See for Yourself
by Vickie Tern
"Here, see for yourself how it feels, honey. Hold out your arms."
I did without thinking, not quite realizing and then not quite
believing what she was up to, and before I knew it she'd taken one
of her prettiest elastic and satin brassieres out of her drawer and
whisked it onto my chest, then hooked it behind me where I couldn't
reach and sat herself down again. Then studiously finished
applying her lipstick as if nothing much had happened.
I just stood there amazed. Wearing a brassiere. I stared down at
the two partly empty cups on my ... my bosom I guess it was, and
then at her.
She looked up at me. "Still there? That answer your question?
You'd better hurry and start to dress."
With this bra on? What was she doing?
"Of course you won't get the full effect on others that I get from
wearing my bras," she said. "Unfortunately you've got no boobs for
other people to admire. Nor will you get the full benefit to
yourself, since you've got nothing to bobble any time you try going
without one. Give some thought to growing something up there,
enough to fill the cups and give you a figure, eventually anyhow.
Little by little. I bet you feel the band binding on your chest.
Is the pressure annoying or comforting? Both at once?"
"Marsha, what ..."
"Let's test it, sweetie. Since you're standing there, reach me
that yellow pashmina up there on my closet shelf, would you? Yes,
the scarf, that's it. Thanks. Now I'm sure you felt the pinch
when you reached up and the shoulder strap stretched to accommodate
you, then the elastic squeezed your skin as you lowered your arm
again. Bras are like women. They pinch and squeeze as well as hug
you all around."
"Marsha, you did that deliberately. Why?"
"What, hooked you into a bra? Yes, of course! Taylor, don't
pretend it's your first time in a bra. I know how often you've
rummaged through my lingerie drawer. I've always thought it rather
sweet. It reminded me of what I used to do when I was little and
eager to try on my mother's things, eager to be a big girl. But I
always knew that some day I'd grow up to become a big girl and have
my own bras and things. And you knew you never would, you poor
dear. It's so sad, my hubbie wants to wear my clothes and can't
except in secret. I wish you'd told me about it, I would have
helped you. I have tried. You've never noticed how for months now
the bras that fit you best have been the ones on top, the 38s, when
I'm a 34 or 36 at most? I know you've been wearing the dresses and
skirts and blouses I've bought you, the ones that fit you even
though I'm two sizes smaller than you. These days hardly a day
goes by without your trying on something of mine, I know that.
Sometimes whole outfits, shoes and jewelry and all."
I was appalled. She knew? "No," I said, shaken but trying to
recover a certain minimal manly dignity. "I never noticed you'd
laid out bras for me. Or dresses. But why did you just put this
bra on me?"
She turned toward me. "Because you want to wear one and I love you
and it's about time we both did something about it."
I was moved my that. My voice was a little choked as I stalled,
tried to find something to say. I couldn't think of anything that
really mattered. "You deliberately asked me to hand you that scarf
so this thing would pinch me as well as squeeze me. Why that?"
She looked directly into my eyes and then said, "Well, you do want
the full experience, don't you?"
What did she mean by that? What does she know?
She laughed. "Oh, no, I didn't mean what you're thinking, baby,
though you may well want that too -- I wouldn't mind, I really
wouldn't, if that was what you really and truly wanted. No, all I
meant was the experience of wearing a bra all day long and going
about your business the way any woman does, doing everything that
needs doing while wearing it. Feeling it surround and support you
as you bend and stretch and twist, insofar as any man can feel
supported who lacks tits." She glanced at me as if she knew there
was no way I could disagree, and then she returned to her mirror to
stroke on her mascara.
"No I do not want the full experience!" I said emphatically. "Not
even in that sense."
She didn't even bother to glance her disbelief at me. It was true,
I did want it, badly, I'd always been curious what it would feel
like to wear a bra from dawn to nightfall instead of during the
scant few hours I could find when she -- Marsha -- was unlikely to
find me out. I wanted to experience the 'dailyness' -- that was
what someone once called it -- of a woman's life.
I'd tried to hide it from her, unsuccessfully it seems. Did she
resent what I'd said, the original remark that had resulted in her
abrupt 'See for yourself!' and swift enclosure of my chest in a
brassiere? Marsha did have this habit of converting my innocent
comments into seeming personal criticisms and then resentfully
returning them in kind. I assumed it was a defensive reflex left
over from her schoolyard days, from "Oh yeah, you're another!"
considered an adequate return for insults offered.
"Well, I didn't ask for the scarf just so your bra would pinch you.
I did want it. I need it to wear it with this sleeveless dress
tonight in case the weather turns chilly. Thank you for fetching
it for me, dear."
She smiled briefly at me and then began brushing her hair back
rather vigorously, not looking into the mirror any more but instead
letting her eyes linger on my chest. "You know Taylor honey, you
do look kind of cute in that bra. There they are, teeny little
girl titties waiting for their big moment, waiting to become big
girl titties. That band does look a little snug on you, now I can
see it for myself. And that's not your cup size at all. But it's
the best we've got, I suppose, till we can get you a bra that's
properly fitted. It does look pretty on you, I'll say that. Maybe
tomorrow."
Should I have told her earlier? Did she feel demeaned, as I'd
always feared, that I was not the man she thought she'd married.
I decided to return this discussion to my original innocent remark,
the one that had somehow spurred this revelation that she knows
about my dressing up.
"Marsha, I was watching you put on your own brassiere. Something
that women do uniquely and with grace. All I said was 'That must
feel strange.' That's all. I meant it. I mean, it had just
occurred to me, to be carrying those two heavy weights in front of
you like that, caught up like softballs and held up by only those
thin shoulder straps? That must feel strange. That had never
occurred to me before. That's all. The same with all that stuff
you're putting on your face right now, that must feel strange too.
Maybe like spreading wax on your face, or a thin oil? I don't
know. But you got annoyed, and came back at me with that sudden
'See for yourself!' I meant no harm."
"Oh? Now you want to know how make-up feels too? You've never
tried out my make-up whenever you got all dressed up to feel girly?
Well, I know you have. I even know that this lipstick is your
favorite. Here, pucker up!"
She picked up a lipstick and rose from her vanity table and turned
toward me.
"No!" I said, alarmed, stepping back. "I mean, I don't know, I
just...."
"You don't? Oh yes, you do. You know how lipstick feels on your
lips -- sort of sticky and smooth at the same time, isn't it? What
you don't know is how it feels when other people see you wearing
it. Isn't that so?"
"No! I don't know!"
Her voice suddenly modulated. It became almost gentle. "Oh,
honey, I know, there's lots about being a woman you don't know. So
much that makes it so worth while! For example, there's the way my
nipples feel so marvelous when they're projected way forward inside
a good bra. Unbelievable! You don't know anything about that yet
either, do you?"
I shook my head 'no,' hoping my denial would cover everything in
sight. But I had to confess the truth to her, open myself and
throw myself on her mercy. "A little," I said in a small, shamed
voice. "My nipples do feel good in a bra."
She paused, looked surprised, and then looked pleased. "Well, you
have a natural talent for it then? I tell you what. You're
feeling squeezed and pinched in that bra now? 'Strange' as you
like to put it? Well, what say you wear it for the rest of this
evening, all the way to Andy and Pam's and through dinner and so
on, and then back here. I guarantee it won't feel strange by the
time we're back here and getting undressed for bed. It'll feel
perfectly natural, the same way your skin or any other part of your
of your body feels right now. As if you'd always worn one. As if
it was an ordinary thing, like breathing, for you to wear one. And
that'll be the answer to your question. Deal?"
She shook her head and her dark, brushed-back hair fell forward to
arrange itself in soft waves all around her beautiful face. How
did she get it to do that -- she now looked exquisite! Her eyes
were now huge and dark, staring at me, waiting for me to agree.
"Only the bra for now. I won't insist you wear lipstick or eye
shadow, or wax or oil as you put it less elegantly. Or those
dresses I bought for you that you seem to wear all the time. Not
unless you really want to."
"Marsha, when I said it must feel strange, it wasn't a question,"
I said weakly again. "It was only a random ...."
She took my shifting the subject for agreement. "Good," she said.
"A deal then. You'll find out for yourself how strange a woman's
clothes can be and yet how ordinary. How easy it is to get used to
anything. At least to wearing a bra."
And she turned away, conversation completed. Her next concern was
her dress. She studied it critically, held it up against her, and
finally approved what the mirror showed her. It was tissue faille,
I'd read that term just this past week in one of her magazines --
it flowed, with a clinging bodice above the full draped skirt, and
there were pale yellow threads in the fabric that matched the
yellow scarf. Its so-called neckline was designed to circle her
breasts, only just barely, with a brief dip between them. A
"princess" neckline, I'd learned it was called. And its shoulder
straps were scarcely wider than her bra straps. She slipped the
dress over her head and it rustled into place, then she immediately
adjusted it to cover her bra completely. Decorum now achieved.
"Next time I wear this, maybe I should leave the bra straps visible
to show I'm still with it with youthful fashions?" she mused aloud
to herself. "Or else wear a strapless bra?"
She looked up at me. "Are you planning to leave your own bra
straps visible, Taylor? You may be a little past the right age for
that kind of self-declaration. People will accuse you of trying to
imitate performers like Gwen Stefani or Madonna. Anyhow, you can't
imitate them without lots of make-up!"
"All right," I said. "Enough, Marsha. Would you kindly unclip
this brassiere, the catch behind me, now? I can't reach it."
She looked at me triumphantly, chin high, mouth a bit smug. "No."
And again, more firmly, in a higher register, "No!" You want to
know how it feels to wear a bra, wear that one till bedtime. Then
you'll know. And that's that. I have spoken."
She really had thought I was mocking her in some way, I suppose.
I knew from occasional past experience that objecting or groveling
at this stage, once Her Mind Is Made Up, would only harden her
determination to make too much of what had been after all only a
casual, really a trivial remark. Incautious too, given that I'd
already tried on her bras secretly now and then. Who was I
kidding? Lately, often.
So I decided that wearing her bra till bedtime was something I'd do
as if it were in fact trivial, nothing. Continue to hide from her
how wearing any women's clothing was for me an act of fabulous
erotic self-re-creation. It made me a woman. It turned me on. As
she advised, I'd just do it, wear the bra and seem to forget it was
on me. Ride it out. She got like this now and then.
"I guess I can consider this thing an undershirt, kind of," I said,
trying to take her edict in stride. "So I won't wear a proper
undershirt tonight, it'd get too bulky. But I will need a striped
dress shirt to hide whatever of this ... brassiere shows through
the broadcloth."
She reared back and let her jaw open ever so slightly, as if
turning pale with horror -- it wasn't possible to see paleness on
her face of course, not under her make-up. Her foundation and
powder and blush and so on all contributed to the impression I'd
had of Marsha from the beginning, that she was not only unflappable
but ... perfect. That I was incredibly lucky to have won her
affection. Her love. That despite her tendency to overdramatize
everything, like right now, and despite her broody moods that could
make even a weather report seem to her a personal rebuke, I loved
her. I just did. She was smart, venturesome, funny, sweet, and
... well, beautiful. And she loved me. She was mine. We'd been
married for three years now. Wonderful years.
I should have told her of my ... self-pleasing habit earlier. But
she'd found out anyhow, and it was an enormous relief that it
didn't seem to matter to her. I felt grateful.
"Stripes? You'd wear a striped shirt with a checked sport jacket?"
she was saying. "With those pants you just put on a moment ago?
And you expect me to be seen with you? No, wear a plain white
dress shirt, and a plain dark-toned tie to go with it. I'll be
downstairs, I'd better call Pam to tell her we're running a little
late."
"Why bother? We're her only guests tonight. You said it's just an
informal look-see dinner and get together because we haven't seen
each other for a while. I'll only be another minute."
But she was gone. I took out a plain white dress shirt and slipped
it on. As I started buttoning it I saw the lacy pattern of the bra
cups underneath, a shadow visible through the material that hinted
an unseen presence I'd just as soon leave unseen. I looked through
my drawer for the pleated white shirt from my tux -- doubled layers
of fabric would hide this thing I'd been somehow trapped into
wearing. No, I remembered, it was off at the cleaners being
washed, starched, and pressed, as befits shirts intended anyhow for
only black tie occasions. Which this wasn't.
Oh well, I decided. No worries. My jacket and tie will cover it.
I checked carefully after everything was tied and buttoned and in
place. I was right, nothing visible.
I couldn't tell when I arrived downstairs whether Marsha's eyes
loitered on my chest or not. "I prefer your jacket unbuttoned,"
she said reflexively, as I'd expected when I first buttoned it up.
She always did. This time it didn't seem to matter to her,
however. "Pam tells me she was just promoted," she commented as we
headed out the door. "A fabulous new position."
It was late afternoon in late Spring, balmy, no chill in the air at
all, no real need for Marsha to carry her ... pashmina, if that's
what she called it? I suppose she'd really taken it as a fashion
accessory, to drape it gracefully around her shoulders and arms and
so seem -- well, statuesque. Classical. As she was. But then,
well, Marsha's classical even when she's naked in the shower.
Maybe especially then. I sighed.
"She's now in charge of the whole Northeast," she continued. "Not
just this region. So she'll have to do a lot of travelling for a
while. For months and months. No more tending to business from
her home or the downtown home office, the way you do your work.
Andy's going to be coming home to an empty house most of next
month, and the month following, until she can get a grip on her
problems out there and solve them. She hopes we'll fill in for her
with him, have him to dinner often, include him when we're
entertaining other people and so on, so he won't feel lonely."
I wasn't too pleased to hear that. Andy wasn't the most favorite
of my friends. Pam was Marsha's, they'd been close since college.
Andy and I got along on each others' sufferance, mainly because the
girls got on. He had nothing against me, made all sorts of
overtures for us to get together on our own in fact, but -- call it
jealousy on my part, maybe envy too -- he was a little too ...
well, handsome in a boyish way, athletic, successful, a guy who had
it all and long ago decided he was entitled to it all. The kind of
hunk who seems to rebuke the rest of us just by existing, brim full
of self-confidence, most of it justified. Well OK, I was being
unfair. He was a decent enough guy. It wasn't his fault that
everyone who knows him admires him and he concurs.
I started the car. I'd forgotten the bra, but when I lifted my
arms to the steering wheel I was again conscious of the elastic
clamped to my chest and the tug on one of my shoulders. I was
determined to pay no attention to either sensation. Marsha had
assured me that in another few hours there'd be none. I could
wait.
"Remember to congratulate her," my jewel of a wife said, staring
straight ahead as I backed down the driveway. "She's wanted this
promotion for a long time."
"Sure," I said. "I guess I'll need to congratulate Andy too, for
the improvement he'll notice in his cuisine if we're supposed to
feed him now and then." An attempt at a compliment to Marsha. Not
that Pam was a bad cook, but Marsha, among her many perfections,
was a great cook.
She didn't hear it. "Oh, I won't have time to prepare meals for
the three of us more often than a few times a week tops, while
Pam's away. We'll eat out together a lot more often than that, I
suspect. Most other days. Pam wants us to stay close to him while
she's away, so she can feel assured he's in good hands. Or anyhow
that he's not roaming into other hands. Lots of women around town
would love to catch him on the fly."
"I see," was all I could say. To remove him from temptation and
keep him virtuous, that was what Pam wanted us to do for her.
Suddenly Andy was a member of our family by default, and all
because Marsha and Pam felt close. "I see," I said again.
No, I didn't see. Not at all. He'd be around all the time. What
would he be to me, a brother I never had? No, you feel close to
brothers despite all the crap that brothers dump on each other
while they're growing up. A friend? I could fake that up -- we
had to. I was sure it would be an equal and opposite strain on him
to do the same thing -- if I disliked him because I envied him, he
knew it and he thought that much less of me for it. I even thought
that much less of me for it. I was equally sure we'd respect
neither ourselves nor each other for even attempting close
friendship. We'd act like brothers only because we'd feel a sense
of mutual obligation to pretend to care for each other. That's not
good enough.
I drove. Pam and Andy live about twenty minutes away, in a quite
luxurious house. Marsha has a modest inheritance we think of as
insurance against disasters that never happen, and we both earn
good salaries and live comfortably, but not like Pam and Andy.
Andy's family left him some large investments, and they spent the
investment income as it came in along with whatever the income from
the nominal work he performed.
Pam did responsible work much like mine, analyzing sales patterns
and recommending strategies to take advantage of them. She could
be willful and manipulative, and her earnings reflected that --
they were far greater than mine even though we did similar things
in the same sales markets. I supposed it was because the women's
products she oversaw carried higher profit margins than the
varieties of home products I supervised. But for whatever the
reasons, they lived very well indeed, and they were accustomed to
getting their way in everything. They had an open, easy attitude
toward everyone, the way privileged people often do. Noblesse
oblige I suppose. They often indulged themselves in ways we didn't
approve, but no matter -- we were more or less friends.
"Well, coming right along, aren't we dear?" Pam greeted me at the
door. Odd way to put it, whatever she was putting, I thought as I
stepped aside to let Marsha enter first. "Go right ahead," she
told Marsha. "Andy's fixing us all drinks."
She stood in my way so I couldn't follow. Obviously she wanted to
say something to me in confidence. But I had no confidences from
Marsha. Well, maybe she had something to ask me about Andy. Or
about our work, looking at sales figures and telling sales
personnel what we saw -- we'd discussed different analytic
procedures a few times.
I watched Marsha proceed down their hall, turn right, and disappear
into their living room.
"What you're doing, I think it's marvelous!" Pam said. "And I want
you to know right now you have my full support. Both of us are
simply delighted. Andy too!"
"Support for what?" I asked, somewhat bewildered. "Doing what? I
mean, you're the one with the new job and the new challenges and
all that."
"Nothing compared to the challenges you're facing, honey," she
replied, seizing my arm with hers and hugging it tight while
walking me down the hallway where Marsha'd just gone. Her grip was
a little too intimate, I thought. A little too much the way she'd
grasp Marsha's arm sometimes when they were strolling ahead of me
and Andy at the Mall, dishing privacies like schoolgirls.
"You mean the challenge of coping with Andy while you're away? Oh,
congratulations, incidentally, Pam. That's great news, your
promotion!"
"That's part of it. He can be difficult at times, but you'll find
he's a doll, mostly. And worth whatever effort you may want to
bring to satisfying ... no, I mean ...," and she waved her hand
vaguely, "well, I mean everything! There's so much happening
that'll be new to you."
I had no idea what she was talking about. She'd started drinking
before we arrived?
When we arrived in her living room I saw Marsha standing next to
Andy and sipping a drink. Andy immediately held another one out to
me. Bourbon on the rocks, he knew what I liked, the glass heaped
high. Pam let go my arm so I could reach for it. I wondered if
Andy had seen how she'd been hugging me and was himself wondering
whether we had a thing going. He didn't seem the least bit
troubled. Rather the contrary, he was flashing his most
ingratiating smile at me.
"Taylor, old buddy!" he was saying. "No, I can't call you that any
longer, can I, you're jumping ship I hear. What'll it be?"
"My drink's still bourbon, Andy," I said. " And that looks just
like it." I couldn't quite figure what he'd just said or meant.
"Here, this one for old time's sake and then we'll drink a few more
to the future."
I glanced at Marsha to see if she thought his remark as peculiar as
I did -- she didn't, so I decided to let it go.
Andy hadn't backed away. "'Taylor' is a name that swings both
ways, same as I do," he said. "So that much won't change, anyhow!"
He grinned.
What in the world was he talking about? I looked again at Marsha
and she only smiled at me reassuringly. "I'll go check the roast,"
Pam said behind me. She apparently didn't find this conversation
weird either.
"'Taylor' swings both ways?" I asked vaguely. After Marsha's
earlier misreading of my earlier innocent remark, I wasn't going to
introduce or ratify any new ideas into any discussion. "You mean
women use that name these days as well as men? There's a lot of
that going around lately -- 'Kelly,' 'Stacey,' and so on Not as
many men using women's names though. Maybe old British androgynous
names like 'Evelyn' and 'Leslie.'"
But Andy was riding a riff, talking away. "Women find guys who
swing both ways fascinating. As if it gave us a special
understanding of them. They think that if a man likes the same
thing they like, namely men, then we have a special ... sympathy
with each other. They aren't wrong. I happen to like what they
like, but they're also what I like. Before my marriage, when women
found out I had their taste in men for some things, they'd relax
with me, and then I could make out with them like a bandit. As if
that made me a lesbian. Well, what could be better, a man who's as
safe as all the gay men they've ever known, has even slept with
some of them, a friend who's unthreatening and all that, and yet is
also a man who can bring them into steady-state orgasm and then
keep them there till dawn? We bisexuals are ladies' men and men's
men too." He winked. "We've got the best of both worlds."
Well! I was thinking. So Andy, God's gift to women, is bisexual,
I think that's what he was boasting. There's news! Leave it to
him to want it all and have it all and make poetry out of it.
Marsha sounded slightly annoyed. "Andy," she said. "Taylor is a
one lady ladies' man and I'm the lady."
How did I get involved anyhow? "Andy," I told him simply. "I
don't remember wanting to know any of this."
He grinned at me almost invitingly. Then suddenly he turned to
Marsha and said, "I love your hair." Was that a genteel compliment
or was he coming on to her? I was about to break in and say
something, anything, to remind him that Marsha's husband was in the
immediate vicinity, when he added , "Do you think you'll want
Taylor's done that way?"
What way? So it falls the way it should just by shaking your head?
He was joking with her, right? The idea did seem to amuse her.
"You think this is attractive, do you?" she asked, moving her head
as if to call even closer attention to the way her hair flowed as
it moved. She grinned to herself, then to me with a kind of "play
along" flash of her eyes. Then she answered him quite soberly, as
if she were humoring a drunk, "No, Taylor's face has a different
shape, and it'd be a year anyhow before his hair grew as long as
mine. He looks cute enough the way it is. But I'll let him and
his hairdresser decide."
My hairdresser? Did she mean Tony, my barber? Who triples his
income from me by doubling as my bookie? A year ago Marsha'd asked
me to let my hair grow to below my ears in an early Beatles style,
and Tony'd trimmed it lightly ever since. So it was well below my
ears at the moment. Marsha was delighted. "Sweet, just lovely,"
was what she called it every time I returned from Tony's, freshly
shorn but only just barely, adding, "I love it!" So would I ever
want it any shorter?
Our conversation shifted to Pam's new job and its demands. She'd
be away often for two weeks at a time, then back for only a few
days before heading out again. "I represent the head office so I
need to impress everyone. So I'll be staying at the best hotels,
and I've got a budget for the best clothing imaginable," she
commented as she returned from the kitchen and was pleased to find
herself the subject of conversation. She made a mock apologetic
dip and curtsy. "Designer everything! The firm wants me to travel
ultra-high class in order to intimidate troublemakers and if
necessary kick ass with my Blahniks, let them know they are nowhere
near my league. And meanwhile inspire others to imagine they too
can look like me and some day maybe walk in my shoes."
"You mean get the most capable and ambitious men in your branch
offices to envy the way you look when you're dressed up in your
Halstons and Balenciagas and Manolos?" Marsha asked, with a longer
glance at me than seemed comfortable. "That's interesting."
"Well, no. There aren't any men in our branch offices, not any
more. We found several years ago that for selling our products
women are far more effective than men, even over the phone.
Because we sell almost exclusively to other women, to women
wholesalers, women buyers for stores, individual women purchasers,
and so on. And women ... well, women relate differently to each
other. So what I oversee now is an all-female sales staff."
"You fired the men? Isn't that sex discrimination? What happened
to them?" I asked.
"Oh we tried to keep all of them -- they had years of invaluable
experience with the company, they're irreplaceable. Many
transferred to acquisitions, or manufacturing, or distribution, one
of the units where men deal with other men and do well. But if any
wanted to stay in sales, they had to ... well, 'convert' is the
word we used. If they agreed to convert they were paid full
salaries for the six months it took, and they preserved their
benefits and retirement packages, and in addition they received
generous allotments to help them ... adjust. Almost all the men
who converted are still with us and doing very well indeed. It
turned out to be money well-spent!"
"'Converted?'" I asked. "To what?"
Pam looked at me so affectionately that I became uneasy. Was she
coming on to me? Not in her husband's and her best friend's
presence surely! "Oh, sweetheart, surely you know. They became
women! They got their bodies and faces adjusted both hormonally
and surgically, and meanwhile they learned how to live the life.
Those who were qualified were given six months of pampering at full
pay as their incentive to learn how women think and feel and
behave, and when they emerged they were -- well, most of them are
now more attractive and effective than the women who were born that
way. They've all stayed with us, and overall they've turned in
much better sales records. Of course a lot of them may felt
attracted to ... femininity to begin with -- after all, not many
roughy and tumble guys choose to spend their lives selling women's
products to women. So the cards could have been stacked.
"What about the men who were married?" I asked her. "What did
their wives think of these ... conversions?" I gave Marsha the
kind of meaningful glance she'd been giving me. To show her I
cared about how wives feel about things. To imply in that glance
that my failure to tell her about my ... transvestic experiments
was more out of respect for her than because I lacked faith in her.
She smiled at me appreciatively. She understood, her smile told
me. That's why she'd never forced the issue, it said.
We had such perfect rapport. I loved her!
"Oh, the wives had to approve one hundred percent. We regarded
them as invaluable collaborators. Many more than you'd think were
tickled by the idea when we told them we wanted to turn their men
into women, and most agreed wholeheartedly -- it was a kind of
liberation for them, one of them told me. They went to the
Conversion Spa along with their husbands and lived with them as
roommates, and they were pampered along with them. So they were
always available to help their men -- their former men -- through
the more difficult parts of the transition."
"That's just fine!" Marsha said. "Good for them!"
My wife approved wifely loyalty with all her heart! I was proud of
her.
"Not every man easily achieved the degree of femininity we
required, and some even found it demoralizing to ... well, to be
girly in the presence of their wives. To be 'flouncy' was their
term for overdoing it. But they knew it was a requirement, and in
most instances the wives and their former husbands finished the
program perfectly attuned to each other and well-adjusted to their
new relationship, nor really married couples any more but instead,
intimate girlfriends. A few wives chose not to stay with their
husbands at that stage of course -- they wanted men. Some moved
out and began living with the men employed by the spa as trainers."
"Trainers?" I asked, a bit uneasy. "You mean these new ....ahhh
... new women, were trained by men? Not by other women? Why? Did
you expect them to live with ... to have sexual relationships with
... with these trainers?" At this moment Andy appeared out of
nowhere with a fresh drink and I accepted it gratefully. My third?
"Oh no. Well, in one sense yes, all of our new women were expected
to have sex with a man at least once, both oral and anal, so they'd
have at least that much first hand experience of men and be able to
joke comfortably with other women about it. About the peculiar
ways guys behave when they're in their throes, and so on. You
know. Girl talk."
Pam looked at me, then at Marsha, and then the two of them seemed
almost to giggle. They'd been doing some girl talking I had not
been privy to? Probably. That's what women do with each other,
after all. That's what these new women were learning.
"Some new women found that once they'd experienced sex with men
they loved it. But that wasn't required, not at all. Rather, the
reverse. We're an equal opportunity employer with a huge sales
force, all of them women, so we certainly don't discriminate
against homosexual women, against lesbians, and we would never want
to. Most of our former men did in fact finish as lesbians --
feeling altogether feminine and delighted to be women, and seeking
sex with other women who felt the same way."
"I've always felt that way," I said. That didn't sound like what
I meant.
Andy picked up on it. "You mean you've always felt feminine and
delighted to be a woman, or just that you prefer sex with women?"
he asked me, amused.
"Oh, don't tease Taylor, Andy," Pam said to him. "Why not both?"
They grinned together at me.
"Go on, Pam," Marsha said mildly, trying to save me from further
embarrassment.
"Of course. Anyhow, that's why for our converts, sex with real men
was only incidental. The trainers' main function in the program
was to help these former men overcome some of the deep-set sexual
jealousies that seem especially to afflict males. Sexual jealousy,
as I'm sure you know, can be a terrible thing. All of the converts
had to be liberated from any tendencies toward it."
Pam looked at Andy with a certain steadiness while Andy carefully
looked elsewhere. I wondered what that might signify. I'd heard
once that they had an open marriage, but Marsha had assured me that
wasn't the case at all. "No," she'd told me. "Pam insists on
Andy's absolute fidelity despite his obvious attractiveness. It
isn't easy for her. There always have to be compromises."
"How can male trainers do that?" I asked. "By setting the former
men an example and never being jealous of each other?" It sounded
silly.
"Without fail, every Saturday night during the entire six months of
the conversion, the wives would leave their husbands, their former
husbands, and go on dates with trainers. As you can imagine, the
trainers were all men who were very male indeed, the kinds of men
most women find enormously attractive, bigger and better and more
dedicated to pleasing women in every way, if you know what I mean,
and hired for those very attributes. The wives quickly realized
that their former husbands were no competition at all and soon lost
interest in them sexually.
"That doesn't sound so good," I said aloud to no one in particular.
"It had two good effects. One was, many former husbands learned to
seek consolation from each other, each thinking of the other as an
abandoned or betrayed woman and each therefore responding
sympathetically. Much of the consolation was sexual, woman to
woman, as it were. The kind of intimate consolation women offer
each other when their men lose interest in them. This worked out
well."
"There are advantages to woman on woman sex," Marsha commented.
"In college I went to bed with women occasionally. For some of the
things we did there was no comparison with what men do!"
She'd told me that early in our relationship, so it didn't shock
me. But that she found women superior at "some of the things we
did" disturbed me a little.
Pam smiled at Marsha and then continued. "Then each Sunday morning
their wives would come home from their dates and slip into bed with
their increasingly womanly men and tell them everything that had
happened. Everything. It was difficult for many of the men at
first. As you can imagine, there was much weeping and roiling of
temper, and much furious pounding on walls. Even though they were
in training to become women, the men felt humiliated by their
wives' sexual exploits. You know men. But by the end of the six
month period they were both giggling and exulting together as a
former husband debriefed his former wife about her night out. The
former husbands ended up delighted by their wives' escapades, quite
pleased about the whole thing. That's when a few more new women
would go off with a trainer to see for themselves what it all the
fuss was about, what it could be like. Then there was more
giggling as they informed their wives."
"Here, Taylor. You look as though you could use this." Now Andy
was offering me yet another refill. I saw I'd drained the glass
he'd just given me -- how could that have happened?
I glanced at Marsha -- she usually kept count so I wouldn't come
home utterly wasted and she wouldn't have to deal with my hideous
hangovers and my endless remorseful declarations the next day. But
Marsha only cocked her head and shrugged. I took the fresh glass
and sipped it and set it down. Best go slow. I was already
crocked, I could tell.
"So you regard every member of your sales force to be like soldiers
in Napoleon's army?" Andy asked Pam. "'Every soldier carries a
Marshall's baton in his knapsack' was what Napoleon said. Any of
your salespeople can aspire to be you some day, if she's good
enough, and wear superb designer clothes at company expense, and
stay in five star luxe hotels whenever they travel?"
"That's the idea, honey. Of course I'm not the celebrity socialite
I seem to be when I descend on each district sales staff in turn.
But they don't know that. Most of us aren't what we seem to be.
It takes courage to be what you seem." She seemed to be looking at
me significantly, asking for agreement. I nodded. She smiled. "I
think dinner's ready. Shall we adjourn to the table, and I'll
bring it out?"
I stood up and then weaved a bit, and so did the furniture, and
even when I steadied myself the furniture didn't. So I took
Marsha's elbow and walked carefully into the dining room. The
table was very nicely set indeed. Crystal wine glasses beautifully
etched. As I stood by my designated chair Andy appeared in
shirtsleeves and said, "Here, Taylor, let me take your jacket --
you'll feel a lot more comfortable." Without thinking I gave it to
him and sat down.
Then panicked! The lacy shadow and the outline of my brassiere was
now fully visible under my thin white shirt. I looked desperately
around, then to Marsha, seated quietly across from me. She looked
at me steadily and said, "That's all right, dear. Andy and Pam
have known all about you for almost as long as I have." She smiled
reassuringly at me and then unfolded her dinner napkin, her eyes
searching for the bread basket.
Known what?! What was there to know?
I tried to calm down. "Known what?" I asked as if
conversationally. Now Marsha was seeking the butter dish, which
was close by, so I handed it across to her. One of my bra straps
tugged at my shoulder as the elastic band stretched to accommodate
the strain. Again. It felt strange to be confronting old familiar
food like roast beef and mashed potatoes after a cocktail hour
spent talking about men who become women, and now to be caught out
in the open wearing a bra and feeling a strap tug on my shoulder.
Andy poured me a glass of wine and I drank it. He poured me
another and said, "Not so fast baby. This one's a rare vintage,
sip it and enjoy it." I got the hint.
"Don't you just love it?" Pam asked me as she settled herself.
"Love it ...?" I couldn't think what else to say. The wine?
"Pam noticed your bra earlier," Marsha explained as if to a sleepy
child. I suppose at that moment I was nearly helpless. "She
thinks it's just marvelous that you're so eager for your breasts to
come in that you're wearing a bra all the time now, not just
ocasionally, even though there isn't much of anything there yet."
She quietly watched Andy pour wine into her glass. "Thank you,
dear," she said to him, glancing up and smiling as he expertly
rolled the bottle away to catch the drip. "Done with your usual
finesse."
I had no finesse, not when pouring wine or in most other things,
and felt a twinge of jealousy, but I tried to keep cool. All this
talk about men becoming women, how it's a very respectable career
move, that was one thing. But to be thought one of them, that was
another thing altogether.
I realized I should say something to Marsha. "I don't ....
Breasts? You put this bra on yourself, Marsha! On me yourself, I
mean. So when I finish wearing it I won't notice it." That wasn't
quite right but I couldn't see how to fix it. "Finish..." I tried
again. No use.
"What good advice you gave her!" Pam said to Marsha. "So she'll
end up feeling naked or improper when she isn't wearing a proper
bra! Always feeling appropriately modest. That's wonderful!"
"She isn't quite ready to be called 'she' just yet," Marsha told
Pam. "I mean 'he' isn't ready." She said 'he' as if it was a
courtesy title she disbelieved in herself. As if the 'he' who was
me was a she who had to be humored.
"It isn't mine!" I announced. No help. That didn't engage the
conversation either.
But Marsha understood what I'd said. "It is now, sweetie," Marsha
told me gently. Then explained to Pam, "The bra. After I gave it
to her she made no attempt to unhook it, not once. He didn't, I
mean. Because he claimed he couldn't reach it. That's partly true
-- you know how much more supple women's joints need to be than
men's. Men expect us to wrap ourselves around them as if we were
soft and boneless except for that bone they're always trying to
push into us." The two women smiled at each other. Then to me
again, "Comfy now, honey?"
"Marsha!" All this talk mixed with too much drink had addled me.
I didn't know where to begin. The platter of roast beef came her
way and she took a slice, then handed it on to me. I handed the
mashed potatoes on to Pam.
"You were so sweet about it, honey. You looked so proud! I
remember my own first training bra -- it was the cutest thing, like
two satin powder puffs on ribbons. But yours is the kind they make
for big girls." She turned her head to address the others. "I
promised Taylor that tomorrow we'll get her fitted with exactly her
own size."
I was speechless. I stared from one face to the next. Pam was
beaming at me, delighted to have one more opportunity to
demonstrate her full approval of all men who wear women's clothes.
Andy was looking at me in a wry, kindly way, as if to grant that we
all have our secret desires, and if to be a woman happens to be one
of mine, well there's no shame at all attached to it. It's no big
deal. Marsha merely looked earnest. "I offered to help him with
his make-up too but he refused,"
she added.
"He's wearing makeup this time?" Pam asked. "It's very subtle, I
can't see it!"
"No, tonight he decided not to. Wearing an actual bra after years
of watching me, I guess envying me, that may have made him feel
that enough's enough for one night. I think despite his desire to
live as if a woman he also feels a certain ambivalence about giving
up his manhood. It's a feeling of 'Look, I'm a woman, except when
I'm not!'"
I couldn't deal with this. I sliced my meat and took a fork full
and a swallow of wine and tried to organize words fit to respond to
this curious misreading of ... whatever. "Marsha," I said aloud.
"Maybe could I speak ... priv ... pri ...!" I couldn't say the
word.
"Honey," she said in the kindest, tenderest voice imaginable.
"Probably you've said enough. If you're embarrassed, don't be. We
all love you and we all want whatever you want. Just sit quiet
knowing that you have no secrets our dearest friends don't already
know."
For a short while we all sat eating in silence. I tried to sober
up by filling my belly.
"Been wearing Marsha's bras and dresses for some time, I
understand?" Andy offered as a conversational gambit.
Pam leaped to cover his crassness. "It's funny," Pam said. "I'd
forgotten, but all this talk about effeminate men has brought it
back. I once tried to get Andy interested in sleeping in a
nightgown. I thought it would be fun to dress a man to look like
a woman, to get him off his male high horse and into the real world
women live in. But no go. He didn't want it and it did nothing
for him anyhow. That nightgown's yours now if you want it,
Taylor."
All three of them waited for a response. I said nothing. Andy
looked at Pam, then back again at me. "Pam, Taylor's about your
size," he said. "Exactly your size, I bet not more than a few
pounds off. Even your shoe size I bet. I remember from once when
we got our running shoes mixed up, he's got a small shoe size for
a man, what is it again Tay?"
This I could handle. They'd changed the topic at last. "Seven,"
I said. My wine glass was empty. Andy saw and refilled it. I
sipped triumphantly, having at last participated in the
conversation.
"And you, Pam" he asked her.
"I try for eight, eight and a half, but settle for nine."
"Same thing as a men's seven, an easy fit. And you have a closet
full of clothes you'll never wear again what with all those
designer shoes and clothes that have been pouring in since your
promotion, and all the fittings you've gone to for more. I think
we've found someone who'd love to have them!"
"Would you make use of them?" Pam asked me.
"Marsha would know how," I replied. That sounded about right. I
was beginning to get incredibly sleepy. "Maybe I should seeee." I
tried again. 'Sleep" was what I meant to say. But my eyes were
closed.
I then heard only fragments of conversations. Pam's voice mostly.
"Take the poor dear to our bedroom, she can walk I think, just down
the hall." "Why not, her eyes may be shut but while she's there we
can easily check whether they'll fit her." "Look how these panties
are a perfect match for that bra!" "No, not a ball gown for
goodness sake, Andy, this is a dinner party, bring me a dinner
dress." "Oh, beautiful!" Dozing, I felt myself slowly cocooned in
layers of soft, slippery smooth clothes, tugging me gently here and
there, much more comfortable than my shirts and suits and ties.
"Lovely!" Pam's voice said. "She was born for this."
Then after a blank space -- maybe I dozed, I heard, "Electrolysis
takes time, but I'd start it anyhow, as soon as possible, tomorrow.
But wax her immediately, Marsha." "Open your eyes a moment honey."
I did. "See, that shade is perfect for his coloring, and the
mascara emphasizes it!" I closed them. "Oh, my goodness what a
gorgeous woman she'll be when her breasts come in! I'm so
jealous!" "Of course she can take all of these home, the wig too,
I have so many others! Andy'll bring the rest when he comes to
your place for dinner next week after taking me to the airport.
They'll pretty much fill the car."
Marsha's voice. "You shouldn't!" "Well, anything he won't wear I
certainly will. Your things are so gorgeous, Pam!" "Just look at
him now with that blonde wig! It lights up her face! We'll keep
him that way." "Yes, he's the sweetest doll. And never objected
even once! I really do love him to pieces!" "I mean, I love her
to pieces, just look how beautiful she is!" "Yes, I've often
wanted to see if pancake makeup would cover her beard -- till we
get rid of it -- and yet also put a glow in her cheeks!" "Yes,
let's let her sleep now and go back to the living room and talk
some more about this. It's your appointment to make, you say? And
you think Taylor's perfect for it?"
Blissful silence. I think I slept.
Then Andy's voice. "Not yet awake, Taylor? It's been hours! They
sent me back here to see if you were stirring. I see you are, a
little" "Have you any idea how sexy you look in that getup? How
provocative? Oh, God, they should never have put you into those
stockings, honey, you have such great legs." I felt someone pull
something down off my bottom. "Oh Taylor, Taylor, never ever cover
that round ass with panties, even panties as pretty as these. Can
you lift it just a little more?" I tried to get to my knees but
now he was sort of pressing down on my rump with his stomach.
"Yes, yes, that's it, a little higher you darling, perfect, now
I'll go slow!"
His hands clutched my breasts through the blouse and the bra and
his fingers danced on my nipples, and a delicious dancing feeling
crept into them, and into my crotch. Then a warm thick rod pressed
on my anus, invaded my rear, and slowly slid inside. I relaxed my
butt around it. It became my possession. "Oh, God, tight, tight,
yes you lovely girl, oh paradise, you feel it too now don't you,
don't you?" He was sliding in and out and in and out of me and a
strange yearning began to grow in me, the fullness, completeness
each time growing stronger until my whole middle seemed to glow
with pleasure, heavenly, grand! Brighter and brighter. I felt
fully alive, radiant! I wanted to embrace that staff of life so
tightly it would grow into me!
"Oh yes you feel it too, you're pushing back at me now, you do feel
it, more, more, oh, oh, oh, you darling, I'm cumming, can you feel
me throbbing in that tight ass of yours, you can, can't you? oh,
oh God!"
Oh, yes! I could feel him throbbing! What delicious joy! Oh,
sweet! Oh, happy! Happy! Happy! My pelvis contracted and held me
tense in paralyzed bliss as that joy mounted. Then as it peaked my
own ass went into spasm too, repeatedly squeezing him and milking him,
because I also was cumming. On Pam's sheets. It was staggering!
We writhed together a bit longer, it was so delicious, and then lay
still and tried to catch our breaths. It felt so good I wriggled
some more on his softening cock, and smiled over my shoulder at
him. Finally Andy pulled out. There was a pause as the bed moved,
Andy getting off?
"What a sweet ass! What a marvelous tight cunny! Here, use this
tampon of Pam's, babe, you're gaping and leaking and we don't want
to ruin your dress. Never mind the wet place on the sheets, I'll
take care of it later." "There, now let's just see if we can stand
you up, the girls want to see you and it's time to get you home."
"There, all neat again. Except for the tampon and your flushed
face no one would ever know we were being so naughty just now."
"Open your eyes now, and walk, I'll hold you just in case. Come
on, sweetheart, the girls are waiting. Hold me around my waist,
there's nothing to be ashamed of, you're a woman like them now and
I'm your boyfriend, sort of, that's all. You belong to the
sisterhood now." He hugged me close and we started walking. I
felt so secure while he held me. I also saw I was wearing the most
beautiful purple silk dress, and purple heels to match. And long
earrings of some sort, something was swinging from my lobes almost
to my bare shoulders.
Pam greeted us as we re-entered the living room. "Oh, there you
two are at last. Taylor, don't you look lovely!" she said. "Had
a nice nap? Even more than before I bet that now ... well, you
know, after the first there's no going back, there wasn't for any
of us! Was it everything you've ever wondered it might be? We all
hoped ... oh, I see by your smile that it was -- I'm so glad. We
never do forget our first, so our first ought always to be ...
well, fantastic. And now you know, you're like the rest of us and
can look forward to many more such adventures. We'll get you home
soon, and leave you to dream some more about ... well, I suppose
tonight it'll be about men, won't it."
Marsha took my shoulder gently and set me down in a big armchair.
"Welcome, to your new world, honey," she whispered to me. "It's
our new world. You're going to love it so much, I promise you!
Oh, you look so content now, so serene, its as if years of worry
had simply lifted away, evaporated. You can't imagine how happy
that makes me. Just sit and rest, honey, while we finish talking.
We're almost done."
She then turned back to Pam. "So when is it you leave on your
first trip?"
"This Tuesday. Only three days from now. It's a short one, only
till the weekend. I'll be home before I'm even missed."
"Still," Marsha said. "Andy's sure to notice that you aren't home.
Andy, will you want to have dinner with us Tuesday night, that'll
be your first night of enforced bachelorhood? Maybe also sleep
over? We'd be happy to have you."
"That may be," Andy said. "Thank you for asking. I do, but it
depends, I don't want to intrude.
"Oh, I wouldn't mind at all, now that everything can be out and
open and above board. I want no more secrets kept from Taylor.
Let's just ask her. Sweetheart, when Andy stays with us for a few
days while Pam's away, would you like him to intrude on you again?
He can teach you so much more about being a woman and loving it.
You don't know yet about how a man stroking her bare breast can
reduce a woman to jelly, for example, or even how a man's fingers
feel different from a woman's. Nor about a woman's reversed world,
about waking up feeling soft and smooth and yielding and then being
squeezed and invaded by something hard and hairy and bony, and yet
somehow it feels good and we love it regardless. Would you like to
know those things?"
I couldn't answer. She had this in mind for me? I nodded.
"Then you'll stay with us while Pam's away," Marsha said to Andy.
"We both insist."
"Speaking of breasts, how will she fill that bra, Marsha?" Pam
asked. "Has she started hormone therapy yet? At the Conversion
Spa they use very high test stuff that completely reshapes
everything in way less than the six months they've got. They can
give any man a waist and hip line to die for, even apart from boobs
proportional to his shoulders, and skin so soft that any man who
lies down on it naked will imagine he's melting into it. Of course
even birth control pills do the job adequately if you're willing to
wait."
"We can wait," Marsha replied. "We have a lifetime to wait. But
I do want her committed irreversibly to her new life as soon as
possible -- she rethinks the past too much when she should instead
be anticipating the future. Above all I want her to enjoy her new
body as soon as possible. I looked into implants a while ago, but
they don't do right by a girl's nipple structure, and sometimes
they reduce sensitivity. So if you can get me some of whatever it
is the Conversion Spa uses, I'll appreciate it. Both of us will."
"I'll call you first thing tomorrow to confirm everything we've
talked about. Now, has Andy carried out to your car the clothes
Taylor'll need for the next few days? Yes? Good. Now what should
we do with Taylor's suit and shoes and so on, the things she wore
when she came here. They're still upstairs."
"She won't need them any more. I don't want my darling to go back
ever. Give them away. I'll have Taylor do the same with his
clothes at home when we get there."
There was very little for us to say as we drove home. I just sat
there demurely, feeling the new sensations created by my new
clothing, even the slippery yet rigid feel of my new shoes whenever
I wriggled my toes. Marsha looked over at me with a satisfied
smile as she turned onto our street. When she pulled into the
garage and turned off the motor, she leaned over and gave me a
gentle peck on the cheek. "I love you, sweetheart," she said
quietly. "Men may be men, but I've always loved the woman in you."
"I love you too," I replied, meaning it sincerely. But I felt very
different from hours and hours ago, when we'd left the house. We
went upstairs without a word, and as she undid her dress and pulled
it over her head, I did the same with mine. Then my chemise -- she
wasn't wearing one. And there again was my bra, the same as
before. I'd forgotten all about it. After leaving the dinner
table, I'd ceased noticing I was wearing one. Not even when Andy
was fucking me. Marsha was so right about that. It felt natural
now, like my skin.
"Help me take this bra off now please?" I asked Marsha simply. I'd
done everything I'd promised her earlier tonight. And then some.
She'd already reached back and unhooked her own.
She shook her head but smiled encouragingly. "No, not yet. First,
practice trying to unhook it, honey. For five minutes. Those
joints need to stretch so you can reach back there and fasten bras
up easily yourself. Especially when your breasts come in and need
to be caught in their cups each time you put one on."
I tried. Nothing. Not even close. "It won't happen, Marsha."
"Oh, it will. Just try for five minutes each night, and then I'll
help you if you wish. Within a month your bras will be flying off
you -- you'll see. You need to become more supple in your hip
joints, too. You have no idea how pliable a girl needs to be to
extend her legs and then wrap them around a man's waist when he's
humping you and you're humping back as good as you get and you're
already out of your mind and riding his body like a stallion's."
I couldn't quarrel with her about that, not after earlier tonight.
I was too sleepy. But her words reminded me how I'd thrust back
repeatedly as Andy's prick entered and re-entered me, like a rabid
animal. She was also telling me that one day I'd be facing the man
who's fucking me, pulling him into me with my legs.
Yes, of course. That's what women do. Women do that. And I'd
committed myself to do that again this Tuesday night with Andy? A
tremor of fear but also a glow of eager anticipation rose up inside
me. Was he that good, Andy? I guess he was!
"All right, time's up. Now you can take the bra off your usual
way. Don't pretend you don't know how, sweetheart. We both know
you've been wearing my bras, and Angelina Summers told me long ago
that you used to 'borrow' hers when you studied together in grad
school. And I know you've worn the ones I bought specially for
you. Let me remind you how. You put them on and take them off the
way people with flat chests always do. You slip the straps off
your arms, then turn the band till the cups are behind you, then
unhook it in front. To put it on, the reverse."
I should have realized it! I'd done it a hundred times! A
thousand! If I'd remembered earlier when we were getting ready to
go out ...?
"Why didn't I think of that?!" I asked her, amazed.
"Honey, listen very seriously to the answer to that question.
Because at that moment, with me watching you and approving, way
down deep as far as our desires can reach, you didn't want to take
it off! You wanted to wear it for the rest of the night. You
wanted to be a woman with me for the rest of the night. The same
when your bra was exposed at the dinner table -- you could have
kept your jacket, or reclaimed it, or stood and excused yourself,
or covered your embarrassment with anger. You could have done any
number of things. What would any woman do if someone tore off her
blouse at a dinner party and left her sitting with her bra exposed
to everyone? As yours was. At the very least she'd have shrieked
and covered herself and run out of the room. There are lots of
things girls do to rescue their modesty! And yet you didn't try
even one of them -- you abandoned every pretence of manliness.
You didn't want to. You wanted to announce your femininity despite
yourself."
I'm afraid what she was saying was true. I'd somehow "blocked" out
all memory of what I should do and how to do it. Astonishing!
"The same with everything that happened upstairs in Pam and Andy's
bedroom, whether you were passed out or not. A girl can shriek, or
cry, or scratch, if a man is molests her against her will. You had
consciousness enough, but you didn't want Andy to stop. You wanted
more, and he gave you more. So just let this one thought sit for
a while, and get used to it. You didn't want to pretend to be a
man any longer."
Was she right? Humiliating as some of it had been, I'd also felt
... vindicated. Free at last! There'd been a secret excitement to
everything that had unfolded this evening. An unaccustomed relief
that at last I could be myself.
My shoes, bra, panties, stockings, and garter belt removed, finally
naked, I visited the bathroom before slipping into my pajamas.
"Don't forget to take out your tampon, honey," Marsha called out to
me. "If you need to change it right now, mine are in the cabinet,
second drawer down. They're our tampons now. From now on take one
whenever you feel you need one. You'll know when!" I didn't want
to know whether she was grinning or not when she said that last.
Maybe.
When I returned I saw a nightgown on my pillow instead of my
pajamas. "That's the one Pam bought for Andy that he never felt
inclined to wear," Marsha informed me. "It's yours now." She
paused. "It may be a little large for you. Andy's a large man."
She paused again, and then added, "As you well know."
"It's fine, honey," I said to her, slipping it on as if I were born
to the wearing of pink nylon and lace nightgowns, then climbing
into our bed. "Don't worry, his size isn't too large. And I love
the way it fits."
"Oh, God!" Marsha suddenly rushed to lie down on top of me and to
hug me, to kiss my face repeatedly! "I've been so worried, baby!
I knew that this was the right thing for you, I just knew it,
especially when I saw how you never really resisted tonight. You
did everything I asked despite yourself. In fact I was afraid we
might be bringing you too far too fast!"
"No, not too far or too fast," I reassured her. "We have our whole
lives ahead of us. I want to thank you for everything, sweetheart.
Come, get under the covers so I can hug you close."
As she did she said, "Of course if you don't care for that kind of
nightgown, tomorrow we'll buy you whatever kinds you do like."
"It's fine," I told her as I took hold of her breast, oh, so
gently. "I love this one. It feels so soft. Can I have more than
one?"
"Two," she whispered. "Mine, and soon two of your very own."
Then, "Darling, I've never before shown you how women make love,
have I? Would you like to kiss my breasts and my clit while I kiss
yours?"
I nodded yes. We both then nodded our heads and our mouths on each
other's necks and nipples, and faces, and nodded them all around
each other's crotches for what may have been another hour.
Eventually, exhausted, we nodded off to sleep.
The phone rang while I was still asleep, but the sound along with
all the sunlight pouring into the room woke me up. Marsha took it
in the bathroom and talked for a long time while I woke up and
realized, from her tone of voice, that it was Pam again. Hadn't
those two conspirators done enough for one weekend? I was sitting
on the edge of the bed when she returned. She sat alongside me and
we talked.
"It's done. You'll take over the regional sales analyses from Pam,
at her salary. It's done, you're on the payroll, and our family
income has just taken a great leap forward. Which is just as well,
because even with you taking over Pam's wardrobe as well as her
work, we need to buy you so much! Pam will come over tomorrow to
brief you, and she'll spend the day with you in your study and give
you all the computer codes and show you all the systems and tell
you what to watch for."
I nodded. We'd chatted about our work before. I knew I could
handle hers in some ways even better than she could.
"She'll also bring you your first dose of hormones. They'll make
you feel really good, so even if you have regrets you won't want to
go back. Now is when to change your mind about all this."
I sat very still and said nothing, just continued to look
interested. I was already feeling really good. She waited.
I had to make up my mind. There was a problem here. Marsha