Alex: 1

 

An insecure salesperson struggles to make ends meets. When trouble strikes, kismet intervenes.
As readers of my stories know, I move slowly. So if you're looking for instant gratification,
this is probably not the story for you. I hope someone likes it, though.

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Author's Note: I hope everyone is well. It's been a long haul between stories for me.
Lots of family health issues, but we're all rallying now. Please toss me a review. ~Clara.
 
This version of Alex: 1 has been updated with many corrections towards spelling and grammar.~Sephrena.
 
Image Credit: Image created through the use of ai at https://perchance.org/beautiful-people .~Sephrena.

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Part 1
 

"Anyone home?" Jill called into the house, knowing full well that her sister-in-law was not only home, but expecting her.

"In the kitchen!" Melody called back in reply.

"Hi," Jill said with a big smile, entering the kitchen and giving her sister-in-law a peck on the cheek. "Yum. It smells good in here. Whatcha cooking?"

"I just have some chicken in a balsamic glaze cooking in the slow-cooker and some jasmine rice in the rice cooker. Nothing fancy." Melody wiped her hands on her kitchen hand towel and smiled at her best friend. "You look great, though!" she gushed. "Been shopping?"

"Oh, I tell you," Jill made a theatrical flourish with her hands as she followed Mel to the table, "the best and the worst part of losing all that weight is shopping. I absolutely love it, now! Of course, I'm going broke buying anything and everything that fits."

Melody laughed heartily at that remark. "Yeah, I bet. That dress looks great on you, though. You've been wearing lots of tight clothes lately. I'm so happy that your proud of all your hard work." She poured a glass of white wine into a wine glass and passed it to Jill.

"Well, twenty four years of always being 'the heavy girl' and always being envious of girls with nice figures made me want nice fitting clothes. So... I've become quite the clothes horse, lately." She held up her wine glass as if making a toast. "To shopping," she grinned.

"Agreed," Melody smiled and gently pinged her wine glass against Jill's.

"So..." Jill savored the taste of the wine as she looked around the kitchen, "... where is my little brother?"

"He's downstairs in his office."

"Still working? It's after four."

"I think he's just wrapping up some paperwork. Business has been tough lately... well, since the lockdown, really. People started buying alcohol more frequently and business for a liquor company representative was pretty great for a while. Then the big companies changed how they were selling and Alex has been hustling to keep up with all the changes. I think he has something big happening right now, though, so he's working really hard to pull it all together."

"Cool. Does he think he's going to reel this 'big fish' in?"

"From what he says, he's really close to signing someone big."

"I'll drink to that!" Jill joked, taking another sip. "This is delicious! Where did it come from?"

"It's from one of the local wineries that Alex has convinced to distribute through him. I love this stuff." She showed Jill the label.

"Thank God I don't live here," Jill said, taking another sip and smacking her lips to show her appreciation of the wine. "I'd still be as big as a house just from drinking this wine all day."

In truth, Jill had lost a lot of weight recently. The number of pounds was impressive, but more impressive was the number of inches she'd dropped. She'd gone from wearing a women's size twenty four dress to a size six in two years. It'd had been two years of tireless exercise and dieting, but she'd done it - and there was no way she was ever going to go back to being heavy again.

"Oh, stop it," Melody laughed. "You were never as big as a house."

"Says you." Jill drained her glass.

"You feel better now, though, don't you?"

"Oh, yeah. Much better. I do miss my big breasts sometimes, though. These little things are fine, but I used to have Grand Tetons. A lot of girls think that big boobs get in the way, but I liked mine. I miss them."

Melody smiled. Big breasts had never been a problem for her. She was a tall, slender, fitness fanatic who became a physical education teacher. She had nice B-cup breasts - not huge breasts - and that was fine with her.

"So," Jill poured a little more wine into her glass, "are you guys ready for our big trip this weekend? What time would you like to leave on Saturday?"

That question made Melody sit up straighter. She'd been looking forward to their ski vacation coming up that weekend for weeks. The trip was actually an anniversary present from Jill. She was going as well, of course. It had been a good long while since she and Alex had gone away at all and she hadn't been skiing at a real mountain in years. She loved the sport and she was able to go to the local 'mountain' a few miles from their home, which was really just a very big hill with snow machines, during the winter, but a mountain run on honest to goodness New England snow was different.

And now that Jill was thinner and into skiing, too, Mel had a ski buddy. Alex would do a few runs every now and again, but that was all. He hated the cold and didn't much like to exercise, either.

And to be honest, Alex was not in great shape. Like Jill, he'd always been a little heavy. Not to the extent that Jill had been, but hefty. He tried to join his sister on her weight loss mission, but it was too much for him. He liked food and his couch too much to give up either of them. Combine that with the lack of activity that came along with working from home, and he'd become a chubby, little guy.

"Around seven in the morning, if that's good for you," Mel said, beaming with the anticipation of the trip. "We can grab some egg sandwiches from the diner and have breakfast on the way, if you want."

"Sounds great!" Jill smiled.

"Are you drinking all my wine?" a voice came from the doorway.

Jill turned to see her brother entering. He was not exactly a sight for sore eyes. In fact, he was a pretty well disheveled mess. Since the lockdown, he'd been working at home and his sense of personal appearance standards had not held up well. He was wearing pajama bottoms and a stained and slightly torn tee shirt, beneath his long, wavy, unkempt hair that was being held in a low, messy ponytail.

"It's delicious," Jill said, smiling and giving her older sibling a peck on the cheek. "You look like garbage, little brother. You should really clean yourself up."

"Yeah, I know," he said with a certain amount of resigned acceptance of the criticism. "I'll have to clean up a bit for tomorrow." He turned to grab a glass, then turned back. "And I'm not your 'little' brother and you know it."

Jill snickered, loving to rub in the fact that she was substantially taller than him, even though he was older.

"Why? What's tomorrow?" Melody asked, happy to hear that her husband was going to dress up for a change.

"Oh, I have a meeting with a guy that owns a big liquor store chain tomorrow at eleven," Alex said with a smile. "He's an old-school kind of guy. He likes my prices and products, but he likes to meet face to face with the people he does business with. So, I have to drive to Natick tomorrow and shake his hand before he signs a contract."

"That's great, honey." Melody applauded a big. "Get your suit out tonight so I can iron anything that might be wrinkled."

"Ok," he smiled and kissed the top of his wife's head, something he could only do if she was seated and he was standing.

Alex went to the counter and grabbed another bottle of wine, before returning to the table to join the women. He poured a little wine into his glass, then sat and listened as the women chatted about this and that. Eventually, he pulled out his phone and checked his emails.

"What?" Melody asked when she heard Alex let out a frustrated sigh.

Alex shook his head. "Nothing big. I just... I got an email from the sporting goods website. My new ski suit isn't going to get here before we leave on Saturday."

"Well, that's just great," Mel grunted, shaking her head - not so much angry as she was unsurprised. "I told you to order that months ago, but NOOOO... you had to wait until the last minute. Now what are you going to do?"

"You can just rent one at the lodge, Allie. I saw it on their website." Jill shrugged. "No big deal, right?"

"You can rent suits from children's sizes to 2X," Melody said, shaking her head. "Alex needs a 3X, and that might even be tight. He couldn't ever zip up a 2X."

"I'll figure something out," Alex said, unhappy that he'd upset his wife.

Melody just shook her head.

"Ohh!" Jill said, suddenly excited. "I just had an idea! Last year, when I first went skiing with you guys over in Princeton, I bought a ski suit and it was a women's 4X - which is the same as a men's 3X. It's way too big for me now, but I bet it'd fit you just fine."

Mel's eyes brightened at the solution. "That's great! Can Alex come by tomorrow afternoon and try it on?"

"No need," Jill said, standing and hustling out of the kitchen. In a moment, they heard the front door close.

"Where did she go?" Alex asked.

Melody shrugged. "I don't know, but I hope that her ski-suit fits you. Alex, in the future, please don't leave things until the last minute, ok? You always do this and you know that it drives me crazy."

He nodded, embarrassed.

They heard the front door open again and the sound of Jill trodding back to the kitchen. When she reentered the kitchen, she was hauling two black trash bags, the big ones like contractors used, each filled nearly to the breaking point. She dropped them on the floor. Then she hustled back into the living room and returned with two more over packed trash bags. "I was bringing all of this to donate. The ski-suit is in one of these."

"Oh," Melody said, a little overcome by the size of the pile of clothes filled trash bags her sister-in-law had created in her modestly sized kitchen. "Great... thanks."

Just then, Jill's phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket and looked at the screen. "I have to take this," she said, stepping back into the living room for privacy.

"What is all of that?" Alex asked, indicting the pile .

"Jill went through her closets and pulled out all of her old clothes that are too big for her, I guess."

"Didn't she do that like a year ago?"

"Yeah, she did," Melody nodded, looking at her husband as if he was stupid. "And then she bought a whole closet full of new clothes that fit her at that size. Those clothes don't fit her now, though, because she's lost a lot more weight since then. These are the clothes she bought over the last year."

Alex shook his head. "What a waste."

"A waste!?" Melody was shocked. "Your sister has worked harder at losing weight than she's ever worked at anything, Alex. How can you say it's a waste?"

"I only meant..." it was clear that Melody was not pleased with Alex at the moment and the only thing he could do is allow her to cool off. "...what I mean is... I am very proud of Jill and the weight that she's lost. I simply meant that spending all that money on clothing that has hardly been worn at all was a waste. That's all."

Just then, Jill reappeared. "Hey, guys, I'm sorry, but I have to run. I'm sorry about this stuff..."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Melody said, standing to walk Jill to the door. "I'll go through them and find the ski-suit later."

"Thanks," Jill said. "I'll come by tomorrow morning and pick-up the bags. Around eight thirty, if that's ok."

"That's fine," Mel said, kissing Jill's cheek. "I'll be at school, but Alex will probably be here. And if not, you have a key."

Later that evening, after they'd had dinner and Melody had ironed the shirt that Alex had intended to wear to the meeting the next day, she undid the twist-tie on the top of one of the huge trash bags and began prowling through it, looking for the ski-suit. "This is hopeless," she groaned as she stood straight, hands on her hips and shook her head. There was nothing for it but to pour out the contents of the bag and start looking. Eventually she found it - in the bottom bag number four. Of course! She had to pour out every single piece clothing that Jill had crammed into the bags just to find the one item she wanted.

And there it was.

A ski-suit.

One piece, like her's. Not bib overalls and a jacket like most men wore. One piece.

And it was a deep, rich purple. That color was not a color you saw on a man's ski-suit as a rule.

The entire garment had diamond shapes sewn into the outer material to keep the warm quilting held within in place. Those shapes were not something you saw on a man's ski-suit, either.

And then there was the hood.

It was the same color as the rest of the garment, but it was edged with fluffy, white, nylon fur. A very feminine touch, to be sure.

Alex was not going to like this suit.

"Alex!" she shouted into the TV room. "Honey, come try on the ski-suit, please."

She heard his recliner chair return to its upright position and seconds later he came into the room, shaking his head at the mess of clothing he found strewn around the room.

"Wow. It looks like there was an explosion in here." He laughed.

"Yeah, the suit was in the last bag," Mel said, a tad impatient. "Let's just try the suit on and be sure it fits. Take off your pants and I'll help you with it."

"I can do it myself," he assured her, but she insisted. So, off came the Crocs, followed by the pajama pants.

He turned and faced his wife, who'd strategically folded the hood so that no fluffy fur was visible, and she bent down and held one leg open for him to step into.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alex suddenly said, not lifting his leg. "I'm not going to wear a purple ski-suit out on the slopes!"

"I know it's not, ideal," Mel said in a calm, but commanding voice - the same voice she used with uncooperative students, "but it's what we have. And, might I remind you that if you hadn't waited until the last second to order a new suit, you wouldn't have to wear this one. You know that you're hard to fit and you ignored the problem until now. So, knock it off and try this on."

He shook his head and stepped into the right pant leg. Then the left. And then, Melody guided the pants up his legs and held out the arms of the suit's top for his arms to enter. Within a minute or so, she had him zipped in and the built-in, elastic belt that created a form fitting waist was buckled. It was at that point that she noticed that the suit was not entirely purple, but that there were black diamond shapes around the torso that gave the impression of a more hour glass figure for the plus-sized wearer. That did make her smile, just a bit.

"Well, it fits," she said, shaking her head a bit, "but it is a little loose in the chest and a little too tight around your belly, but it'll do. Let me take a picture and send it to Jill. I'm sure she'll be curious as to whether or not it fits."

"Can I at least see myself, first?" he asked.

"It'll just take a second." She shook her head as she pulled out her phone. "Just stand straight and let me take a picture."

Once again wanting to avoid a fight, he took a breath and stood straight while the picture was taken.

"Now, can I look in the mirror?"

"Of course," Mel smiled. She followed him to the hall closet, which had a full length mirror attached to the inside of the door. Alex opened the door and saw himself in the ski-suit.

"No, way!" he let out. "I am not wearing this in public!"

"I know it's not a perfect solution, Allie, but it's all we have. Now, unless you want to go shopping for a new suit tomorrow after your meeting, then this is our only option. Besides, you won't know anyone there, and you'll be wearing goggles and a scarf, so no one will be able to see your face. Now, Jilly and I have put a lot of time and energy into planning this trip and you have done nothing to help. So - this is the best option."

Alex looked at himself a few minutes longer. It wasn't terrible, but... it wasn't great either. "I really don't like the hood with the fur," he said, sounding calmer. "Does that come off, by any chance?"

Mel looked at the hood. "It looks like there are just a few clasps holding it on. I think we can take it off, but..." she hustled over to the pile of clothes and pulled out a pair of purple mittens, made of the same purple fabric as the ski-suit, with bright white, fluffy fur around the wrists. "...without the hood, it won't match the mittens."

Alex's eyes opened wide. "You don't seriously expect me to wear those, too, do you?"

Mel laughed. "No, of course not. You have warm gloves. You can wear those." She put the mittens down and smiled. "You know, Allie, you don't look bad in that. You've even told me that people have thought you we a woman because your hair has grown so long. I really want this to be a great vacation, so... please... unless you can find a new ski-suit tomorrow, please just suck it up and wear this one. Ok?"

He took one more look at himself and shook his head. "Alright, but don't expect me home too early tomorrow. I'll need to do some shopping. Someone MUST have ski-suit that'll fit me."

"Ok," Mel said, kissing his forehead, a common display of her affection to her shorter husband. "Thank you."

It took a couple of minutes to get him out of the ski-suit, then he returned to the TV, leaving Mel to pick up the mess of clothing.

Before she started in on that task, though, she sent Jill a text with Alex's picture attached. 'FITS PRETTY WELL.'

'OHH, LOOKS A LITTLE TIGHT AT THE WAIST,' came the reply. 'I HOPE IT DOESN'T RIP IF HE BENDS OVER. YOU THINK HE'LL BE COMFORTABLE WEARING IT?'

'YEAH. HE'S GOING TO SEE IF HE CAN PICK UP A MEN'S SUIT TOMORROW, BUT THIS WILL DO IN A PINCH.'

'OK. HEY, THERE'S A COUPLE OF BODY SHAPERS IN THOSE BAGS IF THAT HELPS AT ALL'

'LOL,' Mel wrote back, as she actually did laugh out loud. 'WE'LL SEE.'

Melody put her phone away and started returning the clothes to their plastic bags. As she did so, though, she looked at the clothes. Half of them hadn't even been worn. They were still in plastic packages from the stores, or still had tags on them.

One item just seemed foolish to return to the bag. It was a pajama set. The top was just a baby-blue, Henley-style shirt and the body was a pair of light blue, plaid lounge pants. Included in the package was a pair of light blue and dark blue striped, fuzzy socks to wear to bed as well. On the package were the words 'loose fit, wide leg' and they were Allie's size, too.

"Too nice and too useful to donate," she muttered to herself, thinking of the ratty pj bottoms Alex was wearing at that moment. As she continued to pack things back into the bags, she kept out a few other things that might fit Alex, too. Some polo shirts and a spring jacket among them.

That night, when Alex went to bed, he pulled his clean pajamas from under the pillow where he kept them and found a new set of bed clothes waiting for him. Slightly brighter than he was used to wearing, but very comfortable. He pulled them on without unbuttoning the shirt and was surprised by how well they fit. The top was very loose, but comfortable and the bottoms were actually almost billowy. They had an elastic waist that was also more comfortable than his usual draw string pajama pants, but there was one oddity about them - They had no fly-hole. Oh, well, the elastic waist was easy enough to raise and lower to gain access.

He joined Melody in their master bath and brushed his teeth as she completed her nightly face cream routine.

She glanced into the mirror and smiled. "You found your new pjs, then?"

"Yeah," he replied casually. "Thanks. They're very comfortable."

Melody smiled. "I'm glad you like them." No point in upsetting the apple cart by telling him where they came from right now. Allie was hard to fit. He was on the short side, at five foot five, and the stuff she'd pulled out of Jill's bags would probably fit him well. Better to get him used to the softer, better fitting clothes before letting him know from where she'd procured them.

When they went to bed, Mel could not stop thinking about her husband laying next to her in the soft pajamas that were meant for a woman to wear. It was silly, really. They weren't all that different from pajamas meant for men, but the idea of him wearing them just seemed so... naughty.

She couldn't help herself. He was laying with his back to her, but she could see his shoulders encased in the soft, baby-blue material and she found it exciting.

She rolled onto her side and started to gently caress the soft flannel that covered his thigh.

'Wow," she said, as casually as she could, "they are very soft, aren't they?"

"Yeah," Alex responded, kind of surprised that, after a day of being a bit ticked off at him, his wife was suddenly feeling amorous.

Her hand moved to the waistband and she ran her fingers along the edge of it a few times, before slipping them under the elastic and she reached down and petted the little, curly hairs she found there.

Alex rolled onto his back and smiled before accepting a kiss from his wife.

She continued to excite him by playing with his patch of hair. Then she began kissing his ears and neck and then, oddly, she moved down to the opening of the shirt and, eventually, began suckling on his nipples. Now, being a hefty guy, Allie had a good deal of extra weight on his chest, but Mel had never once shown any interest in his man-breasts before. That night, though, she seemed to be focused on the almost exclusively.

Alex let out a surprised gasp when the hand that had been caressing his pubic hair suddenly moved to his penis and began to slowly caress that instead.

After barely a minute, Alex felt as if he could not hold back any more. Mel seemed to sense the same thing and she paused for a moment to gently lower the waistband of his pajama bottoms below his sex organ, while also raising the shirt a bit higher to ensure that all of his clothing would be clear of any fluid he may produce in the next few moments.

And then her hand was caressing his shaft again.

Finally, she ceased suckling on his nipples and looked down at the hefty little man in her bed. She smiled as she continued to massage him and she said, "That feels nice and soft, too, doesn't it?"

He nodded and gasped.

"That's my baby," she grinned, more excited than she'd been in years. "I like my baby to be soft - like a baby. Soft clothes and soft little hairs like these." She caressed his pubic area again, but returned to his shaft immediately.

"Mel," he gasped, knowing that his wife didn't care to get dirty while having sex, "I think I'm going to..."

"I know, baby," she smiled. "Go ahead. Show me how good you feel."

That was all it took and he exploded into her hand, most of his load landing on his belly.

Melody smiled at the helplessness of his ecstasy and took a moment to enjoy his sighs before she reached to her nightstand and grabbed a box of tissues. She even took the time to help him clean himself up.
 

~^~
 

The next morning, Jill pulled into her brother's driveway at nine o'clock, a half an hour later than she expected to be there. She was running late, but still wanted to grab the donation bags. She expected to find Melody's half of the driveway empty, and it was, but she was a little surprised to see that Alex was still home. She expected him to be on his way to his meeting. She knew that he liked to stop for a coffee and maybe a bagel on the way out.

Odd.

She entered as she always did. Calling to anyone inside, "Anyone home!" She put her pocketbook and the key to Alex and Melody's front door on the table by the door.

"Upstairs!" Alex called down.

"I'm just picking up my clothes for the donation box," she called back, but Alex didn't reply. She waited and listened and she thought she heard some quiet swearing coming from his room.

"Everything ok up there?" she called up, but no response. Just some more quiet swearing.

"Allie?" she called, again, but still nothing, so she climbed the stairs quietly, listening.

"Fucking idiot," she could hear her brother muttering. "How could you let this happen. You stupid, fucking moron."

This went on for a few moments before Jill stepped into the doorway. "Allie? Are you ok?"

Her brother was standing by the bed, his long hair wet and he was red faced. A shirt unbuttoned hanging from his shoulders and a pair of pants unbuttoned on his hips. "No, I am not ok," he said, shaking his head and not looking at her.

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong!? I haven't worn these clothes for two years or more and now they're too tight. That's what's wrong, Jill. Goddamnit! I've probably gained like forty five or fifty pounds since I wore these, and now they just don't fit." He looked around the room, disgusted. "And I'm screwed."

"You're not screwed, Allie," Jill shook her head at her brother's overly dramatic attitude. "Just call this guy and tell him you've got an upset stomach or something. Reschedule and go shopping."

Alex sat on the bed and shook his head. "I can't." He looked up at his sister and shook his head. "I can't, Jill."

Jill just stood and waited for more of an explanation. It took a few moments, but finally Alex spoke, again.

"I'm in trouble, Jill. I haven't told Mel, but... I've lost a lot of clients, lately. This whole pandemic, thing... the big companies have all changed how they sell and distribute. The reason I'm handling all these little wineries and breweries is because the big companies aren't using middle-man distributors like me, anymore. I REALLY need this client, Jill. If I blow this, it could all be over. I could lose the house... Mel... everything." He finally looked her in the eye. "I need this client. I can't miss this meeting."

Jill let out a sympathetic sigh. "Wow, Allie... that's a lot to take in. Why haven't you told Mel?"

He looked away, again. "Tell her that her fat loser of a husband has failed again? That's what I was trying to avoid." He sniffled a little. "Jill... I'm twenty five years old, short and fat and just weeks away from financial ruin. The fact that a beautiful woman like Melody would even consider DATING me is unbelievable. The fact that she MARRIED me is nothing short of miraculous. If things go sour for me and I lose everything... it's all over."

He shook his head in disgust. "Mom and dad are right about me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on, Jill. You know that ever since we were kids, they always thought that you were the smart one and I was the screw up. Well... they were right. Damnit, Jill, I can't do anything right."

"Alright, knock off all that self-pity crap and listen to me. Yeah... you're a little overweight... but so what? Mel still loves you... and she always will. If you don't like being heavy, then change that. I did. It's not easy, but it's worth it. As for this meeting, are you sure you can't call and postpone it? At least for a couple of hours, maybe? Then we could go get you some new clothes. There's a Big & Tall on route nine..."

"They're closed," Alex interrupted. "There's nowhere to go in a pinch, Jill, I've checked. Besides, I'm supposed to have brunch with this guy. He invited me to eat with him. Apparently he has a late breakfast/early lunch everyday and that's where he talks business."

Suddenly an idea struck Jill. Last night, it had just been a joke, but... it might actually work. At least work well enough to get Alex to his meeting.

"Stand up," she said, sounding just a little bossy, but Alex knew by the sound of her voice, that she had a solution. So, he stood.

"How close are those pants to closing?" she asked and he showed her. There was an at least one and a half to two inch gap between the two sides. "Hmmm," she muttered, "I might have a solution. Take those off and wait here."

He took off the pants and placed them neatly on the bed. Then he took off the shirt, which also refused to button, and laid it neatly beside the pants.

A moment or two later, Jill returned with a handful of things. She looked at Alex and said, "Those boxers aren't going to be comfortable for this. Do you have any briefs?"

Alex shock his head.

"Alright," she said, as she fished through the little pile of things she'd brought with her. "Here. These are brand new."

Alex took the proffered piece of clothing and looked at it. "These are panties. I can't wear panties."

"Of course you can. They're made of cotton, not teeth - They don't bite. Trust me, the boxers will bunch up and be uncomfortable. Just put those on. I'll turn my back. Tell me when you have them on."

She turned her back and Alex, after a moment or two of vacillation, dropped his boxers and pulled the high waisted panties up as quickly as he could. "Ok," he said, quietly.

Jill turned and saw him, standing there, obviously embarrassed, so as nicely as she could, she said, "Ummm... you may want to tuck that down. It's going to be a tight fit."

He looked down and saw the bulge in the front of the cotton panties. They were fairly shear and the contents of the garment were not well hidden by the fabric. He turned his back to Jill and tucked things down as well as he could. When he faced forward again, his panty-front as smooth as any woman's would be.

Satisfied, Jill pulled another item from the pile and knelt in front of him. She folded the item in a practiced way, then held it open for him. "Step in."

"What?" he asked, looking at the opening. He wasn't sure what it was that she had in her hands, but he knew it was impossibly small for him. "What is that thing? Whatever it is, I'm not going to fit in it."

"It's a body shaper," Jill said without judgement. "It stretches and then tightens around you. It makes you a little thinner. You should be able to get your pants on once you get it on. Now, come on. The clock is ticking."

"So it's a girdle?"

Now Jill chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose so... if this was nineteen fifty six... but now, it's a full body shaper. Please, just step in."

Doubting that this was a good idea, but lacking any other options, Alex stepped into the legs of the white, full coverage body shaper. It turned out that the way that Jill had folded the garment, he was stepping into the waistline. Jill pulled and pulled and pulled and eventually the garment covered Alex from his knees to his waist, but the top was still folded over.

Jill stood and pulled the top of the shaper up so that it began to cover his torso.

"It has a bra built into it!?" Alex protested.

"Yes, but let's deal with that after we see if your pants fit."

Finally, she had worked the body shaper all the way up and she guided Alex's arms through the arm openings.

"Now, don't freak," she said, reaching into the neckline and pulling Alex's extra skin up and settling his man boobs into the bra cups.

"Don't freak!?" Alex said, shocked. "You just gave me boobs!"

"You always had boobs," Jill said, shaking her head. "The bra cups just gave them definition. Relax. After we deal with your waist, we'll find some way of binding your boobs."

She turned and grabbed his pants.

"Jill, this is too much..."

"Try the pants," Jill said, not paying much attention to what he was saying. He pulled them up his legs and had no problem buttoning the top and zipping up the fly.

"Wow," Alex said, truly impressed with his sister's ingenuity. "It worked."

"Told ya," she smiled. "Try the shirt." She held out the tastefully striped shirt.

He took the shirt, slid his arms through the sleeves and tried to button it, but... no go. "Shoot," he muttered. He looked at Jill and pointed to his chest. "Even if I could button it around my stomach, these wouldn't fit in any shirt I own."

"Yeah. You're probably a C cup, Allie. We'll need to figure out how to deal with that." Jill thought for a moment. "I have an idea. Be right back."

Alex took off the shirt and took advantage of the moment to slip on a pair of dress socks made of thin, black nylon. Then he put on his dress shoes, plain black loafers, which had always been uncomfortably tight, but were actually painful that morning. 'Did I actually gain weight in my feet?' he thought, 'or have just not worn dress shoes for so long that I'm not used to them anymore?'

He stood and took in his look, as best he could, without a mirror. The white of the smoothing material was just a little shiny and felt very smooth as he ran his fingers over it. Then there was the lacy areas. The legs of the shaper ended just above his knees with a two-inch band of flowered lace on each leg. From there, it was that smooth, white material all the way to the bra cups which had the same flowery lace around the cleavage area. He touched that and the odd feeling of such a feminine texture on his own body actually caused his trapped penis to stir. This was a feeling he'd have liked to explore more, but he could hear his sister's footsteps on the stairs, so he stopped touching the shaper's erotic material and acted nonchalant, looking at the clothing on the bed.

"Try this," Jill said, re-entering the room and holding out a plain, white shirt.

Alex took it and slipped his arms into it. "What is this made of?"

"Silk, but it's not shiny and it's a fairly gender neutral style. Try it."

He fumbled for a moment. "The buttons are on the wrong side."

"Here, let me help you."

It buttoned easily and even covered his new-found breasts without a problem.

"Perfect!" Jill said with a smile.

"Perfect?" Alex laughed nervously. "Jill, I still have boobs."

Jill winked. "You do. I guess you want me to bind those for you, huh?"

"Yes, please."

"Ok... do you have an ace bandage or anything like that?"

He thought for a moment. "I have a rib belt. You know... one of those elastic belts that you wear when you crack a rib. I got it from the doctor when I fell off that step stool a few years ago. It's in my top drawer."

Jill opened the drawer and found the belt. When she turned, Alex had already taken off the shirt and Jill quickly wrapped the belt around his chest. She attached the Velcro strips that acted as a clasp and looked at him.

The truth was, the belt was not really tight enough to restrict the breasts created by the shape wear, but that wasn't what Alex needed to hear. "There! Perfect!" she announced as she buttoned the blouse... shirt... back up. It was loose enough that the somewhat restrained mammary area didn't show too much.

She held open his sports jacket, guided it up his arms and then came around to the front of her brother to button it, but...

"It's alright," Alex said. "I'll leave it unbuttoned."

Jill shook her head as she gave him the once-over. "It's not alright, Allie. You look like you're wearing your little brother's sports coat."

"Gee, thanks," he said, a bit hurt.

"Stop," she said, shaking her head. "You know I love you and we'll figure out something, but you can't wear that." She thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "I've got it! Come with me. It's downstairs and I know Mel keeps a blow dryer in the downstairs bathroom. You can't go out with your hair all wet and stringy, like that.

She took Alex's hand and led him as quickly as she could down the stairs.

"Come on, Allie. It's getting late."

"I know, I know, but my shoes are really bothering me."

She grunted in frustration and got to the plastic bags in the living room as quickly as she could. It took a moment of digging, but she pulled a sports coat out of the bag. It was a strange, coffee-brown color, but it looked very similar to a man's jacket. She shook it to let the material relax a bit, then held it out for Alex to take. "Here - this will go well with your light brown slacks."

He tried it on and it fit well. If anything, it seemed a bit loose. He mentioned that to Jill.

"Yeah, well I had bigger boobs when that fit me, so the top of the jacket was tailored for me. It looks nice on you, though." It did fit just fine, but it was tailored to a woman's shape, which meant it was tailored to accentuate the bust and hips, while narrowing the waist a bit. In their rush, neither sibling took note of that, though.

"Oh, I need my tie," Alex said, snapping his fingers and headed to the stairs.

"I'll get that," Jill said, taking note of both the time and Alex's slow gate in his uncomfortable shoes. She ran up the stairs calling back, "You get a hair brush and the blow dryer and plug get it plugged in."

She ran into the master bedroom and found the bland, blue tie sitting on the bureau and hustled back down, taking note of the fact that the tie did not match the outfit they'd created. By then Alex was plugging in the blow dryer in the downstairs bath.

She didn't slow down for a second. "Sit," she pointed to the toilet seat and immediately set to work with the brush and blowdryer. "Arrg," she grunted, "you have hair like mine. Thick and difficult to dry. It would have still been wet when you got to your meeting."

She worked for a good eight or ten minutes before she was satisfied that his hair was dry and well combed. The blow dryer had made it a bit thicker looking than she would have liked, but the clock was ticking.

"You want it in a ponytail?" she asked, grabbing a mass of hair at the back of his head and maneuvering it into the proper shape.

"I guess," he said with a shrug.

Jill grabbed a yellow hair tie from the vanity and twisted it into place, creating a thick ponytail that definitely sat a bit higher on Alex's head than he'd normally wear one. Not a real high, cheerleader type ponytail, but still, a bit higher than men usually wore them.

"Alright, stand and let me tie your tie."

He stood and she ran the tie through his collar, then went to button the top three buttons. "Oh, shoot..." she said, shaking her head. "That blouse doesn't button all the way up. Sorry, but you can't wear a tie. Is that ok?"

Alex shrugged. "It'll have to be. I'm running late, now. I have to go."

He hurried out of the room, limping a bit from the tightness of his shoes.

Jill took note and said, "Wait a second, Allie."

She hurried to the bags and pulled out a pair of her work shoes that looked very similar to the ones Alex wore.

"We're the same shoe size. Wear these. They're really comfortable and I've already broken them in for you."

Alex kicked off his painful shoes and took the pair offered to him. He looked at them and baulked. "They have heels."

"Only an inch, Allie. God, cowboy boots have a bigger heel and these aren't even noticeable. They look exactly like yours. No one's going to be looking at your shoes, anyway."

He shook his head, but put them on anyway and was very pleased to find that they were very comfortable. He kind of liked the added inch of height, too.

"I think you're ready," Jill said with a smile. "Grab your satchel and a couple of the trash bags and let's go!"

He threw his work bag onto his shoulder and grabbed two of the trash bags, following Jill, who grabbed the other two trash bags, out the door. She grabbed her pocketbook on the way out as well. He threw the trash bags into the back of Jill's big SUV and gave her a kiss on the cheek. 'Thanks, Jill. I gotta run."

"I know," she said. "Good luck, Allie." She climbed into the car and was about to pull out when Alex knocked on her window.

"I need your house key," he said. "I left my wallet and keys on my dresser."

"Sure," Jill replied, opening her purse, but the key was not hanging from the little clip inside. She rummaged for a moment or two before she remembered. "Oh, shoot, Allie! I left mine on the table inside the door. I'm sorry."

"Damnit!" he let out, louder than he expected. "If I call Mel, she won't get the message until her lunch break. Damn, damn, damn!"

"Ok, look," Jill said, closing her pocketbook and putting it on the floor of the backseat, "I'm not doing anything pressing this morning. Just get in and I'll drive you."

"But I can't ask you..."

"Now, Allie, or all of this will have been wasted. Let's go!"

Shaking his head at his own carelessness, Alex hustled around the car and into the passenger seat.
 

~^~
 

The receptionist looked at the business card the odd looking young woman who wore no makeup had passed to her. At least, she assumed the person was a woman. She had her long, thick hair in a pretty ponytail, a very stylish suit jacket, ugly pants and kind of run of the mill shoes, but the outline of a bra could be seen clearly through the woman's stylish silk blouse.

"Alex Anderson," the awkward woman said. The voice didn't help much. High for a man, low for a woman. "I have an eleven o'clock with Mr Cole."

The woman looked at the card, which only had the young woman's name and number along with the title of 'Distribution Facilitator' in small print.

"Of course," the receptionist smiled. "Just one moment."

She pushed a few buttons on a landline and waited a second or two. "Yes, Ms Anderson to see Mr Cole." She listened for a moment more. "Thank you."

She looked up at the woman and smiled. "Mr Cole will be right out."

"Thank you," the odd looking young salesperson smiled in return. The young salesperson turned and looked at the expensive artwork on the waiting area. What really caught the their eye was an elaborately illustrated page from a medieval era book that seemed to warn of the evils of drinking - at least judging by the illustrations of a demon holding a beverage of some sort from another figure. The text was difficult to read, though, and the salesperson's nerves were running a bit high, anyway. Reading wasn't all that important at the moment. Mentally reviewing product lines and rehearsing the sales pitch took up every cell of the young salesperson's brain.

A tall, handsome man in his fifties came into the reception area and looked around. He crossed to the receptionist's desk and held his hands in a 'where is my appointment?' gesture.

The receptionist pointed to the odd young woman and held up the business card for her boss to see.

The boss looked from the receptionist to the young woman and back to the receptionist. He grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen and wrote, 'I thought that Alex Anderson was a man.'

The receptionist made a 'I don't know what to tell you' gesture back to the older man. He gathered his charm and turned. "Alex?"

The awkwardly dressed young woman turned and looked at him. "Oh, yes. I'm sorry, I was looking at this amazing... Never mind. Yes, I'm Alex. Alex Anderson. Mr Cole?"

"Dennis, please," the man said and took Alex's hand and shook it. "I hope you're hungry, because I am starved and there is a great place for brunch about a mile away."

"I'm looking forward to it," Alex smiled broadly.

'Ah,' Mr Cole thought, 'there it is. Right there. All women look prettier when they smile. Even the homely, awkward ones. She must not get out much.' He smiled down at Alex. "Excellent! Let's go." He turned to the receptionist and said, "If you need me, call my cell. We'll be at The Haymaker."

"Yes sir," she smiled as she watched the two leave.

"So, Alex," Dennis Cole smiled and walked towards the parking lot, "would you mind driving? I'm afraid my wife needed my car this morning. Shopping for an upcoming getaway. God, that'll cost me more than the actual vacation." He laughed at his own joke, prompting Alex to do the same.

"Oh, umm, sure," Alex sputtered, "it's just that... I... well, I've had a weird morning and I ended up locking my house without taking my keys. My sister drove me. She's parked right over here. I'm sure she won't mind driving us, though."

When they reached Jill's SUV, Alex knocked on the window, startling her. She looked up from her phone and blinked for a moment before lowering her window. "Hi," she said, uncertain as to why Alex and this man were standing at her door.

"Jill, this is Mr Cole..."

"Dennis."

"... this is Dennis."

"How do you do, Dennis," Jill smiled, still stymied.

"So," Alex continued, "Dennis' wife has his car today, so would you mind driving us to brunch?"

"Oh, no, that's fine," Jill smiled. "Jump in."

"You take the front seat, Mr Cole," Alex said, opening the door.

"Don't be silly," Dennis laughed. "You sit up front. I'll sit in the back." He opened the backseat door and climbed in without any fuss.

Alex climbed in beside Jill who asked, "Where to?"

"The Haymaker Pub," Dennis said, fastening his seat belt. "Pull out onto the main road and follow it till the traffic light with a Wendy's on one corner and a Burger King on the other. Take a left there and it's just ahead on the right."

"Ok."

The car went into reverse and then Jill drove on. It was a very busy street, and as such, had way too many traffic lights. At every cross street, Jill had to stop, but that gave Dennis and Alex a few minutes to chat.

"Now, I don't want you to think that we'll be getting together for brunch every week, Alex," Dennis said from the backseat. "I just like to meet the people I work with and see if I like the cut of their jib. I have a lot of associates that I've only met once. I think I'm a good judge of character and after a meal and conversation, if I don't feel comfortable with someone, I don't sign on the dotted line. You understand what I mean, right?"

"Sure, sure," Alex nodded, a little nervous. His social skills weren't always great.

Then Dennis said something odd. "This is a little embarrassing, but I have to admit, Alex... when we spoke on the phone, I thought you were a man. I am very surprised to find out you are a woman. Not that it matters, of course. You just... well your voice on the phone is a bit low for a woman and I guess I just made an assumption. My mistake and I apologize if anything I said in our phone conversations confused you."

Alex looked at Jill and was about to say something, but she stopped him. "That's not uncommon, Dennis," she said. "Alex does have one of those voices - especially on the phone. No apology necessary."

Dennis must have seen a look of confusion of Alex's face, because he said, "Oh, I hope I didn't offend you, Alex. I guess I never really asked, and I probably shouldn't ask, anyway, but for some reason, I just assumed... You know, I feel like I'm digging a deep hole for myself here, so I'm just going to shut up about this subject for now..."

He regrouped and tried another conversation tact. "Sisters, huh? That's great that you are helping each other out. Do you to live together?"

"Umm, no," Alex answered, without thinking. "My wife and I live about a block away from Jill."

"Wife?" Dennis said without much implication. "One of my daughters is married to a woman." He let out a little chuckle. "They're the happiest couple I know. I think there's something to be said for same sex marriage. They - my daughter and her wife, I mean - seem more stable. More open. You know what I mean?"

"I certainly do," Jill said, with a bit of a chuckle, too. "Allie and Melody are the same way. No secrets." She shot a sidelong look at her brother when she said that.

He definitely felt guilty about having not told a Mel the truth about their current financial issues, but this was not the time to discuss that. Instead, he just smiled and nodded his head.

Jill took a left and started down another road.

"Right here," Dennis said.

They pulled into the parking lot and parked the car.

"I'll meet you back here," Jill said, picking up her phone again.

"Don't be silly," Dennis said. "Join us. The more the merrier."

Jill looked at her brother who nodded that he wanted her to stay with him. So, she said, "Ok. Well, thank you, Dennis."

"Don't be silly," he smiled a handsome smile.

They all walked into the pub-style restaurant and were shown to their table. Before Dennis sat, he looked at his hands and said, "You know, I started the day with a battle to install a toner cartridge in a copy machine. I'm just going to go wash up before we eat. I'll be right back."

When Dennis was around the corner and out of sight, Alex looked at Jill and asked, "What the hell was that all about? Why didn't we just tell him I'm a guy? Heck, if we told him the story about why I'm wearing these clothes, he might even find it funny."

"Maybe, but he didn't ASK if you were a woman. He said that he REALIZED that you were a woman. Now, I'm in sales, too, Allie, and I wouldn't want to upset the apple cart by telling a client that he couldn't tell a man from a woman. Just go with the flow and, like he said, you'll probably never have to see him again."

"And if I do?"

"Then we cross that bridge when we come to it."

At that moment, Jill looked more closely at Alex and she realized why Dennis had made the mistake he made. As gender neutral as she'd hoped the blazer might be, it was obviously not a man's sports coat. It was better than nothing, but not much. Also, the shirt was very obviously a silk blouse when seen in better lighting and since he wasn't wearing a tie, Alex's open collar look allowed for a peek into his newly formed cleavage. There were bra straps visible through the sheer silk, too. She hadn't noticed that at home, either. Combine all that with his small stature and the way that the blowdryer had given his hair more fullness than usual and all the clues pointed to a woman.

Alex looked like a woman. A hefty woman who didn't wear makeup, yes, but a woman. Not an unattractive woman, either. Nice hair, nice smile... with a little makeup and better clothes, Alex could be a bit of a looker.

"I apologize, ladies," Dennis said, as he returned to the table. "I don't usually leave my guests alone. Now... let's get to know each other."

Over the next ninety minutes, the three discussed everything from sports to art to their heritages and got to know each other. It wasn't until they had finished their meals that Dennis finally said, "I guess it's time that I looked at your catalog and prices, Allie." Dennis had taken to calling Alex by the nickname that Jill used.

Almost caught off guard, Alex grabbed his satchel and pulled out his literature and walked Dennis through the products in great detail and the deals he could offer.

Eventually, Dennis leaned back and folded his arms, staring at Alex for a good minute as he thought. Finally he said, "I like what you're selling, Allie."

Alex waited for him to continue, but nothing came for a few moments.

"And?" Alex asked.

"And..." Dennis sucked on his teeth as he considered the situation. "... and... I like you. You know your product line as well as or better than most salespeople I deal with. Not only that, but I feel like you're being very honest about your products and the local companies who make them. I feel like I can trust you to always take care of my company, Allie. Am I correct?"

"One hundred percent, Dennis. I will always give you and your customers the highest quality products produced by the best local brewers and vintners at best prices I can." Alex was being as sincere as he could.

Dennis nodded and thought a bit more. Finally, he sat forward, smiled and offered Alex his hand. "Then we have a deal, young lady. Congratulations."

Alex reacted with undisguised shock. "We have a...? That... that's great, Dennis! Thank you so much! I'll draw up a contract and get that over to you this afternoon."

"No need, my dear," Dennis smiled. "Before you leave the office, I will introduce you to my business manager and she will cut you a check to seal our deal. I want a substantial display of your products in all of my stores in six weeks - sooner if possible. Consider the check a downpayment to help you get the graphics designed for the end caps, displays, posters, etc. Will ten thousand dollars be enough?"

"Ten...?" Alex couldn't even speak at that point. He breathed a bit and shook his head to clear it. "That... will be a very generous downpayment, Dennis. Thank you. I promise, you will not be
disappointed."

"I know I won't, Allie, because if I am, you will know about it. Understood?"

"Understood," Alex could finally breathe easily. "Thank you, sir. I truly appreciate your faith in me."

Dennis nodded. "And I appreciate your commitment to my customers, Allie. Let's keep things this way, ok?"

"Yes, sir. That's great, sir. Thank you."

"Call me Dennis, Alex. I feel ancient when people call me 'sir.'"

"Dennis," Alex nodded.

Dennis' phone buzzed and he looked at it and sighed. It was a text. "It's from my wife," he said with an amused smirk. "It's our anniversary next week and she has some kind of a surprised planned for this weekend. God knows what she's up to, but she's excited. I told her I'd be done here about a half an hour ago, but to tell you the truth, I have enjoyed this meal tremendously. You girls are great company. I had a great morning. Thank you."

"No, thank you, Dennis," Jill said, offering Dennis a business-like hand shake out of habit. "I had a great time and thank you for having faith in Allie."

Dennis winked flirtatiously as he took her hand. "My pleasure, girls."

He stood and picked up the credit card he'd used to pay for the meal. "I'm afraid that all good things must come to an end, though. I need to get back to the office."
 

~^~
 

"Allie! I'm home!" Mel called up the stairs. "Allie!?" That was weird. His car was in the driveway.

She went up the stairs and saw a surprising mess in her bedroom. "What the...?" She began picking up the clothes and organizing it to put it away. She'd talk to Allie about this, that was for sure. After three years of marriage, they had set standards about how they left the house. This mess was not acceptable.

She was a little more confused by some of the things she found. There were some clothes that had obviously come from Jill's bags, including a plastic bag with the words 'Five cotton panties: High Rise' on the front of it. The odd thing was, though, that there were only four pairs of panties in the bag.

She was contemplating the significance of this discovery when she heard Jill's voice down stairs. "Anybody home!"

Mel left the bedroom and walked down the stairs. "Hey," she said to Jill. "You haven't seen Allie, have you?"

Jill smiled. "I have. He's in the lav and he has some big news for you. Mel, you should have seen him talking to Dennis..."

"Dennis?"

"Oh, yeah, Dennis Cole. He owns all those stores. Cole Liquors... you know... Anyway... you should have seen him. He did a great job and you would have been so proud of him!"

"So, he got the account?"

Jill smiled and raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, my God!" Mel said, covering her mouth. "I'm so happy for him."

The door to the bathroom opened and out stepped Alex wearing a full coverage body-shaper and nothing else. Melody looked at how he was dressed and at the boobs on his chest and her smile turned into an astounded slack jawed gape.

"Alex?" she gasped. "What's going on? Why are you wearing that?"

"Ok, sit down and let me explain," Jill said.

Over the next ten minutes or so, Jill and Alex gave Mel a step by step rehash of the day's events. Each description of an addition of a piece of female to her husband's body fascinated Mel in a way that she found odd, yet exciting.

"So," Mel said when the story had ended, "first I need to say ‘Congratulations’ Allie. What a coup! I’m so proud of you!"

"Thanks, Mel," Alex replied with a smile.

"And second, I need to ask... Why are you still wearing the body shaper?"

"Oh, I can explain that," Jill said. "Because Allie was dressed as he was, and because he needed to get to the bank to deposit the check he got from Dennis, we didn’t go shopping for a new ski-suit. So, I suggested that he tries on my old ski-suit while wearing the shaper. Just to see if it makes a big difference."

Melody glanced at her husband sitting next to her, wearing only the body shaper and she felt a rush of erotic excitement wash over her – and that confused her. A lot.

Then a thought occurred to her.

"You were just in the bathroom." It wasn’t a question or an accusation of any kind. Just a statement.

"Yeah," Alex said, with a shrug. "I had to pee."

"Ok," Mel thought for a moment, "but... how?"

"How... what?"

"How do you pee while wearing that?"

That made Jill laugh a little. "Lord, skinny girls know so little."

Mel looked at Jill, still considering her own question and not understanding what her sister-in-law meant. "You’re skinny, Jill."

"Maybe now, but when you grow up as a heavy girl, you learn how to present yourself well by using shape wear. You probably don’t even own a control-top-panty, do you?"

"Of course I do," she said, sounding almost insulted. "I have a pair of Spanx for when I’m feeling bloated. You know what I mean."

"I do," Jill smiled, "but until recently, if I wanted to look nice..." she pointed at Alex, "... I had to wear one of those."

Melody nodded and, for a second, considered what that must be like. To always have to wear something that binding. "Is it comfortable?"

"You get used to it," Jill shrugged. "Right, Allie?"

"Actually, now that I’ve been wearing it for a few hours, it’s very comfortable. I wish they made them for men." He touched the material on his midsection without even thinking about it.

"They do," Jill said. "They call them compression suits for men. They’re not as pretty, of course, but I understand that they do offer a lot of support."

Alex nodded, his lower lip extended in a thoughtful expression.

"Ok," Mel said, returning to her original question, "but HOW do you pee in that without taking it off."

"You know what’s funny," Jill said, with a smile, "your husband asked me the same question just a little while ago."

"And what did you tell him?"

"There’s a little opening in the gusset of the shaper. You just open it, reach in and move the gusset of your panties to the side, sit and pee. It’s not rocket science."

That made sense to Mel, until she looked at her husband and she thought about what Jill had just said. "Panties?" She giggled. "I found an open package of panties up stairs. Are you actually wearing panties?"

Alex sputtered a few sounds trying to find some words, but Jill came to his defense. "I told him to wear a pair of plain, cotton panties, Mel. He couldn’t wear boxers under that, and I didn’t think he’d be comfortable going commando, so... he had no briefs and I had that pack of brand new, plain cotton panties. No big deal."

Mel smirked and shook her head. It was impossible not to find this whole situation amusing, but there was more than that, too. Part of her really just wanted Jill to leave so that she explore her new, shapely, pantywearing husband in a more amorous way.

She stood abruptly and headed to the closet in the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Alex asked, concerned that his wife was upset.

"To get the snow suit," she said. "That is why you’re still in that thing, right?"

A moment or two later and she reappeared with the ski-suit. "Here, Allie. Let’s see if the shaper helps."

Alex stood and took the suit. He unzipped it and stepped into it, pulling it on and zipping it up. Immediately he realized that the suit fit much better than it had the previous day.

"Wow, what a difference," Melody said, approvingly, to Jill. I was actually afraid that he might not be able to wear long underwear under that." She ran her hands along the outside of the suit, being sure to check the fit on his breasts, too. "He’ll have plenty of room if he wears a shaper under it."

Jill nodded in agreement.

"Ummm..." Alex didn’t want to upset his wife, but he hadn’t ordered any new long underwear and his old stuff was already stupidly tight the previous winter. It’d never fit him now. "I’m sorry, Mel, but I just realized... I don’t have any long underwear that fits."

"Yes you do," Mel said, unflustered. "There were four sets in Jill’s bags and I kept them for you." She picked up a small pile of folded thermal clothing sitting on a nearby chair where she’d placed it the previous evening.

Alex sighed. "Come on, Jill. Don’t you own any long Johns without little flowers all over it?"

Jill shrugged. "When I bought those, Allie, I didn’t think I was buying them for you. Besides, I like little flowers. They make me feel pretty. Maybe you’ll like them too. We’ll see."

He shook his head. "I’ll wear sweats."

"I don’t think so," Melody said with a laugh. "It fits you better, now, but you don’t have enough room to get sweats on under that. The thermal underwear will have to do."

"And the flowers?"

"I like the flowers."

"Yeah, but not on me!"

"Who knows. I’ve never seen you wearing clothes with little flowers before. Maybe I’ll like it." She brushed an imaginary piece of lint off his shoulder and let her hand casually brush his plump chest in the process. "Maybe I’ll like it a lot."

"Can I suggest something?" Jill asked.

"Sure," Mel replied, unzipping Alex’s ski-suit as she spoke.

"Well, if I understand things correctly, Allie only has sweat pants that fit him. Is that right?"

"Yes," Mel replied. The conversation didn’t seem to include Alex at this point.

"Well, if we want to do things, like go out to dinner and things like that, Allie will need some things to wear. I have lots of slacks and jeans in those bags and some of my old blouses are just men’s shirt styles cut to fit women. He could use some of those for the trip, right?"

"Sure," Mel said, excited about not only real food in nice restaurants, but that having Alex dressed in soft, feminine clothing might be a part of their getaway.

"Great. I’ll go bring the bags in, YET AGAIN." Jill said, with dramatic exhaustion in her voice, then she disappeared out the front door.

"I’m not sure about this, Mel," Alex said. "I mean, I wore a shirt today that Jill assured me looked like a men’s shirt, but it didn’t fool anybody."

"Yeah, well, do you have any restaurant-appropriate clothing that fits you?"

Alex sighed. "I guess not."

"Well, then, beggars can’t be choosers, Allie. I’ve been planning this trip for months and I don’t want to just be sitting around in the lodge doing nothing. Allie, you knew we were going away and you didn’t do anything about dealing with your clothing. This may not be ideal, but it’s a solution. Please... for me... and for the sake of all of us having an enjoyable, relaxing, well deserved break. Just find a few nice things that work for you and wear them. No one there will know you and, you’ve said yourself, people have mistaken you for a woman a million times, and with your hair done nicely, like it is now, I can understand why. If you just pick out a few pairs of slacks and a few tops, no one will even look twice at you. Besides – you just closed a big deal, right? Let’s celebrate that!"

He nodded.

What else could he do?

Mel was right. He should have dealt with the clothing issue on his own. She was right about celebrating his deal with Dennis, too. He’d never been so relieved in his life.

"Ok," Jill said, lugging the bags back into the house, "let’s see what we can find."

By the time they were done, Jill was down to just two trash bags to bring to the donation box. They’d pulled five pairs of slacks and ten shirts (or what Jill and Mel referred to as ‘tops) that were all of a fairly gender-neutral design. Yes, some of the pants didn’t have pockets and one of them even zipped up on the side, and Yes, some of the tops bloused out a bit more than Alex would have liked, but Mel and Jill kept saying he could wear them under a sweater.

Oh, and there were several sweaters, too. Some that the women proclaimed ‘perfect for the ski lodge.’

Four pairs of shoes that looked a lot like – but not quite like – men’s shoes.

Mel took a few items that she didn’t show to Alex, too. She didn’t think anyone would notice, and who knows, maybe she and Alex might enjoy a little walk on the wild side.

When they’d packed up the clothes that were still being donated, Jill and Melody carried the bags back to Jill’s oversized vehicle while Alex put the dirty dishes from their casual dinner into the dishwasher. Jill closed the overhead hatch-door or her SUV and smiled. "I’m glad that Allie’s getting some use of those clothes. He looks good in them, right?"

Mel giggled. "Good? I don’t know about that. He certainly looks better that he does in the godawful old sweats and pajama bottoms that he wears all the time, but it is weird to see your husband with a woman’s shape – including breasts – and wearing clothes with lacy trim."

"I think he looks kind of cute."

Mel nodded. "Yeah, he is that." She opened her arms wide and hugged Jill. "We’ll see you in the morning. Are you excited?"

"I can’t wait to get up there and hit the slopes," Jill returned the hug.

"My neither. It’s so great to have someone to ski with! Allie’s good for a run or two, but then he wants to go in and get warm."

"Not me," Jill smiled. "I will stick with you all day."

When Mel came back into the house, she found Alex just finishing up in the kitchen. He was still wearing the shaper and had a loose fitting, white blouse covering his torso. Below that was just the legs of shaper showing and his own legs below.

"Hey, sexy," she said as she leaned on the door from.

Alex laughed. "Yeah. Sexy. That’s me."

"It is right now." She crossed the room and wrapper arms around him, running her hands along the material around his hips.

A little confused by Mel’s amorous attitude – especially since they’d had a romp the night before. After years of marriage, they averaged about one night of romance a week. Two in a row was very unusual.

"You think I look sexy like... this?" he asked, tentatively.

One of Mel’s hands moved to Alex’s chest and began to grope and the odd thing was... it felt... amazing.

"Like this..." Mel smiled, "... you look sexier to me than you ever have."

"Really?" he whispered as Mel’s hand made its way down to the flat area on the front of his groin where his penis would typically have been.

"Really." She smiled down at him. "I really like you like this, Allie. I know that’s weird, but... I really do." She moved even closer and his head rested on her shoulder when she hugged him. "I even like your hair like this."

She bent and gently kissed his neck. It was a gesture of love, but it was also a gesture of dominance that was new to both of them. Despite their relative heights being different than most couples, their love making had always been pretty standard – even kinda of... vanilla.

This was all new and exciting.

"Let’s go upstairs," Mel uttered in a husky whisper.
 
 
To Be Continued...