Chapter 12

It was Tuesday of the next week. Melissa closed out her cash drawer and went to see Olivia, her manager. Olivia looked up, "What is it?"

"The ATM is short $100. It's just registering a probability, but I know," Melissa told her. "Jerry filled it."

"Did you ask Jerry?"

"No. I wanted you to know, first."

"Okay." Olivia nodded. "Now go ask him."

Melissa didn't stand on ceremony; she went back to the teller area and straight to Jerry, "The ATM is short $100."

Jerry nodded. "I know. Go ask Olivia about it."

By then Melissa was confused. She went back to Olivia. "Jerry said..."

"Ask me?" Olivia finished.

"Yes."

Olivia fished 5 crisp twenties out of her lap drawer and fanned them. "When we're done here, you can put them back."

"What's going on?"

"A test. One you passed, with flying colors," Olivia told her. "You're better. Much, MUCH better than you were a month ago. What happened?"

"I woke up." Melissa replied.

"Anything else?"

"Well, that started it, but... I'm dating."

"What is he -- some kind of athlete? How much weight have you lost?" Olivia asked.

"Nineteen pounds." Melissa blushed. "He's a fitness trainer."

Olivia nodded. "You're better, sharper, faster... He's good -- but I don't see you ever getting thin..."

"He doesn't want me thin -- just fit," Melissa replied. "He says thin girls and female bodybuilders are too hard..." She looked down, blushing. "And they don't have big breasts."

Olivia chuckled. "Good! I was afraid you were a pet project, and when he'd shrunk you down to a stick figure, he was going to let you go."

"God, I hope not!"

"Me, too." Olivia smiled. "This wouldn't be that lifter that came in two weeks ago and opened several accounts, would it? He seems to bank a lot..."

Melissa hung her head. "Yes."

"You're not just meeting at the gym, either, are you Honey?" Olivia teased.

"No." Melissa smiled. "We have an, um, unusual training regimen. I'm sure his employers would be surprised -- but I like it, and it works..."

Olivia eyed her. "If you two have a falling out, are you going to crash again?"

"I won't be happy for a while, but I'll get over it," Melissa replied. "I was pretty stupid last time -- during and after. We haven't made any promises to one another we can't keep." She looked away, adding, "Although I'm hoping we'll get to commitments at some point..."

Olivia smiled. "Well, hang in there. In the meantime, there is the original question. I needed to test you a bit to be sure you were back -- and you are, better than ever! That being the case -- I need an assistant manager..."

"Really?"

"You were always on the short list, but you scared me for a while," Olivia related. "If you want it, I'll give you the manuals so you can start on your product knowledge. There are some forms to be filled out and so on, but they're formalities..."

"I want it!" Melissa bubbled.

"Okay, then, we'll start training you next week." Olivia handed Melissa the money. "Please put these where they belong..." Melissa got up, took the money, and floated out of Olivia's office.

That night, as closing time approached at the health club and Melissa was happily pounding away on the stepper, Mel wandered over to Mac. "I see your pet project is still here. Don't you have a membership commitment from her yet?"

"Oh, yeah," Mac replied indifferently. "She's making ground, too."

"Why are you pouring effort into her?" Mel asked, amused.

"We have to have the occasional success story," Mac told him.

"THAT one is never gonna be hard!" Mel laughed.

"She doesn't have to be to be a success," Mac pointed out. "Not everybody wants to carry around that much muscle -- but then, virtually nobody wants to carry around that much fat."

"Making her look small enough for a good before and after might not be possible," Mel pointed out. "Look at those bags on her chest..." 'Those bags' were bouncing regularly due to Melissa's efforts.

"Yeah..." Mac sighed theatrically, then grinned.

Mel snorted. "I forgot that you like 'em like that..." A synapse spat in his brain. "You aren't sleeping with that elephant, are you?"

Mac faced him directly. "Regularly. And it's very pleasant, I might add!"

"Ugh!" Mel grunted. "Ripples!"

"Would you rather sleep on a waterbed or a sheet of plywood?" Mac replied. "She's somewhere in between -- but most people in our line of work are more like plywood."

Mel snorted. "Fat chicks don't bend -- and they have no energy!"

"There's fat and there's fat," Mac replied. "And if they exercise -- and Melissa does -- they DO bend and they DO have energy. Melissa is down about twenty pounds; she's got a ways to go, but she'll always be padded -- and I like that." He smirked. "Besides, I want her to keep those tits!"

Mel eyed him. "Does she know that?"

"Yeah. Ask her if you don't believe me. We're trying to make her healthy, not preparing her for bodybuilding competitions. If I was trying for that, we would both be disappointed. At this point, I figure it's gonna be a race..."

"A race?"

Mac nodded. "Yeah. I don't know whether we'll make it to her loss target first, or we'll have to slack off because she's pregnant."

"Pregnant? The stupid slip doesn't use any birth control?" Mel gaped.

"Nope. I don't want her to, either," Mac grinned. "When she get's pregnant, it'll be a lot easier to get a hammerlock on her..."

Mel eyed him. "For what?"

"I'm gonna marry her."

"You WHAT? You're sick, Man!" Mel couldn't picture it.

Mac laughed. "Not even! Man, you have NO IDEA how sweet it is having a woman who cares more about you than she does herself! No fucking idea!"

"Well..." Mel eyed Melissa. "To each his own, I guess."

"Yep," Mac nodded. "Go on, I'll close up. We're gonna use some of the equipment, um, unconventionally..."

Mel grinned. "Now THAT makes sense... Knock yourself out..." he headed for the back to change and clock out, shaking his head.

Jumping ahead about eighteen months...

Lois lay out on the deck by the pool in the courtyard of the apartment complex where she and Mike shared an apartment. In an hour or two, she would have to get ready to go to work, but she was using the late afternoon sun to acquire tan lines. Mike was in class, but he would be out soon. It was early May; school would be out for the summer soon and they could both go to work full-time for the three months before they started their senior year.

Mike and Eddie hadn't gone back into the dorms last year; Lois and Mike had moved out of their separate locations into this place -- which wasn't cheap, but wasn't flashy, either. Mike had taken a job as an intern at an engineering firm that summer, and did various gofering during the year for them -- and would go back to full-time at the end of the term. Eddie had moved in with Sheila and Emily; they had this odd thing going where Sheila and Eddie slept together and Emily kind of orbited them, getting sex from both, apparently.

Lois had beaten the schedule, thanks to Mike; her shrink had cleared her for 'the operation' six months before, and she'd had it done over Christmas vacation. Mike had been there for her during the surgery and the recovery and things were progressing pretty well; she was proud of her new equipment and really didn't have to worry too much about how it looked; the surgeon had done a beautiful job. But whether it worked or not was somewhat in question -- that hadn't been tested while it healed...

Today, however, was the day, if she could convince Mike. She got up and headed inside to her apartment and, ultimately, her bedroom, where she stripped down and sat on the bed, putting her feet up on a padded bench to perform a procedure that had become all too familiar...

She had a shaving mirror that she used to check her manufactured vagina, probing it and eyeing the results. She gently rubbed the nub of flesh that had once been part of her glans, but was now her clitoris, then reached into the drawer of her night table for her sound, or dilator -- basically, a glass dildo -- which she used a couple of times every day to stretch her vagina. This was a requirement -- an exercise she had to do to keep it from shrinking up as it healed -- something she CERTAINLY didn't want to happen! Lately, it had been a good deal less painful -- in fact, over the last week or so, it had even been pleasant... She pressed the glass cylinder into her depths, feeling for and hitting bottom, then pulled it out and measured the depth on a tape measure she kept handy to track her progress -- seven and a half inches! She could take Mike now... She got out some lube, since she wasn't really capable of manufacturing anything much, and applied it to the glass, then pumped it in and out gently a few times. Early on in her recovery, the sensations generated by her displaced tissues had been jagged and unpleasant, but now... Now, she wanted to carry things a bit further -- now, there was an itch to the whole thing that she wanted to scratch... She set up a rhythm -- not fast, just deep in and back out, maybe one cycle in two seconds -- lazy for fucking, but plenty to feel the dilator sliding along her inner lining. Then she reached down to rub her clit. The doctor had given her a nice, big one that peeked out of its hood very close to the entrance to her tunnel, so that even if her vagina didn't provide the kind of pleasure everyone hoped it would, her nub could ride a cock and bring her off. Every day, it seemed to get more sensitive, too! Today, it seemed especially sensitive, perhaps because Lois was busy visualizing Mike finally taking her virginity; it was exciting, thinking about giving him this gift. That he deserved it was beyond question; it had been he who had overridden her fears and brought her to confidence in herself and her decision. Now it was time to give him her new pussy -- she'd already given him everything else, not that she was complaining. In fact, from her perspective, it was purely a down payment on what he had given her...

Early on, this activity had been a painful exercise; there had been constant worries about infection, and the possibility of colon problems, and painful urination and slow healing; they'd been off anal sex for three months, and Lois had worried that Mike would lose interest in her and move on. Instead, he hadn't even asked for oral sex, feeling that since she wasn't capable, it was unfair of him to ask for something so one-sided. Lois had had to insist, reminding him that she enjoyed doing it, before he reluctantly accepted those attentions; even then it was probably the guilt trip she laid on him about her worries that if she gave him NOTHING he would stumble onto another outlet and leave her -- a position that Emily supported with evil glee... "I'LL fuck him, any time! All he has to do is look at me..." It was with some relief that they resumed anal sex three months before...

As far as Mike was concerned, things were basically back to normal -- but Lois wasn't satisfied. No, she wanted him inside her, in the place she'd had made for him -- for them both -- to enjoy... Her mind drifted to his gentle touch, his slow, methodical penetrations and his care and his efforts at making their lovemaking pleasurable...

Suddenly, she realized that there was an edge to things, an urgency that she hadn't felt in some time. Her new vagina felt puffy and her clit was begging for more and the dilator was very, VERY pleasant... 'Omigod!' she realized, 'I'm going to cum!' Renewed effort from flying fingers and an increase in the pace of her penetrations made it relatively certain; she could feel the whole thing building inside her! She was jubilant! 'It works! It works! Omigod!' And then it hit and she gloried in it, gasping, doing what she could to extend the pleasure as it poured over her, grateful for every wave...