Sunday

Now we come to the reason Aida and I spent the night - attending church in the morning. My cynical self couldn't help but compare the Gabriel clan with those B movie mobsters that spend week raping, pillaging, boozing and blackmailing, then go to church on Sunday to thank the lord for their blessings. That has to rate right up there with getting fucked by some dude at your own anniversary party. I wondered if we should sit a few pews away in case there was an unseasonable lightning strike.

My family were not churchgoers, in fact the last time I had been in a church was when I was in the Scouts. The troop was sponsored by a church, so we all attended that church once a year as part of our service to the community.

I couldn't really tell much difference between that long-ago service and the one I was sitting in. I didn't know the hymns so I just stood up when everybody else did and sat when they sat. I tried not to laugh at the loose logic in the sermon, after all a lady should be ladylike in church. Surely it was mere coincidence the topic was the sanctity of marriage as defined as one man and one woman.

The service finally ended and all was revealed. The Gabriel clan probably didn't give a damn about getting into heaven, but at the social hour after the service we eligible (according to their lights) women were introduced to the eligible men. They tried to be subtle, but really, could they think we were all that stupid just because we were female?

Apparently so.

The dog-and-pony show over, we returned to the family manse. We attempted to pack up and take our leave, but it was not to be.

"Aida," her mother spoke. "We need to talk."

"About what, Mother?"

"I'm sure your friend is a very nice person, but have you really considered how it looks for you to be engaging in such outrageous behavior?"

"And what behaviour are you referring to?" came the answer on a cold Arctic blast.

"You surely can't be serious that you want to marry…"

"Stop right there, Mother, before you make any bigger a fool of yourself than you already have."

"How dare you!?"

"And I suppose you are going to tell me about the sanctity of marriage?"

"Well, Reverend Charles did speak…"

"And how much money changed hands to have him bring up the topic? How large was your free will offering, Mother."

"That need not concern you, you ungrateful child."

"I am quite grateful that I am now an adult, and have been for some years. With the sterling example of you and Father to guide me I am taking a great chance getting married myself."

"What do you mean?"

"Simply this, Mother. You and Father have betrayed your vows and cheated on each other since I have been old enough to notice. Perhaps you would like to see how you celebrated your anniversary yesterday?"

"What do you mean?"

She took out her phone and pressed the buttons, then handed it to her mother. If I thought Kirk had gone pale yesterday, Mrs Gabriel could have been one of those lily-white maidens in those old English folk songs. If she was a maiden, that is.

"He does have some nice hip action, doesn't he mother? I'd recommend being a little more vocal if he manages to get you to orgasm, men like to be encouraged in thinking they're great lovers."

She removed her phone from her mother's shaking hands.

"Just remember I have this the next time you get all high-and-mighty about morality or are tempted to push one more poor boob on me for inspection. If you do, then your Reverend Charles will be getting a copy of this little escapade. Is Betty Ottney still the President of your Garden club? I'm sure she would be very interested in who was planting his seed in her Vice President, don't you? I have my mate, I will be marrying her and that's final."

We continued on to the garage, leaving her standing there. I drove, because like a beach ball that has had its little inflater thingie opened, she collapsed in a puddle. I had to buckle her in and we left, at a far slower speed than last night's drive.

The Day After The Weekend Before

I moaned about Monday earlier in this scribbling. This Monday I have to invoke good old BF Skinner again, because cognitive dissonance was the order of the day. Aida and I had spent a good part of Sunday night carefully removing all of Mac's good work, along with the guise of femininity I had worn all week.

The good part is, with prosthetic flesh gone, I had a spring in my step and felt a lot lighter. Mostly because I was a lot lighter. I no longer felt like a Charlie Brown clone. The bad part was I missed the woman who had been looking at me in the mirror for what seemed like forever.

Was it only a week?

No dresses, no skirts, no heels, no bra. I felt half naked. The only vestige of Lori that I permitted myself was a pair of gold hoops in my ears.

At least Aida had the morning to recover from that final confrontation with her mother, working the late shift again. Me, I had to dress like plain, boring old Lauren and go into work, where I just knew there would be a long queue of files waiting for my inspection. 'You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave,' in the words of that old song.

Actually, work was a great anodyne to the funk I was feeling. I made it through the morning, interspersed with greetings from my fellow workers. I had lunch and took the ribbing about my ears gracefully. I had just pressed the SEND key on a fairly simple solution to someone's problem when my boss sat himself down in the visitor's chair.

"I see you still have that rock on your hand."

"Sure do. Only something strange has happened, it's no longer just a joke. I proposed to her and she accepted. For real."

"You certainly use your time off for some pretty interesting things. Speaking of interesting things, we had a call from Harrison P LaChance this morning. He's the CEO of Streeten industries."

"Sure, Wire and cable, long line repeaters for telephone and internet equipment."

"Trust you to know who he is. Seems Mr LaChance attended a big anniversary bash over the weekend, where he ran into a woman who knocked his socks off with her analysis of some plans a bunch of bigwigs were tossing around. She also seems to have gored a few pet bulls, but he thought that was just fine.

"This Lori, he continued, "is the fiancée of the daughter of the guy who threw the party. Lots of gossip about two women getting married, as well as lots of comment on the rather spectacular figure this Lori had. Seem she and her fiancée took his son Kirk for a ride to see the sunset in some kind of Formula 1 race car or something and impressed the hell of of the son."

This couldn't be happening!

"In any case, he called and wants to talk to Lori Cooke. Took him all morning to track her down, following up on some hints the kid got in talking with the ladies. He's assuming that our Lauren Cooke is his Lori Cooke."

"Oh shit!"

"Am I right that you are, um, intimately acquainted with this Lori?"

"You could say that. I suppose you're going to have to know all about it."

So I took out the phone and found the picture of Aida and me at the party. I thought it was a damn good picture, but it wasn't one I wanted to show to the boss.

"Meet Lori," I said and handed him the phone.

"Jesus! I was hoping… That is you?"

"The one on the left."

"Well I will be god damned."

"So several people have told me."

"Go to hell. What are we going to tell LaChance. It could be a big account."

"I suppose that Lori could go to see him at his place, that way we won't have to explain my other personality."

"I knew you were crazy, but schizophrenic?"

"Actually it would be closer to multiple personality disorder. Schizophrenia is more hallucinations, unfocused behavior and sometimes motor difficulties."

"Is there anything you don't know?"

"Uh, how I get into situations like this?"

"I don't know. I want the business but there is so much to go wrong."

"Boss, there may be a silver lining in this. I have been considering whether I should make the transition, but I wasn't going to say anything until I was sure. I know just how much trouble it will cause."

"It just gets better and better. You wouldn't want to take another vacation until I get over my headache?"

"I've got some Midol if you need it."

"Go to hell! Let me think on this for a while. Obviously you're so convincing as Lori that he was very impressed. At least I won't have to worry about someone figuring out you aren't really a woman."

"Boss, I'm starting to wonder if I really am more woman than man. Not your problem, and I'll do my best not to make it a problem for the company."

"That's about all I can ask. Get back to work."
 

It took three days, but in the end Lori and the Boss were going to visit Streeten Industries the next Tuesday. I guess I was going to have to invest in a skirted suit. Got to be professional, you know.

Decision Time

I spent a good deal of time over the next few days researching Streeten Industries, I needed to know everything I could about their products, sales models, corporate culture and financing. I also spent a good deal of time worrying about how I would present myself. If I can do research and tap my connections for information on them, then I had to assume some smart cookie at Streeten could do the same for us.

Applying my professional expertise to the problem I could reach only one conclusion: there was no way that Lori and Lauren could remain separate identities. This meant that Aida and I had some serious discussions about our future. We had had quite the lark being a same-sex couple, no doubt about it. But I had learned that it was more than a lark, Lori had become an important part of me.

The question was, could Aida be happy if I became Lori? The first part of the decision was simple, we both enjoyed sex just as I had been born, neither of us wanted to change that part of my body.

Trying to be objective about myself was probably a doomed project, but I did try to think clearly about our future if I chose to transition. The big question: could Aida live with me if I actually had the surgery for permanent breasts and maybe even butt implants?

We had lived together and made love for a week with my body as close to looking female as possible and we had enjoyed it. But forever? I was becoming more and more sure that that was where I wanted to go, but I wasn't going to go there without Aida.

So we talked, and talked, and talked some more. Then we slept on it. Saturday morning I awoke to find Aida up before me, happily brewing coffee in an attempt to entice me from the bed. Since she wasn't in it…

"How much vacation do you have? She asked when I was semi-coherent.

"I think about two weeks left."

"Good, then you can take a week to recover from the implants and a week for the honeymoon. We need to set a date, don't you think? How long will it take for the bruising to go down so you can show off your pretty tits in your bridal gown?"

When Aida comes to a decision, she doesn't mess around. Just ask her mother.

For that matter, ask me.

"You're sure?"

I'm not as quick to make most decisions. I like to think things over and be sure.

"I'm sure, and not just because you're so good in bed. You're good for me, you're good to everybody. You were even good to my mother when she was being a bitch to you. You were good to that poor guy Kirk that got foisted off on us."

"And look where that got me."

"It got you to realize who you really are. It may get you a juicy contract. It got you me. What's a little grief at work when you show up in a skirt?"

"You make it sound so easy."

"No, it won't be easy, but I've got your back, kid. You need to get dressed, we're supposed to be looking at a house by eleven o'clock."

"Eleven? Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"You needed your beauty sleep. You've been a might stressed this week."

"No shit."

"Too bad you can't wear that sundress without your high-tech tits. I rather liked how you look in it."

"I haven't got a thing to wear!" I wailed, just to wind her up.

I got dressed in record time.
 

Having looked at quite a few places over the last little while, we were not expecting anything earthshaking to happen. Once again, The Fates, or The Hand Of God, or maybe Mr Murphy poked their noses into our lives. The place was exactly what we wanted. Enough room, two bathrooms, a yard small enough that it wouldn't require massive maintenance, not too far from ether of our jobs and only mildly extortionate in price. We put in an offer before someone else could snap it up.

When we signed the papers we were giddy. How much change could you cope with over a single weekend? Now about I could do was bite my nails waiting to see if I had a job Monday afternoon so we could afford the mortgage on the house we wanted to live in.

And I couldn't even bite my nails, Lori didn't want to look like a raggamuffin.

Maniac Monday

This time it was my turn to plop down in the Boss's chair, after knocking of course. He is the boss.

"You got a few minutes?"

"For you, of course."

"Well, actually I lied. This is going to take more than a few minutes."

"Don't tell me, let me guess. You're quitting and this Lori is taking your place."

"Jeez, you take all the fun out of it. You're supposed to be shocked and flustered."

"Did that with the last transgendered employee."

"You did?"

"I did. Of course, she was a new hire so we just didn't say anything about who she was in the past. As far as I know she hasn't had the slightest bit of trouble."

"Does that mean…"

"It means I've been talking to HR, just in case you decided to transition. Actually, after we talked last week I would have been surprised if you didn't. The only real problem I can see on site is bathrooms. I just don't know if any of the women here will object. We do have to take them into consideration."

"It's a pain, but I'm willing to use the handicapped facilities up front so no one gets excited."

"That will help, but I'm more concerned about how you will be able to work with your customers and everyone else here. You interact with just about everyone in the place at one time or another. I'd be a fool if I didn't expect there will be some of them who won't like the change."

"I suppose with the customers we can just have someone else do the presentation if my appearance would cause a problem. I can do the research and problem solving and remain in the background. I suppose the bigger problem is working with people who know Lauren. We will just have to deal with that on a case-by-case basis. I'll do whatever it takes.

"As far as the people here, there are a couple who might be a problem. I'd like to keep things civil even if we can't be friends."

"I hope that's the way it works out. Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think too many people will be shocked when they find out about Lori."

"I haven't really been projecting a very masculine aura, have I?"

"You could say that. More neutral, I would think. Actually I appreciate not having to cope with grunting guys or flirting females. We are running a business here."

"Would working from home for a little while help? If I'm only here once in a while until I sort of become part of the wallpaper it might help."

"No, I'd rather take care of this directly. Like I said, you aren't the first and won't be the last. I want our non-discrimination policy to actually work."

"I'll do what I can. I suppose I need to visit HR and fill out reams of paperwork."

"Actually no. Since you're not changing your name, just your nickname, there's nothing that needs changing."

"No paperwork? That's more shocking than me turning into a woman."

"Out! Go do something useful and Lori?"

"Yeah?"

"Best be very professional looking tomorrow morning."

"You got it, Boss!"