[Late Saturday]
“Which way are we going?” asked Carla.

I’d brought Roxy to a standstill where the Macclesfield Canal leaves the Trent and Mersey Canal near Kidsgrove.

“It depends on you.”

“Me? Why?”

“How many locks do you want to go through between here and Manchester?”

Carla didn’t answer so I shoved the canal map over to where she was sitting.

“You were very quiet when we came through the tunnel just now?”

Carla looked up at me.

“It was quite eerie. No sound but ourselves. That echo was spooky.”

“That’s the beauty of the new Roxy.”

“Less smelly as well.”

"Yes, that."

Carla smiled back at me.
“It was kinda cool.”

“What about the number of locks?”

“There seems to be a lot more if we go via Macclesfield.”

“Over fifty that way and around thirty the other way which is a lot longer in terms of distance.”

“And in time?”

“Could be shorter but a lot less picturesque.”

“Are we in any rush to get to Manchester?”

“Well… I was going to get a new bike and there is something that I need to collect from a transport company on our way out of the city. Otherwise, there are a few galleries that I’d like to visit especially the Lowry but as you are aware by now, Roxy goes nowhere fast.”
“In that case, I vote for the pretty route.”

“So be it.”

Then I added,
“Good choice by the way.”

---

We cleared the last of the twelve Bosley Locks just before midday on Sunday whereupon, I gave Roxy and its operators a pitstop. We emptied the rubbish and toilet, filled the water tanks and both took a shower. Showering on board was ok but we limited the time under it to conserve water. Bankside showers could not always be relied upon to be hot but you were never constrained by the amount of water that you could use.

Carla had pitched in and was making going through a lock far, far easier than it would have been on my own. I could tell by the way she was pitching in, that she was very troubled by what had gone on with her job. Anything to get those problems out of her mind. I knew the look on her face. I’d been there, done that.

I smiled as I remembered the time, I did something rather than letting the thoughts of what might have been get to me. That was on the train across the Nullarbor Plain in Australia. I found myself sharing a table in the dining car with a woman who was old enough to be my mother. On a long train journey on your own, you start talking just for something to do so I told her about my experience with my Uncle in NSW. She told me not to waste my time feeling sorry for myself or what I was going to tell my father and do something for myself. She even quoted me back at me. Oh, the irony but her words struck home and that was why I got off the train at Kalgoorlie and it worked.

“Penny for them!”, said Carla.

“Oh sorry, I was miles away.”

“I could see that.”

“I was just thinking back to my time in the Australian Outback. It wasn’t like this.”

It had come onto rain and looked like it was set in for the day.

“How about we moor up and sit this out?”

“Good idea.”

---

“I’ll cook those steaks we bought yesterday. Pepper sauce ok?” when we descended the steps into the cabin and closed the hatch cover. The rain was starting to get pretty heavy. I was glad that we'd decided to stop when we did.

Carla grinned back at me.

“Sounds like a plan.”
Then she added,
“I’m going to get changed. These jeans are a bit wet. The inside of the shower block was running with water.”

“Ok, take your time. Roxy isn’t going, anywhere is she?”

“Not today at least,” said Carla as she disappeared into her bedroom with a grin on her face.

It seemed that she’d sorted out what had been on her mind most of the day. I’d had to nudge her a few times during our journey through the locks to get going. It was as if her mind was somewhere else entirely. I hoped that whatever it was that she’d decided, that she would let me know if it involved her leaving Roxy and me in the next few days.

As I busied myself preparing the very late lunch/early dinner my thoughts turned to what lay ahead of us the next day. I was dithering about trying to get through the twelve locks on the Marple flight or if we should wait for the next day.

When I’d finished preparing the Onions and Mushrooms, I checked Roxy’s state of charge. We would not have enough charge to do both the run north through Macclesfield to Marple and the flight. That swayed it for me. It would be three days before we reached the centre of Manchester. If we could find a mooring in the city centre, then we could check into a hotel for the weekend and enjoy a bit of luxury, get the laundry done before leaving on the following Monday. I had a place to call at in the west of the city that would probably not be open before Monday so it seemed to fit well.

I finished preparing the ingredients for the meal but there was no sign of Carla.

“Carla, how long will you be? I want to know so that I will know when to start cooking.”

“I’ll be a while,” came her slightly breathless answer.
“We aren’t in any hurry to eat, are we?”

“No, we aren’t. I’ll wait for you to get ready before starting to cook.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she replied from inside her bedroom.

---

Almost an hour had gone by since Carla had said ‘sounds like a plan’ and I was starting to wonder what she was doing when she called out,
“I’m ready. I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes.”

While I like surprises, I did not have a clue as to what Carla had in store for me so I went along with her request.

“I’m ready. My eyes are closed.”

I heard her door open and the sound of soft footsteps approaching. It seemed that she wasn’t wearing any shoes.

I smelled her perfume come close to me.

“Open your eyes.”

I opened my eyes to find Carla completely covered in shiny black latex or something like that.

“Well? How do I look?”

I was stunned. The only bits of her body that were not covered in the shiny black material was her mouth, nostrils and eyes.

“Wow! That’s different and not what I expected.”

“Do you like it?”

“It will take some getting used to but there is one thing that is apparent and that is that you are not wearing anything underneath it are you?”

Carla giggled.

Then she came and straddled me effectively pinning me to the chair. Before I could react, she kissed me. Not a gentle first kiss but a passionate one. At first, I wasn’t sure if I should respond but I did and found that I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it far more than I’d thought I would.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” she said when we broke apart.

“I enjoyed that.”

“But you are not sure about this?”

“It will take some getting used to that’s for sure.”

Carla grinned.
“Good. I love wearing this gear. It takes me to another world. At least you didn't freak out when you saw me like this.”

I could see that. This was a bubbly, effervescent Carla that was a world away from the one I’d met at Milton Keynes just a few days before.

The new Carla took my hand and led it towards her crotch. There was a zip in her suit that covered her vagina. It was wide open. I guessed what she wanted me to do.

“Are you sure about this?” I whispered.

“Go right ahead,” she replied nibbling my ear lobe.

I gently started to massage the lips of her vagina. It didn’t take long before they became very wet and she started to groan. I kissed her just to shut her up and carried on with the massage.

It didn't take long for her to climax. The smell of her sex was all-pervasive. It was a nice sweet smell.

“Thank you. That was so much nicer than doing it all myself,” she whispered in my ear as she nibbled it.

“I was glad to be of service.”

Carla leaned back and looked me in the eye.
“This is all a bit much isn’t it?”

“It is a surprise. No, make that a big surprise. I never dreamed that you were like this…”

“Like what?”

“You are effing beautiful. You have a great figure. Then I wonder what you are doing here with someone like me? There must be hoards of men just chomping at the bit to go to bed with someone like you.”

"Someone like you is why I'm here. You are not a man. I'm done with men and all the rough sex that they seem to love. You are kind and considerate and someone with who I'd very much like to have a relationship. That good enough for you?"

“But this getup?”

“Different eh?”

“Very and also a mystery. It leaves nothing to the imagination.”

“Yeah. Cool eh. But there is no way that I’m going up on deck like this so don’t even think about asking.”

Carla looked at me smiling.
“I guess that there are so many questions that you want to ask but can’t quite get your mind around yet?”

“Something like that.”

“Then why don’t you open the wine and start cooking, and I’ll tell you a story.”

I opened the wine and handed Carla a glass.

Carla drank some and began her tale.
“Once upon a time, there was a virtually penniless LSE Law Student who went looking for a job…”

I began to cook our meal as Carla related how she came to work at a fetish club while still a first-year student and how she'd graduated from working behind the bar to performing on stage while dressed in latex.

"I started to enjoy wearing this stuff. As soon as I put it on it was as if I was a different person. As well as performing, I also helped the club with their legal work. All in all, it paid pretty well so well that when I graduated, I had no student debt and there was almost enough money in my bank account to use as a deposit on my flat in Watford.”

“Well done you. Did anyone at your Uni suspect what you were doing?”

Carla laughed.
“None or at least no one came to me and said ‘I know where you are working’ or words to that effect.”

I looked over at Carla. It was clear that she really loved this outfit. I was beginning to warm to it but I could never see myself in that sort of getup. For one thing, I didn't have the figure for it.

It was then I realised that even in her business suit, she was hiding her real beauty. Her loose-fitting clothes reminded me of the ones I wore before I came out and became Lauren full time.

“This is the real you, isn’t it?”

Carla smiled and nodded her head.

“Is working as a lawyer is just a means to fund this sort of thing?”

“At first, I thought that being a lawyer would be a career but when I started working as a junior, I started to have my doubts but I persevered and when I was qualified as a solicitor, I found my old job. It seemed to be a great opportunity and at first, it was. I began doing the sort of work that I really loved. Then my boss started getting other ideas.”

“And ultimately led you here today?”

She grinned back at me.

“Is that so bad?”
“Oh, and that smells nice.”

I was busy with the Pepper and Cream sauce. It was all smelling rather good which made a change as more often than not, I would burn the sauce.

“It does, doesn’t it. It will be ready in a couple of minutes. If you need to powder your nose so to speak then this is the time to do it.”

Carla stood up and after leaning over and kissing me, she headed for the bathroom.

I was still puzzling over the ‘why me’ question when she returned carrying a pair of shoes.

“It will be ready in a minute.”

Carla sat down and put on the shoes. Then she stood up and laughed as her head touched the ceiling.

“Roxy wasn’t built for people to wear heels,” I said jokingly.

"That's a shame. I love wearing very high heels with this outfit."

“They do finish it off nicely.”

“Thanks. Are you warming to the idea of me wearing this again?”

I sighed.

“There is more to it than that.”
Then I added,
“We can talk about it after we have eaten.”

“This is very good,” said Carla after she’d eaten some of the grilled steak.

“Thanks.”

“You are a very good cook.”

“Needs must. There aren’t any takeaway’s in the Outback so I made sure that I ate well. My old prospecting colleagues were dinosaurs when it came to food. They could have happily survived on Bacon, Onion and Tomato Sandwiches with a mega steak on the barbie at weekends.”

“Heathens!”

“Yeah. I soon put a stop to that even if I ended up doing all the cooking. They did appreciate it in the end.”

“You are a woman of hidden talents,” said Carla as she finished eating.

Seeing her glossy black body was starting to become a real turn on. Her shiny black fingers reflected the light with every movement.

“Hardly. I love a bacon sarnie but for every meal? Judd, the leader had a freezer in his camper that was full of frozen bread, bacon and all the rest. There was even frozen milk for the tea and coffee. No thanks. After giving them a bit of an ultimatum, I drove down to Kalgoorlie and did some shopping. For the next two and a half months we lived very well and made a load of money. So much so that the others decided to head on home with more than a month of the season still left to run.”

“What did you do then?”

“I worked in a Hotel in Kalgoorlie for a few weeks while I got my things together. It was getting close to the end of the season so there were lots of prospectors coming into town to change their gold into cash and rooms were at a premium. When I had a pickup or as they call them a ‘Ute’ ready, I headed off into the bush. People said that I was crazy to go out at the end of the mining season when the temperatures were over 40C all day. I found the place I was looking for and set up camp. As the sun went down, I started prospecting. Two nights later I found the gold seam that I was looking for. I went back into Kalgoorlie and bought what is in effect a road drill but electric powered and a more powerful generator. Then I headed back into the bush making sure that I wasn’t followed. Claim robbers are a thing out there especially at the end of the season when lone prospectors have lots of gold ready to be melted down. The rest is history and here we are today.”

I picked up my glass. Carla did the same. We chinked them together.

“Carla, excuse my language but you are one hot chick in that outfit. If you want to wear it again, then you are more than welcome.”

Carla came around the table and sat on my lap.

“You are really cute when you say that but this isn't everything."

“Well then keep it until we get to Manchester. I’ll book us a couple of rooms in a hotel for the weekend.”

“A couple of rooms?”

I smiled back at her.

“Ok, just the one.”

"Make sure that it has a king-size bed."

I kissed her to seal the deal.

---

[two days later]

We’d just gone through the seventh of the twelve locks on the Marple flight when Carla’s phone rang.

“I’ll put the kettle on,” I said smiling as Roxy coasted to a stop close to the bank.

“Thanks.”

Carla leapt off of Roxy and onto the towpath to answer the phone. This was the first time her phone had rung since we’d met on the train.

While the kettle was boiling, I used the temporary mooring to stop Roxy from drifting into the middle of the canal. Carla was still on the phone so I went back on board and got the tea things ready.

With the tea brewed and poured I took the mugs up to the cockpit and sat down. The low cloud and rain of the previous two days had gone and the sun was pleasantly warm. There were a few other craft moving about on the canal but the early start we’d made had meant that we were the first boat of the day heading down the flight.

Carla ended her phone call and came back on board. The smile that was on her face was long gone. I sensed trouble.

She climbed back on board and sat down next to me.
“Thanks for that,” she said as she picked up the mug of tea.
“We’ve done well so far. Only five more locks to go.”

“Then another eighteen before we get into central Manchester.”

Carla nearly choked into her tea.
“But I can see the city from here?”

"That's life on the cut, my dear. Things are farther away than they might seem to be. The canal builders followed the contours of the land wherever possible.”

She smiled back at me.
“I’m getting used to that.”

“There is a decent flat bit once we are through this lot. Right to the end of the canal where we turn left onto Ashton Canal. There is a mooring in the Portland Basin that I reserved the other day. There is another one with Roxy’s name on it in Manchester.”

“No rest for the wicked,” she replied.

“That was Evan’s associate, Nadia on the phone. My old company are talking about a settlement. She’d like me to be there for the conference.”

“Do you want to go? Won’t you have to face your old boss?”

“I hope not. I made it clear that I don’t want to be in the same room with that sex pervert.”

“Did you use those words?”

“I did. She got the message.”

“When does she want you down south?”

“Next Thursday. They are coming to Reading.”

I smiled.
“Then we’ll go down together. We can travel by train. There are direct trains to Reading from here.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“I’m not letting you do this on your own.”

Carla leaned over and gave me a long passionate kiss. Ever since the episode of the black latex, we'd become pretty close but deep down, I felt that it would only be temporary. If Carla got a decent settlement, then there really was no reason for her to stay with me. This was one time that I hoped that I was 100% wrong with that prediction.

Melody had left me just as we were very much getting to know each other now, I was faced with the prospect of Carla following Melody out the exit door of my life.

[to be continued]