Dad Bod
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

Dad was successful but unhappy. We all knew that he had the capacity to be happy, it was just that he was not. I suppose that we always thought it was because he worked too hard. He had a very successful business and seemed absorbed in that.

Mom was always telling him to sell the business and retire. We backed her up. All three of us had finished college, so it seemed that it was time for Dad to live for himself.

Mom and Dad called a family meeting to discuss just that. We had heard that he had an offer to buy the business for a very healthy sum, so we were ready to hear what their plans were.

“There is only one thing that I want, now that all of you are established in your own lives,” Dad said. “I want a new body. The body I have always wanted.”

I suppose that you could say that Dad had a ‘dad-bod’. He was not large but he was flabby and not too fit, so we were wondering if he was going on a health kick.

“No, what I have always wanted was a woman’s body,” he said. “I have wanted it all my life. I told your mother years ago, but I promised her that I would be a husband and a father and raise our children. Now I am ready to be who I want to be. I can afford it and your mother is ready to support me. I just want all of you to be ready to do the same, or at least accept it.”

It was the last thing that we expected. We all looked at one another in disbelief. Somebody nodded first. I don’t think that it was me. We hardly needed to say anything, except that we loved our Dad.

Mom loved Dad too, but as we learned later, the sexual relationship had been over for some time, and from the time that stopped, their relationship had become different. It was more about the closest of friendships, mutual support and love of family. As she put it – “Mutual support means allowing your partner to live their best life.”

So, this is Mom and Dad now, showing off Dad’s new body a few years after all the surgery. That is Dad behind Mom, with the long blond hair. Mom has grown her hair too, and keeps it the same color. She says that having a wife instead of a husband requires her to keep up with her. Dad is definitely “a her” these days.

And champagne, of course. And underwear by La Perla, because they can afford it.

The End

© Maryanne Peters 2023