Emily makes up her mind about Saturday night

A Fortuitous Adventure:
or, how I got my first job

by Louise Anne Smithson

Chapter 6

A new dress

‘Wow just look at you Emily!’ said Jenny as I opened the door to her the following morning. ‘You look very pretty this morning; did you do your make up yourself or did Clare lend you a hand?’

‘It is all my own work and what's more, it only took me thirty five minutes,’ I replied, feeling quite proud of my efforts.

‘But I thought you were intending to go out shopping as Chris this morning?’

‘I am, and I'll be getting changed back in a minute, but Clare wanted me to show off my boobs to you before I took them off, so I thought I might as well practice putting on some make-up as well.’

‘Sorry, I was so impressed by looking at your face and your hair that I didn't notice below your neckline, but now I look at your breasts they're most impressive - just like the real thing. How do you manage to disguise the join?’

‘Karen stuck them on for me last night, and I have used foundation to blend the edges in with my own skin.’

‘They look just like the genuine article, you'll have all the guys peering at your cleavage if you're not careful,’ she said examining them more closely. ‘But how do they feel?’

‘They do feel a little strange, but not uncomfortable. They sometimes seem to have a life of their own, especially if I move suddenly. I can understand why girls need to wear a bra to keep them under control,’ I said smiling.

‘So now you know what it's like to have breasts, she replied. ‘Actually your new boobs are just about the ideal size, big enough to give you a nice figure, but not so big that you look top-heavy. They also seem to be stuck down quite firmly.’

‘I suspect it's going to be quite a task to get them off!’ I said.

‘In that case why don’t you leave them on for the time being and come out shopping with us just as you are? You look great and nobody will give a second thought to a girl buying some jeans and a tee shirt for her brother or her boyfriend,’ she said.

‘My thoughts exactly,’ said Clare who had just then joined us.

‘That way you won’t need to worry about keeping your long girly finger nails out of view,’ added Clare.

The same thought had occurred to me as I was putting on my makeup, but I preferred to let someone else suggest it.

‘I suppose I could go shopping as Emily this morning as I am already dressed and made up. Nobody other than you knows me in this town, and I've been able to pass successfully as a girl at work.’

‘That's true, and then you can hang on to your new breasts for work tomorrow,’ added Jenny.

‘And also perhaps keep them for when we go out with my sisters on Saturday night.’ said Clare.

‘Hold on! I’ll see how I get on today before making any decisions about tomorrow,’ I replied, ‘but I don’t think I will be wearing them to Anne’s birthday meal on Saturday. In fact I'm still not sure whether I'll be going.’

‘What's this meal on Saturday?’ asked Jenny.

‘Mum had bought tickets for everyone for the Country Club dinner dance on Saturday night, as it was going to be an opportunity to celebrate Anne’s twenty-first birthday. She'll not be able to go now because of my gran, and so has suggested that we take our young cousin along instead,’ said Clare.

‘So why won’t you be going?’ she asked me.

‘Anne wants me to go as Emily rather than as Chris, and expects me to dress up for the occasion. She and Karen have told their respective boyfriends about me and I'm not sure that I want to be regarded as a drag queen or a circus freak for the evening,’ I answered.

‘I am sure that was not their intention,’ said Clare. ‘In fact my sisters have promised you that their boyfriends will treat you with respect, or else face severe consequences.’

‘The answer is for you to go to the meal looking absolutely gorgeous just to take the wind out of their sails, as you did when you first met my mother. In fact, you should both endeavour to look so stunning that Karen and Anne start to get anxious about their boyfriends,’ said Jenny laughing. ‘If you like, I'll help you both to get yourself ready to go out on Saturday.’

‘I don’t know. I do not have anything suitable to wear except for Clare’s little black dress’ I replied.

‘Don’t worry Cinderella, I’ll lend you a long dress to go to the ball if you like,’ said Jenny laughing.

‘Actually I was thinking about Anne’s invitation in bed last night and have an alternative suggestion to make on the subject,’ said Clare.

‘What is that?’ I asked.

‘Before I say what it is, I want you to tell me honestly why you've taken so much trouble with your appearance as Emily this morning, when you knew we were both expecting to go out shopping with Chris?’

I shrugged my shoulders, and as I did so felt my breasts wobble.

‘Well since Karen went to so much trouble over fitting these boobs last night it would have been a shame to take them off straight away, and when you suggested that I should keep them on to show to Jenny this morning I was happy to agree.'

‘But why did you bother to put on some makeup this morning?’ she asked

‘I woke up quite early and decided to make an effort to show Karen that I appreciated her help before she went to work,’ I said.

It didn't sound terribly convincing as I said it.

‘Tell me truthfully, have you enjoyed living and working as Emily over the last couple of days?’ she asked.

I blushed deeply.

‘Well I must admit that so far I have been having a good time working with the two of you, and successfully passing myself off as a woman.’

‘I think we have both noticed that,’ said Jenny, ‘and we have also enjoyed working with you as well haven’t we Clare?’

‘It's been fun,’ said Clare, ‘and I hope it'll continue to be.’

‘So what is your suggestion?’ I asked trying to change the subject.

‘Emily, it is nearly three days since you lost your suitcase, and it will be five days by Saturday,’ said Clare. ‘I suspect that you are never going to see your clothes and money again as the girl who took your suitcase doesn't know how to get in touch with you. She probably doesn't even realise where the switch took place, and may think that she collected the wrong case at her hotel or at the airport, for all we know. I seem to remember that the case she left behind contains some very nice clothes for someone of about my size, which of course means they would also probably fit you as well. I therefore suggest that before making any decisions we should have a look through her suitcase to see if there is something that might be suitable for you to wear on Saturday night.’

‘I am not wearing the dirty old clothes of a mad woman, who goes about stealing suitcases,’ I answered.

Clare smiled.

‘As I remember, everything in the case was spotlessly clean, she must have done her laundry the night before she packed,’ said Clare. ‘Some of the clothes were as good as new.’

‘Well let us at least have a quick look to see what there is,’ said Jenny.

---

I retrieved the case from the top of my wardrobe and we started to lay the contents on my bed. Clare was right. The case was full of expensive looking female clothing, much of which appeared to be hardly worn. There were a couple of skirts, a pair of slacks, several blouses and tops and two dresses including a really stunning long dress in light blue silk. In addition, there was a wide selection of lingerie. Further down we found two pairs of high-heeled shoes, one set matching the evening dress, together with a jewellery case containing a necklace and earrings, a matching handbag containing various cosmetics, and a plastic bag containing some long tresses of dark brown hair.

‘That blue outfit was clearly intended to be worn on some special occasion, why don’t you at least try on the dress Emily?’ said Clare.

The dress certainly looked enticing.

‘But what if the owner gets in contact?’

‘I honestly don’t think she'll do so before Saturday. Even if she did, it is equally unlikely that she'll fly back from the United States to collect one suitcase. I guess that she'll probably decide to pocket your holiday money as partial compensation and put the rest down to experience, or else claim it off her travel insurance. Even if she eventually gets in touch with the relevant lost property office they do not have your address.’

‘Actually they didn’t even want to take a note of my mobile phone number,’ I added.

‘So she is not going to turn up suddenly on your doorstep demanding her dress back. Remember also that it was not your fault that your case was taken, she left you without anything to wear and so I don’t think anyone would blame you for making use of what she has left behind.’

‘That outfit does look nice, I suppose it would do no harm if I were to try it on,’ I said.

My colleagues both agreed, and so I took off my skirt and top. Clare helped me into the dress and zipped it for me. It seemed to fit me pretty well and showed off my new cleavage quite nicely without giving away that I was wearing false breasts. She then passed me the matching shoes to put on and they too fitted me. Finally, she put on the necklace for me. I looked at myself in the mirror and suddenly realised that I wanted to wear that dress to Anne’s birthday dinner more than anything else.

‘What do you think?’ I asked my friends.

‘It looks pretty good to me’ said Clare.

Jenny was a little more critical.

‘I think we have certainly found your dress for Saturday evening, but there are still a number of details that will need sorting out. The colour of your tights is wrong, but I noticed there were a set of co-ordinating underwear and a packet of light grey stockings in the case which have not been used. They would look better. Also, your hair colour is not quite right for that dress. Would you mind taking off the wig for a moment please Emily?’

I did as she instructed, and she took a brush and attempted to style my own hair. I caught sight of myself in the mirror and did not think I looked too bad, even without the wig.

‘I thought so! Your natural hair colour goes better with the colour of the dress than the wig, but unfortunately your hair is not long enough for us to be able to style it properly. I noticed that there are some hair extensions in that bag that are fairly close to your own colour. Would you be willing let me dye your hair a shade darker, and then we could use the hair extensions? I could put them in for you and put your hair up so that you would look really great,’ she said.

‘I don’t know’ I said, ‘will the dye be permanent?’

‘It would wash out after a few weeks, but in any event your hair would not look at lot different colour than it does now.’

‘How long would the hair extensions have to stay in place?’ I asked.

She shrugged.

‘That depends upon you. We could clip them in place just for the evening, but it would be safer for me to sew them. Then they could stay in for as long as you wanted keep them up to about six weeks,’ she answered. ‘I suggest you keep them in for as long as you keep your finger nails and your new breast forms in place. You would be able to wash your hair whilst they are still in place.’

‘I don’t know Clare, this is all getting quite serious; what do you think I should do?’ I asked my cousin.

‘I think Jenny’s right, you should use the hair extensions and wear the lovely dress to Anne’s dinner. Then you will be able to give her the surprise of her life,’ she said smiling.

‘Emily, if you agree to go ahead I will devote the whole of my Saturday to making you both look absolutely stunning and put Karen and Anne into the shade,’ said Jenny.

‘That is very kind of you since you are not even invited to the meal,’ I said.

‘Don’t worry about that, I'll quite enjoy the challenge of making you look beautiful,’ said Jenny. ‘However, if we do go ahead I'm going to need your full co-operation and no arguments about what you wear or how we style your hair.’

‘Oh please agree Emily, you have just admitted to us that you enjoy passing yourself off as a young woman. It'll be really good fun getting ready together and I know you'll look really great,’ added Clare.

‘If I were to go to the dinner on Saturday and afterwards, would you promise to stay with me throughout the evening?’

‘Yes of course,’ said Clare.

‘But what about my plans for us to buy some more clothes for Chris this morning?’ I asked.

‘I suggest you keep your one set of Chris’s clothes clean and at the ready in case of emergencies — for example if Mum were to come home unexpectedly,’ said Clare. ‘You already have a clean dress and underclothes ready for work tomorrow. If the owner of the suitcase has not been in touch by tomorrow night then you can reasonably start wearing her other clothes as well. That way you would have plenty of spare clothes to wear for work next week. I think you should therefore defer buying anything else for Chris until this time next week, by which time you'll have been paid in full. That way you can use the money you got last night for some cosmetics and hair dye and also to buy my sister a birthday card and a present.’

I'd already made up my mind before she finished talking, but decided it might look better if I considered for a while before answering. After a few moments I shrugged my shoulders and sighed.

‘Very well then I'll give it a go if Jenny will help me to get ready and Clare promises not to leave me alone after the meal.’

Both my companions seemed genuinely delighted with my decision and hugged and kissed me.

‘I suppose it would've been a shame to remove these lovely long nails, just as I was getting used to wearing them,’ I commented looking at my fingers.

---

I took off the dress and we hung it in my wardrobe. I put on Anne’s skirt and top once again and we then started to compile a list of everything we were going to need for the next few days.

‘I'm afraid that if we are going to put your hair up you will need pierced ears Emily. You'll want to wear those earrings and the necklace which go with the outfit,’ said Clare.

‘The sooner they are done the better, to give the holes a chance to settle down. Would you mind if we did them now and put some studs in until Saturday?’ said Jenny.

‘Alright then,’ I said. ‘As long as you know what you are doing.’

---

Clare collected a pair of studs from her room, and Jenny procured two pieces of ice from the freezer, a long needle which she began to sterilize in boiling water, and some antiseptic spray. She put a cross in each ear lobe. She then proceeded to freeze each lobe in turn and then quickly stab it with the needle and insert the stud, finally finishing off with an antiseptic spray. It was not a pleasant experience but not as bad as I thought and was quickly over.

‘By Saturday afternoon we should be in a position to replace these studs with those earrings’ she commented.

---

‘Jenny, I'm really looking forward to seeing Karen and Anne’s faces when we make our entrance. Is there any way we can keep the details of our plans a secret from them until Saturday evening?’ asked Clare.

‘I could ask Mum if you two can stay in our spare room tonight and tomorrow night. If she agrees, we could take your clothes over there this afternoon until we need them on Saturday. Karen already knows that you'll both be working tomorrow lunch time and in the evening, and we could always invent another job for Saturday lunch time which will provide you with an excuse for staying a second night. All you need to do will be to phone your sisters and arrange a time to meet them at the restaurant,’ said Jenny.