Chapter 6

What no one knew about the few weeks following Mandy's new position within Corporate Acquisitions was the nightly time she spent with Matthew, her boss. To protect each other, they took separate cabs after leaving the office together which went unnoticed because it's normal for an assistant to leave at the same time as his or her boss. The cabs always took different routes to the same destination — a restaurant usually, occasionally a nice park and once to a carnival on the outskirts of the city. There was no doubt from either of them that they were dating and quickly reaching a level of emotional connection that was comfortable and pleasant for both. Each night they parted ways, again in separate cabs, but not before sharing prolonged kisses that deepened with each night, both knowing that they wanted to experience the other's body but agreeing that it was not the right time. Tonight Mandy seemed distant, her angelic green eyes dim and troubled.

"What's wrong?" Matthew asked.

"I need to tell you something, but I don't know how. I'm scared," she whispered, almost to herself, almost fearfully.

"Scared of what?" he asked, content to wait for her to offer whatever information concerned her, but not unwilling to coax it out of her if needed.

"Your reaction," she responded quickly, a single tear leaving a moist wake as it tumbled down her cheek. "I don't want it to change what we have."

"What we have and where we are is the beginning of something I feel will last a long, long time. I can't imagine a single reason why I would change my mind," he said confidently, offering her a tender smile in an attempt to soothe her. "Why don't you just..."

"I'm male," she said quickly, closing her eyes to protect herself from the shock and disgust she expected from the man she felt so strongly for. But instead of angry words barraging her or the sounds of quick steps leading away from her, she felt a warm hand cover hers on the edge of the table and soft, familiar lips against hers to which she responded with equal familiarity. The kiss was brief but it flooded her with enough confidence to pry her moistened eyelids apart to look at Matthew's face, genuinely surprised to see him smiling, his hand caressing hers on the edge of the table. She had been gripping the table so firmly that her hand hurt, the soft caresses helping her to loosen her grip, wincing visibly as the blood flowed back into her ghostly white digits.

"I understand what you just said, and I want you to know it doesn't change anything about how I feel, but I do want you to explain," he said demandingly.

For the next thirty minutes or so, Mandy explained how she had been born male and raised as a girl. Her parents had fed her hormone supplements in perfectly measured doses from bottles until she began highschool. Her upbringing was strategically structured to keep her sheltered enough to have no knowledge of the difference between her body and a normal girl's. She had even been medically excused from physical education classes that might require her to shower in a communal setting, thus keeping her secret unexposed. She realized what she was during her first sexual education class as the teacher lectured on the anatomies of men and women — she realized she had both. Her breasts were even natural, though only 'A' cups, due to the hormone treatments, but she knew immediately that she was male. Shortly following that horrifying day at school, she was disowned by her parents and sent to a foster home. Her childhood was never exceptionally happy, but she accepted it for what it was, so her removal was difficult to endure, but her foster family was made aware of her circumstances by the authorities. She was cared for and even loved by the young, generous couple that had accepted her into their home. She endured years of counseling, therapy, and even attempts at medication to correct her gender, but she was happy as a girl, so her foster parents allowed her to continue hormone treatments to maintain her femininity.

As she ventured to college, no one had yet doubted that she was female. No one had seen her naked, and she protected herself well. She met her first boyfriend, too. They were happy together, but he kept pushing for sex. He wanted her, but she maintained that it wasn't the right time. She kept up here charade for six months before he forced himself on her, tearing her skirt away from her body and exposing her long, yet slim, penis and heavy, shaven testicles. In his disgust, anger flared and he hit her. When his fist connected with her jaw, the bone snapped and her eyes clouded from the intense pain and she lost consciousness. She awoke in a hospital bed, but when she tried to speak, she realized her jaw was intensely, throbbingly sore, then she winced as severe tinges of pain pounded throughout her body with each beat of her heart. She remembered being hit, guessed that her jaw had broken from the force, and resigned herself to deducing that it was wired shut. She also figured Jay had beat her mercilessly after she passed out. Her thoughts occurred quickly, and shock settled into her, but rather than becoming anxious, angry, or even panicking, she merely closed her eyes and cried.

It took her thirteen days of recovery before the hospital released her into the care of her former foster parents. As a legal adult, they had no legal responsibility, but they kept her insured, monitored her grades in college; they loved her. They nearly lived at the hospital during her stay, and they brought her home when she was discharged. She was well-cared-for during her extended recovering, but she cried incessantly. She knew everyone at school learned her secret by now. She could never return. After weeks of depression, Mandy finally gathered her strength to begin finding a new life. She quickly enrolled in a new school in another state, researched the campus to hopefully find a gay or lesbian group that might accept her, even found statistics to reflect the gay and lesbian population percentages. She did her homework.

She had a very successful first semester at the school, having met many friends in the local "Rainbow Brigade" as they jokingly called themselves. She became especially close to one girl in particular. Jennifer was Mandy's first girlfriend, and Jennifer was very accepting of Mandy's anatomy. They would perform oral on each other, and Mandy would make love to Jennifer very often. But graduation came quickly. Mandy excelled and graduated early, having taken twenty-two hours every semester at both her previous and current schools. The relationship fell apart afterwards as Mandy was busy finding work closer to home with Jennifer wanting to live closer to her own home over a thousand miles away.

Now, months later, Mandy was sitting across from Matthew. She had shared her secret and her jaw was intact. He listened to her story, squeezed her hand in support upon hearing the tragic elements and caressed it happily at the positive ones. He occasionally asked a question to clarify something or request additional detail about another thing, but he let her speak. It was her time.

The short ride in the taxi was quiet, neither Mandy nor Matthew speaking. She assumed he was sharing the cab with her to escort her home in an effort to establish that he was not angry or disgusted by her secret. She wondered why he felt he needed to do so; the conversation and his reactions had already convinced her that he was not bothered by it. She jumped in surprise, however, when she felt his hand reach between her slender thighs and squeeze her crotch, his fingers massaging in firm, slow circles. The cab driver noticed, grinning to himself; Mandy simply closed her eyes and sighed quietly.