She was a woman in her late twenties, long straight blond hair, blue eyes, button nose and nice full lips. She was quite thin and her legs were slim and shapely. Black sheer stockings and three inch court shoes enhanced the shape of her legs.   Love Hurts by Susan Brown

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Part 1 of 3

 
 
She was a woman in her late twenties, long straight blond hair, blue eyes, button nose and nice full lips. She was quite thin and her legs were slim and shapely. Black sheer stockings and three inch court shoes enhanced the shape of her legs. She was wearing a nice little royal blue satin dress that showed her rather shapely body to perfection. She frowned slightly at her small breasts, enhanced by a padded bra but then smiled again as she returned to concentrating on her face. The woman’s makeup was not as understated as normal as she was going to a dance and needed to take account of the lighting in such places. It was a nice face; foundation, bronze toner, pink blusher, smoky grey eyes, double thick mascara and lips that were made fuller with rose gloss lipstick all helped to improve her natural features. Clip on diamond drop earrings, matching bracelet and necklace completed the picture.

Studying my reflection in the mirror, I smiled.

“Not bad, Karen,” I thought and then blushed. I wasn’t used to praising myself, even when no one else was around. I tore my eyes away from the mirror and sat on the bed. Glancing at my watch, I realised that it was nearly time to go.

It was a pleasant room; it was the best I could afford, in the circumstances. This was the first transgender dance I had ever attended. This one was special, being at Christmas time. Ever since I was a child, I had loved Christmas. Being sort of on my own for a long while now, it was nice to be able to let my hair down a bit, forget my troubles and spend some time with people that liked me for what I am and not make judgements about me. I had been to several meetings of my local TG group over the last few years, but found them to be a bit cliquey and not to my taste so I stopped going. Luckily, I belonged to an online friendship group for those who were like me. I had made friends with several people there and I was going to meet three of them tonight. We all agreed that the Christmas festivities here were the best and I had been eagerly anticipating this event for some months now.

I really looked forward to meeting my online friends at last. There was Patricia; she was a librarian, Sharon a shop worker and Michelle, who was a doctor, and pre-op, on hormones like me. We were all of similar ages and we had a lot of fun when we went on line. MSN was great and we had all set up our web cams so we knew roughly what each other looked like.

Smiling at the thought of seeing my friends, at last, my smile faded slightly as I thought about my current situation; let’s face facts; it was never far from my thoughts. I am–or should I say was–a computer systems designer and had worked for Farino Systems since I was head-hunted at university. The package they offered was mind-boggling and it didn’t take me long to agree to join them. A company car, benefits package and a salary of fifty thousand pounds a year was enough for me to think that my future was secure. Everything went swimmingly well until about a year ago when Farino was taken over by a Japanese company who took most of the accounts away, effectively asset stripping the company and then they added insult to injury by making fifty percent of us redundant. I was one of that fifty percent. All this coincided with a downturn in the economy and mass redundancies in many industries, including mine.

From having a well paid job with all the trappings, I was overnight, unemployed and with little prospect of getting another job in my field as there were too many people chasing too few jobs. I went to interviews, of course but nothing came of any of them. I tried other types of computer related jobs, banking on my qualifications and experience to get me something worthwhile, but nothing came to fruition.

I had bought a flat with a huge mortgage in an upmarket part of town when I got my job. I was soon in trouble as the repayments were horrendous. I tried to sell, only to find that the property market had collapsed and I was close to negative equity. In desperation, I sold the flat at eighty percent of the price I paid for it and that just about covered the repayment of the mortgage. All this coincided with my seeing a trick cyclist to see if I was a suitable case for sexual reassignment and starting to take hormones.

I had no car, no home, no job and serious gender issues. Luckily I had managed to save a bit and had about twenty thousand pounds in the bank. I managed to find a bedsit that I could just about afford and a job working with the elderly as a carer. I had gone from sorting out computers to cleaning the bottoms of elderly incontinent people. Don’t get me wrong, the people that I worked with were in the main lovely and apart from the ickie side of things, it was rewarding work, but I was trained for something else and the pay was barely above minimum wage.

So here I was, a year later and considerably poorer. My savings had dwindled and this was probably going to be the one and only time I could afford to indulge myself and let my hair down a bit. I was three months into my real life test and luckily, with one notable exception at work, I had been accepted as Karen. It was ironic that the only real money that I had left, was ear marked for private surgery as the waiting list on the NHS was horrendously long. I could really use that money now, but I had to be strong and not touch it with a barge pole.

I had started to call myself Karen from about the age of four, according to my mum. I went to play-school and always made a bee line towards the dressing up clothes. Not for me the cowboy outfits, I liked to be a fairy, nurse or ballet dancer with a cute pink tutu.

Being a lone parent–I never knew my dad–my mum did all she could to be the best mother she could possibly be. She tried her hardest to point out that I was a boy and not a girl, but it fell on deaf ears. I was forever rummaging about in the clothes basket and putting on her clothes. She laughed at first but the joke soon became less funny as I grew up convinced that I was a girl and not a boy. Eventually, we compromised; I was allowed to dress as a girl in the house, but never outside.

Two days after my seventeenth birthday, my mum had an aneurism and died. After the trauma of losing her at such a young age–she was only forty-two–I stayed with an aunt and uncle until I left for university. Sharing a flat with three other undergraduates meant that I couldn’t dress as Karen very much. By this time I had some girls’ clothes that I kept hidden in a suitcase under the bed. On the rare occasions that I was alone, I tried to dress as Karen, but it was difficult as people were often coming in unannounced. How I never got caught I will never know. Anyway, once I graduated, got a job and moved into my own flat, I was free to be Karen whenever I wanted and I started taking hormones. My wardrobe expanded and knowing that I was fairly passable, I went out on a few shopping trips and to the transgender support group. Then I had to live for 2 years at least as a girl to pass my real life test and luckily the nursing home that I worked at was very understanding. I had met some opposition though but I tried not to think of that as I continued to titivate myself for the evening.

Looking at my watch, I realised that I was running late; the other girls were probably there by now. I had been day dreaming and feeling a bit sorry for myself. Taking a deep breath I decided that tonight was going to be fun and to hell with the future, it was time to go!

I picked up my royal blue chiffon and lace shrug and draped it round my shoulders, then, picking up my shoulder bag, I took one last look around the room and went out.

Locking the door behind me, I went down the corridor to the lift. I could hear the slight thump, thump sound coming from the disco and my heart speeded up at the thought of meeting my friends in person for the first time.

2

The Royal Hotel was run by TG friendly owners. They had held these long weekends for the past eight years. They had become very popular and I was very pleased that we had been able to book up the Christmas Weekend before it was sold out. The whole hotel was decked out with decorations, lights twinkled everywhere and the huge tree in the reception area was a wonder to behold. I loved Christmas, remembering that my happiest times was with my mum on Christmas morning, having ham and eggs for breakfast, then opening the presents that Father Christmas (via my mum) had brought; happy days! So Christmas was so very special to me and this weekend I hoped would bring me more happiness than I had had in a number of years and would, hopefully be one of my best ones.

The function room was on the first floor and as I went down in the lift, I hoped that tonight I could forget all my problems and let my hair down; it was Christmas after all, time to be happy, enjoy yourself and above all let your hair down.

The lift pinged as the doors slid open and I was hit by the sound of the disco at full blast. There were several girls milling around and I searched to see if any of them were my friends. Not recognising anyone, I went through the tall swing doors and into the conference room that was hosting our evening.

The ceiling was covered in twinkling fairy lights; a huge Christmas tree stood in the corner, decorated with tinsel, glass balls and lights that flashed in time to the music. The DJ was behind a desk nearly surrounded by equipment and speakers, wearing a red hat and a t shirt that said ‘Daddy Christmas Rools’–a bit tacky, but what the hell.

To the left was a long bar and quite a few girls were getting drinks. It was fairly dark in there and apart from the strobe like disco lights and the ones behind the bar, it was a bit gloomy.

Then I heard a call from the other end of the bar and there they were. I waved enthusiastically and went over.

“Hi, Karen!” they shrieked almost in unison.

They were all dressed in their party dresses, Patricia and Sharon were wearing matching black LBD’s and I wondered if they had planned it that way. Michelle was wearing an off the shoulder maroon chiffon dress and looked absolutely wonderful.

“You look lovely,” said Sharon with the others nodding and smiling.

“Not a patch on you lot. I feel positively dowdy!”

To sounds of ‘rubbish,’ and ‘nonsense,’ from the other girls, we picked up some drinks, G&T for me and Pat; rum and cokes for the other two. We walked over to the far side of the room, so we could chat without shouting too much.

There was a free table in the corner and we put our drinks down and grabbed some seats.

Looking at my friends, I realised that web cams were not very flattering. I knew that my friends were quite nice looking, but in the flesh, they were positively gorgeous. With Pat and Sharon, I knew they had something going and had been out several times together and it was obvious that they were a couple. Michelle, on the other hand, had been married and although she didn’t say much about it–it had all ended a bit messily, I knew that she had put the past behind her and was feeling more positive about the future. To be honest, I couldn’t take my eyes off Michelle, she looked so pretty and her lovely personality shone through. We had become rather close in the time that I had been using the chat room. We had spent hours on line, talking about our dreams, wishes and wants.

We talked for quite a while about what we were wearing, everyone said I looked drop dead gorgeous and I felt my face heat up as I did my famous impression of a red traffic light, much to the amusement of my friends, of course. We had a few more drinks and then had a sort of group dance to ‘jingle bells’ around our bags. Eventually, after several drinks, plenty of dancing and a lot of chat, it was getting a bit late and the dances got a bit slower.

Pat and Sharon had disappeared somewhere and sitting back at our table, Michele and I took advantage of the slightly lower volume to talk to each other without shouting.

I was feeling a bit strange. As soon as I saw Michelle earlier in the evening, my heart had sort of flipped. It was strange sensation, one that I had never had before. I thought that she was lovely and her smile when she first saw me, lit up her face. As I say, we had always been a bit closer, on line when we talked than I had ever been with the other girls. I suppose we sort of clicked. We liked the same music, Daniel Bedingfield, Enya, Clannad and strangely enough ABBA. We had seen and liked the same type of mushy, “I need a hankie,” films. The only thing we disagreed on was that I preferred the music of McCartney to Lennon.

“Well, Karen,” said Michelle, leaning close so that I could hear her over the music, “are you enjoying yourself?”

I was bit distracted by her perfume but I tried to answer coherently.

“It’s lovely. You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I came last year. I was by myself so it wasn’t quite as much fun.”

“Well, I hope that you are enjoying yourself this year.”

“Yes, it’s great meeting everyone for the first time, especially you; It’s nice chatting on line and doing the web cam thing, but it’s different and more fun in the flesh.

As she spoke, I was looking at her. She was so lovely, dark brown hair, slightly above shoulder length; she told me once that she kept it that length because she could get away with changing it from male to female quite easily like that, although now she was transitioning, that wasn’t a major problem any longer. She was slim, with a pretty, narrow face. Her nose was quite small and dainty, and her eyes were greeny-brown in colour. Her lashes were long and curled up beautifully. She wore red lipstick and my eyes kept drifting from her eyes to her mouth. What was going on here?

“Karen?”

I pulled myself together.

“Sorry?”

“Have you been listening to me?”

“Sorry, I was miles away there.”

She laughed.

“Well come back down to Earth. I was saying that I think that Pat and Sharon have a thing going.”

“Have they?” I answered, pretending that I didn’t know.

“Yes, they are still on the dance floor and they appear to be locked quite close during the slow dances.”

I looked at them through the strobe lighting and other dancers on the packed floor and could dimly see that they were very close indeed.

“That’s nice.” I said, “but to be honest, I have known for quite some time that they had a “thing” going.”

How come?”

“Well, Pat was on line late one night and I think that she had a few too many drinks. She poured her heart out to me how much she liked Sharon but was afraid to do anything about it.”

“So you did a bit of match making then?”

“Sort of, I just said that she would regret it if she did nothing and I sort of ordered her to email Sharon and ask her out on a date. I was as surprised as anybody when I found out that she had actually done it…the rest is history.”

“Well, they make a fine couple; I hope it works out for them. Changing the subject, would you like to dance?”

I looked up and saw a hopeful look on Michelle’s face.

“Please.”

We got up and walked over to the centre of the dance floor just as George Michaels and Andrew Thingie’s, Careless Whisper started.

I looked at Michelle rather shyly and she took control. Soon we were up close and personal, dancing to that lovely sensuous music.

I could smell her perfume and feel the heat of her body as we danced slowly to the music. Somehow I found my head leaning against hers and we seemed to come even closer together. My breathing became heavier and I could feel a slight tremor going through her body, or was it mine? I couldn’t tell. We drifted slowly around the dance floor, oblivious to the people around us. It was nice being with her and I savoured the moment as time stood still and we just lived in our own little world.

I looked into her eyes, wondering if it was just me feeling this special moment…but no, I could see that she was as much affected as I.

I vaguely realised that the music had changed to another song, but to this day, I couldn’t tell you which one it was. All I do know is that we didn’t miss a beat and continued as if there was no one else around us.

We both started slightly as someone tapped our shoulders, it was Patricia, with Sharon standing next to her grinning.

“Will you two let each other go? The music’s stopped now and the disco has finished.”

I looked around and saw that the dance floor was emptying out and the main lights had come up.

I looked at Michelle who smiled rather sheepishly and said, “Oops!”

For some reason I giggled.

We stepped apart, walked over to our table and quickly finished our drinks. I couldn’t believe how quickly the time had gone. We sat down and discussed what we were going to do the next day and what we might wear at tomorrow night’s dinner dance. Everyone wanted to go and do some last minute Christmas shopping, but I was a bit apprehensive as I wasn’t as sure of myself as they were and let’s face it I was a bit short of cash.

“Look, Karen,” said Pat, “you look lovely; no one will clock you, I promise and even if they do, you’ll never see them again so don’t worry.”

I laughed at that rather mixed logic, but the others agreed that I had nothing to worry about so I just shrugged my shoulders and went with the flow. I was, after all, supposed to mingle with the general public to pass the real life test, but I was always on my guard that I might be “clocked”.

We agreed to meet again at 9.00 am for breakfast and then made our way out of the conference room and over to the lift.

Pat and Sharon got out of the lift on the second floor and there were no prises to be had for guessing that they wouldn’t be sleeping separately that night as they were all over each other like a rash. We quickly kissed goodnight as they disappeared giggling behind the closing door of the lift.

“What floor are you on?” asked Michelle.

“The third.”

“Oh same as me, what’s your room number?”

“38.”

“I’m in 36 so we are probably next to each other.”

Just then, the door opened and we walked out of the lift.

Walking down the corridor, we were quiet. I was sad that such a nice evening was coming to an end and I had strange feelings for this girl next to me. She was very quiet. I wondered whether she was regretting our closeness on the dance floor and wondered whether I blown our friendship somehow. I looked at her face and could see a slight smile playing on her lips–that was hopeful, at least she wasn’t frowning!

Looking at me, she smiled.

“It was a lovely evening wasn’t it?”

“Mmm.” I replied. “wonderful.”

We reached Michelle’s room first. She pulled out her key and looked at me.

“Erm… would you like to come in for a nightcap?”

“Are you sure that you aren’t too tired?”

“No, I just don’t want today to end and it’s been fabulous seeing you and the other girls.”

“Okay.” I smiled, as she opened the door and ushered me in.

The light was on and I could see that the room was a carbon copy of mine next door, with the bathroom on the left as you walk in, a double bed on one side, sofa at the end and a long dressing table on the left with a large lit mirror above it.

There was a small fridge in the corner and Michelle opened it.

“G & T?”

“Yes please,” I replied sitting on the sofa and taking my shoes off. I rubbed my black stockinged feet. I was unused to walking and dancing in heels and it was a pleasure just massaging them after all the abuse they’d had to endure.

Michelle came over with the drinks and smiled.

“Sore feet?”

“A bit.” I laughed, taking the drink from her.

She sat down next to me, put her drink on the coffee table and took her shoes off too.

“Mmm, that is nice,” she exclaimed with pleasure, “the torture we girls have to go through!”

We sipped our drinks and chatted quietly about the evening.

“It’s funny,” she observed, “how different people look in the flesh. I know that we see each other a lot on the web cam and we’ve sent each other loads of pic’s, but it’s different in the flesh, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. I must admit, that you look even prettier in the flesh.”

“Oh Karen, that’s a nice thing to say. I must admit, when I saw you coming up to the bar tonight that I thought that you were the prettiest girl there and that was before I twigged that it was you.”

“I’m not that nice looking.”

“Don’t put yourself down, girl. You’re lovely and don’t you forget it!”

“Yes, Miss.” I said in a small girl’s voice.

“Enough of that or I’ll not let you have a lollypop when we go shopping tomorrow.”

We both looked at each other and laughed.

We talked for a while longer and finished our drinks.

“Well, I suppose I had better go to my room now as we are getting up early for the shops,” I said regretfully.

“Okay, honey,” replied Michelle as we both stood up and put our empty glasses on the table.

I went up to her and slightly hesitantly kissed her on the cheek. She kissed me back and we gently hugged.

Somehow, we pulled apart slightly and looked into each other’s eyes. Deep inside me I knew that I had feelings for her and I think those feelings were reflected in her eyes too. We hugged again, even tighter; our lips came closer and my eyes shut as our lips touched. Feeling a tingle go down my body like an electric shock, time stood still. In moments our mouths had opened and we gently kissed one another, our tongues caressing as we explored each other. I could feel the thump of her heart as well as mine as we held our bodies close to each other.

After what seemed a long time, we parted, both slightly breathless and flushed and looked at each other in a new light.

“That was wonderful,” she said gently brushing my cheek with her soft hand.

I held her hand against my face and just smiled. I couldn’t put into words how I felt.

“Do you have to go?”

“No.” I breathed, finally able to say something but not knowing really where all this was going.

We sat back down on the sofa and continued what we had started a few moments before. Soon we were kissing more passionately, exploring each other’s bodies with our hands. Eventually we just cuddled up together on the sofa, my head on her breast as she stroked my hair. I could smell her perfume and she smelt so sweet. I didn’t want to move but I had to use the loo.

“Michelle, I need to go.”

“Don’t go!” she exclaimed, sitting up and looking imploringly into my eyes.

“I mean I have to go to the toilet.” I laughed. “I also need to freshen up my makeup, I probably look terrible.”

“You look lovely, but why not take your makeup off.”

“I’m not so pretty without my war paint on.”

“I don’t believe that. Anyway, if you are staying the night, you don’t want to go to bed with makeup on, do you, I never do?”

“Y…You want me t…to stay the night?” I said sitting down again, all thoughts of needing to go to the loo disappearing in an instant.

Michelle looked distraught.

“Karen, I…I…I’m sorry. I thought that you wanted to…”

Looking at her, all upset at what she thought was a big mistake on her part; I really didn’t know what to say.

I just held her slightly shaking hand and leaned in to kiss her sweet lips.

After a few moments of complete silence and delicious concentration, I pulled away slightly.

“Of course I’ll stay, if you want me to.”

Her smile said it all as we snuggled together. There was no longer any need to hurry.

After a few more moments of tonsil tickling, I really had to go–to the loo.

“Won’t be a minute,” I said as I unwound myself from Michelle and hurried into the bathroom.

After doing the necessary, I was back in the arms of Michelle. I felt safe, secure and very contented but I knew that soon it would be time for bed.

As if reading my mind, Michelle looked at me and said. “Did you want to go to bed now?”

“Mmm, but I need to go next door to get my nightie and toilet bag.”

“Okay, seems like a plan, don’t be long, I don’t want to let you out of my sight now I have you, here’s the key. I’ll take off my makeup and get undressed while you’re away.”

I smiled as I got up, put on my shoes and left the room.

Letting myself into my room, I went into the bathroom, cleaned off my makeup, spritzed a little perfume in strategic places, put together the things I needed and was back in Michelle’s room after only a few minutes.

She was in the bathroom when I arrived back and I sat down and waited on the sofa. A short while later she came out, brushing her hair. She had on a peach diaphanous peignoir and looked edible. My poor excuse for manhood twitched slightly in my panties as I saw the vision of loveliness before me.

“Hi, Karen, do you want to use the bathroom to get changed?”

“Yes please; you look so lovely.”

“This old thing.” She laughed, plucking at the hem. “I like it anyway.”

I gave her a quick kiss as I passed her and went into the bathroom. I quickly undressed and folded my clothes…leaving them on a chair. I used the loo again, I think I was a bit nervous, I had never gone to bed with anyone before and I was what is delicately called a virgin. I flushed the toilet and washed my hands. I was getting more and more nervous, not sure of what to do and what was going to happen shortly. Looking at my penis, it was quite small and not very well developed. I hadn’t had a proper erection for quite some time, a result of the hormones, but I had a sort of squishy feeling in my tummy and my small breasts tingled a bit, so I knew that I was being aroused at the thought of being close to Michelle. It felt strange putting on my nightie with an obviously male appendage hidden beneath the pink silky material, but as a male bit of equipment, it was woefully lacking and I sort of ignored it, wishing that it wasn’t there and that I was an innie rather than a rather inadequate outie. I knew that Michelle had a similar arrangement under her nightdress and I wondered how things would turn out tonight. Sexually, I was a naíve novice. I had masturbated on a fairly regular basis up until the time that I could no longer stimulate my flaccid member; other than that, nothing. Michelle and I had discussed at length on the chat line, what we thought our sexual preferences were. She, like I, knew that she was trapped in the wrong body. I shrugged, not wanting to put a label on what we were, sexually and just looked forward to being as close as possible to Michelle. I was putting off going into the bedroom, not because I didn’t like Michelle–a lot–but because I was insecure, didn’t want to do anything wrong and was scared about whether I was good enough for her.

I brushed my hair until it shone, looked at myself in the mirror and took a very deep breath and smiled, all be it a bit apprehensively.

I went out of the bathroom and over to the bed. Michelle was lying on the bed, she had taken off her peignoir and was wearing a gorgeous cream double layer chiffon nightdress; it went just below the knee and was edged with matching thin ribbons. She smiled and opened her arms. All doubts left me as I joined her in a loving embrace. After a few moments where time seemed to stand still, I found myself being held in her arms. Looking up at her face I could see a contentment and happiness that I was sure reflected my own features.

Michelle pulled herself up on her elbows.

“Karen, how far do you want to go tonight?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well we could just kiss and cuddle like we have been doing and that’s okay, I know that you haven’t had much experience, or we could go further and explore things a bit more. It’s up to you; I’m happy just being with you.”

Looking up at her calm lovely face I could see that she had strong feelings for me, but I had to know for sure. I swallowed nervously, not sure how to put my thoughts into words.

“I…I have always said that I would keep myself for someone who I really care about. We have known each other for quite a long time now, though only today face to face. I…I’ve always liked you ever since we first met in the chat room. I feel that I have known you for years and after tonight, I want to do whatever I can to get as close to you as possible, but only if you feel the same.”

I could feel a tear running down my cheek for some reason and Michelle wiped away the tear with her finger. Her eyes were wet too as she replied.

“Oh Karen, I didn’t want to get too strong with you. I know that you haven’t had the experience that I had, in bed I mean. Mind you, being married to someone who didn’t love you and wouldn’t accept you, kind of puts a dent in your confidence and I’m not too sure that I’m in much a better position than you.”

I recalled when Michelle told me about her sham of a marriage. Her wife changed when they married and although she knew all about Michelle, she rejected her, just a year after the marriage, for a man she was having an affair with. After a painful divorce, Michelle had been careful not to tie herself down to anybody. Thank goodness that there hadn’t been any children to complicate things.

Words were no longer necessary and we fell into each other’s arms, kissing passionately. I could feel her body beneath the thin veneer of her nightdress. I was slightly jealous that her breasts were slightly more developed than mine, but only slightly. Soon, we were both breathing heavily, our passion mounting as we explored each other’s intimate places. As we were both taking hormones, our breasts were still somewhat under developed but quite sensitive. It wasn’t long before we had taken off our nighties and I felt the heat from her smooth hairless body as I caressed her naked flesh and she, mine. Despite the hormones, I could feel and see her small penis throb with anticipation as I stroked it and then kissed it tenderly on the tip. For her part, Michelle was licking my sensitive nipples, making them stand on end and tingle wonderfully….

I won’t describe everything we did that night, but suffice to say, that it was one of the nicest and most wonderful of times that I had ever experienced in my life and that I’ll remember it forever.

The next morning, I awoke to find the bed empty next to me. I could hear the sound of running water coming from the bathroom and realised that Michelle was probably having a shower. I ran my tongue over my lips, still a bit tender from last nights’ love making. Recalling what had happened; I smiled…that was some night!

The water stopped running and a few minutes later, Michelle came into the bedroom, drying her hair with a towel. She had no clothes on and I marvelled at her shapely body and pert little breasts.

“Well; awake at last, lazybones,” she remarked smiling as she continued drying her hair.

“I’m only tired because you snored most of the night.”

“I do not snore!”

“Well, not snored as much as snorted,” I replied.

“Humph.” She replied, pretending to be hurt.

I laughed as I got out of bed and went over to her. Our naked bodies entwined as we kissed passionately for a few minutes. She smelt fresh and clean and was still slightly damp from the shower…which reluctantly reminded me.

“I need a shower,” I remarked as we disengaged, breathing rather heavily for some reason.

“I would rather go back to bed to continue what you started…”

“ME!” I exclaimed, “it wasn’t me that came in here all naked and looking edible.”

“Well never mind that…have you seen the time?”

I looked at the clock on the wall. We had agreed to meet the others at breakfast in thirty minutes.

“Shi…”

“Don’t say that, it isn’t ladylike. Just have a quick shower; you haven’t time to wash your hair it looks lovely anyway…”

“Yes, Miss; No, Miss; Three bags Full, M…eeek!” I finished as I ran into the shower and away from the pillow-wielding Michelle.

Thirty-four minutes later, and still a bit damp around the edges, I walked out of the lift, my hand entwined with Michelle’s, as we made our way into the breakfast room. Over in the corner, we noticed that Pat and Sharon had already arrived and were tucking into some cornflakes. They looked up as we arrived.

“Well you too seem to be rather close this morning,” remarked Sharon.

“Sharon, mind your own business, what they get up to in the wee small hours is nothing to do with us.”

“Spoilsport!”

I felt myself blush a bit as we sat down and I rather self-consciously poured myself some orange juice.

“Erm…” I said, “did you have a nice night?”

They looked at each other and giggled. From their looks and lack of response, it seemed that their night could have been as eventful as ours!

“So,” said Michelle, diplomatically changing the subject. “What’s the plan for today?”

“SHOPPING!” shouted Pat and Sharon to the amazement of a couple sitting at the next table.

We all burst out laughing and I wondered what sort of day this was going to be.

We all piled into Michelle’s Merc and headed towards the shopping centre. Parkway it was called and it boasted that it was the largest shopping centre in the UK.

I was being practical as it was a bit cold and was wearing some boot cut jeans with black low heeled boots, a sky blue blouse and my long cream hooded cardigan over it; warm and practical–that’s me.

Not having a huge amount to spend, I had budgeted  £100.00 to spend today, but no more. I was going to be strong and blinkered, no over spending for this girl! Anyway I didn’t need much as I had my dress for tonight hanging up in my wardrobe and I hoped that Michelle would like it. All the girls were playing close to their chests what they were wearing tonight and it would be interesting to see if we all made good choices. As far as I was concerned though, Michelle could wear a sack and I would still think that she looked beautiful.

We hit the shops, starting at one end and several hours later arriving, worn out and considerably lighter in the purse, at the other. The other girls had several bags each, but I only had two. In one was a bag that would go just right with my dress tonight and the other had some lingerie that Michelle might find interesting later on tonight.

Being Christmas, the place had an overload of Christmas decorations, kids queuing for Santa in his grotto, never to be repeated sales and shoppers worn out, trying to find presents for loved ones.

Half way through our marathon; by now getting a bit fed up with the mazak playing ‘The Holly and The Ivy’ and ‘Silent Night’ over the loud speakers continually in a loop, we stopped for a bite to eat and some well deserved recuperation in John Lewis Department Store.

We grabbed one of the few free tables, once we had purchased our sandwiches and drinks; I must admit that I was quite grateful when I sank into a chair with an audible sigh.

After feeding and watering ourselves, we compared what we had bought; Sharon had gone mad, buying three dresses, two tops, some jeans and a sparkly jumper. Pat had bought some killer heels, a coat, a few blouses and a game for her Wii.

Michelle was a bit more restrained with her buying but had bought a fabulous black silk dress, some black boots from Dolcis and undies from M&S. The dress alone cost what I earn in a month at the Home. Compared to what the others bought, my purchases seemed a bit meagre, but I explained that my budget was a bit stretched at the moment and they kindly left it at that.

“Well, Karen,” asked Pat. “How are you finding your real life test, you’ve been on it for how long?”

“Three months two days seven hours and…fourteen minutes, approximately.” I replied after glancing at my watch.

“So?”

“Oh, how am I doing? It’s okay I suppose, I still worry about going out in public and I have someone at work who is being a bit of a bitch, but apart from the mood swings and occasional bouts of feeling yuckie, things are okay.”

“So who’s being bitchy?” asked Sharon.

“My supervisor. She still sometimes calls me ‘he’ and she gives me disgusting looks sometimes. I know that she talks behind my back as one of the other girls told me. She has complained that I use the ladies toilet and thinks that I should use the men’s; I don’t know what to do about it, because if I complain I might lose my job and I don’t want to rock the boat.”

“Sod the job,’ exclaimed Pat, “you can always get another one.”

“In the real world, it isn’t as easy as you think. Anyway, I’ll stick with it for now and if it gets too bad, I’ll think of something else.”

Michelle put her hands over mine and squeezed it.

“Tell me if I can do anything, won’t you?”

I just smiled and nodded, comforted by her obvious concern for me. We turned to other matters and spent quite a long time quizzing each other about what we were wearing at tonight’s dance, but everyone was tight-lipped and I only hoped that we didn’t clash with each other, colour and style wise.

As we returned to the hotel, I hoped that the coming evening was going to be as good a last night. Michelle and I had really found each other and it gave me a warm feeling that we were going to share the evening again and hopefully spend the night together too. I was a bit sad that tomorrow it would all be over.

Two hours later, I was just finishing off getting ready. Looking at the clock on the wall, I noticed that I had just fifteen minutes until Michelle came for me.

My dress was a sexy black one from Karen Millen. I saw it in a sale at Selfridges while I was still earning good money. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I had to have it. The amazing dress was figure hugging with a satiny feel and sheen to it. It went to just above the knee and with my sheer nude stockings and black three inch heels, it looked wonderful.

I had a thin string of pearls around my neck with a matching string on my wrist. My hair had just been put up and styled by Sandra in the hotel salon; she had also sorted out my rather scruffy nails and they were painted almost the exact shade of the glossy plum lipstick that I was wearing.

I put my black lace shrug on my shoulders, sat on the bed and looked at the clock again, two minutes to go…

I quickly checked in my black clutch bag. Did I have enough tissues, lipstick…There was a knock on the door. One last look at my reflection and then I opened the door.

My mouth opened as I saw Michelle. She was stunning, her hair was styled in a straight bob that went down to her chin, her makeup was flawless and her pink lips plump and sensuous. She was looking at me with her mouth slightly open and her eyes were out on stalks.

Michelle’s dress was a calf length turquoise prom style dress with a beautiful shimmer that set off her complexion perfectly. The diaphanous material sort of flowed down her lovely body; enhancing her shape and making me go a bit weak at the knees. The matching shawl draped around her slender shoulders just added to the wonderful vision before me.

“Wow.” I said.

“Wow, yourself. Karen you look…stunning.”

“I look plain compared to you.”

“No you don’t; I love your hair, the dress is made for you and …oh I think you are…gorgeous! Anyway, I think we ought to be going don’t you?”

I just nodded, closed the door behind me and arm in arm we walked down the corridor to the lift. We had agreed to meet the others outside the conference room so that we could go in together. We entered the empty lift and, Michelle immediately embraced me and…well, we were somewhat breathless as the lift doors silently slid open and had to go into the ladies to, erm, freshen up!

Once everything was in order again, we made our way to the conference room. As promised, outside were the others. Sharon was wearing a long flowing evening gown in sheer pale dusky pink with a pale aubergine satin underdress just peeping out below… It had a plunging neckline that did little to hide her assets. She looked positively radiant. Not to be outdone, Pat was wearing a stunning strappy pearlescent turquoise evening dress, with a matching wrap. We all looked pretty pleased with ourselves and I was somewhat relieved that none of the styles or colours matched!

We followed a stream of girls into the conference room. Everyone had obviously made a special effort and I was almost blinded by the amount of diamonds and pearls on show. Whether they were real or not, it looked a pretty classy to me!

We found our table from the chart by the door and made our way over to our seats. I suppose that there must have been at least a hundred in the room and the noise levels were quite loud. We almost had to shout too hear ourselves over the background music and the chat coming from the other tables. Looking around I could see that they had gone overboard with the tinsel, balls and lights. Every table had a three arm candelabra, with red and golden candles. There were holly centre pieces, silver place settings and tall wine glasses with red napkins folded neatly in them.

We were soon chatting away, drinking champers and generally adding to the noise levels. Everyone thought that we had done ourselves proud with our dresses and we congratulated ourselves on our sense of style.

The meal was typical Christmas fare–turkey with two types of stuffing, those lovely little sausages wrapped with bacon, roast and boiled potatoes, brussel sprouts served in the Swiss manner with chestnuts and plenty of wine to wash it all down.

The Christmas pudding was lovely and we had to pound Sharon’s back as she nearly swallowed a pound coin!

After the meal and a short respite while we let our meal go down a bit, the tables were moved to the sides and the disco started. After a few minutes and despite the gargantuan meal, people started drifting onto the dance floor. We joined the throng were soon gyrating to the pulsating music.

I’m not really used to drinking that much and I soon got a wee bit squiffy. I didn’t let it put me off and too much as I was having such a great time, especially when the slow dances started. Michelle and I had many dances where we were more interested in each other’s tonsils than any real attempt at dancing properly. Just holding her body against mine was enough for me to feel as if I was in heaven. We kissed a lot, not really able to hold any meaningful conversation due to the noises around us…but that was enough and I was so very happy. Deep in my heart I felt that I was falling head over heels in love with this lovely lady.

After a few hours, I could feel as I danced, a headache developing on one side of my head, I was feeling a bit sick and my sight was getting somewhat blurry. At first, I thought it was the drink, but I had in the past suffered a bit from migraine and I could tell the signs. I motioned to Michelle that I wanted to go back to the table where Sharon and Pat were holding hands and whispering sweat nothings to each other. They looked up as we arrived and shouted, “hi”.

I winced and just sat down rather heavily; Michelle looked at my eyes and felt my forehead.

“I think we ought to make a move,” she said.

“No, I’ll be all right. Can I have a drink of water?”

After sipping the drink I looked at Michelle. She looked a bit worried.

“I’m okay, honest.” I said as I tried to get up and promptly sat down as the room started spinning.

“Right,” said Michelle, “Goodnight girls, we’ll see you in the morning.”

I can’t really remember much else. My head was throbbing and my eyes sort of started seeing flashing lights and my hands and feet started to go all tingly. I do remember getting all upset that I was ruining Michelle’s evening and I got a bit tearful…

I woke up in bed. The lights were out and my migraine was thankfully only in my memory. I was pleased about that because the last one I had lasted 24 hours.

I turned on the bedside lamp and blinking in the sudden brightness, I saw that I was in my own room and I was alone. I was wearing my silky nightie so I assumed that Michelle had somehow undressed me.

Looking at the other pillow, I could see that Michelle had not slept with me. Had I blown it with her?

To be continued...

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My thanks go to the brilliant and lovely Gabi for editing and pulling the story into shape.