14 Nights out

Life continued very much as before for the next few weeks.

Now that my operation scars had healed, I was able to ditch the unflattering special support bras and begin to wear my fancier styles, which not only showed of my new assets better, but emphasised my feelings of femininity. I was beginning to feel much more natural and relaxed as a woman and it showed in my personality and approach in dealing with people and even the women in the secretaries’ office were now at least polite to me, even if still not best friends.

At work Sir Charles was putting more and more responsibility on me, assessing investment opportunities, compiling reports, and making presentations to his business associates. I was becoming accepted as someone worth listening to in my own right rather than just being seen as a mouthpiece for Sir Charles.

My personal investments were doing well helped by some of the inside knowledge of the proposals of Sir Charles and his colleagues, and by the analysis I was able to do myself as I spent more and more time watching the stock market. By astute buying at selling at the right time, picking up 1-2% daily on a regular basis and more than twice that on good days, I had soon doubled my account, and with the much improved salary, I was becoming quite comfortably off.

Carol and I were becoming the best of friends and, as I was now totally comfortable in public, often went out together to the cinema, pubs and clubs together, rather than just hanging around the flat. We were having a drink and chatting in the local pub when I suddenly sensed that someone had approached us.

“ Hi Dani, it’s Jason, you probably don’t remember but we met on the train up from Hastings a few weeks ago. I haven’t seen you around since then, but when I was at the bar and saw you I thought that I would come over to say hello again.”

I was at a bit of a loss as to how to react, but an elbow dig in the ribs from Carol prompted me to reply.

“Of course I remember you Jason, are you on your own or with friends, you are welcome to join us if you want. This is my flatmate Carol, I told you about her and how she had helped me settle in in Canterbury.”

“ And Dani told me all about meeting you on the train.” butted in Carol, “ She said that when it was only you and her in the carriage she was a bit worried at first, but that she was soon relaxed with you and really enjoyed your chat.”

“ I’m waiting for some friends but I am a bit early, so if you let me buy you both another drink I will be glad to join you for a while.” He went off to the bar to get his beer and some white wine for us.

“ Oh Dani, you were right he is cute, and gorgeous, he remembered your name so is obviously interested in you. If we leave tonight without you agreeing a date with him, I will be very surprised, and annoyed with you. It is about time that rather than just appearing to be a girl, that you start reacting like one.”

Once again, Carol was right, Jason was pleasant and chatty, with most of the chat being directed at me rather than Carol and I enjoyed the attention. It was not long before his friends turned up and he got up to leave us to join them, but then turned around to me.

“ The time passed so quickly, I still haven’t really got to know much about you, would you like to come out for a drink sometime?”

I felt another quick dig in the ribs from Carol. “I would love that, how about Saturday evening.” I replied with a sweet smile, and gave him my phone number and address.

A couple of times throughout the evening we noticed Jason and his friends looking over at us and we just smiled back at them. As we got up to leave Jason and one of his friends came over to us.
“ As you don’t really know me, would you like to make it a double-date, Ben here would really like to get to know Carol too?.” A light kick under the table to my ankle and a smile from Carol told me she was interested and we agreed to go out as a foursome. “ See you boys on Saturday” Carol chirped as they left.

“ Next time don’t just wait for me to nudge you. Jason seems to be a nice lad, friendly, good mannered and very cute, and Ben looks very interesting too. Since I have been nursemaiding you, romance in my life has been absolutely zero and I am looking forward to getting it back on track again.”

“ It’s all right for you, you have grown up with boys interested in you and have learned how to react. This is all totally new for me, I am still finding my feet.”

“ Look, Jason sees you as an attractive, pleasant, friendly girl, he will probably be just as much, or even more, nervous than you about this, after all it is up to him to make the running, and you just have to react. It should be fun.”

“ What if it all starts getting a bit heavy, after all there is only so far it can go, which is still probably a lot further than I would be comfortable with.”

“As I said, he seems a nice lad, he will probably have high hopes of more, but his expectations will be nothing beyond a bit of petting and kissing, especially on the first date. Trust me, if you dropped your pants on the first date he would not have a lot of respect for you, and I will not let you get too far away, so if you are uncomfortable let me know and we’ll call it a day.”

The rest of the week passed quickly, Carol never stopped talking about our dates with Jason and Ben and after a bit of early shopping most of Saturday was spent preparing for our night out. A scented bubble bath along with removal of all the stray body hair was followed by a cleansing facial mask, doing each others hair, selecting outfits to wear, and making sure that makeup was flawless. A quick spray of Allure and I was ready and waiting when Ben came to the door to collect us while Jason kept the car running outside. A quick welcoming peck on the cheek and we were all set to go.

“Where are we off to then?” Carol kicked off the conversation.

“ We can just go for a drink if you like, there are plenty of decent riverside pubs nearby, but I have recently been to a fantastic little fish restaurant down by the harbour in Whitstable, if you fancy that and are ok with seafood.” Jason suggested to me.

“ That sounds fun, let’s go, you are in the driving seat.”

We soon arrived at a delightful little restaurant with a pretty multi-pastel-coloured façade in a back street just behind the main promenade. It was quite full and we were lucky to get a table right away, we were told that on Saturday nights a reservation was normally required, but due to a cancellation they were able to fit us in.

When we were settled with a glass of wine, we talked through the menu options.

“Pick anything you fancy girls, but I know that the oysters here are local and fresh and are served with a steak, a bit of ‘surf and turf’.” Ben suggested with a big grin.

Carol give him a bit of a scowl, “ Save your money Ben, Oysters don’t really work you know, that is all a myth.” causing him to blush a little. “I’ll just have the dressed crab, if that is ok.”

We had a delicious meal, it was well worth the travel to get there, the boys were amusing and attentive and when we left we went for a walk on the promenade to the harbour to watch the moon rising over the estuary and its shimmering reflections on the sea, it was all very romantic.

Jason was sitting with his arm around me, and I copied what I could see Carol doing and snuggled in to him and he leaned over to give me a passionate kiss causing me to begin to panic. I didn’t know how to react, obviously I was expected to respond, but this was my first date as a girl, and I was unsure whether I wanted to continue. The decision was taken from me by a scream and squeal from Carol and a cry of pain from Ben when she slapped him hard. “Get your filthy hands off me, I told you before that I didn’t want you to do that. Get off me Ben, you are a selfish pig. Jason take me home but I am not getting in the car with that sex-maniac, he can stay here, either that or you can go off with your friend and Dani and I will make our own way home.”

Fortunately Jason was more of a gentleman than his friend. “ Ben go to a pub, I will take the girls home and come back to pick you up. I don’t want to know what you have done to upset Carol, but you have ruined the night for us all.”

There was a stony silence in the car all the way back, Jason dropped us off and drove away to pick up Ben, and Carol and I went back into the flat, where she just sat there crying.

“ What on earth was all that about Carol, I thought that you fancied him and you seemed to be getting on well together.”

“ Men ! They are all the same. We were just having a bit of a petting session, kissing, a bit of fondling of my breasts, his hand stroking my thigh, you must know what I mean, but then he put his fingers into my panties and started to touch me up, that is when I freaked out.”

“ Ok I understand, but you need to calm down, what he did was wrong but you could have just slapped him down, you went off into a red mist, I thought that you were going crazy.”

“ What you don’t know, and not many other people do either, is that I was sexually assaulted and raped two years ago, and it just brought it all back for me.”

“ Oh, I am so sorry, come here and let me give you a hug to comfort you and to let you know that you now have a friend that understands why you reacted like that.”

“ After a few minutes, she was able to speak again. “I have been out and have been intimate with boys since then and I still have feelings for them as long as they are gentle and go at my pace, but Ben was too eager and pushy, I had moved his hand away a few times but that last time he just pulled me towards him and pushed my hand forcibly away, I just panicked.”

“ Look, it is just the two of us here now Carol, you are safe, let me get you a drink and we can talk more about it.”

“ Just remember what happened tonight Dani, be very careful, there are a lot of men out there that you can’t trust.”

She still seemed in a very high emotional state and I didn’t think it was the right time to remind her that I was still a boy and that I had been living with her for a few weeks and that she had never felt unsafe with me, even when we were walking around in skimpy nightclothes. Later, when she had vented all her contempt for the behaviour of Ben in particular, but boys in general too, she calmed down, we cleaned up and got ready for bed and went off to our rooms. I could hear her still sobbing but felt it better just to leave her alone.

I woke with a start the next morning, feeling an arm over my chest and a body spooned into my back and slowly turned around to see Carol asleep in my bed with me, quietly got up without disturbing her, and went to the kitchen for a coffee and to try to collect my thoughts. About an hour later she came into the kitchen looking a lot calmer and happier.

‘Sorry about last night, you seemed to be getting on so well with Jason, and when we came home I was bitching about men and how they couldn’t be trusted. I was so wound up that I totally forgot that you are still a man and probably still think like one, but you had the decency not to start an argument with me. When I went to bed I couldn’t sleep thinking about what Ben had tried to do and needed the comfort of a hug and a warm body next to mine and I honestly at times just totally blank out who you really are and just see you as one of my girl friends that I can discuss my problems with, i hope you don’t mind.”

“ Come here and we ‘ll have a hug, and let’s forget all about yesterday, pretend it was all just a bad dream. If it helps just keep thinking of me as a girl and treating me and talking to me as if I was Gemma.”

“ Girls together eh, Dani, you are a really good friend.”

To be continued