Nice Shoes Part 2
By Deane Christopher
Copyright 2004
As expected, Janice Meadows was standing just beyond the pier's security checkpoint.
"There she is," Paula informed Ethan.
"Where?"
"Over there on the left, right below the bank of TVs displaying United's departure times."
"Okay. I see her. She's the one wearing the gray skirted business ensemble, with a red satin camisole under the jacket?"
"That's her alright.
"Are you ready?" Paula asked under her breath.
Taking a deep breath to help quell her uneasiness, Ethan replied through the clenched teeth of a forced smile, "Yeah... I guess I'm about as ready as I'll ever be."
"Good, because you're on..."
+++++
With a great big smile blossoming happily on her face, Janice Meadows stepped forward, and eagerly embraced the blonde she thought to be her husband in a welcome home hug that conveyed a sense of implied intimacy that few women ever dared to share.
"I've missed you," she earnestly declared. "I've really, really missed you."
"And, I've missed you too, dear" the blonde sheepishly returned. "Did you by any chance take note of just who I happened to bump into while I was at O'Hare?"
"Yes. I most certainly did," Janice replied, as she turned to address the beautiful long-legged brunette who had accompanied the blonde bombshell that her husband could turn himself into.
"Hello," Janice beamed. "We've talked on the phone a number of times, but it's really nice to finally get the chance to meet you in person, Ginger. Welcome to LA. I hope that you will enjoy your stay, and if there's anything that I or anyone else connected with the Meadows' Modeling Agency can do to make your stay a more pleasant one, all you need do is ask, all right?"
"Yes," The brunette began to giggle.
"I've had my staff book you a suite at the Hilton. I hope that it will meet with your approval. If it doesn't, all you need do is to let me know, and I'll have my special assistant make other arrangements for you."
The brunette's giggle elevated into what Janice Meadows took to be a chuckle, and a very irritating one at that."
"Ginger, did I by any chance say something that struck you as being funny?"
"No..." the chuckle was sounding more and more like a choked-off laugh with each and every passing moment. "No, you didn't say anything funny."
At that, the blonde began to chortle as well.
"Okay!" Janice irately snapped. "What gives? Something's going on here, and I want to know exactly what that something is."
Unable to completely stifle herself, the brunette snickered, "We fooled you. I wasn't sure if we could pull it off, but we did."
"What?" a very putout and thoroughly perplexed Janice sternly demanded. "What in the world are you talking about?"
"We pulled a switcheroo on you. I'm not who you think I am. That's to say that I'm your husband, Paula, while that very nice young lady whose hand you're holding is none other than Miss Ginger MacGregor."
Ethan, clearing her throat first, endeavored to interject herself into the conversation, "Actually, my real name is Ethan Samuels, but I go by Ginger MacGregor whenever I'm like I am now."
Though somewhat taken aback by the pair's admissions, Janice, having glanced down at the matching pair of stiletto heels that graced the feet of the new arrivals, rounded on the shapely brunette, "So, I take it that your assumption about our little Miss MacGregor here was indeed correct, and that you're not the only soul who possesses a pair of those nifty, transsexualizing high heels of yours?"
Brushing back a loose strand of Ginger's chestnut hair from out of her face, Paula casually replied, "Yes. That would be a safe assumption on your part, dear."
"That's great!" Janice was all smiles. "We can sure use somebody else who has the ability to alter her appearance to suit whatever the 'it' is that the client is looking for. Now, thanks to Ginger here, you and I can maybe get off on that dream vacation that we keep talking about, but never seem to be able to take..."
A few minutes later, as the three of them were making their way down to the baggage claim, Janice made a request of her high heel wearing cohorts, "This is a little too confusing for me. So, could I get the two of you to do me a big favor, and switch back to your old selves?"
"Sure," Paula replied. "We'd be happy to. However, just how do you propose we accomplish that? I mean, with the three of us looking like we do, and given the fact that there are all these men around here, it's pretty much a given that at least one of them will be eyeing one or the other of us up one side and down the other. In other words, dear, there not much a chance that Ginger and I will be able to pull off a switch without somebody taking note of it."
"That's true," Janice replied thoughtfully. "But I wasn't suggesting that the two of you do it out here, where everybody and his brother can see you."
"All right. Then, just where, may I ask, were you suggesting that we do it'?"
"How about the two of you doing it in there," Janice said, as she grabbed both of their hands, and began to lead them across the concourse, steering a path towards the ladies restroom. Once inside, she directed her two charges into two unoccupied stalls. "All right, you two. Do whatever it is you have to do to make things normal, and while you're doing that, I'll give Amber a call, and just have her bring the van around. That way, once we collect whatever luggage you have, we can be on our way.
"Now, I don't know how hungry the two of you are, but as for myself, I'm famished. So, if it's okay with the two of you, how about the four of us stop someplace to get something to eat before we head on over to the Hilton, and drop Ginger off?"
+++++
Having been informed by the restaurant's congenial hostess that it would be at least a half an hour before the four of them could be seated in the dining room, they elected to steer a course into the adjoining bar. Once there, Paula, saying that she was going to see if she could find the little girls' room, made a small request of her wife. She asked Janice if she would be kind enough to order a Margarita for her should the barmaid come around to take their order during her absence. That prompted Amber to ask Paula if she would mind some company. Informing her Aunt Janice to please order a Pina Colada for her, Amber quickly caught up to Paula.
As the two of them passed out of the bar and began to wend their way down the hall to the ladies room, Amber impishly, if not conspiratorially, inquired, "So, Paula, what's the skinny on this prospective new model of ours? I mean, did you by any chance learn anything that I might find to be of particular interest during the fight out from O'Hare?"
"Now that you mention it," Paula casually replied, "I do believe I did."
Thoroughly intrigued, Amber tersely demanded. "What is it? What'd ya find out, Paula?
"Please! Oh, please!" Amber giddily implored, as she followed Paula into the ladies restroom. "Tell me that you found out that she's a lesbian, and that she's not hooked up with anyone in particular at the moment."
"Well..." Paula replied coyly, as she made her way into the first of the lavatory's two adjoining stalls. "While I really shouldn't ought to be telling tales out of school, I do believe that I might just have some news that's to your liking."
Before Paula could utter another word on the matter, Amber energetically quipped, "You're shittin' me, right?"
"No. Not at all...
"I'm not, as you so aptly put it, 'shittin' you'. The fact of the matter is that I have it on good authority that Ginger has, what you might call, a thing for other women, much the way I have been lead to believe that you yourself do..."
+++++
"By any chance, Ginger, are your ears burning?" Janice, in a conspiratorial tone of voice, inquired of her sole tablemate.
Taken aback by Janice Meadows' pointed inquiry, Ethan stammered, "Huh?"
"You do realize that even as we speak, that rather outspoken young niece of mine is back in the ladies room, giving my husband the third degree, hoping to find out if you might be up for some - Oh, how should I put this? - girlish activities, that - I guess you could say - are of a sexual nature?"
With the rose of a blush blossoming in her cheeks, Ethan coquettish replied, "Yes. Your husband did warned me that such might be the case during our flight out here from Chicago."
"And, you're not put off, or upset by that?"
"No. Should I be?"
Unsure as to how she should respond, given the delicate awkwardness of the topic, it was Janice's turn to grope for an appropriate way in which to express her feelings on the matter, "Heavens no.
"Look, as far as I'm concerned, whatever happens between you and Amber is for the two of you to decide. However, if you do decide to give it a go, and you find it isn't working out the way you'd like it to, and Amber starts giving you a hard way to go, all you need do is to let either Paula or myself know, and we'll be more than happy to put a stop to it.
"In other words, Ginger, both Paula and I want you with the agency, and we don't want Amber making you feel so uncomfortable that you might one day want to part company with us.
"So, if you find that it gets to be a hassle dealing with Amber, now or in the future, you just say the word, and I'll have a little talk with her. Okay?"
"Thanks... But, for some odd reason or another, I have a funny feeling that, when it comes to that niece of yours, that's not going to be necessary."
"Odd you should say that Ginger, because, as ironic as it might sound, I was thinking along the very same lines myself..."
+++++
During desert, Janice very nonchalantly gazed at her watch, and in an apparent knee jerk reaction, excitedly blurted, "Oh, my! I didn't realize that it was getting this late."
Then having alluded to the fact that she had an early meeting that she had to attend the following morning, Janice Meadows continued on to make a request of Ginger. Confiding the fact that Paula was in between apartments, and so was temporary staying with her and her husband, she asked if it would be all right with Ginger if she called a cab to take both her and Paula home. That way Amber could drive Ginger over to the Hilton, and once there, ensure that she was settled in.
Ethan, realizing that it was nothing more than a ploy to give her and Amber some time to get better acquainted, readily agreed.
+++++
On their drive over to the Hilton, Amber and Ethan talked of inconsequential things, as they compared notes on their various likes and dislike. More time than not, their conversation revolved around their musical taste, movies and their take on various television shows, both past and present. Then, in effort to get a better feel for what lay ahead of her, Ethan began to ask Amber some rather pertinent, if not pointed questions concerning the inner workings of her aunt's modeling agency. Amber, having answered the very same sort of inquiries before, provided Ethan with a fairly good insight into what she could expect to encounter in the days and weeks to come. With a few words of reassurance that Ginger's career was in good hands, and that her aunt would do right by her, Amber brought the mini-van to a stop in the front of Hilton's main entrance.
With a hint of awkwardness infusing her voice, Amber said as she put the mini-van in park, "Ginger, I hope you don't mind, but my aunt would never forgive me if I didn't stick around to see that everything's okay. In other words, I just want to make sure that you're happy with the accommodations that we, or I really should say, I arranged for you?"
"Actually, I was kind of hoping you'd say something to that effect. Fact is Amber, I find that I'm really enjoying your company, so much so that I was kind of hoping that I might be able to talk you into sticking around for awhile. Now, I know you probably have something else on tap for tonight, and if you do, that's perfectly okay with me. However, if you don't, after I get settle in, how 'bout joining me for a drink at the bar?"
+++++
From the very first moment that Ethan laid eyes upon Amber, she realized that Paula had been right on the money. Amber was cute; cute and very, very sexy, in a sassy, coquettish sort of way. However, as accurate as Paula had been about her niece's looks, she was dead wrong about how ditzy Amber was.
From the first, Ethan suspected that the young woman's ditziness was nothing more than a façade: a very cleverly constructed sham that allowed the perky blonde a good deal more latitude than most people would be afforded in any given situation. By pretending to march to the beat of a different drummer, Amber could operate under prevailing expectations. By doing so, Ethan suspected that Amber, employing her endearing, Little Miss Innocent, dumb blonde routine, could pull off one coup after another for her aunt's modeling agency. By doing such, Ethan suspected that Amber had proven herself to be a real asset to her aunt's modeling agency on numerous occasions.
As the evening progressed, and their conversation began to make inroads into matters of a much more personal nature, Ethan quickly realized that Amber was anything but an airhead. The truth of the matter was that the perky twenty-four year old had an extremely good head on her shoulders. It was not long before Ethan found herself as enthralled with Amber's mind, as she was with Amber's ever so supple body.
Another thing that Ethan found to be refreshing about Amber was her openness. She did not pussyfoot around, mince words, or soft pedal anything. Amber seemed to say what she meant, and meant what she said. However, as opinionated as she was, Ethan found Amber refreshingly open-minded. Instead of getting her hackles up, or discounting an opposing opinion out-of-hand, she would examine the possibility that her own opinion might be flawed, and therefore might require some re-thinking, and perhaps even a little amending.
However, on the deficit side of the equation, Amber's candor posed a real problem for Ethan, owing to the fact that Ethan, who abhorred liars and lying, found herself wishing that she could be as forthcoming with Amber as Amber was being with his female alter ego. Several times during their conversation, Ethan caught herself on the verge of spilling the beans about those magical high heels of hers, and how they allowed her to become an anatomically correct woman on an elective, part-time basis. Each time though, Ethan had enough presence of mind to stifle herself before letting the cat out of the bag. But though she did, it was becoming increasingly harder for Ethan to hold back the information she so dearly and desperately wished to impart.
Before they had even gotten down to the Hilton's bar, Ethan knew without a shadow of doubt that she liked Amber, and dearly wanted Amber to like her as well. Added into the mix, in a somewhat convoluted, if not perverted fashion, was the fact that Ethan's manly-attuned libido lusted for Amber, so much so that her vagina was leaking love-juices like a sieve on a damn near perpetual bases. Ethan internally fumed. 'Damn, I sure hope that Amber doesn't catch wind of the fact that I'm all sopping ringing wet down there...'
Amber, however, did take note of her companion's apparent discomfort. Waiting until their barmaid had withdrawn from taking their drink order, in a voice that carried no further than the confines of the booth they occupied, Amber tactfully inquired, "Is there something wrong, Ginger?" Whereupon, she continued on to very bawdily and brashly add, "You didn't just get your period, did you? I mean, from the way you're squirming around on the bench over there, it sure looks as if you did to me."
Thinking fast, Ethan clamored. "No! It's not that. It's these damn pantyhose I'm wearing. They're giving me a wedgie."
"Oh..." Amber, with a smile, knowingly replied. "I just hate it when that happens..."
+++++
With both of them acting as if they were a little bit more inebriated then they were, Ethan, with the mere hint of a giggle, combined with a slight slurring of her words, posed a question, "What do you say Amber? Should we call the barmaid over, and order another drink? Or, should we be good little girls, and call it a night?"
"Oh, I don't know..." Amber impishly tittered. "While I'd really like to have another, I'm not sure if that's really a good idea. The very last thing I need right now is for a cop to pulled me over, and charge me with DWI. I mean, as it stands now, given my luck, I'd probably be borderline on a Breathalizer. So, as much as I'd like to have another drink with you, I think the prudent thing for me to do is to call it a night, and head on home."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes... As much as I hate to, I think I really ought to be going."
Then, acting as if the idea just sort of pooped into her head, Ethan presented Amber with another option, "Hey, here's a thought. Instead of driving all the way home, and risk the possibility of getting pulled over, why don't you just stay here with me tonight? I mean, it's a two-bedroom suite, so you're more than welcome to crash in the one I'm not using. Or, if you'd like, you can always bunk in with me?"
"Are you serious?" Amber asked excitedly.
"I most certainly am.
"The truth is, Amber, I'd really like you to stay the night, what with me being new in town and all..."
Amber's voice took on an uncharacteristically serious tone as she reached over, and enfolded Ethan's femininely sculptured hands in both of her own. "Ginger," Amber's intonations held a tentative note that Ethan picked up on immediately, "while I'd love nothing more than to take you up on your most generous offer to spend the night, there's something you really need to know about me."
In an effort to make it as easy on Amber as possible, Ethan tenderly replied, "If it's that you're a lesbian, I think I'm way ahead of you on that one."
"And that doesn't put you off?"
"No... Should it? Especially so, when I'm one myself..."
"You are?" Amber was exuberant.
"Yes..."
Amber, who was squeezing Ethan's hand so hard, so as to redden Ginger's knuckles, sought to clarify herself. "Actually, when you come right down to it, I'd have to say that I'm more of a bisexual; a bisexual who has, shall we say, some very strong lesbian leanings, rather than a full blown lesbian, per se."
"So," it was Ethan's turn to seek clarification, "in a round about manner of speaking, I take it that what you're saying is that you're going take me up on my offer?"
"Yes. The truth is that I'd love to."
"Great. I was hoping that you would.
"So, Ginger, are we going to order ourselves another drink, or what? I mean, we can stay here and talk for a little while longer, or we can always head up to the room now if you'd like..." Amber added hopefully. "I mean, it makes no never mind to me..."
"Tell you what. Why don't we order our drinks to go? That way, we can take them up to the suite with us," Ethan eagerly suggested.
"Sure sounds like a plan to me."
+++++
With drinks in hand, the two young ladies entered the elevator. Turning about, Ethan demurely pressed the appropriate button for the floor upon which her suite was located. Then, in a fluid motion that took Amber by complete surprise, Ethan brashly enfolded the spunky Californian in those emasculated arms of hers. Having done so, Ethan proceeded on to punctuate that maneuver of hers with the most passionate of impassioned French kisses, a kiss that spoke volumes, a kiss that clearly communicated the fact that the spunky California beach bunny was in for an unprecedented night of ardent lesbian love making.
"Oh, my God!" Amber breathlessly gasped, as their lips parted. "You kiss just like a man."
"I do, do I?" Ethan, irreverently replied, with a sarcastic little laugh escaping those luscious lips of hers. "Funny you should say that, because I have been known to think like one too.
"So, tell me," Ethan continued on to coquettishly inquire. "Is that going to be a problem for you?"
"No, silly. I was just making an observation. That's all..."
With that male libido chomping away at the bit to get back to the business at hand, a thoroughly invigorated Ethan planted yet another impassioned lip-lock on those ever so luscious lips of Amber's.
+++++
"That was phenomenal," Amber dreamily purred, as she so serenely snuggled within the blissful serenity of her lover's embrace. "Absolutely phenomenal..."
"So, I take it that you liked it?"
"Liked it?' Amber was incredulous. "I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
"Take it from me, Ginger. You, girl, are one fantastic lover."
"Well, even if it's not true, I must say that it's sure nice of you to say that..." Ethan modestly murmured. Whereupon, she lifted her hand to Amber's left breast, and using the middle and index fingers of her right hand, began to languidly fondle and caress the teat and corresponding erogenous zone of its encircling areola.
"No!" Amber's voice vigorously lashed out, in effect, issuing a resounding challenge. "I really mean that, Ginger. You really are a great lover.
"Fact is, I never had anyone make love to me the way you just did. Make no never mind about it. It was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful..."
Dreamily, as if groping for the elusive words that would best describe her disjointed impressions, Amber endeavored to convey her feelings. "Look, I know how crazy this is going to sound, but there were times when you were down there, in between my legs, doing what you were doing with that marvelous tongue of yours, that I almost felt as if a man was down there, eating me out. I mean, right from the git-go, you took charge, very much the way damn near every man I've ever slept with has. That's to say, that you were forceful, like a man, but in a very unique and special way that I've never encountered before tonight. You were very gentle, in what I would call a distinctly womanish sort of way, a way that I found to be so refreshing, not to mention, so enjoyable, as to be beyond belief."
Feeling that she needed to say something at that juncture, Ethan meekly replied, "Well, I'm sure glad to hear that you enjoyed yourself."
"And here I thought that was a given," Amber burlesque vamped, as she seductively drew the nails of her left hand slowly up the run of Ethan's inner thigh. "All right, lover-girl," with her timbre of her voice taking on an impish inflection, she continued on to say, "I do believe it's your turn now. So, just lay back, and enjoy yourself, while I do unto you, as you just did unto me..."
+++++
To say that from that point onward, Amber and Ginger were an item would have been the grossest of understatements. Where one was, the other was there as well. They were inseparable, joined at the vulva so to speak, and loving every moment of it.
Ethan knew, without any equivocation whatsoever, that she had found her soulmate. In like fashion, so too had Amber. Before their first week together had drawn to a close, each knew and understood that they completed one another in a myriad of ways. They were happy, to the point of unbridled exuberance, and that happiness of theirs was contagious. Onlookers, even many of those who found their lesbian relationship falling somewhere between the lower threshold of distasteful to and the upper limits of abhorrent, had to concede the fact that if any two people were made for each other, the two of them most definitely were.
However, though she constantly berated herself for harboring such negative feelings, Ethan was increasingly feeling uneasy about a certain aspect of her and Amber's budding relationship. Given that they were always within one another's company, Ethan felt smothered by Amber's presence, since she was for all intents and purposes locked into her Ginger motif.
Now, while it was true that Paula had shown Ethan a way to rid herself of the residual girl-time she amassed while wearing those magical high heels of hers during their flight out from O'Hare, Ethan was nevertheless troubled by the massive amounts of residual girl-time she was accruing. Though she doubted that such existed, Ethan was nevertheless plagued with the possibility that there very well might be a 'point of no return'; a point where she would find herself locked into her female state forever.
Being a part-time woman was one thing. Being one for the rest of her life was something else altogether. Ethan liked being a man far too much for her to ever contemplate living out the rest of her life as a fully functional female. The very notion of having to deal with icky things such as a real woman's little monthly visitor, and eventually the hot flashes of menopause, sent cold shivers running up and down Ethan's spine.
Unnerved by the dread of those feelings of hers, Ethan sought to reassure herself that she could regain her manhood when and where she so chose to do so. The trouble was, Amber by her mere presence afforded Ethan no wiggle-room whatsoever in which she could easily opt back into her manly form.
While one might think that a trip to the bathroom offered Ethan a safe haven in which she easily could pull a prestro-chango, girlo to guyo and back again quick-change routine, it did no such thing. Amber, to Ethan's chagrin, was forever popping in, just to see what was going on, and to tell Ginger that she loved her, and to express how happy she was now that they had found each other.
Ethan was aware that she had another option to fall back on. She could always come clean with Amber. She could sit Amber down, and have a heart to heart talk with her. She could tell that spunky Californian lover-girl of hers the whole truth about herself, and how those magical high heels of hers allowed her to become a woman on an elective, part-time bases.
Trouble was, while Ethan had full intentions of doing just that, she had not reached a point where she felt secure enough in their relationship to venture into such uncharted territory. Having agonized over the matter, Ethan, fearful that Amber might well cut and run once she was appraised of Ethan's transsexual nature, was not ready to take the risk of spilling the beans. Eventually, Ethan knew, the opportunity to do so would present itself. However, until it did, Ethan resigned herself to keep silent on the matter.
+++++
One day, while she and Amber were dining over at the Meadows' palatial abode, Ethan managed to catch Janice Meadows' ear. "Janice..." Ethan whispered under her breath. "I need you to do me a big favor. I need you to get your niece out of my hair for a few minutes. Trust me. I'll explain why later. All right?"
A few minutes after that, Janice, upon opening the refrigerator door, disparagingly exclaimed, "Wouldn't you just know it? We're all out of butter.
"Amber, if it's not to much trouble, could I get you to run down to the store and pick me up a tub?"
"No problem, Aunt Jan. Ginger and I will be happy to do that for you."
"Not so fast, young lady," Janice nonchalantly countered. "I have a few things I want to run by Ginger with regards to next week's photo shoot, so could you be a dear and run down to the store all by your lonesome? Or, if you'd like, I can have Paul either ride down with you, or drive you down? Whichever you prefer..."
"No. That's not necessary, Aunt Jan. I'm a big girl. I can go all by myself. All I need is a kiss from Ginger, and I'll be on my way."
Collecting her kiss, Amber, with an airy, "I'll be back in a jiff," turned about and strode off toward the door. As she did, she called back over her shoulder with a directive that was clearly intended for Ginger, "Miss me."
Ethan waited until the agency's mini-van was heading down the street before doing what she so dearly had wanted to do for the past several days. Requesting that the Meadows blink when she told them to, Ethan formulated the metal directive that she dearly hoped would restore her to her normal manly state.
"Okay. On three, everybody blink. Ready? One... Two... Three... Blink."
"Well, well, well..." Paul Meadows could not restrain himself from chuckling. "Welcome back, buddy. Long time no see."
Ethan, having taking a quick inventory of his manly physique, happily quipped, "It worked! It actually worked. I wasn't sure that it would, especially after all this time I've logged as a girl, but it did, and that's fan-frigging-tastic."
"I take it that you were worried that it wouldn't?" Paul, who still found the situation to be quite humorous, goaded.
"Worried doesn't even begin to express how I was feeling. The truth of the matter is, I was so worried I was beside myself with fear, thinking that I might be stuck as a woman for the rest of my life."
"And that would be a bad thing?" Janice got in a jab of her own.
"For you, no. For me, yes," Ethan replied. "It would be a very bad thing.
"I'll grant you that I absolutely love the fact that I can turn myself into a woman. And, it more or less goes without saying that I thoroughly enjoy doing stints as one. But, when it comes to the twenty-four seven, no buy-back business, all I can say is: that's for the birds. As much as I like being a woman, I happen to like being a man more.
"Now, I'll grant you that if I had been born a bona fide woman, a woman who had the magical wherewithal to turn herself into a man anytime the mood struck me, I'd probably feel differently. I'd more than likely feel just the opposite as to how I feel now.
"But, since I wasn't born a woman, that's pretty much a moot point.
"Basically, and I bet your husband will back me up on this, he and I have the best of both worlds. We get to be women without all the muss and fuss that normal women have to put up with. We don't have to fix our hair; or put on makeup; or go through the drudgery of shaving our legs, or anything of the sort. We just put on those marvelous high heels of ours, and slam, bam, thank you ma'am; we're not just gorgeous, we're gorgeous to the nth degree.
"More to the point, unless of course there's something he has neglected to tell me about, neither Paul nor I ever have to deal with ignominy of having a period.
"And that, for my money, is a real blessing."
From the sidelines as it were, Paul chimed in with a hearty and heartfelt, "Amen to that one, brother. I wholeheartedly agree. Truer words were never said."
Clearing her throat as a preamble to saying something, Janice Meadows sought to clarify a matter that had been pressing on her mind. "I don't mean to digress here, guys, but since we only have a short time before Amber rejoins us, I'd like to ask you a few rather pointed questions, Ethan."
"Sure... Ask away."
"Since you could say I have a vested interest in what's going on, since Amber is not only my niece, but she also works directly under me, I'd kind of like to know what your intentions are? In other words, Ethan, exactly where do you see this relationship of yours going? Tell me. Is this just a fling for you? Or, is it something more? I mean, while I don't mean to pressure you, I just would like some reassurance that you're not going to break my niece's heart one of these days.
"I mean, you do know that she's head over heels in love with you, don't you?"
"Actually," Ethan sought to clarify things, "she's in love with Ginger, but yes, to answer your question, Janice, I'm fully aware that she has strong feelings for my female alter ego, as I do for her.'
"Please believe me, Ethan. I'm not trying to be confrontational here, but I know Amber, maybe even better than her own mother does, and knowing her like I do, I can state without any equivocation whatsoever that my niece loves you.
"So, I guess that brings me to my next question. When do you intend telling Amber about those magical high heels of yours, and how you're really a man, and how you use those magical high heels of yours to become the women that my niece has fallen in love with?
"I mean, you do intend on telling her, don't you?"
"Yes. Yes, I do," Ethan vigorously replied. "Believe me, Janice. I have every intention of telling her. I mean, that's pretty much a given since I have full intentions of asking that niece of yours to do me the honor of marrying me."
"Marrying you!" Janice's response was jubilantly couched. 'Wow! You sure don't pussyfoot around, now do you? I mean, while I knew that things were getting serious, I wasn't aware that things become that serious, this fast. Good. I'm glad to hear it. Believe me, if any two people should be married, it's the two of you.
"However, aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself, Ethan? I mean, before you ask Amber to marry you, don't you think that she needs to know about you, and Ginger, and those magical heels of yours?'
"Well, of course she does. Trust me, Janice, I have every intention of telling her."
"Well, if I were you, I'd tell her soon. Fact is, knowing my niece as I do, the sooner you tell her, the better."
"Yes... I wholeheartedly agree with you.
"The truth is, Janice, I've been wanting to tell her way before this. My problem is, the opportunity to do so never seems to present itself."
"Well, it's like I said before, Ethan, knowing my niece as I do, were I you, I tell her soon."
At that juncture, Paul interjected, "Look, I hate to be the spoil-sport here, but do believe that I just heard the van pulling into the driveway. So, where I you, Ethan, I'd pull a quick presto-chango right about now."
"Gotta'ya. Okay. Everybody, on three, blink.