Decision Made
By Marina Kelly, Monica Rose

The hotel rep was addressing the crowd now, telling them that their new celebrity would be a guest in the hotel for the rest of her stay and that there would be a public event the next day where she would be presented with a check for her winnings.

While he had the crowd’s attention, Crystal took a few steps back and was able to merge into the mob around her. When a couple people looked at her questioningly, she said quietly that she needed to use the restroom. That got her some understanding smiles and they left her alone. Once she was at the outside edge of the crowd, she put a smile on her face and strode purposefully out of the casino.

She made it back to her hotel, just a little off the main drag. Being Vegas, a town that never closes, George stepped into the attached hotel lounge to have a drink. She was not ready to go back to her dingy room. She needed to sit and think. The sun had just cleared the skyline of hotels and the weather was currently very comfortable, so Crystal made her way through the small lounge and on to the patio area. An area where she could think, drink, and smoke.

Sitting down, she lit up a cigarette and relaxed while she contemplated a very real dilemma. Living as a woman had been her dream ever since she discovered the joys of dressing. She had no desire to be a woman, just to dress as one. Now the universe had provided her with the means to fulfill that dream. But at what cost? George was firmly tethered to his family by love.

Dressing was his drug of choice in life, but his family was his reason for living. The waiter showed up to take her drink order. She really felt like a scotch, but her current attire required that she go with something a little less masculine. In her best Crystal voice she asked, “Could I have a gin and tonic please?”

Checking her wallet, she laughed to herself. For all intents and purposes, she was a potential multimillionaire, yet at the current time, she only had sufficient cash for a single mixed drink. Her credit cards all read George so they were out. She handed the 20 to the waiter and told him to keep the change. As the hours passed, she found herself being engaged in conversations by the occasional passing guest. Her glass magically never ran dry. She thought she could get used to a life as a pretty girl, where things just seemed to appear merely because she was an attractive apparently unattached woman. When some conversations became uncomfortably suggestive, some assuming that she was a working girl, she put a damper on those by taking a gaudy fax diamond ring off her right hand and placing it on her ring finger and waved it in the guy’s face simply explaining she was married and waiting for her husband.

Crystal learned that a pretty woman has a currency that isn’t backed by anything found in Fort Knox. A smile, a hair flip, a laugh at some inane joke, or batting of her eyelashes brought dividends that not only fueled her feminine pride as well as keeping her glass full. Over time, the contents of her glass changed from gin to white wine, as her charming ways become more friendly, she eventually ended up being served champagne.

All good things had to come to an end though. After a quick pit stop in the lady’s room, Crystal decided it was time to return to her room. Sadly, the last few hours had not helped George to clarify his decision. If anything, they had muddied the waters. He loved dressing up as a woman. It wasn’t the destination of looking like Miss America that was so majestic. It was the journey he truly loved. Every intermediate step in his transformation brought incalculable joy.

The longer the process took the better he liked it. He couldn’t explain or rationalize it. He excepted it for what it was worth. He got to the room and was in the shower when his phone went off. Hurrying out, he missed the call only to see it was from his 11-year-old son. He saw that it was actually a text, so he had not missed talking to Mike. “Dad, when are you getting home? What are you bringing us? Kathy says she loves you.”

That did it, Crystal was going to be packed away, probably forever. That thought was depressing, but he would just have to suck it up. He had tried to stop dressing before. It never ended well. The longer he went between girlie outings, the more agitated and depressed he became. He had to fight to control himself from snapping at his children and wife during these periods. He was smart enough to realize his feminine persona was his pressure gauge. She was as much a part of him as was George the husband and father.

He packed his two bags, one for George, one for Crystal. Crystal’s, he tied a pink ribbon to so that he would not get them confused. He shivered and had visions of bringing the wrong one home and having his wife opening it. He spent the rest of the afternoon scrubbing off the remains of Crystal.

He was scheduled to take a redeye flight home. He took a cab to the airport and boarded with time to spare, but he still hurried through the terminal. He buckled in and was asleep before the plane was wheels up. He slept soundly waking only as the plane touched down. As a result, George did not see any newspapers. It might have changed things. He collected his luggage and made the drive to the storage facility first to drop off Crystal’s wardrobe. He stopped at drive through for some black coffee. He drove around for a while, thinking. After having to stop to use the bathroom at a convenience store, he drove home.

He got home mid-morning. Beckie and the kids had gone to see her parents and would be home that evening. He went right to work unpacking. He had the rest of the day off to recuperate from his trip. He sat down at the family computer and completed an after-action review of the conference.

The rest of the family was home for dinner and it was a happy time. George was able to forget about Crystal for a while and his adventure in Vegas. At least for a while. After dinner, he and Beckie put the kids to bed and then enjoyed each other in bed as well. He was at work bright and early the next morning. The first thing he did was to fill out his expense report. The rest of the day was spent trying to catch up on the work in his inbox. It was still a tiring and day and he was exhausted when he got home. Thankfully, it was the weekend, he had two days to relax.

Monday morning arrived way too soon. He was at work went he got an alert on the in-store computer network. There was an investigator from Los Vegas at the store looking for someone of interest. Everyone was to be in the employee lounge at noon, no exceptions. George had a sick feeling, the memory of telling his escort in Vegas about where he worked came back to him. There is no way he could pass a lineup. He called HR and told them he was not feeling well and was taking a sick day.

There had been a short snippet on the evening weekend news about the casino searching for a mystery girl. He hadn’t paid much attention to the news article and he wished now that he had. It seems that he had a false sense of security.

He took his time driving home, not wanting to explain his early arrival.

In the meantime, Beckie was at home making tea for her best friend. Because of the distance to a large grocery store, the families took turns shopping for each other. As Beckie was finishing pouring the hot drinks, June asked casually, “Does your husband have a sister?”

Beckie shrugged, “Why do you ask?”

June tossed a tabloid magazine on the kitchen table and replied, “It’s this mystery girl from Los Vegas. This gossip rag has a picture of the girl, they have dubbed her Miss Crystal McKnockers.

The picture is a little blurred but her face looks enough like George, to be his twin.”

“Thanks June. I’ll look at it later.” June left a short time later to get dinner started for her family and Beckie got busy making a stew for dinner. Once things were cooking away, she was able to relax.

Beckie picked up the magazine and scanned the article. Sure enough, there was a grainy picture of an attractive blonde. She had had the incredible luck to win 25 million dollars on a slot machine in Las Vegas and had then failed to claim the check. The casino was frantic to find her. Knowing how big corporations could think, Beckie was sure that they were more concerned about the negative publicity of not awarding the money than wanting to give the money away.

There was a five-thousand-dollar reward for anyone providing the information that identified her. A private investigator had been assigned to search for her as well.

The girl’s face was recognizable. Putting it all together the familiar face and location of Vegas, there was no doubt in Beckie’s mind just who ‘Miss Knockers’ was. The shock left her limp and she slumped back in the chair. After a few minutes of processing what she had just read, her expression tightened. There was going to be a very serious conversation this evening. At that moment, George came in and hung his keys beside the door before he headed toward the den.

The tone of Beckie’s voice stopped him in his tracks. She said sweetly, “Not so fast buster we need to talk! You got some splaining to do!”

To be Continued