"Rebirth: A New Way to Love"
a Short Story by TGTrinity
Cover by bela04

***

The long drive was putting Gary on edge. He and his wife, Andrea, were making the drive from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale in what he was now considering to be a worthless attempt at putting a bit of spark back in their marriage.

Years earlier the two would make the ten hour drive to the place where they had first met on a whim. Of course that was back in 1991 when they were still just fresh faced college kids getting drunk and trying to get laid. Gary remembered the first time that he had seen Andrea on the beach, mostly because her bikini seemed two sizes two small for her. But however great her breasts had looked, it was her smile that sealed the deal.

The smile was still there, but years of eating out and a lack of exercise had added a hundred pounds to that smile. Gary wasn’t immune from the cruel mistress of time either, as he had packed on his fair share of weight to accompany a bad back with even worse knees. As he thought about how much the two had changed, he wondered how they had stayed married that long. Maybe it was the fact that the two had unconsciously agreed to spend their forties in front of a television instead of out on the beach like they did in their twenties. Then again maybe it was the fact that since they were unable to have children they only had each other…

Gary hated when these thoughts crept into his mind. He loved his wife, regardless of what she looked like, and he knew that she loved him in spite of all of his flaws.

“There’s a Waffle House up ahead,” Gary said trying to start a conversation.

“That sounds nice,” Andrea said as a smile crossed her face. Gary knew that she loved going to Waffle house, and it had been a sort of tradition for the two each time they made the trek down south. That was another habit the two had taken part in that led them to where they were today, but both seemed to content to let it play out.

Gary waited to see if Andrea would make another comment, but none came. The two simply existed side by side in the four door sedan like strangers sitting across from each other on a train. There was so much that Gary wanted to say, but he couldn't find the words. If he was really being honest with himself, he would admit that he didn’t want to have a certain conversation because he knew where it would inevitably lead.

The conversation would begin with Gary asking Andrea why he had found porn on her personal laptop. She would then ask why he was on her laptop in the first place, and would then follow that up with the fact that she knew Gary spent copious amounts of time online looking at pornography. He would counter that with some off hand remark about the difference between men and women looking at porn, and she would come back and make him feel responsible for her current state.

“You stopped showing interest in me when I put on ten pounds! How should a hundred more change anything,” she would say.

He would then begin to lose his anger before proceeding further. “It wasn’t the weight that curbed my interest! It was your complete lack of caring about yourself! How am I supposed to care about the way you look when you clearly don’t give a damn!”

“Oh? So all I am is my looks, am I? You only wanted me because my tits were bigger than any other girl on the beach that day! If only a woman with triple D’s was there that day I would have been spared all of this bullshit. Who knows, I might have even met a man that wasn’t firing blanks who could actually give me a baby!”

“Gary,” Andrea asked with concern, “are you alright?”

He didn’t notice that he had begun to cry, and he quickly wiped away the tears and tried to play it off like it was nothing. “Oh, something just got in my eye,” he added with a forced smile.

“Are you sure? You’ve been pretty quiet since Jacksonville,” she asked with the same amount of concern in her voice. She really did care about him, and it just made him feel worse that he would attribute such awful things to her in his mind. He knew that the real reason they were in a funk, because Andrea’s eating began right after they had found out that he was sterile. It was all his fault, but his mind wanted to deflect that responsibility anywhere else.

“I was just thinking about the first day we met,” he said as he looked out his window to the ocean beyond.

“I’m surprised you remember any of it considering how wasted you were,” Andrea said with a laugh as she placed a reassuring hand on his thigh. “Although, I seem to remember that you were all muscle stuffed into those tiny shorts…”

“Oh, and you weren't falling out of that bikini top,” Gary added with a laugh. They then spent the ensuing the next quiet moment thinking of days gone by. Andrea thought of how strong and confident Gary looked, while he thought of how sexy his wife was and how hopeful she seemed.

While the couple thought about their past, Mike Huckabee was thinking about something else. His big rig had broke down right out of Miami, and he was way behind schedule. If he was going to make it to Charlotte on time, he was going to have to drive like the devil, and that was exactly what he was doing. With one hand on his steering wheel and the hand on his speed gauge getting close to 90, Mike reached over and grabbed a couple of pills off of his dash. He then grabbed his bottle of Mt Dew and tossed the pills in his mouth. This was something he had done a million times before on the road, but as he brought the bottle up to his lips the big rig hit a little bump which caused it to veer into the oncoming lane…

...and right into Gary and Andrea’s little four door sedan.

There was a long moment of darkness before Gary came too. He remembered picturing his wife the way he met her years earlier, with her sun kissed skin and curves for days. The lilac ribbon that she kept in her hair was fluttering in the wind while her breasts heaved against the strapless bikini she had dared to wear. Her brown curls were falling past her shoulder, and he felt as if he could reach right out and touch her.

Only then he heard the screaming.

His eyes flashed open at once and he tried to place where he was. He seemed to remember a truck veering into his lane before he reached out his hand to brace Andrea… It was only then that he realized that the screams were coming from a young man who was sitting right where Andrea was a moment ago. Stranger still was the fact that their tiny four door sedan was pulled off the side of the road with absolutely no damage at all.

“What’s going on! What the fuck just happened!” The young man screamed as he covered his face and screamed into it.

“Who are you? Are you okay,” Gary asked, and then he finally realized the biggest change that had occurred. The voice that had escaped his lips was that of a woman, and when he looked down he saw that his body was all woman as well. “Holy shit,” she whispered as she looked down at the two large breasts that were held in place by a tiny tan and white strapless bikini. Worse still was the discovery that his manhood had been stolen from him as well, leaving behind what was unmistakingly a new female vagina.

The young man sitting next to her was hyperventilating, and as confused as she was she realized that she had to calm him down. “Hey! Breath dammit!”

“I can’t… I just… Where’s my husband,” he stammered. “Where’s Gary!?”

The young man was staring right at her now, and she could recognize those eyes. Somehow, by some strange power, she could see the eyes of her wife in that young man. As time slowed down she looked him over, from his short brown hair to his exposed chest that was covered in muscles. He looked both familiar and different all at once, but there was no doubting who he was.

“Andrea? Oh my God, is that you?”

He paused before answering as a look of realization crossed over his eyes as well. “Gary,” he said as he reached a hand over and touched her face. “Holy shit, it is you. What’s happening?”

“Yes, it’s me, and I have no idea what’s going on,” she added as she placed her hand over his. “The last thing I remember is that truck heading right for us…”

“And you reached out to brace me,” he said as a smile crossed his face.

“Well,” she said as some blood rushed to her face, “all I could think about was protecting you, even though I knew there was no way we would make it…”

They both sat in the car in silence after that. Gary was going to say that there was no way they would live through such an ordeal, and now she wondering if they had.

“Are we… Are we dead?”

Gary thought about it for a moment as she held out her hands and flexed her fingers. She saw that her fingernails were covered in a lilac nail polish and it made her smile.

“What? Why are you smiling?” Andrea asked.

“You used to wear the exact same nail polish as this,” she answered with a grin.

“You’re right,” Andrea added before gasping.

“What is it?”

Andrea looked at her and then down at himself. “I don’t know, but let’s get out of the car real quick,” he said as he opened his door and stepped out into the afternoon sun. Gary saw no reason not to join him, so she got out of the car as well. She soon found that she was wearing heels, an odd choice with a bikini, but was pleased to find that she had no problem walking in them. “Oh my God,” Andrea said as Gary walked around in her new heels.

“God, are you going to tell me what you’re on about?”

“You… You look like me, but with a little of you mixed in.”

“What?” Gary asked, having no idea what he was talking about.

“You,” he said with an odd look of admiration mixed with wonder, “look just like me when we met, only I can still tell it’s you. Your eyes, Gary… You still have those brown eyes…”

While he was talking, Gary looked over at his wife and had the same epiphany. Andrea was standing there in a body that could easily have been Gary’s, with tanned muscles running up and down his body, and the only difference being Andrea’s sea blue eyes looking out at her.

“How is this possible,” she asked as she stepped up to her wife's new male body.

“Maybe this is heaven,” Andrea said as she took Gary in her arms. They held each other for a moment, each not saying a word as the sound of the waves crashing against the empty beach filled their ears. “So what do we do now?” Andrea asked quietly.

“Well… I think we should look at this pragmatically,” Gary said as she broke away from Andrea. “We should look through our things and see what’s what,” she said as she walked over to the car and opened the back door.

“What do you think that will tell us?” Andrea asked impatiently.

Gary sighed and thought of how impatient her wife was, and it made her smile that he was the same person in that young studs body. “It will tell us something, I’m sure,” she said as she opened a suitcase that was placed where her’s was before the incident. As she rummaged through it she found all sorts of bikini’s packed, in addition to some rather racy lingerie. With each new piece of clothing she wondered what her wife was up to, before realizing that all of these were probably hers now.

“Well, I’ve got nothing over here,” Andrea said as she rummaged through another suitcase. “It’s just full of a bunch of shorts and t-shirts that some college douchebag would wear.”

“Honey,” Gary said softly, “I think you’re that douchebag.”

“What?” Andrea asked incredulously.

“Well, those certainly aren’t my clothes, and I’m fairly certain this isn’t yours,” she said as she held up a black piece of lingerie that was practically an inch of fabric surrounded by black lace.

“Oh my God,” Andrea said as his young cheeks turned red.

“I know right,” Gary said with a laugh before he saw something tucked under the seat that caught his attention. “Oh, here we go,” she said excitedly as she grabbed the item and held it up to Andrea, “a purse!”

“It’s not mine,” he said as he continued to look through the bag.

She didn’t reply to him, choosing instead to begin rummaging through the bag. “Holy shitballs,” she whispered as she found a wallet.

“What did you find?”

“My name is Gabrielle Redding, and I’m only twenty one years old,” she said with amazement.

“No way,” Andrea whispered as she took the ID from her. “Well, you have our same address, and… Fuck! I didn’t even think to check my pocket,” he said shaking his head. Before long Andrea was flipping through his new wallet and glancing at his ID. “Andrew Locke, age twenty three… I’m showing the same address too,” he said with a smile.

“But no ring,” Gary said as she held up her finger.

“So… God, do we just accept all of this? I mean, we had lives, Gary,” Andrea added before closing the door and walking back around to Gary.

“We did have lives, but were we really living?” She regretted saying it so harshly, but it was the way that she had been feeling for a long time.

“Then we just go on like this? Gabrielle and Andrew?”

“Why not?” Gabrielle asked as she closed the door and walked out onto the beach. She loved the way the sun felt on her exposed skin, and after a quick flick of her ankles her heels went flying through the air and landed in a pile. “I mean, shouldn’t we be freaking out more? I have a new pair of breasts and you have something in between your legs that wasn’t there an hour ago. How in the world are we even able to function right now?” She could see her wife, or live in boyfriend, think about it for a minute.

“I didn’t want to say anything, but you’re right… All of this feels like it should,” he said as he joined Gabrielle on the beach. He slipped off his sandals and felt the sand between his toes as Gabrielle smiled and ran for the water. “Get back here!” Andrew yelled playfully as he ran off after her. The two then spent the next hour playing in the surf like they were young again. In between bouts of swimming and playful horseplay, the two sat on the beach and talked about their old lives and what lay ahead. Things were said that opened each others eyes, but Gabrielle was careful to approach the elephant in the room lightly.

“...so you really don’t mind having tits now?” Andrew asked as he lay on the sand propped up on his elbows.

“Not at all,” Gabrielle replied as she blushed, “I mean, I was always a big fan of yours, and now I get to spend all day with these puppies.” She was laying on her stomach on she said it, and the feeling of her new breasts pressing against the warm sand was rather enjoyable.

“Just wait for the lower back problems,” Andrew said with a laugh as he reached over and patted her back. His hand lingered on her back for a moment as their eyes met. Gabrielle could see that Andrew's hand was slowly moving down her back, and she could feel an anticipation rising inside of her.

“I’m sorry,” Gabrielle blurted out as Andrew began to rub the curve of her ass.

“God, I didn’t mean to…”

“No, it’s not that,” Gabrielle said as she sat up and moved close to Andrew. “I’m sorry that I’ve been such an awful husband the last twenty years.” She was sitting up now with her legs crossed, and was waiting for Andrew to follow suit.

“Gabrielle Lynn Redding, you have not been a terrible husband,” Andrew said with a smirk. “In fact, you’re no one's husband at the moment.”

She frowned at Andrews attempt to bring levity to the conversation, “You’ve stayed by my side so long, and even after…” Her eyes began to swell with tears and she buried her head in her hands.

Andrew moved in close and held her tight. “You didn’t need to put a baby in me to show me your love, and you never had to. We got complacent with our lives, it wasn’t something either of us intentionally chose. I think the fact that it took us getting thrown into the bodies of a couple of sexy young college kids for us to have a real conversation like this is a sign we were getting complacent.”

“You think I’m sexy,” Gabrielle said with a shy smile as she tried to add some levity of her own.

“You know I do. I also know that beneath those soft breasts is the man that I fell in love with years ago,” he leaned in to kiss her for a moment before continuing, “and even as a woman I still love.”

“God, it’s so weird to kiss a man,” she said as she bit her bottom lip.

“In a bad way? Do you want me to stop?”

Gabrielle looked at him with hungry eyes and leaned in for another kiss. Soon their two bodies were rolling in the sand as their hand began to explore. As Andrew slid his hands behind her back to undo the bikini, Gabrielle laughed and brought up her hands to cover herself. She got up and teased him, running away and giving him little glimpses of her naked body. Each step made her feel more alive, and soon she stopped with every intention of being caught.

Andrew eventually caught her, and they made love.

“God, that was incredible,” Gabrielle said between heavy breaths as she pressed her naked body against Andrew’s.

“I had no idea it could feel like that,” Andrew responded.

“Me either,” she said with a smile. The two lay naked in the sand for a while longer as the sun began to set, before she broke the silence. “Are we dead? Did that truck smash us into smithereens and heaven is someplace where you swap genders and take a roll in the sand?”

“I don’t think so,” Andrew said after laughing for a few seconds, “because I don’t feel dead. In fact, I feel more alive than I have in years.”

“So, if we’re not dead,” Gabrielle said as she leaned over and ran a hand over his chest, “do you think that there’s a chance…” She looked at her lover with hungry eyes, but they were longing for something else.

“...That we can have a baby?” He asked, since the same question on his mind. “Would you even want that? I mean, you’ve only been a woman for a couple of hours, and that’s…”

Gabrielle pulled herself on top of him and stopped his talking with a kiss. “If we can have a baby, then I’d be honored to carry it. If not, then we still have our whole lives ahead of us… And I promise you that I won’t disappear inside myself again. I will be there for you through thick and thin, and I won’t let us become complacent. We’ve been given a gift, and I say we take advantage of it and live.” Andrew looked up at the beautiful woman on top of him, then began to laugh. “God, what are you laughing at!?” She shouted as she shoved his chest.

“I’m sorry, it’s just hard to listen to you give this huge speech with your naked breasts bouncing in my face,” he said with a grin.

“You’re such a bastard,” she said as she finally joined into the laughter. “Now let’s try and make a baby.”

As their bodies intertwined for the second time, their laughter was soon transformed into shouts of ecstasy. With each passing second they could feel possibility and hope pouring into them, as each tried to give as much pleasure to the other as they could. Neither knew what the future held, but they felt they had a better grasp of it than they did when their day began.

And heaven or not, they would never allow themselves to feel alone while together ever again.

THE END

Author's Note:
Thanks for reading! I've recently begun to accept commissions, so if you enjoy my writing and would like to see an idea of your own come to life, let me know at [email protected].