meeting of his career, wearing a suit that is tailored very differently
than the ones he usually wears. His change in wardrobe and persona force
both William and Kateri to reevaluate everything about themselves and
their relationship.
Author's Note:Thank you for all of your comments, pro and con, on this and all of my stories. Please continue to share your thoughts. It really helps me to become a better writer. All of my stories are filled with broken characters who are just looking for love and acceptance. Really, that's all that we all want, I think. Please! Leave me a comment? ~Clara.
This version of February Fantasy Fridays: 3 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.
Chapter 3
He stepped away from his sister and thought for a moment, catching his reflection in the mirror again. "This is crazy," he muttered.
"But necessary," Angela said, supportively. "Just for today, Willy."
"That's not what I mean," William shook his head. "Look at me. I look ten times better like this than I ever did before. I thought I was a man, but I look better as a woman. I'm not even sure who I am, anymore."
"Hey!" Angela said with more force than he expected. "Look at that girl in the mirror. You know who that is. That girl is my older brother Willy and he is the smartest man I know. And right now, he's the prettiest girl in my family – me included," Then her voice softened a bit, "Although we do look a lot alike when you wear makeup. Hmm. Maybe I should have Dhaveed do my hair and makeup just like yours."
William let out one tired laugh and cracked just a small smile. "Thanks, Ang. What time is it?"
"Five to eleven."
"I guess I should get dressed, then."
"Atta girl!" Angela smiled and kissed his cheek. "Come on. I’ll help you."
The silky panties fit perfectly. William tucked as best he could because the skirt was going to be a narrow fit and he wanted to be sure that nothing showed. The bra matched the panties and provided a welcome feeling of support to the breasts that had been tugging on William’s chest all day. The elastic top silk stockings that they’d bought him felt very erotic on William’s denuded legs. The slip was a gloriously smooth item that made William feel absolutely lovely. The skirt was a very alien garment, with its rear clasp and zipper, but the silk lining added to the slip’s feeling of elegance. The camisole and shell felt lovely on his shoulders, but hung oddly loose from his breasts, but the silky material brushed against the material of the slip when he moved and that was exotic, too. He needed help with the tiny clasp on the necklace, but the very light weight chain with the tiny, yellow topaz stone at the end was also a new and odd feeling. Finally, the jacket with its silk lining felt just as elegant and exciting as the rest of the clothing.
"I’ve never worn anything that felt like this before," William said, running his hands along the soft material of his new skirt and feeling the layers of silkiness below. "It’s kind of weird."
"Good weird?" her sister asked.
He shrugged. "Umm... nice... weird, I guess. They feel really nice."
"Now that you’re dressed, are you ready to see yourself in the mirror, again?" Angela asked.
William nodded, then moved to the floor to ceiling mirror. "Whoa," he whispered. "This is too much for me, Angie. Too much. I can’t believe this. I don’t look anything like a guy."
Angela smiled and put her arm around his shoulders. "Willy, you’re just feeling exactly the same way that every girl feels the first time that she gets dressed up like a grown up. It’s a rush, isn’t it?" she kissed his newly coiffed hair and looked at the two of them in the mirror. "Now, look at how great you look, Willy. As far as anyone upstairs is concerned, you’ll just be a cute girl who happens to be a brilliant accountant. I’ll be sitting right next to you the whole time, so you’ll never be alone. Ok?"
William nodded and forced a smile. "Ok. Thanks, Angie."
Dhaveed took a moment to fix what damage William had done to his eyes by crying, and then the four of them, Angela, Tess, Raquel and William, headed to the elevator to go upstairs.
"We’ll be there in less than two minutes," Tess said into her phone as the elevator doors opened on the ground floor. "Honest to God, Lorraine, you won’t believe it. He’s absolutely perfect. Ok. The elevator is here. We’ll be right up," They all stepped into the elevator and the doors closed. "Lorraine says that no investors have arrived yet, so we should have a few minutes to get our paperwork together and still get to the conference room with some time to spare."
William inhaled and let it out slowly as he prepped himself. "Ok," he took hold of the railing at the rear of the elevator car and shook his head. "This has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever done."
"You’ll be fine, Willy. No one will see anything but a cute woman," Angela smiled. She was actually pretty sure that William could go pretty much anywhere looking like he did and no one would suspect a thing.
Tess turned to the back of the car and glanced at William with an encouraging smile. She turned back to the front of the car, then back to William and this time she outright stared at him as if seeing how he looked for the first time. "You really do look great, Bill. Better than I could have imagined. I know that this is a really messed up day for you, but... you’re gonna do great. You know the numbers backwards and forwards. Just relax and you’ll knock ‘Em dead."
"She’s right," Raquel said as the bell rang to indicate that they’d reached the fifth floor. "You look really, really pretty, Bill."
"Show time." Tess bounced on the balls of her feet as the doors opened.
After Tess called her from the lobby, Lorraine hurried to the reception area to meet the elevator. Her heart had been beating quickly since she’d first seen William with those ludicrous breasts attached to his chest earlier that morning. Today’s meeting needed to go well and in order for that to happen, she needed William in the conference room to discuss the numbers with the investors. All this foolishness of dressing William like a woman had to work, it just had to, but... she had her doubts. Yes, he was small and slender, and yes, his voice wasn’t particularly masculine, and yes, he had a ‘cute,’ rather than ‘handsome,’ face, BUT there was more to being a woman than just clothes and makeup. He’d have to really act like a woman. Could he? She had no idea.
"They’re on their way up, Kat," Lorraine said as she entered the reception area. "Come on. Let’s go meet them in the lobby."
Kateri was anxious to see how her boyfriend looked after his makeover, but she was also relieved to be giving up her post at the reception desk. She fell in step beside her boss and said, "Do you think this will work?"
"I hope the hell it does." Lorraine shook her head and looked as if she’d tasted something sour. She glanced at Kateri. "I’ve been walking around the office today looking at everyone and thinking ‘She looks like a woman, but would she look like a man if she wore a suit?’ and wondering if it’s even possible to just throw a guy into a woman’s suit and expect him to actually look like a woman. You, Tess and I are probably the tallest women in the office and I’m pretty sure that none of us would fool anyone if we tried to put on a suit and pretend to be guys."
"I wouldn’t know where to start," Kateri laughed nervously, "but Billy is... different."
"Are you telling me that your boyfriend is a closet sissy?" Lorraine asked with no sense of trying to be funny.
Kateri smiled and shook her head. "Oh, no, no, no. Not at all. Billy is... sensitive, but not like that. I’ve noticed that, when he enters a room, he always examines everyone. At first I couldn’t figure out why, but eventually I did. He’s looking to see if he’s the smallest adult in the room, and frequently he is."
"That bothers him?" Lorraine seemed surprised. "I’d have thought he’d be used to that by now."
"I don’t think a guy ever gets used to that. No guy wants to be the shortest, or the fattest, or the baldest guy in the room. Unless they are the tallest or the best looking, they just want to blend in."
"Huh." None of this had ever really occurred to Lorraine.
The bell rang, announcing the arrival of the elevator. "Here we go," Lorraine said, preparing herself for the worst. "Jesus, this had better work."
The doors open to reveal three women, Tess, Angela and Raquel, standing side by side. "Well?" Lorraine asked, impatiently. "Where is he?"
"He?" Tess said, pretending to be confused. "He who?"
"Don’t be cute, Tess. The clock is ticking and I’m about to have a heart attack. Where is Bill?"
"Oh, BILL?" Tess teased some more. "Well, there’s no BILL here, but let me introduce you the new girl in Accounting – Billie."
With that, the three women stepped out of the elevator to reveal William to his boss and girlfriend.
"Holy shit," Kateri let out with all the control of a Tourette’s patient. Her hand flew to her mouth both to cover her astounded smile and to keep herself from swearing in front of her boss again.
"I agree," Lorraine stared in disbelief. "Holy shit."
Kateri couldn’t contain it any more. "HOLY SHIT, BILL... BILLIE...YOU LOOK... HOLY SHIT, BABY!!! HOLY SHIT!!! She ran into the car and hugged him tightly. "Oh, my God, you look amazing!!! I’m so proud of you!!!"
The doors began to close, causing Kateri to grunt out an, "Oops," and she guided William out of the car.
"Let me take a look at you," Lorraine said, placing a hand on each of William’s shoulders. "I... I am amazed, Bill. You look... just... well, you look better put together than almost any other woman in the office," she made a show of dramatically placing her hands on her heart. "Oh, I can breathe again. Thank you for doing this, Bill."
Bill gave her a sad smile and a shrug. "I just hope it works."
"Looking at you right now, Bill, and I think it will." Lorraine looked at everyone, smiled broadly and let out a loud ‘whew.’ "Come on. Let’s call the troops together and let them meet the new girl."
"Umm," Kateri interrupted. "Lorraine. Maybe it would be best if you gathered them before Bill is in there. Remember what we were just talking about? Having them all assembled first, might make things easier."
"Oh... sure... good idea, Kat." She looked at the others. "Come on. Let’s give Kat and Billie a moment while we get everyone together," Then she looked at Kateri. "One minute, ok? Tic tock. Remember?"
The others walked away leaving William and Kateri staring at each other.
"Well?" William asked. "Do I look ok?"
"Oh, baby, baby, baby," Kateri shook her head, "you are so far beyond ok it’s not even funny. I could eat you up, right here and now."
"Yeah?" William blushed.
"Are you ok? Dressed like that, I mean?"
He shrugged. "The clothes aren’t bad. Kinda nice, actually. It was really the hair and makeup that freaked me out."
"I get that, babe. First time looking pretty and all."
He shook his head. "That’s only part of it. It just made me feel... it’s hard to describe. Like I was..."
"Guys, guys," Raquel came hurrying back into the reception area. "Lorraine has everyone assembled and she says you need to come now, before anyone else gets here."
Kateri nodded, then touched William’s soft cheek. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead. "We’ll sit down and have a long talk later. Ok?"
William nodded. Talking would be good. He had a lot of feelings to sort out.
"Guys," Raquel encouraged. "Please. We need to get this done."
Kateri smiled and took William’s small hand in hers, laced her fingers through his, kissed the back of it, admiring his nails, and said, "You’re on, sweetie. Big smile."
There was some quiet chatter going on in a the Pit. "Ok, here they are, now," Lorraine said, as Kateri and William entered. "As you know, we are in a very difficult situation, today, and one of our own has stepped up and taken a bullet for the team. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present our newest addition to The Firefly family... Billie, come on over and say hello."
There was an audible gasp from some of the staff. Then there was silence as everyone tried to get their heads around the fact that this pretty, cute, really, little woman was that weird, bookish, little guy in accounting.
William felt a wave of uncomfortable heat pass across him as he held up a hand and waved. "Umm... Hi, everyone."
"Wow!" One of the women artists let out without thinking. Everyone turned to look at her for a moment. The woman smiled at everyone else and said, "What? Are you kidding me? If we put a transformation like that into a game, no one would believe it! Bill... well... Billie... you look great! Congratulations!"
She began applauding. For a few seconds, it was just her clapping, but then everyone joined in. Some hooted and whistled. Their were shouts of "Well, alright!" and "Great job!" and "I can’t believe that’s him."
After the applause had gone on for forty five seconds or more, Lorraine held up her hands and asked for quiet. "Alright, everyone, please quiet down for a moment. Come on, we have a big meeting in just a few minutes. Please listen," The room quieted down and she continued. "Thanks. Now, for the remainder of the day, or at least as long as the investors are here, I need you all on your best behavior. Work the way you always do and feel free to use The Pit, but make sure that you are putting your best foot forward, ok? And as for this young lady," she indicated William, "well... just act as if this is the way that Billie always looks," she put her arm around his shoulders and smiled. "You may recall that, less than a year ago, we were on the brink of bankruptcy before a, very talented, accountant showed up and solved that problem for us. Now, today, that same accountant has stepped up and gone much further than the extra mile to come through for all of us. So, one more time, let’s have a round of applause for Billie, and then... let’s get back to work."
Everyone applauded again, and then headed back to their work. Many employees, all female, stepped forward to tell William how beautiful he looked. They hugged him and touched him. Touched his clothes and hair. Some even offered a supportive kiss on his cheek. It was like nothing William had ever experienced before.
Lorraine looked at Kateri as Kateri watched her boyfriend being congratulated and fawned over by the group of women.
"Kat," Lorraine said, quietly. "I need you to get back to the Art Department and get to work."
Kateri nodded. "In a second. Just let me wish him luck."
"Ok, but make it quick. She needs to get her head in the game."
"He," Kateri corrected her boss.
"Nope," Lorraine shook her head. "I don’t think so."
Kateri looked at her boss for a moment, then back at William. He certainly did not look like a man at the moment. She still found him incredibly attractive – maybe even in a more erotic way than before, but...
"Kat. Now or never. We have work to do," Lorraine roused her from her thoughts.
Kateri nodded, then stepped up to her beautiful, dainty boyfriend and hugged him. "You’re going to do great, babe," she said as she squeezed him a little tighter. "I, ummm... I have to get going. We..." for some reason, she felt a tear forming in her eye, "... we have a final play through for the new game today, so I’ll be tied up all afternoon," she released him and looked at him with a sense of confused longing. Did she long for him because he was the man she loved, or did she long for him because he was a little guy in a skirt. She really didn’t know.
William blinked as he tried to decipher her expression. "Kat? Are you ok?"
She forced a broad, bright smile. "Am I ok? Baby, why would I not be ok? I have the most beautiful boyfriend on the planet. Baby, I’m the happiest girl in the world." She touched his soft cheek again. "Good luck, baby. I’ll see you after work."
She turned and hustled away. As she passed her boss, Lorraine heard Kateri let out a quiet sniffle as she picked up her pace.
Lorraine checked the time on her phone. "Ok, girls," she said to Tess, Angela and William, "it’s eleven fifteen. Go put on your game faces and let’s make a great presentation, ok?"
Angela nodded, then took William’s hand and led him back to his office. "I brought your satchel with me, Willy. You left it at home and I figured you might need your laptop and your notes."
William couldn’t even remember leaving the house that morning, it seemed so long ago. So much had happened since then. Thank God that Angela had thought to bring his bag, though. There was nothing in it that he didn’t know by heart, but it would be good to have it handy if he got stressed or confused.
"Also, I sent mom a picture of you. She couldn’t believe it. She said that I should warn you to stay away from the men in the office."
William just shook his head and laughed. "Typical advice from mom, I guess."
When they entered the office, Angela picked up the very masculine looking briefcase and shook her head. "I’ll carry this for you, Willy. It’s not fancy enough for someone who looks like you do."
William nodded. He didn’t fully understand what she meant, but a part of him did wish that he had something prettier in which to carry his computer.
‘Oh, one more thing," Angela said, turning her back to him and pulling two small bottles out of her own pocketbook. She held them up to show her brother. "Lavender or vanilla?"
William blinked. "Lavender or vanilla what? I don’t get it?"
"Here. Sniff." She held each bottle near his nose and he sampled their scent. "A girl like you would definitely be wearing perfume. I can’t afford something as fancy as a girl like you would wear, but you need a little something. Which do you prefer?"
William sniffed again. "The vanilla, I guess."
Angela smiled. "I would have gone with the lavender, but vanilla’s a nice, fresh smell," she spritzed a little on his wrists and then a little on his neck. Then she smiled down at him. "Smells pretty, right?"
William inhaled. "It does. Thank you."
Angela smiled. "You know, Willy... you are the smartest guy I ever met. When you look at numbers, your whole face changes. It’s like... like you go into a trance or something. Some people are great painters, or dancers or musicians, but you... you’re like an artist with numbers."
William looked up at her, a bit confused by her words. He loved his sister and knew she loved him, but this was... odd. "Angie... I’m just good at my job."
Angela smiled. "Yeah. That’s my point. You’ve been through a lot today, but don’t let it get in your head. Remember that no one knows how to do your job better than you. Ok? When they ask you any questions, just be yourself and answer the questions. Don’t be nervous. Be you, ok?"
Now he got it. She was giving him a pep talk. That was kind of sweet. He smiled. "Thanks, Angie."
"Hey, girls," Tess said from the doorway, "it’s time. Ready?"
"All set," William nodded and they exited the office, William first, with Angela following, carrying his bag.
"Do I smell vanilla perfume?" Tess smiled, looking at William.
"Just a little." He smiled back. "Angie’s idea."
"It suits you." Tess smiled at him and then at Angela. "It must be nice to suddenly have a sister, Angie."
"It’s the best," Angela said. "She’s the best."
They were the first three into the conference room. Angela told them both to sit and she’d grab coffee for all of them. William and Tess moved to the far end of the table, near the presentation screen. Tess sat first, followed by William.
"Oh, no, Billie, not like that." Tess laughed and stood again. "Stand up," William did. "Now, watch," she spoke as she demonstrated, "when you sit, you need to do so slowly, smoothing everything under you as go. Then, sit no further than halfway back in the seat, cross your legs at the knee, keep your back straight and rest your hands on the table, or on your knees. To be a well poised woman, pretend there is a marionette’s string running up your spine and coming out here, at the crown of your head. Your head is light and animated, your neck and back are straight and upright and your shoulders arms and hands flow delicately from your spine. Now, you do it."
This all seemed awfully involved just for the act of sitting, but Tess was one of the most fashionably beautiful and elegant women William had ever seen, so maybe she knew what she was talking about. So, William took it seriously and did as she instructed. He expected it to feel silly, but it didn’t. It felt appropriate for the way he was dressed. All of his clothing seemed to ride effortlessly along the silken slip and felt like they settled perfectly when he sat as regally as his tutor had.
"Excellent!" Tess proclaimed and squeezed his wrist approvingly.
"Well, done, Willy," Angela complimented as well, as she placed two mugs of coffee on the conference table and one on a side table near the chair behind William where she would be sitting. As Angela sat, she spoke to Tess. "It sounds as if you’ve given that speech before."
"Every girl in my department has heard that speech at least once," she laughed. "My parents sent me to a pretty snotty boarding school when I was in high school. Every Tuesday night was ‘Deportment Class For Proper Young Ladies.’ If I am ever invited to dinner at Downton Abbey, I will fit right in," Tess looked down the hallway and said, "Looks like most of them are here. Here comes Lorraine and there’s a parade of people behind her."
William took a deep breath and hoped that he might be able to get through the meeting without having to say much. Angela patted his shoulder and whispered, "You’ll do great."
A group of fifteen investors, some with an assistant accompanying them, entered the conference room. Many of them seemed to know each other and there was a lot of chatting and polite laughter. Pictures of children and grandchildren were shared as coffee was poured and pastries were plated.
"Are we all ready?" Lorraine whispered to Tess and William, who both confirmed that they were all set to start.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Lorraine called in a loud voice. "If we could take our seats, we’d like to get things started. Just take a seat anywhere."
Everyone finished their conversations and headed to their seats. The last two to sit were an older woman in a very lovely pantsuit and a tall, handsome, thirty-five-ish-maybe-forty-ish man with impeccably coiffed dark hair and a goatee. "Here, Jan," the man flashed a confident, brilliant white smile as he pulled a chair for the woman, "take this seat. You’ll see better. I’ll sit down front."
The woman thanked the man and took the seat. He helped her settle close to the table, then moved forward and pulled out the seat next to William.
"Well, look at this," the man said in a quiet, flirtatious voice as he sat and pulled in his own chair, "I’m the last one seated and I still got to sit next to the prettiest girl in the room."
William looked beyond the man to see who was sitting there and saw another prosperous looking man. Then he glanced at the man who was speaking and realized that the remark had been aimed at William. William smiled politely and was surprised to feel very flattered by the remark.
Lorraine began speaking. "Welcome, everyone. It is very nice to have you here today so that we can all share the success that your support of Firefly has achieved. We are about to release our seventh game and, judging by the success of our previous six, we expect that..."
William was focusing on her speech when he felt the man next to him lean forward and whisper, "Shane Harris," and then a hand appeared in William’s field of vision.
Confused, William looked at the hand, then at the man’s face and whispered back, "I’m sorry, what?"
"Shane Harris," the man whispered. "And you are?"
William was surprised by the man’s lack of attention to the matter at hand. "Oh, sorry... Billie. I’m Billie." He turned his attention back to Lorraine.
"Is that vanilla I smell," the man continued without concern for Lorraine’s presentation.
William was really thrown off of his game by the question. He had no idea why the man was talking to him, but he did find the attention oddly flattering. He nodded and smiled a smile that, unintentionally, said, ‘how nice of you to ask.’ "Yes, it is." Again, he turned towards Lorraine.
"Who are you with?" Shane Harris persisted, still in a whisper.
William turned and looked at him again. "I’m sorry?"
"Who are you with?" he asked again. "What firm do you represent?"
"Oh." William finally understood. "I work here, at Firefly. I’m the accountant."
"THE accountant?" Shane chuckled quietly. "Not AN accountant, but THE accountant. How did someone so young and so pretty and someone who smells so good become THE accountant at a company like this?"
Baffled as to how to answer that question, William was relieved when Angela leaned forward with some papers in her hand and pointed to a column of figures. William excused himself and to look at the paperwork.
"What are you doing?" Angela whispered, pretending to ask about the numbers. "That guy is flirting with you. Focus on the meeting, Willy, and stop flirting back. That’s not why you went through all of this."
William knew that he needed to keep focused, but the idea that he had been flirting was absurd. "I wasn’t flirting, Angie. I was just being polite."
"Oh, yeah. Being polite. Smiling, blushing, giggling like a little girl... you were flirting whether you knew it or not. Remember, little sister, you’re a girl now and that makes you fair game for players like him. Maybe you were just being friendly, but he’s wondering what kind of panties you’re wearing. Now, ignore him, turn your chair, just a little bit towards Tess’ so that he thinks you’re working, pay attention to the meeting and do what you came to do."
His sister – his younger sister who was here as his intern – was actually chastising him right here in front of everyone. He couldn’t believe it. She was right though. He had a job to do. So, he shifted his chair and focused on the meeting. Within a few minutes, Lorraine had finished speaking and introduced Tess to talk about marketing.
"Good morning," Tess began with a dazzling smile and her typical, effervescent charm. "The whole team here at Firefly is very excited about this release. The storyline is original, the characters are interesting and beautifully rendered by our team of artists and programmers, the original music is by a team of musicians who have won multiple awards for their work on other games as well as movies and TV shows, and our pre-release orders are much higher than those of any other game we’ve ever produced. Now, we have a three pronged approach to marketing this product and we feel that if we focus our available financial resources on new and innovative ways, we can maximize awareness of the product and motivate our customer base to spend their hard earned, entertainment dollars on the latest Firefly contribution. Now, let me walk you through phase one of the marketing plan..."
Tess went on with her well planned and structured presentation for the next half an hour. She was engaging and entertaining, never boring the investors and informing them without over explaining or condescending to them. She referred to the paperwork in front of them and the slides that she was presenting on the oversized screen behind her. The people in attendance nodded, took notes, highlighted important sections and occasionally interacted with their assistants.
She did very well with the numbers, too. She usually referred to just the ‘best’ projections, but they were still reasonable and most likely achievable numbers.
When her presentation was complete, she offered the meeting up to questions. Most questions were focused on sales projections, not on actual accounting and William began to think that his input may not be needed at all, which was fine with him, but did make all the preparations he’d suffered through seem a bit pointless.
Then, just as William thought he was going to get out of the meeting without having to speak, Shane Harris asked, "Looking at these numbers, I am a little baffled by the fact that we are only seeing your best projections. Isn’t that a little disingenuous? I mean, we’ve been in a financial decline most of this last year and this is not an inexpensive game. We’re all investing in this product, I think we need to understand the risks that we and our clients face if Firefly doesn’t reach these sales figures."
"Well, you could tell that Tess was not thrilled with the man’s tone, "I admit I did focus on ‘best scenario’ projections, but we did make it clear that we had projections that took lower sales into account."
"Would you share those with us?" The man sounded a bit smug and that bothered William a great deal. "My investors do not typically back projects like this. Bunker Hill Investors is a very large company and we usually focus on very profitable companies – hospitals, casinos, sports venues... big return investments. I’m going to be honest, we are not as confident in this company as we would like to be. Video games are a fickled consumer item and BHI isn’t one hundred percent sure that we should continue our investment in this company."
Lorraine rose up from her chair looking a bit pale. "Mr Harris, I assure you that this game is going to do well. The consumer buzz around it is much higher than even we expected. Perhaps we should discuss this AFTER the meeting in my office."
"No, here is fine," he said, almost laughing. "Look, Lorraine, every person in here knows that BHI is your company’s biggest investor. If we go, everyone is losing money. Now, look, a few years ago, Kurt Schilling... remember Kurt? Local hero? Red Sox pitcher? Blood flowing out of his sock in game six of the playoffs – a true local hero, right? He could do no wrong, right? Then Kurt retires and starts a video game company. Who’s not going to support Kurt? No one, right? Everyone loves Kurt. But then what happens? It all goes to pot. The once great man is broke and his investors are on the hook for millions. Well, BHI isn’t interested in having to go to its investors and explain that their portfolio is in danger because some kid in Indiana didn’t have the hundred bucks to buy a video game."
The air had been sucked out of the room. All the enthusiasm and goodwill that Tess had created had just been destroyed by this grinning viper.
"Mr Harris," Lorraine was upset, "Kurt Schilling was a ball player, not a game designer. We know what we’re doing, and what we are doing has been making your investors and every other investor in this room, a reasonable profit for the last few years. There is no reason for you to not have faith..."
William sat and listened to his boss, knowing that she was not taking the right tact with this man. He was getting exactly the reaction that he wanted: Hysteria. Lorraine was brilliant at what she did, but she was about to inadvertently destroy her own company by behaving like a ‘typical woman’ at this meeting.
He didn’t know why. He hadn’t thought about doing it. He just did. He stood, buttoned the one button on his pretty, silk, royal blue jacket and stepped to the front of the table, next to Tess and he started speaking, interrupting his boss.
"If I may... Would everyone please turn to page fourteen of your paperwork and, Tess, could you call up slide twenty seven? Thank you. Now, if everyone will look at this spreadsheet. I direct you to row 7, column C. This is the place where start to see a profit..." William was in his accounting zone, pointing out the nuances of his math, guiding everyone through the complexities of the risks and benefits of Tess’ marketing plan and adding his analysis of every aspect of it. Everyone in the room was a bit shocked that this pretty little woman had suddenly taken over and turned the meeting from a bloodbath to an informative, positive presentation. Everyone, that is, except for Angela who’d seen William in ‘the zone’ before as he helped her with her homework or explained investments to her uninterested mother. This was where William’s brain thrived – in the numbers.
After about ten minutes of explaining, William turned to everyone present and smiled. "Whew. Is it hot in here?" That brought a small laugh from everyone. "Any questions?"
Several investors asked if William could send them a printed version of the in-depth summary he’d just finished, which he was very willing to provide, but, of course, Shane Harris had more to say.
"Well, that was a very impressive presentation, but my concerns weren’t really addresses, were they? What if the game doesn’t sell?"
"The game will sell, Mr Harris." William smiled far too sweetly for a man. "The reason games don’t sell are well recorded. Subpar graphics or a boring game. The graphics in this game are amazing and the game is downright addictive."
Harris was about to say something, but William spoke before he could. "You know, we’ve just been discussing numbers. I think you should see the game. Angela, would you please go over to the test floor and ask Jorge if he could join us and bring a laptop with the game on it? Thank you."
As Angela hurried to get the game expert, William explained the game’s premises and goals, which all seemed a bit silly out of context, but when Jorge showed up with his gaming laptop and plugged it into the screen, the was an audible sound from those assembled that indicated that they were very impressed by the look of just the entry point.
"Ok," William explained, "We start in the ready-room where we receive our orders. Then we assemble our individual weapon stash, I’ll take these weapons and you can see that Jorge is picking his. Now, we’re ready to head out into the playing area, but wait a moment. Jorge, can you pause this, please."
Jorge stopped the program and William put down his controller. "I was only kidding before," William smiled, "but it is a little warm in here," he took off his suit coat, revealing the loose hanging, very feminine, sleeveless yellow shell beneath. His thin, pale, smooth arms looked lovely against the pretty top. Angela looked at her brother, then noticed that Shane Harris was paying an awful lot of attention to the newly revealed skin as well. "Ok, Jorge. I’m ready."
The game began in earnest with William and Jorge working as a team to get through the opening scene of the game. They were only a few minutes into the program when they were caught in a trap. Jorge, who knew the game well, explained how to get through the ambush, but William, who’d only had an hour or two of experience on this game was caught by surprise and his avatar was killed.
"Oh, no!" he shouted, completely wrapped up in the game. Then he looked at the investors with a huge smile on his face. "Well, that’s it for me. Would anyone like to try it? Mr Harris?"
Everyone shook their head, but Harris spoke. "I don’t think I need to embarrass myself in front of everyone, Billie. Video games aren’t really my thing. I am impressed, though. I don’t know if it was the quality of the game or your pretty smile, but you have definitely won me over. BHI will continue to provide support to Firefly."
That received a round of applause from the other investors.
Lorraine breathed easily for the first time in a half an hour and stood, a look of relief and satisfaction on her face. "Well, thank you Tess and Billie for a wonderful presentation. If there are no further questions, I think we have taken up quite enough of your time for one day. Thank you, everyone, and remember that I am always available to respond to any questions or concerns. My contact information is on page one of your packets. Thank you, and have a great day."
Goodbyes were said, handshakes were exchanged and the room began to empty. The last to leave was Shane Harris, who waited to speak to Lorraine. "Well, I have to say, you ladies gave quite a presentation today," Then he looked at William. "And you, young lady, whether you know it or not, saved the day. Honestly, before this meeting, my intentions were to pull BHI’s investments in this company. It just doesn’t fit into our portfolio very well, but after hearing your numbers and seeing the joy on that pretty face when you played that game... well, let me just say that BHI and Firefly are going to be partners for a long, long time."
He shook hands with Lorraine and Tess, then offered his hand to William. When William accepted the hand shake, Harris covered William’s right hand with his left and held it longer than expected. "Billie? Very cute name. I like a smart girl who smells like vanilla. Tell me, Billie... if I were to invite you to lunch, would you accept that invitation?"
William was very surprised, but smiled at the compliments. "Actually, Mr Harris, if you were to ask, I would have to decline your invitation. As flattered as I am, I am in a relationship."
Harris nodded. "He’s a lucky guy. Well, it’s been an experience, ladies. Thank you and... congratulations."
They all watched at Shane Harris left the conference room and disappeared down the hallway before Lorraine spoke. She looked at William and smiled. "Alright, Billie, come here and give me a hug!" William thought she was kidding, so he just stood there and smiled, which prompted Lorraine to push past Tess and wrap her arms around her accountant. "Billie, you were on fire! Honest to God, I don’t think I’ve heard you say as much in the whole time that you’ve worked here as I heard you say today!"
"That’s the truth!" Tess laughed as she took William from Lorraine and hugged him as well. "And what you said, Billie, and the way you said it! I thought for sure that Harris was going to walk out the door and you just charmed him into sticking with us. I’m blown away by what you did."
"Me too," Lorraine agreed. "What were you thinking, Billie? I’ve never seen you take over a meeting like that."
"I wasn’t thinking at all," William admitted. "I just felt like I had to do something, so... I did. Everything just felt right."
"Well, you were wonderful." Lorraine shook her head in amazement. "Ok. Tess, you and I have to have a quick chat about the release. Billie, you’ve had a long day, already. Why don’t you go have some lunch and you can take a breath and relax for the remainder of the day. Whew! I’m exhausted."
"Me, too!" Tess was laughing. "You must be as well, Billie."
"Actually," William gathered his papers together, "I’m kind of energized. I’ve never really felt like this before," he closed his satchel and his smile was broad and unselfconscious. "I wouldn’t mind doing all of that again."
The women smiled at his enthusiasm and the change that they saw in him. He’d always been the reserved, odd looking little guy huddled in his office. Now... there was almost no similarity between that quiet, little man and this confident, petite woman.
He took a deep breath and smiled at them and left the conference room. Angela was right behind him, grabbing his discarded silk suit coat on the way.
When Angela caught up with her brother, she couldn’t help but tell him how impressed she’d been. "Willy, honey, you were great! You saved the whole meeting! The whole company! Willy, you were amazing!"
"I felt amazing," William agreed. "I’ve never been in a meeting in which I felt comfortable before. I would always say what I needed to say in the past, yeah, but just now... it was like I was a new person! I felt confident and alive! It was amazing!"
Angela was about to point out that he actually was a new person today, but they ran into three of the girls from marketing walking towards the exit. "Hey, Billie," one of the girls stopped and smiled at the brother and sister, "you were great in there! Congrats and thank you for keeping us alive!"
"Yeah, thanks, Billie," another girl said, rubbing William’s exposed upper arm.
"Hey," the third girl was pulling on her winter coat, "we’re just running across to Montrose to get a quick lunch. Want to join us?"
To be honest, William had never been invited to join anyone from the office to do anything, with the exception of being with Kateri, and he had initiated that relationship by asking her out first, but his typical response to any invitation to socialize was always to politely decline, and that’s what he was about to do, but before he could open his mouth, Angela accepted for them.
"Oh, we’d love to!" she bubbled at the women, all three of whom she’d spoken to and gotten to know in the break room.
"Well, why don’t you..." William was starting to say to his sister, but she ignored him and continued speaking.
"We just need to grab our stuff and use the ladies room before we go. Why don’t you go on ahead and get a table. We’ll meet you there in a few minutes."
"Great!" The third girl smiled as she buttoned her coat. "See you there!"
As Angela guided William to his office, he protested to her about including him in the luncheon. After all, he had a lot to do.
"No you don’t," his sister said emphatically. "Lorraine essentially gave you the afternoon off and you told me yourself that you wanted to make friends at work. Now, let’s go make friends with those girls."
"But, I’ll be the only guy there," he insisted.
"Oh, please," his sister scoffed. "Listen, Willy, this is little clutch purse from The Kate Spade Company. I bought it for you to go with your adorable Albert Nipon skirt suit that’s in a very cute royal blue silk material, your cute, little, sleeveless, yellow silk shell from The House of Halston and your perky little Christian Louboutin pumps, which I hope you find comfortable because those shoes cost more than I paid for my books last semester. Your hair and makeup were done by your boss’ hairdresser and we are headed to the ladies’ room before we leave, just to make sure that our makeup doesn’t need a touch up before joining the girls for lunch. Trust me, Willy. You will not be ‘the only guy’ there. It’ll just be us girls and you, little sister, will be the cutest one, by far. Now, let’s go make some friends."
Kateri was worried. She’d never intended to have her boyfriend end up with breasts adhered to his chest, but all of it still felt like it was, at least in part, her fault. She’d pushed him too far, and now he looked nothing like the man she fell in love with. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t still love him, it’s just that things were... different... a lot different. When she saw him in that beautiful suit, she couldn’t believe how good he looked. He was adorable, but not in the way that her Billy had always been adorable to her.
She had a lot of questions and she was trying to match each question with an answer. Finally, in order to organize her thoughts, she grabbed a piece of paper and wrote everything out.
Do I love Billy?
Yes. Of course I love Billy.
Do I prefer him looking like a guy or a girl?
He’s a cute guy, but an awfully pretty girl.
Does this make me a lesbian?
Probably not. I’m not interested in a girl’s nether regions
Did I push him too far?
Probably. He didn’t want to dress up and I pushed him
Should I back off?
Yes. He’s probably angry about being embarrassed
Will he forgive me?
I hope so. I really love him.
Is Lorraine going to fire me?
I’m not sure. She was really mad.
Should I formally apologize?
No. I apologized already. Writing a letter? No.
By the time she was done, Kateri had filled her paper with more than forty questions and answers. This just sucked. Yesterday, she had a good job with no complications, a great boyfriend who seemed to love her and prospects for a happy life and a great career. Now, she felt uncertain about the future of either her job or her relationship. If Lorraine just let things go back to normal, then her income and career were alright, but what if Billy didn’t forgive her. That would break her heart. She wanted that relationship to grow and become something more. If he dumped her, then could she continue to even work with him? She really wasn’t sure she could stand to see him if he didn’t love her.
God, what a mess!
"Hey, did you hear about the meeting?" Jorge said to another employee as he passed the desk at which Kateri was working, just to the side of The Pit. Her ears pricked at the prospect of hearing anything about Billy. Could he possibly pull off something as far fetched as this stupid scheme? "That little guy, Billie, you know, the guy in the skirt this morning? That f-ing little dude rocked that f-ing meeting, man. I guess it was all falling to pieces, but he took over and saved the whole company. That little dude is the bomb, man. You should have seen him go in there. They loved him. I think one dude even had a boner for him."
Wait! What?
"And I said, ‘Put those away, honey. You’re not using that on me, tonight.’ And he’s like, ‘But baby. All the guys I work with use these on their girlfriends. It’s just a harmless game.’ So, I said, ‘Then let me use them on you. See if you like being handcuffed to the bed all night.’ Honest to God, men can be such jerks in bed! Why can’t they just enjoy being with us? No, it’s got to be sex and it’s got to get kinkier ever time. Oh, Billie, you’re so lucky to not have to deal with men. You and Kat are like a perfect couple. Maybe that’s how the world should be: A strong, handsome woman and a little, beautiful man. If only, huh?"
William was overwhelmed by the amount and variety of conversation going on around him and all of them seemed to include him. Fashion, sex, relationships, children, pets, shopping, houses, house shopping, his head was spinning, but it was just so wonderful to be included that he just grinned and offered a joke or an opinion whenever he could.
He looked to Angela to see if she was as confused as he was by everything being said at once, but she was fully engaged with everyone simultaneously. It was amazing how these women interacted with each other so effortlessly. Was that a genetic trait of some kind? The ability to carry on five different conversations without any problem understanding what was being said? It was amazing!
"So, are you and Kat serious, then, Billie?" the one named Linda asked.
"I really don’t know for sure." William shrugged. "I mean, I’d like to make things serious, but we’ve only dated a few months."
"OMG!" the one named Valerie said, far too loudly. "Do you think that Kat is going to propose?"
William blinked. "Shouldn’t I be the one who proposes?"
"Why? Doesn’t the guy usually propose?" Valerie shrugged.
"Yeah, but I’m the guy," William explained.
"Yeah, but are going to be ‘the guy’ forever?" The one called Peggy asked.
"How do you mean?" William smiled.
"I mean," Peggy’s smile was friendly and open. She meant no offense, "look at yourself, Billie. You look beautiful as a woman. Why on earth would you ever want to go back to looking like a guy?"
"Well..." William processed the question for a moment. "... because I am a guy."
"And a girl," Peggy nodded. "Look at yourself, Billie. You make a great girl. I mean, we’ve all worked with you for a few months, now, and I always thought you were pretty uptight and self conscious. But at today’s meeting, I didn’t see that at all. What I saw was a woman who was confident about what she knew and how she looked. Tell me I’m wrong."
William had to take a moment to think through all of that. She was definitely right that he felt more confident at today’s meeting than he ever had before. Why was that? Was it the clothes? The ‘disguise’ aspect of cross dressing? It didn’t matter right now. What he needed to do right now was just deny that he was better as a girl than a man.
"I..." he began, but a voice came from behind him.
"I thought I smelled vanilla," the deep voice said. William turned to see Shane Harris grinning from ear to ear. "Look at this – five beautiful women out to lunch together. Shane Harris, Ladies," he said by way of introduction, which of course was not necessary since all of them had been at the meeting. He glanced at Angela and nodded. "Now, you, young lady, were a big help to Ms Billie here at the meeting, but let me ask – Are you two sisters?"
Angela extended a hand to him. "We are. I’m Angela. I’m interning at Firefly."
"Interning!? My, my, a college girl. Well, that’s just wonderful," he shook her hand, then held it far too long, smiling hungrily in a way only a man in a position of power can smile at a beautiful woman in a lower position. "Young and eager, I guess, hmm?"
William stood and took his sister’s hand from Harris and smiled sweetly as he said, "It was nice to see you again, Mr Harris. I do hope that you had a good lunch and that we’ll see you at the next investors’ meeting."
Harris smiled a wolffish smile and winked. "Oh, you will, Ms Billie. I don’t suppose I could impose on you to share your phone number with me? That way we won’t have to wait until the next meeting to get together, again."
"Again, Mr Harris," William smirked, "I am in a serious relationship. I thank you, but I am not interested."
He smiled and nodded. "Understood, Billie," he inhaled deeply and shook his head. "Ahh... I do like the smell of vanilla," he looked at the table of women, "Ladies," Then he winked at William. "Billie," he turned and walked away.
William sat and shook his head. When he looked up at his sister and colleagues, they were staring at him with shocked expressions.
"Willy," Angela said in a whisper, "you just stood up to Firefly’s biggest investor."
William nodded. "I didn’t like the way he was talking to you. I certainly didn’t like the way that he was touching you."
"Yeah, but..." Valerie looked to be sure that Harris had left the area, "...Billie... that took some guts. Is that how you would normally have handled that situation?"
"No, it’s not," Angela answered for him.
"Sure it is." William shook his head.
"No, Willie, it’s not," Angela insisted. "You don’t even like to talk to waiters, Willy. In a normal situation, you would have just sat there and gotten steamed up, but not done anything about it. Willy... these breasts and your clothes... it’s like they’re a superhero suit or something. You’re a whole different person like this. A pretty amazing one, too."
"See," Peggy pointed at him, "I told you! You’re a nice guy, but you’re and amazing woman. You should wear a skirt to work everyday. Besides the fact that you seem empowered by wearing them, I’m jealous about how good your legs look in skirts."
"I know, it’s just not fair that a guy should have legs like that!" Linda said, a bit louder than she should have, but no one seemed to take notice.
A waiter arrived and placed a bottle of Moet & Chandon on the table, and began to place glasses in front of each of them. "Excuse me," Valerie tried to stop him, "we didn’t order champagne."
The waiter smiled. "Compliments of the handsome gentleman who just left. He also asked me to inform you all that your lunches have been paid for and that you should all have dessert as well. Shall I open the bottle for you?"
"Should we accept this?" William asked. "I mean... is this appropriate?"
"Did the gentleman pay with a personal card or his corporate card?" Linda asked.
"Ummm... I believe it was a corporate card, Miss," the waiter smiled and waited to be told if he should open the bottle or not.
Linda laughed. "Screw it. Open the bottle. If BHI is paying, let’s enjoy ourselves."
When the waiter had poured the bubbly wine and left the table, Peggy held up her glass. "To Billie."
"To Billie," they all responded, holding their glasses aloft as well.
Peggy finished her toast. "Apparently, the best piece of ass at the table."
They all burst into laughter then sipped the wine and ate their lunch.
When they made it back to the office, William and all the girls were enjoying their conversation, and there was a lot of laughing and giggling going on. William was laughing as he turned out of the hallway and into his office with Angela right behind him. He was very surprised to find Kateri sitting at his desk.
"Hi," he grinned. "Using my desk?"
Kateri didn’t return his smile, though. "Actually, I was waiting for you. Where have you been?"
"We went out with the girls for lunch after the meeting," Angela offered.
Kateri nodded. "I hear that the meeting went well, then?"
"Oh, it went great," Angela continued. "Honestly, Kat, you should have seen Willy. He was great. There was this guy, Shane Harris, from BHI, and he was like, ‘We’re pulling out of this company unless blah, blah, blah,’ and Willy took over the whole meeting and saved the day. You should have seen him."
"Shane Harris?" Kateri nodded. "I heard he had ‘a boner’ for our little Princess."
William could see that Kateri was angry, but couldn’t tell why. "That’s a little crass, Kat. Isn’t it?"
"He sure did!" Angela laughed. Her narrative and lack filtering was partially due to having a little champagne at lunch and partially due to a very real sense of pride she felt for her brother. "That creep was trying to get..."
"That’s plenty, Angie," William stopped her, or at least tried to.
"What?" Angela laughed. "I was just going to tell Kat how you took that jerk down a few pegs when he tried to come on to you at the restaurant."
"Oh, so you had lunch with him?" Kateri crossed her arms and leaned back in the desk chair.
"No, he just... bothered us at the restaurant," William explained, putting his little clutch purse on his desk. "Why are you upset with me."
"Should I leave?" Angela asked, suddenly feeling like a third wheel. William didn’t answer because he didn’t know what the issue was and Kateri didn’t answer because she was copping an attitude with William. "I’ll just..." Angela shrugged and left the office, closing the door behind her.
"So..." Kateri said, with a lot of attitude, "you’re a girl for a day and you’re flirting with a guy? What’s going on?"
William’s face showed nothing but confusion as he explained. "Kat... I was a girl for less than an hour and that asshole started coming on to me. What? Is that my fault? Either they did too good a job of making me look like a girl, or that guy was just horny and came on to me because I was wearing a skirt. Regardless, I told him I was in a relationship. I thought that was the end of it, but he tried it again at the restaurant. To tell you the truth, the only reason I even talked to him at the restaurant at all was because he was coming on to Angie. And if having him flirt with me gave me the heebee jeebees, seeing him touching Angie made me nauseated! Is that all that you’re upset about?"
Kateri took a breath and relaxed her shoulders just a bit. "Billy... I’m worried about... us."
"Us?" Now William was concerned. "Why?" He pulled a chair from the table on the side of his office to the front of the desk and sat, smoothing his skirt, crossing his legs at the knees and sitting upright in the manner that Tess had instructed him. The fact that he did all of that with any effort did not go unnoticed by Kateri.
"Look, Billy, when I saw you looking like this this morning, part of me was elated that you were going to be able to pull off the meeting, but... a part of me was heartbroken because... as much as I have enjoyed playing feminization games with you... I didn’t see my boyfriend stepping off the elevator. I saw a woman. Even Lorraine made a remark that made me think that maybe I’d lost the Billy that I loved."
William felt a lump form in his throat. "Kat... I... I thought you wanted me to do this. That’s why I did it in the first place. If it’s upsetting you to have me looking like this, I’ll go put my suit pants and that polo shirt you gave me back on right now. Seriously, Kat. I can wash my face and wet down my hair and look like myself again in ten minutes."
Kateri shook her head. "Billy... when they guy came on to you... how did you feel?"
"How did I feel? I felt...a little creeped out, I guess. Maybe a little gross. He’s a pretty sleazy guy."
"Not flattered at all?"
He considered that for a moment. "Well, maybe just a little, but not as flattered as I felt when you told be I looked pretty. Kat... you’re a beautiful woman. You don’t know what it’s like to be... well, maybe not ugly, but... unexceptional. Unworthy of even being noticed. Just a part of the background. That’s what my whole life has been – Until today. Suddenly, today, people thought I looked nice. Even I couldn’t believe how nice I looked. It was... really scary at first, but then it became... empowering. Angie said it was like I put on a superhero suit and I think that’s kind of right. I’ve been ignored by everyone, except you, for my whole life, Kat, and I didn’t even realized how much I hated it until I was suddenly attractive and people noticed me – even if it isn’t how I always dreamed of being attractive."
He stopped for a moment to consider what needed to be said.
"Kat... I know that we’ve only been together a short time, but I am in love you. Like, really, really in love with you. I would do anything for you. I put on panties and a camisole FOR YOU, Kat. Just because you asked me to. The thing is... I liked it. Kind of a lot, actually. But, Kat, if you don’t like it, I’ll take it all off and never wear any of it again. I just want to be with you."
Kateri looked at her beautiful boyfriend and, within seconds, her eyes went from angry to wet with tears. "That’s all I want, too, Billy, but... what are we going to do? I mean... do you like this? Are you staying this way?"
William shrugged. "I haven’t really had time to think about it. What do you want?"
She wiped a tear from her eye. "I don’t know, Billy. I just know I want you."
"I am going to assume that this is a work related conversation," Lorraine said as she entered the office. "We did discuss this earlier, Kat, did we not?"
Kateri nodded. "I just needed to use Billy’s computer and he was telling me about the meeting."
Lorraine nodded, but was unconvinced. She turned to William and handed him some papers. "Here is the fax from the adhesive company, Billie. I looked at the list to see if I might know anyone from the Chamber of Commerce who could help you out, but there is no business close to us, at all. The closest I could find is in Albany, New York at the other end of The Pike. Give them a call and see if they’ll help you out and just let me know if you need time off to deal with it."
William nodded. "Ok. Thank you."
Lorraine looked at both of them, sensing the tension and assuming that it was due to William’s makeover. It didn’t matter, though, she needed to look after the best interests of the company, not be a relationship councilor to these two. So, she made it clear that she was grateful for William’s help and left the room.
William and Kateri stared at each other, neither knowing quite what to say.
"Aren’t you going to call those companies?" Kateri finally broke the silence after more than a minute of silence.
William shook his head. "No. Not until we talk."
Kateri nodded and then stood. "Ok. Let’s go to my place after work and figure this out, ok?" she headed for the door, but stopped and kissed William’s cheek. "I really do love you, Billy."
"I know," William nodded. "I love you, too, Kat. I really do."
Kateri was putting on her coat to head home when Angela and Tess came by her work area to talk.
"Hey," Tess said with a friendly smile. "Tough day, huh?"
Kateri nodded. "You don’t know the half of it. Lorraine came down really hard on me for all of this... Billy is like a whole different person all of a sudden... I heard people talking about Billy flirting with a man at the meeting... I confront him about it and he acts like I’m out of my mind... I don’t know if I’m the good guy or the bad guy any more... Yeah... it’s been a tough day."
"Kat, Willy didn’t..." Angela began to defend her brother, but Kateri waved her off.
"I know and I was foolish to think he had, but like I said, it’s been a tough day."
"Look, Kat," Tess smiled, sympathetically, "I don’t know Billie any better than anyone else around here, but anyone can see that he’s crazy about you. Try not to over react to all of this, ok?"
"He’s had a tough day, too, Kat," Angela added. "He may have... won the day, I guess, but he never would have done this if my mom hadn’t used that glue on him. He didn’t wake up yesterday trying to figure out how to trick us into dressing him up like a girl."
Kateri nodded. "I know, I know, I know. I just... I just don’t really know exactly how I feel about this. I mean... yeah, we did play around with a little dress up the other night and it was my idea to do the "I Dream of Jeannie" thing because he looked cute last week, but when I saw him today... guys... he’s not cute anymore. He’s... he’s... Christ, he’s prettier than me. And the worst part of all of this is... I really like him this way, but I am so freaking jealous, too, and I don’t know why."
Tess nodded. "Sounds like you have to do some thinking, Kat. You need to figure out if you love him enough to let him explore this new part of himself?"
‘Yeah," Kateri sighed. "Yeah. I know."
"Can I ask something without upsetting you?" Angela asked. Kateri just nodded. "Why are you upset? I mean... last night you had Willy dressed up like a harem girl and we were all having fun with it – well, you and me and mom were having fun with it. Willy was stressed out and only doing it to make you happy. Now, today, Willy seems to have become what you wanted him to be and now he’s happy about it and you’re freaking out. So... why are you upset?"
Kateri blinked her eyes, causing the tears that had been developing in them to run down her cheeks. "I don’t know," she sounded defeated. "It was a game, I guess. Now... I don’t know. Maybe I just pushed him too far."
William rode to Kateri’s house without much chit-chat. Kateri made a meal for them of white rice and microwaved frozen vegetables. They sat at the table, eating their food and talking about nothing until the food was gone, the dishes were loaded in the washer and there was nothing else to do, but to sit at the table face their problems.
"So..." Kateri said, uncertainly. "...about tomorrow... Do you still want to do the ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ thing?"
William waited a moment before a answered. "Kat... I never WANTED to do ‘The Dream of Jeannie’ thing at all, but I agreed to do it because YOU wanted to do it. I will do it, though, because I agreed to and because, after today, I kind of feel like I need to show everyone that I’m not embarrassed by what happened."
Kateri nodded. "And... are you embarrassed by what happened?"
He crossed his arms and considered that. "This morning... I was... devastated, Kat. I couldn’t believe that I was in that situation and I couldn’t imagine how I was going to face everyone. Then, at the salon, I wanted to just crawl away and die. It took every bit of courage I had to stay in that chair and not just cry from the embarrassment I was feeling."
"I’m sorry," Kateri said sadly.
William considered the events of the day for a moment before continuing. "But then... That guy at the meeting... you know, Shane Harris? Well, as annoying as he was... he noticed me. No one ever noticed me before."
"And you liked his attention?"
"No... not HIS attention, per se, but... THE attention. I liked that someone, anyone noticed me. I looked around and I could see that other people, men and women, were acknowledging me. Like, the way I looked was... I don’t know... impressive or something. And that... it gave me the confidence to do what I did. I never felt that confident before and I liked it, Kat. Can you still accept me if I feel that way when I look like this?"
"So, do you plan to stay like this forever, then?"
"To tell you the truth, I don’t know. I need to think about it and talk everything over with you before I make a decision."
"I see." Kateri stood and pushed her chair in. "So, would you like to know how I feel?"
William nodded.
"Well... I think you look beautiful like this, Billy, I truly do, and... well, I’ve thought a lot about how I behaved today – the jealousy and, well, everything, and I’m sorry, babe. I was really being an ass. I guess I felt a little guilty, then Lorraine came down really hard on me and I felt bad about that, too, and then, when I heard about how someone was hitting on you, a guy, no less... I guess it all just sort of got to me, you know? So, regarding how I feel about the way you’re dressed right now... I think I need to know how you feel about it first."
"I like it and I’d like to, maybe, explore it some more," William confessed without hesitation.
"Then, as long as I am not forcing this on to you... I love it, Billy." Without warning she took a step, bent low and grabbed William’s cheeks, planting a firm, warm kiss on his lips. "I really do."
William stood and took her hand. "Good. Then let’s go to bed."
Taken aback by his sudden change of topic and forceful behavior, Kateri balked. "Wait, Billy... are you sure?"
William looked at her and smiled. "Kat... the other night, you put me into silky undies for the first time and I could barely control myself, I was so excited by how it felt. I’ve been in layers and layers of silky clothes all day today. Feeling pretty, tasting lipstick and smelling perfume. I have wanted nothing more than to feel you touching me through these clothes since I put them on. Please... let’s go to bed."
Kateri smiled like a cat who just realized that she’d been given permission to devour a mouse. "Ooh, you’re horny little girl, are you? Well, come with me. I have something to share with you."
They nearly ran to the bedroom, where Kat stripped William to his very pretty slip. Then she had him take off his shoes and jump on the bed, keeping his bra, panties, slip and thigh high, elastic top stockings on.
"Wow, you’re so smooth, now. I didn’t realized they’d removed your body hair. I like it. I like the perfume, too," she purred, running her hands all over his body. "Hop up on the bed, baby, while I get something."
William climbed onto the bed and laid in the center, watching as Kateri rummaged through her night stand.
"What are you looking for?" William asked.
"My little friend," Kateri smiled at him and raised and lowered her eyebrows comically. "Here," she said, exhibiting a pink, silicone cylinder that narrowed to a small, round head at the tip.
"And, what is that?" William was playfully curious.
"It’s my dildo, Billy." She pushed a button on the cylinder and small head vibrated and moved in erratic circles. She pushed the button again and it sped up. She pushed another button and it stopped. "My vibrator. Every girl’s best friend. This one is named Frank and if you want to be a girl, you should get to know Frank."
"Frank?" William paled a bit as he looked at the appliance. "You mean, you use Frank... down there?"
She nodded and smiled. "Sure. Don’t act all surprised, Billy. Every girl has a ‘Frank’ of her own. Trust me. Boys have it easy, late at night, when they have urges. It’s more complicated, being a girl. We have to use a little technology based assistance."
William could see that – the difference between an ‘inny’ and an ‘outy’ was obvious, but... "But I’m here with you, now, so... why do you need to use Frank on yourself right now?"
She sat on the side of the bed, the vibrator in one hand and a blue tube of what appeared to be hand cream, but was labeled ‘KY Glide’ in the other. "It’s not for me, Billy. It’s for you. Girls need to know what it’s like to be penetrated when making love. It is an amazing feeling, honey, and I think you’ll really enjoy it."
"So..." William gulped, "that would go... into my..." He blinked and considered it. He hadn’t really ever considered doing anything like this, but taking risks had really paid off well, today.
Kateri giggled. "Into your little bottom, yes, but I’ll lube you up before it goes in."
Not wanting to sound too naïve, but dealing with a mixture of fear and curiosity, he had to ask. "Will that even fit up there?"
That made his girlfriend laugh. "Of course it will, Billy. Lots of men put things much bigger than this into themselves, including other men."
"Yeah, but I’m not gay."
"I am aware, Billy, but you still have a prostate and I’ve read that men can reach a very satisfying orgasm through anal intercourse. I’m not going to force you to try it, baby, but I was thinking that, since you said you’ve been excited all day, this might be a way to relieve that excitement, then we can do it the regular way and you can just relax and enjoy it. And besides, you’ve been a girl all day. I thought you might want to go all the way and be the girl in bed. It’s up to you, though. I think you’ll enjoy it, but if you aren’t ready to try it, we can just put it away for now and we can use it another time if you want – OR – Frank can just be my friend."
He looked at the device. It looked innocuous enough, and... why was he even debating this? Now that he’d found out about this technique, of course he wanted to try it. "Ok," he whispered in a husky voice, "but... will it hurt?"
Kateri thought back to her first experience of being penetrated anally and she spoke gently. "You’ll feel kind of... full... as it enters, but once it’s in... It’ll feel amazing," she smiled at his face as he stared at the tool. "Ready?" He nodded. She kissed his lips and instructed, "Roll over on your tummy."
William rolled over and felt Kateri raise his slip and pull the back of his panties down to expose his entry point.
"Now, just relax and let me get you nice and slick in there." Kateri’s warm, lubricated fingers began to spread the KY around his rear. Little by little, she entered into him, deeper and deeper. Just a few months earlier, he had experienced his first prostate exam at a doctor’s office and had not enjoyed it one bit, but Kateri’s touch was soft and gentle and loving and nice. He was just a little embarrassed when he unconsciously allowed some feminine mews to escape his lips when her finger sank deep enough to surprise and excite him. Finally, she slowed and then stopped her ministrations.
"Ready?"
"Yes."
The gentle shape of the device slid in smoothly at first, but then it grew and grew as he began to feel full, back there, just as she had explained, but then the fullness grew and grew until he felt as if he may tear apart. He wanted to say, ‘stop,’ but he could only let out a strangled groan as his the fullness grew wide and a sense of panic built within him.
It was too much! It needed to be pulled out of him before it cut him in two!
His voice didn’t work, he couldn’t speak. All that came out was gasps and groans.
He tried to pull away from it, but the mattress blocked him from the front.
He tried to wiggle to the right and then to the left, but Kateri just seemed to interpret that as excitement and moved device deeper.
He was feverish with fear and excitement and felt himself losing consciousness from the pain. His breath was shallow and his vision was fading into darkness from the edges. The darkness clouded in further and further.
Then something odd happened within him. Something had let go and let the vibrated pass. The pressure lessened and then... oh, God, what was that!? Something had been touched deep inside of him. Something... exiting.
He couldn’t breathe any deeper than short, sharp gasps that made high, squeaky, excited sounds in this throat.
Why didn’t that sensation deep within him continue? The device needed to move. To touch that spot again!
He wiggled his bottom and it helped. The spot was being touched again if he wiggled just right, but then...
"Are you ready to become a woman, little girl?" Kateri whispered in his ear.
William raised himself onto his elbows and looked over his shoulders at the love of his life. The most powerful being he knew at that moment. The person who was controlling his bliss. His face was drenched in sweat and he gasped as he spoke. "Yes. Please. Make me your woman."
Kateri stayed close to his face so that she could look directly into his eyes as she pressed the button that made the head of the vibrator vibrate and rotate.
William’s eyes opened wide with the sensation, then they rolled to the back of his head as his body convulsed in orgasmic ecstasy. His back arched and his mewing grunts became high pitched, girlish screams as he clawed at the sheets and pillows, flailing, shaking, thrusting, anything to increase and prolong the glorious feelings deep at the very core of his being.
Eventually, he began to thrust his body against the mattress as if it had a vagina he could somehow enter with his manhood, which was still encased by the front of his feminine silk panties and the silk and lace slip he wore.
Kateri smiled as she watched him. She didn’t know if he’d actually ejaculate, but he knew that he was experiencing the most amazing orgasm of his life and that made her happy.
They’d both had a long, troubling day and both had had their doubts about whether or not having William become this perfect imitation of womanhood was the right thing to do, but now both of them knew that it was. William needed to find his way and Kateri would be there to help him, but they both knew that the suits and ties and feeble attempts to present himself as a man were gone forever. Billie was here to stay.
And in the morning, Billie would be the sexiest genie that Kateri had ever seen and she knew that he’d enjoy that, too.
She stopped the vibrator’s motor and let William collapse in exhaustion onto the mattress.
"See," she whispered as she kissed the slender bra and slip straps on his narrow, bare shoulders, "I told you you’d like it. You’re my girl... now and forever. I love you, Billie. I love you so much."
"I love you, too," he turned so that he could kiss her. His dark red lipstick leaving traces of color on her soft pink. "Can we...?"
His eyes were desperate with lust.
"Can we... do it together, now?" he asked in a nearly childlike tone.
"Oh, my goodness," Kateri laughed and kissed him again. "You’re like a little rabbit, aren’t you?"
She removed the dildo from his rear and pushed him onto his back. "Which reminds me," she giggled, "Frank has a little rabbit friend, too, and if you’re a good girl, maybe, someday, I’ll show you how it works as well."
To Be Continued...
Comments
Make me your woman."
aww. sweet!