Ronnie stepped from the dressing room and back into the main convention room where the pageant was to take place. Drew remained in the dressing room.

Ronnie gathered with the other contestants near the stage podium and received the obligatory briefings, pageant rules and completed the required forms and releases. Glancing around at the other 15 – 18 contestants Ronnie checked out the competition. All were in basic girl garb but without makeup & heels. After all this was to be the first cut. Lads that didn’t meet a basic believability of passing as a woman were thanked and excused. Ronnie felt sad for those that were thanked and excused by pageant officials.

And then there were ten.

Ronnie was happy but a little nervous that he was to be in the finals. Several of the “girls” were very believable and had mannerisms that suggested they weren’t amateurs. They carried themselves differently than those that were excused.

The remaining contestants were told to change back to their normal men’s clothing and return for a second round of testing in one week. The next round required the works; makeup, heels, accessories and so on.

Entering the dressing room Ronnie changed clothes and stored his ‘costume’ in what looked like an over sized purse. Drew was nowhere to be seen. With a last glance into a floor length mirror Ronnie threw his bag over his shoulder and headed to the elevator to the parking garage.

Just as the down elevator dinged open Drew appeared from a nearby hallway. “Hey Ronnie, congratulations for making the first cut”. Drew stuck out his hand as if to shake hands and pressed a note and a tube of lipstick into Ronnie’s hand like you’d do with a head waiter if you wanted a better table.

“I dashed next door to Sephora and picked you up a good luck charm. It matches your complexion perfectly and is light enough shade that you can wear it during your daily activities or when ‘when the mood suits you’ as you said.

Ronnie stammered out a ‘thank you’ and could feel the involuntary blush well up on his cheeks. Tentatively Ronnie asked “will I see you next week?” Flashing a winsome grin Drew said “Sure… maybe sooner. Read the note when you get a chance.” Ronnie grasped Drew’s note and gift a bit firmer.

As Ronnie stepped into the empty elevator Drew patted Ronnie on the back. Ronnie turned to face Drew and quickly asked in a rapid run on sentence “Are you taking the elevator? What color is your dress? Do you need any help with your costume?” Ronnie was surprised at his own boldness in asking.

As the door was closing Drew replied “No, I’ll catch the next one. By the way I could feel that you’re still wearing your bra”. The door closed and Ronnie found himself staring at his reflection in the polished brass doors. Ronnie exhaled deeply and visibly slumped in an effort to rid his tenseness of all that had transpired over the last two hours. Or was it three hours?

During the ride down to the garage Ronnie tried to make sense of what had transpired, where some long suppressed desires and urges had come from. He knew they came from Drew but why? Drew had stirred him in a way that made his pulse rush.

The elevator door opened and Ronnie pushed his deep thinking to the background for now. Opening his car door he placed his shoulder bag of clothes onto the floor of the rear seat and slid into the front seat. Still a bit unnerved from the day’s events Ronnie tried to insert the tube of lip stick into the ignition. “Damn!” he thought. “I got to slow down and relax my brain”.

He exhaled and found his car key. Ronnie inserted the key but did not start the car. Instead he paused awhile and looked at his new tube of lipstick. Removing the cellophane wrapper Ronnie opened the tube and ran it out with one practiced motion. The color WAS perfect. And it smelled very nice. Looking first over one shoulder and then the other shoulder Ronnie made sure there was no one nearby. He reached up and adjusted the rear view mirror.

With familiar precision Ronnie slowly applied the lip color. He pressed his lips together as he always did and made a low smacking sound. The lipstick was, indeed, a perfect shade. He retracted the lipstick and replaced the cap. He read the color on the bottom of the tube. ‘Honey Blush’. “I must make a note of this” he thought. He placed the tube in his shirt pocket. The sensations were subtle but they were there none the less. He felt a familiar but not unpleasant stirring in his groin. There also were those far away ‘desires and urges’. Desires, thoughts and urges closer to his consciousness than they had ever been before.

Ronnie was about to put the car in reverse when he remember the note. He stared at the note lying on the passenger seat and picked it up. “I gotta read it sometime” he rationalized. The note seemed to crinkle loudly as he opened it. It read “I’m pretty sure I’ll be having a wardrobe malfunction pretty soon and I’m sure I’ll need some help and you offered. Call me.” Drew’s phone number and address were listed. Ronnie smiled. And the stirrings he was feeling grew stronger.

“Oh my God… what have I done!” Ronnie thought. He backed out of the stall and exited the garage. As he drove towards home his mind was racing. He was gripping the steering wheel intensely. After almost running a red light Ronnie tried to relax, took a deep breath and loosened his grip on the wheel.

Just before getting home Ronnie stopped at his favorite grocer. He spent more time than planned but selected three bottles of wine. He had a Chardonnay, a Riesling and a Merlot. The sales clerk greeted him and commented that Ronnie seemed in a very good mood. Actually the clerk said Ron looked perky. There was no mention of his Honey Blush lip color.

Ronnie got home, locked the door and put the wine in the refrigerator. He then changed into a special kimono silk bathrobe he fancied and perched himself on the couch in front of the TV. He has some very serious thinking to do. And it involved a lot more than the pageant. “Where are these desires, urges and thoughts coming from? And why does Drew make me smile?” And those sensations were of concern in a pleasant sort of way. “I just might wear my special baby dolls tonight” he thought. He smiled again and reached over and applied another application of his Honey Blush “chap stick”. Oddly enough the pleasant sensations came back. In truth the feelings popped up.