Chapter 12: Jack's Plan - Phase One

"You look amazing, Janice!" Jack said, enthusiastically. At Jack's invitation, the two were having lunch together at an intimate bistro.

Jack's eyes roamed freely over Janice's body as he got up to give her a kiss on the cheek. Janice had dressed especially sexy for her lunch with Jack, putting on a low-cut blouse with a plunging neckline, a short red skirt that showed just a hint of stocking top, and her fire-engine red high heels.

Janice blushed as she acknowledged Jack's admiring gaze. "Thanks, Jack. You should hear the gossip at the office. They don't know what to think! Half of them think I'm having a mid-life crisis, and the other half think I'm having an extramarital affair."

"So which is it?" Jack said, teasingly, as he helped Janice into her chair.

"Neither!" Janice said, pretending to be insulted. "I've just felt like dressing up more, that's all."

"Well, that's fine!" Jack said, sitting down. "But still I'm curious, what brought this on? I mean, I only ask because, well ... you certainly look much more ... um ... well ... How can I say this..."

"Confident?" Janice supplied.

"That's right! You look so much more 'confident' than you used to, if you know what I mean."

"Well, I feel fantastic. Remember how uptight I used to be? I swear, I was 35 going on 60. But now just look at me! I feel and look ten years younger, I'm flirting all the time at the office, and I'm so much more aggressive about getting what I want."

"You know, the way you've been stroking that wine glass..." Jack watched as her fingers played with the stem of the wine glass. "Someone other than your husband's best friend might say you're flirting with me right now."

Janice looked at her hand on the glass, 'my god!' she thought to herself. I was flirting with him. She quickly pulled her hand away from the glass only to watch in horror as it automatically went up to straighten her hair -- another flirting gesture.

Her cheeks blushing bright red, Janice quickly put both hands in her lap and held them there. 'No flirting with my husband's best friend, ' she told herself, 'no matter how cute he looks.'

This is perfect, Jack thought to himself. She's flirting with me! Fantastic! Now if I could just get her to talk about Paul...

"But you never answered my question," Jack continued, smoothly. "What brought this all about?"

"That's just it, I have no idea. It's just like one day I woke up and decided that the old me was boring. I don't know. Maybe I was abducted by aliens or something, and in their secret lab they opened my brain, flipped a few switches, and then closed it up again. Really, when I think about it too much, it scares me."

"Scares you?" Jack's face was full of concern. "Why's that?"

"Well..." Janice paused for a second. "You know, because, well ... this all happened all of a sudden and for no reason ... and what if I keep changing? I mean, where will it all end?"

"What do you mean, 'where will it all end'? All you've done is to dress up a bit. I mean, you still look professional, to my eyes. Are you worried that you'll start dressing even more provocatively?"

"No, it's not that..."

"Well, what is it, then?"

Janice hesitated. My god, how she wanted to talk with someone about Paul. But she couldn't say anything to his best friend, could she? But then, if not to his best friend, then who?

"I don't know. I guess ... well..." Janice took a deep breath, "my relationship with Paul is changing. It's been great, but the changes keep coming, faster and faster it seems, and well, I'm worried about where things are going to end up."

Jack put on his worried/concerned expression again. "Oh dear. Changing? Are you two going to get a divorce?"

"Oh, no no. Nothing like that. It's just..."

"Do you still love each other?"

"Oh, of course we still love each other!" Janice said, vehemently.

"Well, what then?"

"Well, um..." how to say this? how to say this? "we, ah ... well, I guess the best way to put it is that we've been doing some 'role playing games'. You know ... like, um ... in bed. There. But I can't tell you anything more." Janice reached for her water glass and took a sip.

Jack smiled and sat back. "Oh, you mean that he's been dressing up in women's clothing."

Janice spit her water out. "What?" she gasped. Between coughs, she managed to ask, "how did you know?"

"You know that Paul and I went to college together, right? Well, I don't think Paul knows I know, but one day I found some women's underwear ... you know, panties, bras, slips, and so on, in his dresser drawers. I might have thought they belonged to a girlfriend of his, but he had no girlfriends at the time. Anyway, I thought nothing of it until I found the magazines as well."

"Magazines?" Janice said, amazed, her eyes as wide as saucers.