Byline chapter 16

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Copyright © 2021 Peregrine
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Chapter 16

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Even with makeup, the bruising was noticeable. I covered it up the best I could. When I got to work, I got a lot of questions about what happen to my face. Especially from Hannah. To my surprised, nearly everyone asked me if my boyfriend had hit me. I assured them that was not the case as I didn’t have a boyfriend at the moment. I explained what had happened. Nearly everyone had heard about the building collapse. It was nice that so many people cared enough to ask why I was sporting a facial bruise.

It was a slow day at the desk. The partners and managers had left to go to a golf outing. There was very little going on once everyone left for the golf course. When my phone went off, I was surprised and happy to see it was Kevin. I wasn’t surprised he called. Is that being conceited? My surprise was he called so quick.

“Hi Casey. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Actually, it’s a good time. I do have a minute or two I can talk.” I signaled to Hannah I was going to the hall to take the call.

“How’s the bruise?”

“Still there. Unfortunately, makeup can only do so much.”

“I won’t keep you long. Would today be good to make our coffee date?”

“So it’s a date now? You move fast.”

“Okay, not a formal date.” He paused for a second. “I didn’t just blow it did I?”

I laughed. “No, you still have a chance,” I said.

“Would you like to get some coffee say, around 6:00? There’s a Starbucks at 9th and Chestnut.”

“I know the place. I might not be there until 6:15 though.”

“That’s fine. Let’s make it 6:15 then.”

“Alright. See you then, Kevin.“

“Till then Casey Jean,” he said.

I loved the way he said my name. I held the phone to my chest after we hung up. I had a date! Okay, it was just for coffee. I know I’ve been on a date with Dave. Dave was more a result of my helping Abbey and it was a double date. I felt Kevin was my first real date since I started presenting as a woman. It was a date where Abbey had no involvement. I walked back to the desk. I must have been grinning from ear to ear.

“Someone seems really happy,” said Hannah. “You just win the lottery or did you get a date?”

“I got a date,” I said. I almost squealed.

“You have to tell me with who,” she said.

“The paramedic who treated me at the building collapse called. He invited me to get coffee.”

“You’re this excited over a coffee date?”

“It’s a start,” I said. “It’s my first date since Dave and I broke up.”

“Good for you. I hope it works out. Find out if he has a brother,” she said.

My good mood lasted for the remainder of the day. Even my concern as to whether I was going to tell Kevin I was a guy didn’t dampen my mood. I thought of what Amy had said to me. Tell him. If it doesn’t bother him, have a good time. She might be right. Maybe I make things too complicated.

~~0~~

I left work a little early. Hannah didn’t have to do much to convinced me to go home and get ready. I got home with not a whole lot of time to get to Starbucks. I decided not to change. I was probably over-dressed for Starbucks. I didn’t care. As far as Kevin knew, I was coming from work after all. I was mainly here to re-do the makeup hiding my bruise. I found myself stressing over the bruise. I suddenly realized I was falling under societies pressure that a woman always look good. I’m not a woman. Presenting as a woman had me succumbing to what was expected of me as a woman. Surprisingly, my realization did not make me want to do anything different. I even decided to keep my heels on. I did what I could with the makeup and decided I had done enough. After all, he knew I had the bruise and still asked me out. I grabbed my bag and went to meet Kevin.

I got to the Starbucks and found Kevin sitting at a table. After working in the heels all day, I was wondering why I had decided to keep them on. Kevin waved to me as I entered and stood up as I approached the table. Gosh, I was nervous.

“Hi Casey, I got us a table.” He got up, walked around the table and pulled out the chair. “Sit and I’ll get the drinks. What would you like?”

“I’ll have a grande cold vanilla latte with whipped cream please,” I said.

“You got it. I’ll be right back,” he said.

I kept my eyes on him as he left the table and went to order. Kevin had come from work also. He looked very handsome in his paramedic uniform. He looked over to the table after he ordered. He saw me looking at him and smiled. I felt myself blush and smiled back. This must have been how Abbey felt when she first met Gil. I started to worry. When Kevin looked over he saw Casey the woman. I looked like and was presenting as a woman. What if he freaked out when I told him I am a guy? I suddenly didn’t want to tell him today. I got the urge to get up and leave as fast as I could. In these heels, I'm sure he would catch up to me before I got a quarter block away. I was starting to wimp out just as Abbey had predicted. It’s only coffee, I told myself. I almost had my emotions under control when Kevin came back with our drinks.

“Here you go,” he said. He sat across from me after putting my drink down. I nervously took a sip of my drink. “You did good covering the bruise. I almost couldn’t tell. So, how was your day?” He asked.

“It was slow today. Almost everyone was out of the office at a golf outing. We still had things to do. We could do things at a slower pace today.”

“I don’t know what you do,” he said. “Where do you work?”

“I’m a front desk receptionist at an advertising agency. How about you? Get to do anything interesting?”

“Not like the other day. It was a pretty normal day. A couple of heart problems, a few minor car accidents. There was nothing spectacular today.”

“Did you ask for anyone’s phone number today?”

He laughed. “You’re still the first and only number I’ve asked for.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s true. I’ve never had the nerve to do it before. When I asked you, I didn’t think you were going to give me your number.”

I sipped more of my drink as he talked. “Why me? Why was I the first?”

“I don’t know. As I said, I thought you were interesting.”

“You don’t know anything about me. I’m not what you imagine.”

“How could you know what I imagine?” he said.

“I guess I can’t. Still, you don’t know anything about me.”

“I’d like to get to know you,” he said.

“I’ve waited long enough,” I said. “I have to know, what’s the B stand for? You said you’d tell me. We’re here so spill it.”

He laughed. “I did say I’d tell you, didn’t I.” He took a slow sip of his drink. I sure he was prolonging my agony on purpose. “The B stands for Brittany.”

“Really? Your middle name is Brittany? Your parents gave you a middle name of Brittany?”

“Yes, they really did.” He sat there looking at me. He seemed puzzled. “You’re the first person I’ve told who hasn’t laughed.”

I wouldn’t laugh, I thought. My parents named me Casey Jean.

“I have…, I know someone who isn’t happy with his middle name. He’s had to put up with it all his life.”

“My middle name doesn’t come up that often. Normally at graduations and places that like to use your full name. I’ve come to accept it. How about your friend? Has he been able to come to terms with it?”

I thought about it. I was talking about me. Since taking this assignment, I’ve come to like my middle name, and the American pronunciation. “Yes, I think he recently has.”

We talked for quite a while and lost track of time. Before we knew it, it was 8:00. Kevin noticed the time.

“Where did the time go. I didn’t mean to keep you this long.”

“I’ve had a good time,” I said.

I’m guessing you haven’t had dinner yet either.”

“Your right, I thought I’d get dinner after our coffee date.

“So I can call this a date?” He smiled at me. I smiled back. Why do I do that?

“Sure you can call it a date,” I said.

“Great,” he said. “Hey, I’m hungry. I’m guessing you are also. How about we continue our ‘date’ over dinner at Moriarty’s? It’s not too far.”

I thought about it before answering. I didn’t want our ‘date’ to end. “That sounds good but only if you allow me to pay.”

“That doesn’t seem fair. Dinner’s going to cost more than our coffee did,” he said.

“That’s my condition. Take it or leave it.“

“You drive a hard bargain. How about you pay and I leave the tip.”

He got up and waited while I collected my bag. Then we walked to dinner.

~~0~~

I got home late. I called Abbey hoping I wasn’t going to wake her. When she answered, I told her all about my date with Kevin.

“Then he took me home. He said he wasn’t upset I didn’t ask him in. Today was only suppose to be a coffee date. We kissed and he waited until I was in my apartment building’s door. I had a really great time with him.”

“Sounds to me like you have it bad little sister.”

“I don’t know. I might. Abbey, what am I going to do? He thinks I’m a woman. He likes me as a woman. He’ll hate me if I tell him I’m a guy. He’ll feel I betrayed him.”

“Stop that Casey. You don’t even know if he’s going to call you again.”

“I know he will. I like him, Abbey.”

“It was a first date.”

“I really like him.”

“Oh Casey honey, get to bed. Sleep on it. You don’t have to think about anything until or if he calls you.”

“When he calls me,” I said.

“Okay, when he calls, you can decide if you want to go out without telling him or if you need to tell him.”

“Abbey, I’m really confused.”

“I know sis. It’s new territory for you. Sleep on it and we’ll talk in the morning.”

I hug up with Abbey with my emotions still in a mess. I like Kevin and he seemed to like me or at least the person he thinks I am. I know this is just a beginning but want this relationship to continue. If I tell him right away, he may not want to see me again. If I wait and tell him after 3 or 4 dates, he may hate me for stringing him along. I know what the right thing is to do and that’s to tell him now and not wait. Right now I hate that I’m not a woman.

~~0~~

Abbey and I spent most of the weekend together. After our Yoga class, she took me shopping. It didn’t do much to elevate my mood. Sensing I needed her, she was going to cancel her date with Gil. I told her she should go and after a lot of discussion, she finally went. After she had gone, I called mom and asked if I could come over. She said I could but to dress up as we would go to dinner. I decided on a sleeveless houndstooth fitted dress and black 3-inch pumps. We were off to dinner almost as soon as I got there. I had to explain what happened to my face, of course. I told her about the building collapse. We settled down at home after dinner.

“I can see your having boy problems, young lady.”

I looked at her surprised she could tell and that she called me young lady. “How can you tell?”

“You look exactly like your sister did after she saw her first crush with another girl. So what’s going on?”

“I went out with the paramedic who treated me. Not on a date, well we did have dinner but it was only suppose to be coffee but we were talking and didn’t notice the time and…”

“Casey, stop. Start over.” I took a deep breath. “Now tell me, what’s his name?”

“His name is Kevin. We’ve only been out once and it wasn’t really a date. It was just for coffee. We did go to dinner, which I paid for. Dinner, I paid for dinner not the coffee. He paid for the coffee. I really like him and I think we hit it off. I want to go out with him again. I’m afraid if I tell him I’m a guy, we won’t go out again. If I don’t tell him, he’ll reject me when he finds out. I don’t know what to do.”

Mom sat back in her chair with her hands on her lap. “I never thought I’d be in this position. Giving advice on men to my son. The way I see it, you can tell him before your next date. On the other hand, you can not tell him and continue to go out with him. You understand, when you’re done with the assignment and you go back to being C J, you’ll need to break it off. You shouldn’t mention him in any part of your article.”

I let that sink in for a moment.

“Mom, what if I decide to continue to present as a woman?”

“You mean stay as a woman and not go back to being C J? Are you considering doing that?” She asked.

“Until now, I hadn’t been. I’ve been planning to go back to C J but now…”

“I was concerned about something like this years ago,” she said.

“Years ago? When? Why?”

“That Halloween night your sister talked you into being one of the Sailor Scouts for the party. It was how easy you fell into the role. How you acted when your father and I asked the both of you if you enjoyed the party. The way you responded. The way you interacted with your sister. Seeing the two of you running up the steps giggling like sisters when we got home. You seemed so at ease. You seemed… I don’t know, somehow complete. I thought you might be thinking you wanted to be a girl. I even asked your father if he would be alright if you told us you wanted to be a girl.”

“You did? What did he say?”

“He said he would be fine if you wanted to be his son or his daughter. He did say he thought it was only a one-night thing.” Sheila smiled at the memory. “When I asked you if you wanted to dress as a girl again, you said it was too much work. I had a feeling you would be fine with the work.”

“I wasn’t wrong. It is quite a lot more work,” I said. “Amy thinks I should keep it as an option. Abbey said she wishes I had always been her sister.”

“Honey, what do you want?”

I lowered my head. I saw my legs in their pantyhose with a pair of heels at the end.
“I’m not sure what I want. I was hoping you could tell me what I should do.”
Mom smiled.

“Casey, I can’t tell you what you should do. A decision like this has to be something you want. Not something Abbey wants or Amy thinks you should do. It’s not something you do for Kevin either. You do it for you. If you decide you want to continue to be my daughter, I’m fine with that decision. Son or daughter, you are my child. I’ve enjoyed getting to know my new daughter over the past few months. I will enjoy watching my child’s future adventures in the coming years. Come here.” I went over and we hugged then she held me at arm’s length.

“Promise me, whatever you decide to do, it will be because it is what you want to do and it’s what you want.”

“I promise, mom.”

I left feeling better but still undecided on what to do about Kevin.

~~0~~

I got to work Monday morning to find Hannah already at the desk. She smiled at me as I entered.

“How did the date go on Friday?” She saw the troubled look on my face. “Uh oh, not as good as expected?”

“Oh no, it was great,” I said. Hannah was skeptical. “No really. We talked until eight and then went to dinner. We had a great time.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I’ve got some things on my mind. It’s complicated.”

“Hey, I’m here if you want to talk about it,” she said.

“Thanks.” I started to get things ready for the day. “How’s the painting going?”

“Oh, I finished the one I was working on when you were over the other night. You’ll have to come over to see it.”

“I can’t wait to see it,” I said.

I needed to find something to take my mind off of Kevin. I had been planning on doing something and had been putting it off. Now seemed like the time to get it started. It was going to take some time to get it going. It would require all my attention, that is, until Kevin calls again.

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Thanks for reading. Comments welcome

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Cover picture Credits
Photo by Daria Sannikova from Pexels
Photo by Valeriia Miller from Pexels
Photo Composite by Peregrine