorrow there'll be no mistaking what you've become, and you'll
need a whole new wardrobe. Then when the three months are up
you'll have a whole new figure."
She turned on a high heel and walked imperiously back into her
office. She'd never seemed further away from me than that moment.,
altogether out of reach.
Just as I sat down, the telephone rang. I answered it and tried to
remember what to say. "Honeybelle, Ms. Cameron's office," I said
rather mournfully. Then I added, "Jamie speaking."
"Hello, Jamie, this is Sheila, is Cameron available? Your voice
already sounds much improved, dear! I'm sure you'll feel quite
comfortable with everything in no time at all!"
"Just a moment!" I said, found a buzzer on the phone, and pressed
it. Then when I heard Cameron pick up I looked for a switch to cut
off their conversation so I could hang up silently. I couldn't
find one, and meanwhile they exchanged comments.
"Cameron, I'm sure you know, he bought the whole package. Just as
you'd hoped. He must have thought it impolite to interrupt me with
questions when he wasn't sure what I was arranging. Isn't that
wonderful?"
"Yes, he's so trusting. So tomorrow we'll gild the lily, then geld
it, and that will be that. No more potential problems with Gary.
Imagine what Gary'd have done if he found out I've been living with
another man since we got engaged and he went off to do that
European thing of his. Killed Jamie and broken off with me without
another word spoken. No way would he believe I took him on as my
housekeeper and personal maid and no more than that, that Jamie was
just too sweet and docile and eager and convenient to turn away."
"Who'd believe such a man exists?" Sheila commented.
"Well, now by the time Gary gets back he won't, it won't occur to
him that the girl who looks after my place for me was once a real
man. If Jamie ever was a real man. So I'm safe and Jamie's safe
too. And he has a job now to tide him over when Gary comes back
and we get married and move away. And anyhow, I'm sure that being
a girl will provide him a more appropriate kind of life. It's
perfect for him. Yet here he is, still hoping that he hasn't yet
too much compromised his masculinity. It's kind of sweet."
"Maybe so, Cameron. I must say, he's more suitable than that last
boy friend you blew off this way, Bob, or Barbie, whatever his name
is now, the one who finished up with huge boobs and married a gay
accountant on the West Coast. This one looks girly already, and
the salon and clinic haven't even begun with him."
"Yes, it worked with Bob, so I couldn't imagine it wouldn't work
with Jamie. He's such a dear! Or she is! He'll be a lovely girl!
I owe you one, Sheila!"
"Well, I owe you too, Cameron. Management's been urging me to hire
a computer techie the girls can feel comfortable with, and there
are so few women in the field! This arrangement's perfect. Then
too, they asked us to look into ways we can appeal to the
metrosexual and transgendered market, every few points of market
share helps, and this is a beginning. Your Jamie could end up a
corporate logo for new products if she comes out of the salon
tomorrow looking the way I expect she will."
"Maybe. I hope so."
"So tell me more about Gary. He's due back soon?"
"In only a few weeks. Just time enough to get Jamie past the point
where Gary might worry about him. The wedding won't be for a few
more months, not until our new house is ready and fully furnished.
So I'll keep Jamie with me till then, then settle her into her own
apartment and out of my life. She's always doted on me, the poor
dear, and I can't fault her for that. So I suppose I owe her.
That's why I liked your idea, distract her by putting her in with
lots of other girls until after I'm married. I don't want her
feeling lovelorn, or loitering or stalking me, or offending Gary,
or getting moody, or making any kind of trouble like that."
"No, the girls will keep him occupied. He has such trouble
disagreeing with anyone or breaking ranks that I'm sure they'll
keep him in line."
"I suppose I should regret what we're doing to him. But he was so
pathetically insistent on moving in with me. And he provided such
excellent maid service! But Gary would never understand, and when
Gary's jealous he can be so ... physical. What he'd do to the poor
thing? Jamie's much safer this way!"
"True. Safer and also out of your hair, quite unlikely to make
problems when Gary comes back into your life. You're her boss,
what can she say? Then too, some of the girls in the typing pool
can be quite venturesome. As he teaches them about computers
they'll teach him about themselves. I'm sure he'll soon be getting
all the pussy he could ever want."
"Eating all the pussy he'll ever want, anyhow, once the clinic's
hormones take hold and his cock goes limp," Cameron said. "Soon
enough."
"Yes. Then getting all the cock he'll ever want too as the girls
introduce him to their favorite men. That'll more than make up for
the loss of his own. Chances are when your Jamie's three month
probation ends she'll want her own pussy. I've seen it before.
Who wouldn't? Didn't your friend Bob? I seem to recall she was
fully equipped by the time she became Barbie and transferred to the
West Coast office and finally got married."
"'Bob,' yes. He didn't become 'Barbie' until his breasts came in
and he was forced to rethink things. Yes, he got himself sexually
reassigned while he was still here. Once he learned how to attract
men he wanted a cunt, and once he had a cunt and got himself laid
a few times there was no stopping him."
"Oh yes, I remember now how I changed all his personnel records so
no one on the West Coast would know."
"You did, Sheila. And while we're on the topic, you made Bob's
transition a lot easier than Jeff's as I recall."
Sheila chuckled. "Yes, I was a little hard on Jeff maybe. But he
deserved it. He wouldn't give me that divorce."
"Sheila, he didn't know you were a lesbian! He thought you were
sleeping around with other men! I kept telling you, men feel
threatened when their wives fuck other men! They get furious! No
wonder he went crazy when you told him he didn't measure up."
"Cameron, he got so violent I had to sedate him!"
"Yes, I remember. But then while he was sedated you didn't have to
pump up his breasts and push him through the clinic as a special
project, so when he woke up all he saw was a pussy where his balls
had been. Talk about the tantrum he threw then?"
"I had to protect myself," Sheila said a little truculently.
"Big mistake. I warned you. You had to keep him incommunicado
till he calmed down, tied to his bed in that brothel where you sent
him, in the middle of nowhere."
"Not nowhere. Mexico."
"Yes. Then a month or so later, when he was healed but still weak
from all that inactivity, you took the Madame's advice and brought
in three different hunks on three successive nights, and they each
taught him how to appreciate men with his mouth and his boobs and
his pussy and his ass and with both hands. And that finally calmed
him down. After that he couldn't sign the divorce papers to be rid
of you fast enough!"
"That's right. I did him a favor. I hear he still can't get
enough cock. Some girls are like that -- who knew he was one of
those? But we should be careful, Cameron. Jamie ma