I stood there still in my wedding dress, looking out of the hotel bedroom window.

Gary was in the bathroom. He had carried me over the threshold, the mad idiot.

The small reception had been nice. It had been held in a function room, with a few of Gary’s friends, I had none that I could trust not to spill the beans.

He came in and I sadly turned around to look at him.

‘Oh God I love you so much Gary.’

I could hear the catch in my voice.

He came over and held me in his arms.

I melted and as kissed me, both our mouths open and exploring each other with our tongues.

Pushing him away and breathing heavily, I had to tell him; this had gone on far enough.

‘Gary, I have a secret…’

He looked at me with that smile that made me feel dizzy.

‘What…’

‘No please let me tell you now; it’s eating me up.’

I sat on the bed, not looking at him.

‘I…I’m not the girl you think I am.’

‘No honey, you are so much nicer.’

‘Please let me tell you. I am not a girl…well I am, but I was born a b…b…boy. I am going to have the operation, but I haven’t got around to it. I shouldn’t have agreed to get married. I should have told you, but I love you so much it would have broken my heart to lose you. But I can’t live a lie, not any more. It was stupid of me. How could I even think of doing this as soon as you saw me undressed, you would have seen me for what I am…’

‘A girl with extras?’

I looked up at him. He was standing right in front of me. What a strange thing to say…

He pulled me up and kissed me; I tried to fight him off. Had he not listened to a word I said?

Eventually, I managed to untangle myself from his embrace and we stood there, not talking.

Why was he smiling? I had to tell him everything, maybe he would stop smiling, but I had to get it off my chest.

I was crying now, and it was with difficulty that I held him at arms length as I spilled my secrets out to him.

‘Gary, I was born a boy but always, always, inside thought of myself as a girl. I have been taking the pills for ages and have lived as a girl for three years. When I met you at that club, I never thought of my being anything but a girl and I got carried away by seeing you doing that ridiculous John Travolta impression.’

‘For about a month, I just enjoyed your company. I was going to tell you about me, but I was so afraid of rejection. It was all happened so fast and then you asked me to marry you and my mouth spoke before my mind got involved.

‘I had already changed my name by deed pole and most of my personal documentation had been changed to reflect my new gender and this was accepted by the vicar without question when we were sorting out the wedding arrangements…’

I turned away and looked out of the window, not wishing to look at him as I continued, my voice sounding weak and shaky.

‘I am having the operation to get rid of the last remnants of my male self in a few months time and I hoped that everything would be finished with before I got too involved with you. But you asked me to marry you and I said yes, even though I shouldn’t…’

‘Charlotte…’

I put up my hand to stop him saying anything. I had to tell him, while I still had strength in my body.

‘Please Gary, hear me out; I was mad, I know that now and I would do anything to …’

‘CHARLOTTE!'

I jumped at his raised voice. Was he going to hit me? I deserved all that was coming to me. I hated myself for being weak and deceitful…

He pulled me around and I looked into his lovely blue eyes. He was speaking but for a moment, I didn’t take in what he was saying and then, I heard.

‘Charlotte, I know about you. Almost from the start I knew. What do you really know about me?’

‘You work in the city, an office, investments or something but…’

’I am a director of an investment bank, a senior director. As soon as I fell for you, I had to find out about you. I have had girls come after me before; I had to know if you were real or just after me for my money. I put on some private investigators and they found out your history. That is my deceit; I discovered all there was to know about you but it didn’t matter, I still loved you and anyway you weren’t interested about my fortune because you had no idea that I was rich. That was why I asked you to marry me, because it was genuine love.

‘Regarding for you extra bits, as far as I am concerned, you are a girl, pure and simple. No one who knows you would ever think that you are anything other than a very pretty woman…’

I was finding it hard to take all this in.

‘S…so, you kept your occupation from me because you thought that it might affect me?’

‘Yes, stupid, I know. As I said, I realised that you loved me for me and not because I have a few million and I’m now sure that it wouldn’t have made any difference to you if I was a refuse collector or a rich banker.’

I looked at him and saw the obvious love in his eyes.

All my fears and worries lifted from me as he once again held me in his arms and kissed me passionately.

Life was strange and my life seemed stranger than most. After all the pain, heartache and angst that led up to where I was now, I could not have foreseen what would happen when my darling Gary found out about me. As it was, I need not have worried. That was the last time we ever had secrets from each other and we are still together after many years of happiness.

All in all, on reflection, I was pleased that we went ahead and had the wedding and that he wasn’t a refuse collector.

I can’t abide the smell of garbage.

Many people asked me to finish this and I have bowed to their wishes and anyway, I love a challenge.

I hope that you have enjoyed this story and will be kind enough to comment and do the kudo thingie.