Synopsis:

What's a good brother to do when Sis needs to be in two places at once?

Story:

Another Favour for Claire

By Emma Jane Smith
Chapter 1 - Saturday

This time it's starting to get annoying. I think my sister is really taking advantage of me now. For the third time in a couple of months she's managed to double book herself on social occasions and I have to help her out again.

This time she's oh-so-suddenly met someone called Brian who is really nice and cute and she's heading off with him for a weekend of fun and games out in the country somewhere. Meanwhile she had already promised to be at a party here in the town and she can't be in two places at once. Or maybe she can.

What this means of course, as you might already have guessed, is that I get to go to the ball in her place. I am prepared for it, and I'm not allergic to pumpkins or magic wands, but it's been stressful before. I'm still not entirely happy with the idea.

Earlier today she'd been to see me and explained the plan; she'd also given me some advice on what to expect.

"Don't worry about it. Nobody who'll be there knows me really well."

"You hope."

"Just relax and have fun. Isn't this what you've always wanted to do?"

"Yeah, but I always thought I'd be myself while I was doing it."

"Stop worrying, you'll have a great time. Tom will pick you up at eight. He's a nice guy but he's pretty shy. He makes a great escort. You will treat him gently won't you?" I noted the slight pout there.

"I've got a better idea. Why don't you go to the party and I'll take your boyfriend out for you?"

"Hands off, he's all mine." She laughed.

We talked some but I could see that there was only going to be one way out. I gave her my phone and took hers in exchange along with the spare key to the flat. I just prayed that it was going to go smoothly like the other times.

The first time had been very scary because I had absolutely no idea if I was going to get away with it. It hadn't really helped that nobody knew her because I was so terrified. They must have thought I was either strange or had taken some vow of silence. The second time I'd been a little more assured but still pretty nervous. Hell, maybe this third time I'd even get to enjoy it.

I let myself into her flat in the middle of the afternoon. I figured I needed plenty of time to get ready and I wanted to be able to relax and enjoy it.

While I was growing up I think I spent nearly as much time in her clothes as I did mine. I thought I was being really clever about it and nobody would ever find out. It turned out she'd known all the time and my elaborate attempts to make sure everything went back in its proper place were wasted.

I felt pretty stupid when I found out she knew. I'd spent ages covering my tracks, even going to the extent of writing down lists of where everything in her room had been and then frantically checking it all when I'd finished. It was all for nothing, "No one girl gets through that many pairs of tights" she'd teased.

Fortunately I found out she was pretty relaxed about it and didn't mind that much as long as I was careful with her stuff. She helped me out a bit with my style as well and when she moved out to a new flat she left me some of her old things. This augmented the rather sorry collection of cast-offs that I had secretly managed to accumulate over the years and call my wardrobe.

She'd never told anyone about it either, even during the falling out and back in that is an inevitable part of brothers and sisters growing up. I knew we trusted each other a lot underneath all the banter.

Whilst growing up she had been my proxy into an interesting and intriguing world. I was able to share some small parts of what it was like to grow up as a woman. It allowed me to learn and know things that many men never get chance to and I was grateful for that.

In the time I was able to steal away from ordinary life I was at peace with myself. The rest of the time, well it wasn't very easy and it never has been. I am still at a stage of trying to define myself and hopefully start getting out more. It's never as easy in real life as it is in the stories.

She'd left a short black dress hanging near the door, to give me a good idea of what kind of outfit was expected. It was ok but I went through some other choices anyway. I knew she wouldn't mind and black didn't entirely suit my mood today.

After some inner debate I settled on a blue dress somewhere between electric and midnight blue with one shoulder, it was mid-length with a slit in the skirt that wasn't over the top. I chose some classy and restrained jewellery to go along with it and some of her best underwear and tights. For shoes I selected some suitable black evening ones with reasonably high heels. I knew I could handle them with no trouble.

Knowing I'd made the right choices I left it all on the bed ready for later I decided to take a long bath first and get into the right frame of mind.

One long relaxing soak later I started to get ready. I was able to make good use of the family resemblance and enhance it with the right make up, working from the photo on the dresser. By the time I had finished I was a pretty good match. It was a slightly different look to the one my girl-self prefers when she gets a free hand but I thought both of us could live with it.

Then I got into the clothes. Like most good evening wear the dress hinted at more than it revealed and I knew there was no danger of it giving me away. I had a good figure, partly thanks to some little enhancements in my bra and I was starting to feel very good.

I carefully styled the wig and was soon admiring the full effect. They'd have to know her pretty well to have any ideaI thought to myself. "This should be ok. It will all go just fine." I told my stupidly optimistic little inner voice to shut up and finished my accessories. Some perfume finished it off, it was quite a heady one and the complex smell of it helped to relax me.

I went hunting through the back of the wardrobe for a little black evening bag and made sure it contained the right mixture of girly things. I put it ready where I could grab it quickly and sat down with one of her magazines for a while to relax.

It had taken me quite a while to get ready though it hadn't seemed like that long at all. I had enjoyed every minute of the process too.

Tom was pretty punctual and I could tell I made a good impression on him when I opened the door.

"Hi, you look great." I thought I might throw him with this if he's really shy like she said.

"Thanks, nice dress." No, he's quite cool. I gave him a quick kiss and he blushed a little. It seemed to be the right thing to do. He was wearing a dark evening suit and he did look rather good in it.

I let him in and we had a quick drink and made some small talk. I managed to steer the conversation away from anything that might be troublesome and avoid any collateral damage to make-up on glassware at the same time.

We headed out to the car and I gave him a big smile as I thought he might want to be old fashioned and open the door. I briefly put my hand on his shoulder to indicate that it was no big deal.

I settled back into the seat, he had quite a nice car. I fussed and worried a little about the seat belt marking my dress and pulled at it until I had it on my bare shoulder and making minimal contact with the fabric anywhere else. I knew it would be just like her to charge me for cleaning it later.

"You're a little quiet tonight."

"Sorry, I'm just tired I guess."

"I was surprised when you rang. I haven't seen you in quite a while."

"I thought it was about time I let you take me out again. It should be a good party." I slipped an arm around his shoulder and lazily left it there a while.

We got there at about the right time, when there were quite a few people already there and people were past the early stages of not knowing quite what to say.

For the first time ever I got to make a bit of an entrance, we were a good-looking couple and I saw people looking at us as we walked in. I compared myself against the other women there by instinct. Ok,I was neither the most expensively dressed or the most beautiful but I didn't fare that badly overall.

I had started to think there wouldn't be much difficulty when a middle-aged guy came over and joined the small group I was in. He obviously knew me.

"Claire, I haven't seen you for ages."

I frantically struggled to think if I knew who he was and came up blank. Time for a lame response I thought.

"Sorry, I haven't managed to get to many parties lately." I was kicking myself for being so useless and tried to recover it in a different way.

I bent towards him and allowed him to kiss me on the cheek. Then I let him talk for a while and picked up enough from what was being said to make a passable attempt at conversation. After a few minutes a woman in a red dress came over and took him away to meet someone else. I mentally sighed in relief.

Everything was fine after that. I drank, I talked, and I wandered around. At times I caught my reflection in a mirror and a warm feeling rose up in me as my reflection smiled back.

I went outside to get some air at one point and stood looking at the stars. It was a fine summer evening and everything seemed just right with the world for a few seconds. I hugged Tom and leaned into talk to him quietly. "Shall we go back in and join the fun?"

"Just another couple of minutes. I like looking at the stars too."

"Come on, I need another drink."

I squeezed his hand and allowed him to lead me back into the party.

"Do you want to dance?"

Here I had to make an excuse. I never learnt all the steps and it would have been pretty obvious. Fortunately it didn't seem to be a big thing. We settled for some more quiet conversation and a little more touching and light caressing. For someone who has never had much physical contact before it was making me feel very good and the intoxication was probably not all wine related tonight.

We left the party at about 2AM. I wasfeeling really relaxed and happy. I'd not had many nights like this in my life.In fact this was the first one really. Compared to this my previous two outings had been practice runs. I'd come through it pretty well and I would soon be able to relax. Well, it had to go wrong somehow. Something always does.

On the way home the phone in my bag started to ring. I rummaged around for it among all the clutter.

"Hi."

"Hello, did you have a good night out?"

"Yes, it was a lot of fun at the party."

"I've got a little problem. You're not going to like this. I don't know what to say."

"Come on. Out with it."

"I'm stuck here for a couple of days.I can't get back until Monday night."

"Stuck?"

"Yeah, a spot of car trouble or something."

"What? What am I supposed to do?"

"Just relax. I need you to go to work for me on Monday."

"You need what? I'm not hearing you properly."

"I said relax. I'm not a brain surgeon; I work in a clothes shop. I spend my days telling fat people that they look great in ill-fitting things they can't really afford. You can do it."

"But..."

"You work flexitime, you can do it. I'll make it up to you. Please!"

"Ok. I'll catch you later."

I hung up and dropped the phone back into my bag like it was a dead fish. Oh God! She's done it to me again.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm sorry, I just heard some bad news from an old friend."

"Nothing serious I hope?"

"No, she's unfortunately going to be just great, I'll be fine thanks. I'm just looking forward to getting home."

Tom dropped me at the flat and I made him some coffee. He made a sort of pass at me, which I managed to gently deflect.He is a nice guy and I don't quite think he would have appreciated what might have eventually happened.

I did arrange a date with him for the following week though at a very posh restaurant. Let's see her get out of thatone. She's lucky that I like her, I could really screw things up for her if I wasn't such a great guy.

Afterwards I put on a short nightdress and collapsed into her bed. I went to sleep very quickly and didn't wake up until about ten o'clock.

Chapter 2 - Sunday

It took me a few seconds to orient myself when I woke up but I soon remembered where I was, and how I'd got there. I ran my mind over what had happened the previous night and felt good. I'd had a good time at the party and for many years the phrase "good time" had not meant very much other than a couple of words.

It struck me that I'd always been more comfortable with the things women do, they always seemed to make more sense somehow. It had led to some really horrible confusion at times though.

At least I now had some nice memories to set alongside some of the pain. I remembered the feeling of being gently touched while standing under the stars. I sighed softly to myself. Is it so unreasonable to want more? Why is this planet such a mean place to live?

Then I remembered it wasn't over yet and I still had tomorrow to look forward to. That was definitely going to be more difficult than the party.

Today I chose jeans, jumper and boots to wear. The jeans were nicely embroidered and a good length, only a slight turn up needed. The jumper was a plain black cashmere and wool mix and felt great.

I sorted out my hair, styling the wig slightly differently with my hair pushed back behind one ear to reveal a bold silver earring. This was definitely my style.

For a moment I relaxed in the sense of completeness and rightness I always feel at these times. I allowed myself to enjoy the sensation of pressure from my bra, it reminds me a bit of being hugged and usually fades into the background. I touched my hair brushing a few stray strands into place.

Then I gathered up my bag and went out foray walk in the park. I met a few people out walking dogs and the like. It was still reasonably early and I needed to decide what I was going to do today.

I decided not to take too many risks and motto go into town. The only real sensible reason would be to check out her workplace but that would look a bit odd if people saw me and I wasn't sure who would be working today.

Instead I settled down to a lazy relaxing day, including another long marathon bath. The amount of time I spend in the bath became a family joke when I was living with my parents but there is something about sitting in water that lets me both relax and think clearly.

In the evening I rang Claire for some advice and got her to reveal some of the inner secrets of the retail trade.

She happily told me exactly how long customers could be ignored for while talking to a colleague about your amazing night out. Then she told me how to operate a till in a very slow way when there's a big queue and how to rearrange all the goods at really busy periods leaving the cash desk empty and all kinds of other things. Ha! no I'm kidding with these but I've done enough shopping to think this is the way it really works.

Apparently I'm not allowed to be directly rude to people but I can make up for it by creatively disguised abuse and insincerity. I think she is getting more cynical as she gets older.

"Ok, so what happens."

"You stand around a lot, do a few things and then go home."

"Really?"

"Ok, It's Monday so it will be quiet.There will only be 2 other girls in the shop. Debbie and Ruth I think are on this week. They are both mad-keen clubbers and will probably have massive hangovers. They won't notice anything wrong with you, especially if you take them a bottle of water each and commiserate with them."

"Ah."

"Right."

By the time we'd finished I felt I knew the routine enough to get by for a day. I kept telling myself that it would be ok and the little voice in my head kept popping up and sniggering at me.

When I finally set the alarm clock and turned in for the night it was fairly late. Tomorrow was going to be harder on me than the party but it might well be interesting.

Chapter 3 - Monday

I woke, showered and dressed in her standard work uniform of black jumper and trousers and it looked very smart on me. I chose mid height heels that should be comfortable to wear all day with little chance of sitting down.

Then I did my make up for work, not too much of it but I had to complete against the glamour girls I'd be working with and I knew what was required.

I knew she often tied her hair back for work but the wig wouldn't look right if I did that. I tried a couple of hair ornaments from one of the little boxes on the dresser and found a cute one that would keep hair out of my eyes properly.

I carefully pinned the little black name badge saying "Claire" to my left breast without injury and made sure the pass card for the door security was in my little black leather underarm bag. I did a little practice with the bag. I'd seen lots of girls carrying them lately and I really liked them but as yet I hadn't got round to buying one for myself.

Getting in was no problem. There was a cursory check on the door from a very burly security guy. I had meant to askClaire about this and made a mental note to do it later.

I really have no idea why the more trendy and fashionable the clothes shop the bigger and hunkier the security guards are. I'm surprised some women don't steal things just to get a bear hug and maybe a phone number from these macho bodybuilder types. I'm also surprised some prospective customers don't just runaway in fright.

They look pretty out of place surrounded by racks of skimpy things, glaring over them at customers as if they were guarding platinum bars. The guy who checked my pass looked like he could bend said bars with his teeth. I smiled at him but he didn't react that much. I guess I'm not really his type.

Because "I" work in a department store concession I had to wander about for a couple of minutes to figure out where I should be. I made some mental notes on the layout of the place as I did so, trying to compare it against the floor map I'd found on the web the previous night.

Standing behind the desk I felt a little odd but strangely right and confident as I waited for the place to open. Ire viewed what I'd been told and tried to work out the best ways to behave.

My colleagues were slightly late, with hangovers as Claire had predicted, and didn't seem entirely switched on to what was going on. I found that it was pretty easy to get on with them.

I had to fend off some questions on my weekend and they knew "I" had a new boyfriend so it could easily have been tricky. I managed to get through this line of questioning though by getting them to talk about their weekend. It sounded like they'd had a fun time.

After that it all went rather quietly. I guess this kind of job could be really boring at times. I smiled as I couldn't help remembering when I was a kid I'd fantasised about being locked in a clothes shop overnight with all the great gear to play with. Now here I was working in one.

I had some fun with a guy who came in looking for something "for his girlfriend." I said something corny like "I suppose she's about your size". He went a nice red colour soI laughed a bit, then I took pity on him, smiled nicely and helped him pick out a great dress from the racks. He did seem that he might be about to ask me out at one point so maybe he does have better dress sense than the average male does. Who knows? I'm not in much of a position to pass any judgements.

I also managed to confirm what a guy I know who worked in clothing sales before told me. Some women do have very bad dress sense and buy things that don't suit them. That's one problem with fashion, If this seasons imposed look isn't your thing you have to try and wear it anyway. You get to walk around looking silly until it's gone and you can safely throw it away.

One woman who must have been about forty bought a top that a teenager would have trouble with. I wondered if she had a daughter as the mental image I got of her in it didn't look that good.

Before I went home I used my staff discount to get a couple of decent things from some other parts of the store. I didn't see why I shouldn't get something out of this and my own wardrobe never has enough things in it. "You can't have too many nice clothes, ever" is my adopted motto and I couldn't resist grabbing myself a skirt and some great shoes while I had the chance to do it easily.

I also made a detour via one of the make-up counters. I had seen some adverts recently for some very appealing eye make-up and decided to get it.

The girl who served me looked very pretty and potentially troublesome but I had two advantages. Firstly I'm reasonably cute myself and secondly she knew I worked there so there was no point tryingto play any of the games Claire had told me about.

Chapter 4 - Monday Evening

I got back to her flat and changed back to my old boring self. As ever, it was somewhat of a let down but I anticipated being my new improved self, wearing my new clothes very soon and that made me feel better about it.

At about eight o'clock I heard a key rattling in the door and my sister burst into the flat looking very pleased with herself.

"Hi, I'm home!"

"You sound very cheerful."

"It's been a great weekend, I am so tired."

"And where's your boyfriend?"

"Oh, I think I tired him right out if you know what I mean. He's had to go and have a lie down or something, or maybe it was a cold shower. He didn't say. He'll be over later on tonight."

"Hmm."

"Did you have any trouble?"

"A few catty remarks from Ruth about your new beau and I've written a date with Tom into your diary for next Saturday but otherwise it all went as well as can be expected given the somewhat unusual circumstances.

"Date?"

"He's a nice guy remember, and it was the only way I could get out gracefully. Or maybe I should have..."

"Oh I suppose you had to do it. What do I tell Brian?"

"That you have to do somebody a favour?"

"That might work, I'll say Tom wants to ask my advice on his relationship. Why are you laughing?"

"Because I haven't seen many books that recommend the kind of things you tend to do."

"I've got to tell him something."

"I suggest you strictly avoid the truth, just this once."

"Yeah. You may be right. Just one more thing."

"What?"

"This weekend was so great. I need to ask you this. Don't get mad will you?"

"Come on, tell me!"

"Err, what are you doing next Saturday?"

I had to pay her for the vase and it missed her anyway, it was a half-hearted throw really. I think it may have been worth it. Thankfully it was a very cheap one and the mess was soon cleaned up.

She had been joking anyway but did say that there might well be other times when she'd be grateful for a stand-in. I got her to promise to be a bit more responsible about it and started to decide what I was really going to do next Saturday. I resolved to make it a good one whatever I did.

"You know you said you'd make it up to me."

"Yes."

"Can I borrow the short black dress? And a few things to go with it?"

She fetched it for me and gave me a big hug. I gathered up my stuff, said goodbye and headed for home. I laughed to myself as I wondered what I'd say tomorrow at work when someone asked me about my weekend. "Oh I just went to a party" didn't seem enough to do it justice somehow.

The End.

Notes:

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