Chapter 3 Maria Comes Back

At the end of my time at school I had done well in my exams, I had the choice of staying on to get the qualifications for university, but Mum and I agreed that if I was going to follow her into the family business, it may be best to learn things from the bottom up, and so I spent a lot of time working reception, behind the bar, and waiting at tables learning the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the business. Gina had decided that she was more interested in starting up a hairdressing and beauty business, rather than working in the hotels, so I became my mother’s heir-apparent.

I enrolled on courses at our local college and for the next two years studied all operational aspects of the hospitality business, and at weekends and holidays worked at our main hotel about 5 miles out of Newquay. Over the years the business had stayed very profitable, and Mum and her partner had decided that as well as the surfer hotels in town that there was a market for more luxurious breaks. They had bought an old Victorian country house which had seen better days, but was structurally sound, although the decor and fixtures were a bit dated. Rather than totally modernise the property It was just freshened up a bit, keeping it’s character and charm. They also joined a hotel franchising group and although the ownership and management remained their responsibility, they had the benefit of a nationally-known marketing brand and booking system, which provided a steady stream of clients mainly on 2 or 3 day mini-breaks.

We also had a lot of long-stays, and soon there were requirements for more facilities, and a spa, gym, sauna and mini-pool were added. Obviously after a session in the spa, a lot of the ladies felt the need to have their hair styled and other general beauty treatments, this led Gina into opening a part-time salon in the hotel, which gave her an opportunity to grow her business and for us to offer a wider range of facilities for our clients.

At weekends we occasionally offered entertainment in the main large dining hall, usually a band or singer with backing tapes , but to offer a more friendly package, rather than just a slick professional presentation, the staff took turns in putting in a session. I did solo sessions mainly playing guitar and singing ballads but with a few sing-along songs for the audience to join in, and Gina, Maggie one of the waitresses, and a couple of the barmen, Bob and John, did an Abba routine, which was very popular. The girls went to town on this with the satiny all-in-one jumpsuits, copycat Agnetha and Anna-Frid wigs, and high-heel boots and the guys were not much different except for the Björn and Benny wigs and boots. They had really got the routine off very well and used me as a critic to suggest improvements, so I knew their routine very well and often sang with them when they rehearsed.

On the afternoon before one of their performances, Gina came to see me with a worried look on her face.

“Maggie has a bad dose of tonsillitis and can’t sing this evening, and we’ll have to cancel the show, which is a shame as many of the guests have said they have heard about our routine and were looking forward to it, unless…………..”

She argued that I knew all the routines pretty well from the rehearsals, I had enjoyed dressing with her and the girls when I was younger, and passed really well, never being recognised. She said that my singing voice was reasonably high and I could probably do the backing vocals as Anna-Frid and she would do the lead as Agnetha. As there were also two guys in the band if my voice drifted a bit it would just get lost in with theirs and wouldn’t be noticed.

I spent the next 2 hour in Gina’s salon. I thought that there was no need to do anything with my hair, as I would be wearing a wig, but Gina reminded me that they always took the wigs off at the end of the session so that the guests could recognise who had been performing for them. I didn’t want to be recognised as having performed as a girl so she styled my longish hair more femininely. trimmed my eyebrows a bit , and gave me several facial treatments to soften my looks, before glamming me up with heavy make up, particularly a lot of eye-liner and mascara, ready for the stage appearance.

I was soon dressed in lace underwear, but with tight speedos to hide my ‘boy’s bits’, and false boobs in my bra that she had found from somewhere, the satiny jumpsuit, high-heel boots and the Anna-Frid wig, and was ready for our show. The show went down really well, the audience joined in most of the songs, and when we finished off with ‘Dancing Queen’ many were up from their seats dancing along with us.

As normal, when we were taking our bows at the end of the show we all took off our wigs, shook our hair free and were ready to leave the stage, when Gina grabbed the microphone and made an announcement. “Ladies and Gentlemen thank you for being such a lovely audience tonight.
Maggie, who normally performs with us as Anna-Frid is ill tonight, but my cousin Maria stood in at the last minute, and I’m sure you will all agree that she did an excellent job, let’s give her a special round of applause.”

Feeling very embarrassed I walked to the front of the stage, clapped at the audience, blew a couple of hand-kisses and walked off to more applause. Leaving the rest of the evening to the professional acts, we were back in the changing room relaxing and talking about how the show had gone when Mum came in with a lady we did not recognise.

“Right guys, this is Jo, she’s with the marketing department of the hotel chain, she came over to talk a bit of business today, and stayed to watch the show. She really liked your act, and wondered if you would be interested in performing at some of the other hotels in the chain. We are the only one in this area that does entertainment so it would mean travelling a couple of hours each way to Ilfracombe, Minehead, Torquay, Exeter, or Plymouth. As well as giving you an opportunity to develop the act and have some fun, it might be good publicity for us if you can give our hotel a bit of a plug”

“Obviously you would be paid extra by the other hotels,” chipped in Jo, “and if you feel that travelling is a bit much you can stay overnight, free, at the hotels you are performing at. If you are ok with it, one of the hotels in Exeter had one of their acts for this Friday and Saturday drop out, and I could get you booked in there”

“We’ll check with Maggie to see how she feels about it just give me a minute.” said Gina who seemed to have taken on the role of group leader.

“Maggie is very happy with it but she won’t be able to do this weekend or next week as her throat is still sore, how about Maria staying with us for a few days, until she gets back”

After Jo left us we were able to have a more open discussion, because as far as she was concerned, I was cousin Maria.

“ Sorry guys, Unless you want the act to get a bit of an unwelcome reputation I couldn’t turn up as Gino and suddenly turn into Maria, and you know how long it took to transform me for tonight, it would be a real pain to do that every day, so I would have to become Maria until Maggie gets back. It’s one thing performing on stage but its completely different living as a girl full-time, even if only for a few days, I’m not sure that I could keep up the act and am worried that I would be recognised as a male.

“Other than what I had to do to your hair, the make-up and getting ready to face the world routine is something that we girls have to go through every day. If you got your hair styled and you gave yourself a complete body and legs shave before we left, the only extra thing you would have to do is a close face-shave in the mornings and evenings, nobody will ever discover who you really are.”

The three group members and mum kept on at me until they convinced me that I was still passable as a girl and I agreed to do it.

The next day I had another session in Gina’s salon, had my hair set in large rollers with a soft perm to give it more of a wave, and fixed to last for a while, had my nails and toe nails shaped and painted a deep crimson, had several facial scrubs and treatments including a full body and leg wax, and was fitted with 38C breast forms, which Gina took a great delight glueing to my chest. “ Now you’ll know what an inconvenience it can be walking around with those puppies on your chest all day.” Obviously I could not now go out as a male, so Gina came back with a lacy matching bra and pantie set, a sleeveless low-cut summer top, a light floral skirt, sandals with a 2” heel. and a shoulder bag. I didn’t need much more as it was too hot for stockings or tights, or coats or cardigans. A little bit of light daytime make up, some eye-liner and mascara and Maria was ready to face the world. Apart from different hair styles Gina and I were still almost indistinguishable

Gina decided that I needed to get comfortable with being a girl, so we decided to over to Truro for the afternoon to let me have some time out in public. On the way, we collected Alice and Katie, as she thought that I would be less noticeable in a group. They all welcomed Maria back after being away for a long time, gave me a lot of compliments on my looks, and looked forward to seeing me again soon.

We had a really pleasant afternoon, I soon forgot about how I looked and just became one of the girls out for the day. We just wandered around the shops, trying things on but our only buys were a couple of pairs of shoes for me, a dressy black open-toed pair with 3” heels which were not too comfortable but the girls told me that that was the price of being a sexy girl, and a pair of pretty blue flats for comfort around the house and hotel, and a delightful full-length white satin nightie, which they insisted I needed to keep in character 24/7. Luckily my credit and debit cards just had the initial instead of the full forename, so I had no problem paying for things.

We returned home, had a good-luck drink with the girls, finished packing for our trip to Exeter, and had an early night ready for an exciting day tomorrow. I wore my new satin nightie, which just revealed the swell of my false breasts and a bit of cleavage, they almost looked real. I loved the way the nightie hung and the clinging but soft feel of it next to my skin, I thought that I could get used to this and went to sleep dreaming about my next few weeks as Maria.

To be continued.