Chapter 11 - What Comes After

TUESDAY

I woke up in the morning in our bed as a tangled mass of arms, legs and blankets. I looked over and was greeted by the most beautiful thing in the world- my girlfriend sleeping right next to me.

I extracted myself from the tangled mess on the bed trying not to wake Kathy up.  I took a shower, and got dressed into my work clothes.

After I let Speckles outside, I picked up all of our previous night’s clothes from the living room floor.  Picking them up made me remember last night again.  It put a huge smile on my face as I deposited the clothes in the nearby laundry basket.

I saw Sierra’s backpack sitting on the chair.  It was then I realized she didn’t come back last night.  She got dressed here before our respective date nights.  I totally forgot that she typically comes back to change out of her date attire before going home.  Hopefully she’s OK.

I stood against my height measurement again.  I didn’t shrink.  I saw Kathy coming out of the bedroom and she noticed I was measuring my height.

“So what’s your official measurements now?” Kathy asked, stretching as she walked down the hall.

“I’m 5’7”. 140lbs. 36 C.”

“Let me write that down.” she said grabbing a pen and paper.

“Why?”  I looked at her curiously.

“Just in case I find something cute to buy you.  Christmas is coming up.  I know your old shirt and pant sizes, but I doubt those fit anymore.”

I blushed at the thought of Kathy buying me women’s clothing. 

“What are your plans for today?”  I asked while letting Speckles back into the house.

“I need to stop back at my parents to get all of the stuff I left there.” she replied.  “I wasn’t actually planning on coming back here last night.”

I thought of asking what about last night convinced her to stay, but I decided to not probe her on it.  “I’m glad you did though.” I smiled. 

“So am I”  she said leaning in to kiss me.

I love kisses first thing in the morning.

“How about you?” she asked.

“My shift starts in a half hour.  I have just enough time to eat, make my lunch then head out.”

“Then have a great day” she said kissing me again.  She walked into the living room and stared out the front window.  “Hey babe, why is my potted plant turned upside down in the driveway?”

“The wind must’ve knocked it over.” I said, forgetting that I forgot to pick up that plant after my run-in with the men in black.

She shrugged her shoulders then picked up the laundry basket I left there and took it to the bedroom.

I made and ate my breakfast while Kathy got dressed.  I wrapped up a ham and cheese sandwich.  I found Kathy getting dressed in our bedroom, kissed her goodbye, got into my car and drove to work.

* * *

“So dish, girlfriend.” Darcy said to me from the next register over.  Neither of us had any customers in line at the moment.

I blushed as flashbacks of Kathy and I having sex last night went through my head and laughed at the memories we had.  “We went out for drinks, got back together, end of story.”

“That’s all?” she said.

“What else is there?”  I laughed.

“Ug.  I need to teach you how to have a girl talk.”

“I’m not much of a gossiper.”

“It’s not about gossip.  It’s about details.  Guys answer questions with one word answers.  Sup.  Yeah.  Sure.  No.  Dude.  Bro.  Whatever-”

“I get it. I get it.”  I said interrupting her.  “I’m just not ready to talk about my sex life with my co-workers.”

“Ohh - so there was sex involved?”

I blushed again realizing I just gave away details. “Darcy!”

“Don’t worry.” she said.  “I’ll respect your privacy and not ask details of that.  But she seemed nice.  I’m glad you guys worked it out.”

“How about you and Sierra?”  I asked.  “She didn’t come home last night.”

Darcy winked back at me.  “We went to a park and had a romantic picnic.  Don’t worry, she had a nice bed to sleep in last night.”

“Oh.”  I said, raising my eyebrows.  “Now who’s being secretive?”

Later on I saw Ben come in for his shift.  I noticed a hickey on his neck.  “Is that a hickey, Ben?”

“Shh” he said, turning red with embarrassment.

“It’s OK.”  I said.  “I’m just glad you’re safe.”

“Sorry, for not letting you know I wasn’t coming back last night”  he said.  “I should’ve texted you”

“It’s OK Ben.”  I replied.  “I’m not your father... I mean mother...  I mean... Nevermind.”

He laughed at that.  “You’re a good friend, Erin.  I’m going to stop by tonight and pick up my stuff I left there and hang up my clothes from last night.”

“Sure”  I replied. “You’re more than welcome.”

* * *

At lunch time I got a phone call from a number that I didn’t recognize.  

I answered. “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Aaron?” the person on the other end of the line asked.

I sighed.  It must be another telemarketer wanting to sell me on car warranties.  “No. Aaron no longer owns this phone number.” 

“Wait! Dr. Fry referred me to contact you.” he said.

Oh. This ought to be interesting.  “I’m listening.”  I replied.

“I’m Dr. Ken Powell, from Riverside Women’s Care, Dr. Fry is a personal friend of mine and he has told me of your unique condition.  I can fit you in tomorrow after hours if you’re available.”

“Wait. Who are you?  What are you?”

“Dr. Powell.  A Gynecologist.”

“Oh!”  I replied.  Emily gave me the name and number of her lady doctor for me to call.  I just hadn’t gotten around to it.  “I have been meaning to find one.  I wasn’t sure how to approach that issue.”

“I can fit you in tomorrow night at 6.”

“I can do that.”  I replied.  “Where are you located?” 

I wrote down the name of his practice and address.

“I look forward to seeing you.” Dr. Powell responded before hanging up.

Well, I guess I can check one item off that check list.  Now I just need to make appointments to change all of my IDs.

* * *

Later that night while Kathy and I were eating dinner, Sierra stopped by.  Kathy greeted her at the door.

“Hi - is it Ben or Sierra?” she asked.

“I haven’t come out to anyone but you, Erin and my... girlfriend.”  Sierra’s face lit up when she said “girlfriend.”  “So, you can call me Sierra, in private, or when we’re having a girls night.”

“Sounds good.”  Kathy said.  “Listen Sierra, I wanted to apologize for the other day.” 

“Oh you don’t have to.  I get it.”

“You know, Aaron never introduced me to any of his friends.   So I’m glad I get to meet Erin’s first friend.  So i’d love nothing more than to call you a friend too.”  Kathy gave Sierra a hug.

“Thank you.” Sierra said.  “I don’t have many friends either.  But I feel like my world is so much larger since Erin came into my life.”

I was just sitting there watching this.  I was touched.  I never thought I could make this much of a difference in people’s lives.

* * *

WEDNESDAY

I had Kathy drive me to women’s care practice.  It was in a medical park on the other side of the city. I didn’t quite trust whether this guy was legit or not. I guess you can say after the past week, I was a little more skeptical of signing up for random things. I did my due diligence when I got home last night.  I researched Dr. Powell’s practice.  I confirmed he indeed was a licenced Gynecologist and his Women's Care practice had a 4 star review on Facebook.  I had Kathy wait for me in the car anyway as I went into the building.  

I found the right suite number and walked in.  

A man in his 40’s was sitting in the waiting room.  “Aaron?” he asked, getting up to greet me.

“Yes, I’m Aaron.” I replied.

“I’m Dr. Ken Powell.” he said, holding out his hand for me to shake.  “I made this appointment after hours so that we could keep your actual condition a secret.”

“Thanks.”  I said, shaking his hand.  “I appreciate that.”

He handed me a clipboard and a pen  “Sorry.  Typically I’d have assistants to help me.  I sent them all home. I found it best to be discrete on the matter.  So it’s only me this evening.  Can you fill out this new patient form.”

“I haven't legally changed my name yet.”  I said.

“It doesn’t matter at this point . This first visit is on the house, as a favor to Dr. Fry.  If you chose to be a regular patient here, we’d need all of your legal paperwork and insurance.”

He left me alone for a few minutes.  I sat down in the empty waiting room and filled out the paperwork.  I put “Erin” as my first name.  Circled “F” for Female.  I added in my new height and weight.  I wrote “no” for Pregnant.  Last Period?  Um.  Never.  Lots of questions about women's medical issues that went over my head.  I checked ‘No’ to all of them.

I handed the clipboard back to Dr. Powell when he returned.

He glanced at it.  “Do you prefer me to address you as Aaron or Erin?”

“Erin is preferred.”  I replied.

“OK Erin, follow me” he said, leading me through the door and to a room. “Disrobe.  Here’s a hospital gown you can wear.  I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I took off all of my clothes and put the medical gown on.

He came back and had me sit in the examination chair.   I sat down in the chair and put my legs in the stirrups.  How embarrassing.

“There’s no needles involved right?”  I asked.

“Not for this exam.”

“Good.  I hate needles”

He put on gloves and started poking and prodding into my vagina and cervix with his finger.  This felt uncomfortable and strange.  I now hate something more than needles. 

“So how did you get involved with Marcus?” he asked.  

“Marcus?”

“Dr. Fry.  I didn’t realize his research was anywhere near human trials just yet.”

I didn’t want to retell this story again.  Each time I do everyone laughs at me and calls me an idiot for not asking questions, not reading the fine print, or not noticing all of the red flags.  “I don’t really want to get into it.”

“Ok.”  he said, continuing his exam. “How long have you been like this?”

“I took the shot last Monday, I believe I stopped changing by Friday.”

“This is amazing.”  he said. 

“That’s what she said.”  I chuckled trying to find the humor in the situation.

“So perfect.  It’s as if you were born a woman.”  He looked at me and smiled.  

“Listen.  This is kinda creepy.  Can you get a female doctor here? I'm not used to a guy gazing in wonderment down there.”

“Sorry.  I’ll keep it clinical.  When Dr. Fry told me about his research and then about you, I was skeptical. I want to do an ultrasound to see what your reproductive organs look like.”

He rolled over a cart and rubbed petroleum jelly on the wand and slid it around my abdomen.  He watched the screen.

“Here’s your uterus.  Fallopian tubes.  Ovaries.  Amazing.  You have eggs. Wow.  Do you know what this means?”

“No.”

“You can get pregnant and bear children.”

“I uh.  Hadn’t considered that.”

“This also means that this drug Dr. Fry has been working on actually created ovaries and eggs.  This is a huge scientific breakthrough in itself.  The applications of this-”

“Yeah, that’s great and all.” I interrupted. “I’m still stuck on the getting pregnant part.  So I - a person who was male only 8 days ago, can get pregnant?  And give birth?”

“Outstanding isn’t it?  Granted you are 36. So any future pregnancy would be classified as risk.  But you look in great physical health, so there’s really no concerns there.  So since your reproductive system is almost a week old, you are in the midst of your first menstrual cycle.  That cycle will end in 3 weeks.”

“English please.  Remember I was a guy a week ago.”

“Your first period.  In or around 3 weeks.  Every woman is different.”

“Fuck.”  I said forgetting about that aspect of being a woman.

He handed me a pamphlet.  “We typically give this to teenage girls.  It talks about hygiene, what to expect during puberty, changes to your body, your menstrual cycle. I expect you’ll find good information in here.  You’re an adult so I don’t think I need to give you information on contraception and STDs.”

“Thanks”  I said with even less enthusiasm.  

Next he examined my breasts.  Then he gave me a whole lecture on breast cancer and checking myself on a regular basis.

This was information overload and now my head was starting to hurt. 

I was curious about Dr. Fry though.  If I could find him, I could either change back to Aaron, or at the very least get another drug for Sierra.

“So Dr. Powell”  I said.  “Have you talked to Dr. Fry recently?”

“I talked to him last Wednesday when he told me about you.  Sorry it’s taken me awhile to actually reach out to you.”

“I mean - his clinic.  It burned down last week.”

Dr. Powell stopped what he was doing for a second.  “Was anyone hurt?”

“I don’t know.  I haven’t been able to get in touch with him.”

“Well hopefully nobody was hurt.  I can give him a call on his personal cell phone later tonight.  Marcus is a good guy.  Brilliant.  We went to medical school together.”

I forced a smile.  I wish I knew where to begin to find Dr. Fry.

He left the room so I could get dressed again.  He gave me his business card and let me know that I could become a permanent patient there if I desired.  We parted ways and I returned to Kathy in her running car.

“How was it?”  she asked.

“That was embarrassing.”

“Yup.” she said nodding her head. “We can always find you another if you want.”

“I’d rather not repeat that again for a while.”

* * *

THURSDAY

It’s payday!  I’m so excited.  Finally.  A much needed influx of money.  We were back to eating ham and cheese sandwiches again for dinner.

Emily was coming by this evening to check on me to see how I was doing for the past few days.  I was excited to have her around again.

To celebrate payday we decided to go out to dinner.  It was originally just going to let it be me, Kathy and Emily, but Kathy really wanted to go out with the real Sierra.  So we decided to make it a girls evening out and invited Sierra and Darcy too.

Sierra came over ahead of time to get dressed.  She had on a cute sweater top and skinny jeans that Darcy lent her.  I helped her with her makeup as Kathy watched.  Kathy was amazed at how much I’ve learned. I was eager to show it off too. Emily sat back, taking pride in knowing that she taught me everything that I know.

I decided to go with a royal blue dress over black leggings.  I managed to fit my feet into one of Kathy’s old designer black boots.  They were a little tight, but I’ll deal with it for an evening.

We headed to the restaurant at the town center.  When we arrived, we asked for the available outdoor seating. It was starting to get cold out so they had a large party tent setup on their sidewalk that they were seating people at.

While we were waiting to be seated, the five of us went to the bar inside the restaurant.

“So I don’t know what to order.” Sierra said to me. “I’ve never been to a bar before.”

“I’m sure we can find some fun non-alcoholic drinks on the menu.” I replied to her.

The bartender came after questioning him on possible drinks, we ordered ourselves a Virgin Piña Colada for me, a Strawberry Margarita for Kathy, a Cadillac Margarita for Emily, Shirley temple for Sierra, and a Safe Sex on the Beach for Darcy.

I sat down on a barstool.  My feet were killing me from standing all day at the cash register.  I might need to look into better shoes for this job.

Emily came around and whispered into my ear. “Close your legs, girl.  You’re showing the world too much.”

I blushed out of embarrassment.  I wasn’t used to this at all.  I put my knees together and decided it was safer to just cross my legs.

The drinks came and we all clinked our glasses to payday and a girls night out.

“Oh, I needed that!” Emily said after taking a sip of her Margarita.

“Long week, Em?”  Kathy asked.

“Work’s been killing me lately.  Plus my son is going through a “I will not go to bed at a decent hour” phase.”

Everyone laughed at that.

I was on the end of our group when a guy came up to me.  “Hi. What’s the occasion?”

I looked at the guy interrupting our girls night out.  “Payday.”

“Oh.  Right on.  What do you do?”

Asking me what I do?  How cliche!  “Cashier at the grocery store down the street.”

“Nice.  I work for an advertising firm.  It’s payday for me too.  I’m just out with my buddies for one of our birthdays.”

“I see.”  I replied.  He kept smiling despite me giving him brisk answers.

“I was going to come over here and buy you a drink, but that was before one magically appeared in front of you.”

“Oh” I said.  Was this guy seriously hitting on me?

Just then, I felt Kathy’s arm go around me.  “She’s with me.”

“Oh my bad.” the guy said, promptly leaving.

“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.” she said.

“I was just stunned.  I didn’t expect to get hit on.” I replied.

“Erin, you’ve been turning guys' heads ever since we got out of the car.” Emily said, taking a sip of her drink.

“I hadn’t noticed.”

Finally we were seated.  It was nice getting everyone together.  Kathy got along great with Sierra and Darcy.  She apologized for coming on too strong the day they all met.

I was sitting facing the street.  I saw an Amazon van stop at a traffic light.  It was a grayish blue color.  Not black.  Something wasn’t sitting right with me just then.  The van kept going when the traffic light turned green.

“Hey what color is an Amazon van?” I asked the ladies at the table.

“Blue.” Kathy said.

“Gray.” Darcy said.

“White.” Emily said.

“Dark blue.” Sierra said.

“Never black?” I asked.

“Well I guess if you weren’t looking close enough, and if it was parked in a shadow.” Darcy said.

“Seriously.” Emily said.  “I’ve only seen white delivery vans pull into my driveway.”

“Is this the latest “What color is the dress” thing people are posting on Facebook?” Kathy asked.

“Oh, not at all.” I replied.  “Just a passing thought”

After a nice filling dinner, we left the restaurant.  I didn’t eat all of my dinner.  In the week I’ve been a woman I’ve found my appetite has certainly shrunk.  

We were standing outside waiting for Sierra and Darcy to return from the ladies room when a guy brushed past me and smacked my ass.

I turned around.  “Hey dude, what the fuck!” I gave him a right cross to the face shaking my hand after I hit him.

“Erin!” Emily said.

“Bitch” the guy said, walking away holding his nose. "Yeah keep walking asshole" I said watching him walk away.

“What? He had it coming.  He slapped my ass!”

“You’re not a guy, you just can’t go around punching people.”

“Well, guys shouldn’t go around touching what doesn’t belong to them.”

She chuckled.  “I’m sorry Erin.  Don’t change.  Every guy should try being a woman for a week.”

We all got a good laugh.  Although maybe I really should work on some anger management.

* * *

We all returned to our house and sat on the couch listening to music sipping various teas and coffees.  

Emily patted me on my knee.  “Your legs again.”

“Ug.” I said.  “I’m in my own home and on my own couch.”

“We’re going to need to work on all your mannerisms.”

“How so?”  I said.

“You hold yourself like a guy.  You sit like a guy.  You walk like a guy.” She laughed.

“Hey. I’m doing the best I can”  I said laughing with her as I crossed my legs again.

“Watch this.” Kathy said getting up, and slowly walked sexy across the room like a runway model.

“Oh. Can I try?” Sierra said.  She got up and tried to imitate Kathy’s walk.

“Move your hips a little more.”  Darcy suggested. “Take smaller steps”

Sierra adjusted and walked back the other way.

“That’s hot!” Emily said.  “Erin your turn.”

“Ok.”  I said.  “I’m not a natural!”  I walked across the living room.

“Look at that ass!”  Kathy said smacking it.

“Careful Kathy, she might punch you.” Darcy laughed.

I laughed with them and just shook my head.

“Smaller steps. Don’t be in such a rush.” Emily added.

I did my sexy walk back the other way.

“See you ARE a natural!” Kathy said.

“Of course she’s a natural.  Look at those hips!”  Sierra said.

Darcy put her arm around Sierra.  “You don’t need hips to be cute and sexy.”

Sierra blushed.

I laughed and smiled.  I was having a good time with my friends.  It’s been such a long time since I felt like this.  

* * *

FRIDAY

At work it was a busy day.  It felt like everyone and their mothers were out preparing for a Thanksgiving Day under quarantine.  Why they were still buying full Thanksgiving spreads for 20 people, I don’t know.

My line at the register was quite long because I’m slow at it.  Darcy’s line was considerably faster.  So when a man with only one item in his hand got at the end of my line I said “Sir, you can go to lane 9.  It’s shorter.”

“I’ll stay in this one.”  he said.

I shrugged.  I was only trying to help.

Eventually it was this man’s turn, so I took his single item, a pre-packaged cold sub, and scanned it.  I noticed him looking at me.  Was he checking me out?  Now.  He had this look of curiosity.

“Five Twenty Nine.”  I said.

He gave me a 10 dollar bill and I gave him the change back and his receipt. “Thank you for shopping with us.” I said.

He walked away still looking at me.  Weird.

* * *

It was a very warm November day so I decided to eat my lunch outside the grocery store on a bench.  I sat back in my seat and took a bite of my sandwich when I saw it there.  A black van at the far edge of the parking lot.  Black. Not blue or white or gray. No markings.

I put my sandwich down and started walking through the parking lot to this van.

I didn’t see anyone in the driver’s or passenger’s seat.  I walked around the van looking for any signs or markings.  I’m sure of it.  This is the van I’ve been seeing.

Suddenly the door slid open and an arm grabbed me and pulled me inside.