The Women's Job - Part 11 (Patreon)

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"Sure. Bennett and Hamilton are out of town. That only leaves Terry in the mailroom and Peter in Mrs. Coleman's office. You're friends with them and they've seen you when you've been joking around with the girls. That just leaves the girls and they all think you're adorable anyway. We'll just tell everyone that we're playing a prank on Ms. Castle. They'll understand."

What she said made sense, sort of. Of the people I saw on a daily basis, there was hardly anyone in the office I didn't call my friend. They had all seen me having fun or joked with me at one time or another. Mr. Bennett and Mr. Hamilton were the only two that didn't appreciate the humor of my lighthearted antics from time to time. "They'll tease me."

Connie laughed, "Yes, I imagine they will. But so what. It'll all be in fun."

I could imagine a few of their faces. Turning back to the mirror, I wondered what Trish and the others would say. It might be worth it just to see the look on their faces. Again, my hands caressed my slender waist. "I would love to see the look on some of their faces."

Connie laughed again. "That's my girl."

"Your girl needs you to help her make her fingernails look pretty," I said sarcastically.

"Well if my girl will go take off her makeup now and get all ready for bed I will be happy to help her with her nails"

"I'll be right back, Mommy," I said over my shoulder as I swished back into the bedroom.

"Don't forget to use that baby oil I gave you to take off your makeup and be gentle on your skin. Don't stretch it." Connie called after me.

I stuck my head out around the bedroom door. "Yes, Mommy."

"Now just tuck your skirt under you as you sit. That's it. Sit up straight, hands in your lap."

We had been up since six. After not getting to bed till one, we were both reluctant to get up. Connie had me do my hair and makeup myself while she supervised me. Now she was giving me a crash course in acting like a lady, there at the kitchen table.

"No Jeffrey, shift your weight forward as you get up. Don't push yourself up." Connie was very patient with me.

"Not as easy as it looks, is it?"

"No," I admitted. I felt anything but graceful in my heels. It would have been worse if I had never had a pair on. I had the walk down, but Connie still insisted that I needed practice.

"I just wish we had more time. There's so much you need to learn."

"I'm really worried." I confided to her.

"You'll be fine. It's just a luncheon. You have all morning to practice and we're going to see that you do."

I was still worried about the people at work.

Connie made me eat something. She insisted just my vitamins weren't enough. My stomach was doing flip-flops, much worse than it had Saturday.

"Cut your food up into small bites and put it in your mouth past your lips, pulling it off with your teeth. Otherwise, you'll end up eating off your lipstick."

I was so used to gobbling my food down. It was a lot to remember.

The doorman, Lester, and Carl, the valet, both took a double-take when Connie and I came downstairs to go. It wasn't as if they hadn't both seen me in a skirt before. They’d just never seen me dressed the way I was that morning. Of course, they were too professional to say anything and I just acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Given their reaction to me, or the lack of it, I actually wondered if they had always taken me to be a woman. I had never spoken to them. All the times they had seen me I was dressed up in the clothes Connie had picked out for me. I decided they didn't know. It was just as well.

Connie decided we should take her car. "It's a lot different, driving in heels. It takes getting used to."

I didn't argue with her. I was too nervous to drive anyway.

Connie encouraged me all the way to work. The lighthearted bravado I displayed the night before was all but gone.

We were later getting to work than usual. That was my fault. I could see Bobbie at the reception desk as we walked up to the front door.

"Jeffrey, watch your walk. One foot in front of the other. Head up, shoulders back. And for God's sake, smile."

I was so nervous.

Bobbie didn't look up until Connie opened the front door. She smiled at Connie and started to say, "Good morn . . . " Her greeting was cut off at seeing me, a step behind Connie. "Jeffrey!?"

I gave her my usual smile, "Good morning Bobbie."

I watched her wide eyes as they looked me over from my high heels to my perfectly styled hair. She said my name again, "Jeffrey?"

Connie's words finally brought her out of shock. "Relax Bobbie. Jeffrey's going to help me play a little prank on Ms. Castle today. How does he look?"

Bobbie came out from behind the counter. She came up to me, the look of amazement still on her face. "He looks beautiful." She walked around me, looking me over in amazement.

She stood looking me in the eye. "Jeffrey, you're marvelous. No one would ever know." She sniffed my perfume. "And you even smell wonderful."

"Thank you." That helped. That plus the fact that she didn't look at me like I was some kind of freak.

Connie looked pleased too, pleased with me and pleased with Bobbie's reaction. She told Bobbie, "It's business as usual Bobbie. We don't need the whole world knowing about this."

That was a waste of words. Bobbie was the biggest gossip in the place.

"No, of course not." She couldn't take her eyes off me. While I was glad she approved, her staring made me a little uncomfortable. "Ms. Castle is certainly going to be surprised."

"We're meeting her for lunch at the downtown Hyatt," I told Bobbie.

"I wish I could be there to see her face." Bobbie only went back to her desk when we disappeared down the hall, into our office.

I said to Connie, "She's going to tell everyone."

"I know but there's really nothing we can do about it. At least we won't have to explain why you're dressed this way to them all. Bobbie will take care of that."

Since we had eaten breakfast at home, it was time to get busy. My workload was enormous for today and taking a long lunch wasn't going to help. I settled down at my desk to get to work but it wasn't easy to concentrate.

We could see each other through the glass wall that separated the inner and outer offices. From time to time, when I looked up from my work, I caught Connie smiling at me. She seemed to be really enjoying seeing me this way. Once, she motioned to me to close my legs. I didn't realize I was sitting with them apart.

I fidgeted a lot. The red skirt was definitely shorter than anything I had worn and when I sat, it rode uncomfortably high on my leg. It was one of the times I was tugging it down that I couldn't help but notice the increased amount of traffic in the hallway outside the office. It was inevitable. I thought that at least some of them would come in and have a smart comment to make, but no one did. The women smiled when I caught them looking and I just smiled back, like everything was normal.

I knew it that wouldn't last long. Trish, Joyce, and a few of the other girls were due in around ten. I knew they wouldn't miss an opportunity to tease me. I sort of looked forward to it.

Connie came out of her office around nine. "Come on with me."

"Where are we going?" I asked as I carefully got up from my chair.

Connie grinned, "You did that beautifully." Commenting about how gracefully I rose.

"Thank you."

"We're going up to see Stephanie. I think she has something better than those shoulder pads that you can wear."

I came around my desk to go with her. "Here, maybe you better put this away for today." She handed me the placard from my desk that identified me as 'Jeffrey Mitchell'. "We wouldn't want a stranger coming in and being confused."

I couldn't help but laugh. "No, we wouldn't want that." I put it in a drawer. I hadn't considered for a moment that I might have to meet a customer, looking the way I did.

Some heads rose as we walked past accounting on our way to the stairs. The girls smiled and I smiled back. "Good morning Cathy," I said as we passed by Mr. Bennett's secretary.

"Good morning Jeffrey." She said with a smile and playful, melodious lilt to her voice. All eyes seemed to follow me as we went up the stairs.

Navigating up the stairs was much easier than going down. My steps were placed very deliberately. I had a little trouble coming down the steps at Connie's but I was fine as long as I didn't try to hurry. Connie said I actually looked graceful, taking my time.

Stephanie and Pam apparently knew we were coming. They were waiting for us.

"Did you find them?" Connie asked Stephanie.

Stephanie tore her eyes from me and addressed Connie. "It took some searching but I found them." She looked back to me, beaming. "Jeffrey, you look lovely."

Pam came closer to inspect my makeup. "You did a marvelous job. I taught you well. Ms. Castle is really going to be surprised."

Word did travel fast in our little group. It was actually a relief.

"How about you help him put them in?" Connie said to Stephanie. "I have to get back to work."

"Come on in back Jeffrey." They followed me into the back and Connie headed back to her office. She had told me that she thought we had something in the wardrobe that would be better than the shoulder pads so I wasn't completely in the dark about what was happening. I was a little surprised when Stephanie brought out the silicone breast forms.

"These are the closest things to real there is," Stephanie explained. "We used to have a girl modeling for us that was almost flat-chested. She was a great model, a beautiful girl but had almost no breasts. These have been buried away for years. I wasn't even sure we still had them."

I picked up one. Its outside texture and color were almost like skin. It was filled with a jell-like mass. I expressed my concern. "Won't they move around too much?"

"Oh no," Stephanie assured me. "See this ring? It's adhesive. It attaches to your chest. They'll look and feel, almost like the real thing. Now let's get your top off and fit them to you."

I would have preferred to just leave the shoulder pads but it was too late for that now. Neither of the girls said anything about my chest. They had to notice but I supposed they were simply being tactful.

I didn't know what real breasts felt like but they had to feel a lot like what I had attached to my chest now. Even in my bra, they moved with me.

"Are they comfortable enough?" Pam asked.

"They don't pull or pinch." It was just the odd sensation of having something hanging from my chest that was so strange.

"Later, just take some rubbing alcohol on a Q-Tip and soak the adhesive loose. It's going to take a while to get them off but at least they won't come loose on you today." Stephanie assured me.

That was a comfort.

"They look really nice," Pam told me smiling. I had put my bra and camisole back on and the shapes underneath looked real. Right down to the slight impression of the fake nipples.

I was almost dressed again when I heard the studio door open out front and voices. I quickly put my jacket back on.

They all came up from the offices. The first floor must have been almost empty. The teasing I had anticipated wasn't lacking but neither were the compliments about how pretty and natural I looked. They all knew about the supposed 'prank' on Ms. Castle so it wasn't too hard for me to endure.

I still wasted no time in getting away from them. They followed me downstairs and it was only their fear of Connie that kept them out of my office.

Now all I had to do was wait for Trish and the others to come in. I was looking forward to hearing their opinion.

"That looks much better." Connie came out to tell me when she got off the phone. "Are they comfortable enough?"

"Apart from the way they move when I walk," I told her with a meek grin.

Connie smiled with delight. "Welcome to womanhood Jennifer."

"Oh, thank you so much, Ms. Sackett." Some of the lighthearted feelings of last night was returning.

I had a dozen calls to make and I wondered what the people, who were only familiar voices on the phone, would think if they were to see me sitting there in my lovely dress, all made up and looking so pert and pretty? When I worked on my computer, I made so many mistakes because I kept being distracted, looking down at my red nails. I was able to work for almost an hour before I was interrupted again.

I saw motion out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see Trish peeking her head around the corner, looking in through the glass wall. She had this adoring look on her face. I almost laughed out loud. I waved to her to come in. She wasn't alone, Judy, Kim, and Patty were with her.

"Jeffrey, you look beautiful." Trish cooed.

I sat up straight, brushed my hair from my cheek, and crossed my stockinged legs at the knees. "It's Jennifer today," I said with a silly grin.

They thought I was precious and laughed.

Connie came to her office door. I was afraid she would be annoyed at the fact I wasn't working but her smile said it was all right.

"Jennifer, it doesn't look like you're going to get anything done this morning."

The girls all thought it was cute that she called me Jennifer.

"Why don't you take Jennifer upstairs where she won't be such a distraction to everyone and give her a crash course on being a lady. We only have an hour and a half before we have to leave to meet Ms. Castle and Jennifer needs all the help she can get."

"We'd be delighted to," Kim said beaming.

"But Ms. Sackett, I have so much work to do."

"That's all right. We'll just work a little later tonight to catch up. Now you girls run along."

I turned off my computer and put away the things on my desk. I almost forgot as I 'arose', I reached down and picked up my purse, slinging the chain over my shoulder.

Patty seemed absolutely taken by me. "Oh, Jennifer."

Oh, did they tease me? They were serious at times too. A crash course is what they gave me. I walked, sat, talked, stood still, smiled, and swished my way back and forth across the room till they were satisfied that I moved like the lady I portrayed. I had to talk with expression, using my hands and body. That was difficult for me but they didn't let up. The hour and a half went by like a shot.

"Fix your lipstick and check your makeup. We have to get on our way." Connie said when she joined us. They all wished me luck. Trish and Kim gave me a hug.

"Did they help?" She asked as we went to get into the car.

"There's so much to learn, to remember." I settled into the front seat, swung my legs in after me, and straighten my skirt. I put my hands in my lap and turned to her smiling.

"Very nice Jennifer. The time was well spent."

"I hope so. I'm so scared." I admitted. Fooling around with my friends was one thing but going out in public was another.

"Remember what we talked about. They don't know you and they'll never guess you're a young man by just looking at you. Just remember what you've been shown and relax."

That was easier said than done.

It was a beautiful day. About normal for Atlanta in July, according to the weatherman. The sun was warm but it wasn't too humid. White clouds spotted the sky. It was a sort of picture-perfect day.