Chapter 3

Denise

Denis walked Stephanie back to her place, which wasn't that far from the restaurant. He wasn't sure how much he should tell her about how this came to be, if anything. As a result, they drifted along in silence until Stephanie broke it.

"You're very quiet."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Today's been a real eye-opener one way or another and being arrested wasn't really top of my list of things to do."

"I can imagine."

"I'm not sure you can. The arrest was by far the least traumatic of the events."

"It hasn't been all bad has it?"

"No. I met someone really special today." Immediately he let that part slip, he regretted it. He knew that if a woman had said that to a man, that man wouldn't stop running until well after he'd passed the international date-line and possibly a couple of oceans too. "I mean, I think you're a really nice person and if I ever needed a friend it's now."

"You already see me as a friend?"

"I hope so. I know we've only known one another for five minutes, but I really enjoy your company. I would like to think that this isn't just a flash in the pan. I hope you don't think I'm being too forward."

"Not at all." she said, giving his arm a squeeze. "I quite like the idea. Anyway, this is me."

They stood at the end of the path and Denis didn't know whether he was supposed to broach the subject of coffee or even if he wanted to put either of them in that position. In truth, he felt he just wanted to go home.

Stephanie took the lead and gave him a hug, no kiss, just a hug.

Denis felt that he got more than he deserved as he already felt as though he should have told Stephanie that he wasn't what he appeared and all the way home, he gave himself a good talking to about it.

"You should have said something." he muttered.

"What and frighten her off?"

"Better she knew from the beginning than to scare her away for good by telling her later."

"Are you alright, Miss?" said another voice.

Denis stopped, thinking "What now?" and turned towards the source of the voice.

"Fine, thank you." he said to the owner of the voice who had pulled up to the kerb in his car.

"Can I give you a lift somewhere?"

"Er, no thanks. It's nice of you to offer, but I really haven't that far to go and well, you know about talking to strangers."

"So you think I'm strange?" said the voices owner with something of an edge to it. Denis couldn't see the owner of the voice particularly well and suddenly didn't feel as safe as he had.

"I didn't say that. I don't know you and you don't know me. That makes us strangers and I'm sorry if you feel I'm being rude in not accepting your fine offer, but I think I need to walk."

"Well fuck you, bitch!"

Denis blinked and watched as the man drove off. For the first time in his life, he felt the man's stinging words hit a point in Denis's brain that started tears welling up in his eyes. The sniffles followed as his eyes ran with tears and he found himself running as far as he was able in the shoes he was wearing to get home.

He managed to open and then almost slamming it leant against the closed door sobbing like a schoolgirl and slowly slid downwards until he was sitting on the floor.

"I never asked for this." he wailed.

It was an unreal feeling for him. Not only was he not a particularly emotional sort, he'd never felt such an outpouring of emotion since he was a child and even then, it was generally only temper tantrums that produced such tears.

Picking himself up, he went to the bathroom to strip for bed.

His plan had been to go home and dress en-femme. Then he was going to spend time ogling his reflection in the mirror, but right then and there, he felt like shit.

He blew his nose and looked in the mirror above the basin.

His eyes were red and puffy and his hair was a complete mess.

He picked up a brush and began pulling it through the masses of hair he now had and began to relax. The more he pulled his brush through, the more relaxed he became and soon, all traces of having blubbed and sniffled, had gone.

He took off the dress and stared open-mouthed in the mirror at the person he had now become, though how was something he just couldn't fathom.

Before him was a woman slightly taller than average with all the attributes to go with it; the waist, hips, breasts and just visible through the translucent material of the thong, the lips of very real female genitalia.

He trembled slightly as he reached between his legs to touch and gasped as what he felt was as real as what he saw. He removed his bra and watched as his breasts stood from his chest each surmounted by a dark, pink nipple just as the woman's in the shop had and gently, he brushed his hands across with a shiver of excitement.

He slipped his thumbs into the waist of the thong and slid it down his legs to his knees whereupon, gravity took over and they dropped the rest of the way on their own. He stepped out and stood back a short way from the mirror, drinking in the vision before him.

"I certainly got the lot here." he said smiling, despite the fact he had just spent better part of forty minutes solid, crying his eyes out. "Not bad."

After a shower and a quick cup of coffee, he went to bed, though he was still perturbed by just how this had all come about.

The next morning Denis awoke and stretched. Once again he had slept the whole night and had not been troubled by dreams at all, which is not to say he didn't dream, but the dream he did have wasn't about him. No, this very pleasant dream was about Stephanie.

He still had a smile on his face too, which was a first. That was until he went to get out of bed and realised that the events of the day before had not been part of the dream. They had been real.

His hands went automatically to his breasts and he realised that all of it had been real. In fact, the only thing that hadn't been was the dream he had just woken from. In the short time he took to consider this, the memory of whatever he and Stephanie had been doing had, thanks to his shock of realising that yes, he was a she, vanished.

"So I really am Denise." he said finally. "Jesus, what am I going to do?"

Still where she had dropped it the night before, was the bag with Denis's suit trousers, his shoes, two packs of stockings, two clear silicone 'blobs' and a pair of high heels. There was no more underwear, no more clothes. It was either the dress, stockings and maybe she could wash out the thong for today as well, but somehow, it didn't seem right.

She needed some everyday wear; jeans, t-shirts and all those things women need that men seem to be able to do without. She needed a coat, trainers, sensible shoes, tights, panties and more bras. God, would the list ever end?

She needed help.

She thought about work and the people there. Maybe they'd be able to help, but then, who'd believe her?

The major thing about work was she was not going to be able to go in. That's all there was to it. Getting picked up by the law the day before was one thing, as the copper had no idea who she was, but going in today meant facing the girls and as Denise, she really didn't have the nerve.

She thought about other people who might be able to help, but aside from work, there wasn't anyone. Denis had been the personification of the expression "you need to get out more" and besides, who would recognise him now?

There was always Stephanie.

"No." she said firmly.

"And why not?" she asked.

"Because." she replied, balling her fists and coming very close to a scream.

"Because why?"

"Because I don't know her that well and I don't know whether I can face telling a near stranger all this stuff about me."

"That wasn't so difficult was it?"

"Oh shut up!"

Denise went to the phone and picked up the receiver.

"Oooooooohhhhhhh!" she growled and slammed it back down again.

Denise padded about, the scowl on her face getting more and more intense.

"More coffee!" she said.

She opened the fridge for the milk and realised that she had used the last for the last cup she'd knocked back.

"Aaaaaaaaarghhhhhhh!" she screamed and went to the bedroom.

It was no good. She was going to have to go shopping at least, but first she had to wash out her smalls (which were scandalously small too) and then phone in to work and at let them know that she, or rather Denis wasn't going to be present.

Somewhere else, someone was not impressed by the complete incompetence of a certain three guys.

"You told me they knew what they were doing."

"Who told them they could take what they wanted then?" said the person on the other end of the line.

There was a momentary pause.

"Well they cocked it up big time. What if this gets back to me?"

"I told you, relax. There is nothing to link them to you, leastwise nothing that we can't handle."

"We? What do you mean 'we'? This was all your doing and if the shit hits the fan, guess who it's going to spray?"

"Ah yes, good point. I'll deal with it at once."

"You do that and find out who blew the whistle. Make damn sure they don't blow any more. Is that clear?"

"Crystal."

If you have ever tried doing anything in a hurry, you will be the first to realise that a) more haste means less speed and it invariably takes longer than you thought it would and b) in the case of Denise's thong, it won't dry that way — i.e., quickly. Our hero-cum-heroine hasn't figured that one out yet, though she is about to...

Denise breathed a sigh of relief when she found out that Fellows was shut due to the break in and what later transpired to be an arson attempt.

"So it was an insurance job then, was it? Burn the place down and claim a fortune. I wonder if they've found out that old man Smart is behind it?"

Half an hour went past and about every forty-five seconds, Denise checked to see if her 'small-bordering-on-not-worth-bothering-withs' were dry and each time she checked, they seemed just as wet as they were before.

"Oh come on!" she cried. "There's less of you than is reasonable and still you seem to take a month of Sunday's to dry."

She spent the next several minutes plodding round from one room to another and back like a fart in a trance before taking another look.

"It's no good. I'll just have to put them on damp."

She turned them the right way out and stepped into the tiny briefs.

Pulling them up she realised that may have been a mistake she wouldn't make again in a hurry.

"Eeeeeeeyeeeewwwwww!" she cringed, feeling the cold dampness around her tender bits. "That's gross!"

After a few moments of walking around like she'd just spent ten years in the saddle, she kind of got used to it and was able to go about her business (though still with the occasional grimace).

Dressed as she was, she attracted attention. Most of it was good, some of it wasn't, but by the time she'd walked to the shops, she was getting more acclimatised.

"It's no wonder," she thought. "Women get pissed-off with being ogled."

The food shopping over and done with, she started to walk back and was looking in the windows of other shops as she did. Old habits being hard to break, she found looking difficult to begin with, but she knew that she needed more stuff. New panties, new tights or stockings: new everything.

She knew that Denis wasn't exactly a fashion victim, but then he didn't have much to be a victim for. Perhaps if he had, his life wouldn't have been so boring. The one thing that she was looking forward to above all others was a pair of snug-fitting jeans, the sort that showed off the figure.

She stopped at one of the shops and looked in the window.

"Hello." said a voice. She looked round and Stephanie was there.

"Hi!" said Denise, wanting to throw her arms round her and hug her tight, just for being there. It was or rather wasn't necessarily because she fancied Stephanie something rotten although that was true, but because Stephanie was an ally; someone she knew so she didn't have to go about this whole thing alone. She already felt that she'd been dropped in the deep end anyway. "Fancy giving me a hand finding some new clothes?"

"What's in it for me?" she answered with nothing short of a mischievous look on her impish face.

"Dinner?"

"We did that last night."

"Not at my place we didn't. "

Stephanie's face wasn't exactly the picture of excitement. "Alright, what about we go out, have a few drinks and then get dinner."