Tango Revisited

by Oak

 

Chapter 10

But how do you stop someone like Fernando? I thought again about telling Eduardo. Perhaps I could make him promise not to kill anyone before I told him. This still didn't seem like a good idea. Sure, he wouldn't hold this against me. But there was a real chance that he could get killed or thrown in jail. I had to consider other options first.

I thought about whether I could somehow outmaneuver Fernando. He was really sneaky but he didn't seem all that smart. Who was I kidding? I couldn't bluff him or deceive him in any way that would turn this around. I was in way over your head.

What I really needed was outside help. And not from a white-knight-in-shining-armor type like Eduardo. I needed help from someone who was as devious as Fernando. Who could I ask? It would need to either be someone who I could trust to know all about my past or someone who already knew about it. Apart from Eduardo, there wasn't anyone I trusted that much. I liked his friends, but I couldn't rely on them for something like this. It had to be someone who already knew.

That made for a pretty short list. I had few friends before my gender transition and I didn't stay in contact with any of them. That left the friends I made during my transition, plus the professionals who were involved in it. My mind started to count off the people who already knew.

Suddenly it hit me: Chanelle! "Chanelle?" I asked out loud, as if someone else suggested it. The idea seemed a little crazy. We weren't exactly close friends. And we couldn't be more different from each other: she was a tall, black diva/show girl who was larger and louder than life. She never felt the need to complete her transition to become a woman – she is perfectly happy to be who she is. She never explained herself or answered to anyone. You took her on her own terms if you wanted to have anything to do with her at all.

Our association was no more than as a friend of a friend. I was a bit scared of her, never sure what she might say or do next. And I never tried to contact her since my wedding. But she was a caring person who was concerned about the people that mattered to her, especially in the transgender community. Even if she didn't want to help me, she'd know someone who could.

The more I thought about it, the more the idea started to grow on me. As I waited for it to become late enough to call, I got excited about the idea. Hope was definitely growing. Soon, I might not be alone in this disaster any longer. That makes so much difference. In all things except this one, I had Eduardo's unwavering support. In this case, I couldn't ask for his help and I was in over my head. Why not ask help from someone who's a head taller than me?

By the time 8:30 came around, I couldn't bear to wait any longer. I was sure that I would wake her up, but I had waited long enough. After I called in sick at work, I dialed up Chanelle.

"Hi Chanelle. It's me, Emerald."

"Emerald! After all this time, you finally call me! And it's gotta be so early in the mornin'?"

"I'm sorry. I should've called you later. And earlier too."

"Don't you mind about that. You got yourself a man now, You're a newlywed. I know you don't got much time for us girls just now. How you doin' girl?"

"I've been better, that's for sure."

"You havin' man problems already?"

"Yes, but not with Eduardo. He's been great."

"What kinda man problems you been havin' then?"

There's no beating around the bush with Chanelle. I took a deep breadth and launched into it. "This really nasty creep found out about my past. Now he insists that I sleep with him or he will tell Eduardo's family."

"You tellin' me the truth, girl?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Honey-child, this sonofabitch is goin' DOWN! You tell me all about it and don't you leave out a word!"

I told her all about Fernando. I described how he manhandled me in our dance lessons, how he threatened me and insulted Eduardo, and how he demanded that we meet Thursday night for either sex or the first of endless blackmail payments of $500. I told her about how horrible I felt and even about my nightmare. After that, she asked me lots of questions about how he treated women, how he looked, how he dressed. I had no idea why she was asking these questions, but I figured that there was some pattern under it all.

Finally, I finished telling her everything I could think of.

"You got some time today, Honey?" she asked.

"I took a sick day today so I've got the whole day free."

"I've got a show tonight, but I'll put everything else aside for you today. Can you come by my place in an hour?"

"Really? You're going to help me?"

"Of course, I'm gonna help you! That's what friends do. I promise you that once we're through with him, he won't be botherin' you nor any other girl."

I was near to crying, but in a good way this time. "Thanks, Chanelle. This means the whole world to me."

She gave me her address and directions and we hung up. I tried to make myself look halfway decent and then crossed town to Chanelle's place. As soon as I arrived, she sat me on her couch and loomed over me. She made a dramatic presentation of what we would do. I couldn't believe how outrageous and wonderful her plan was! Chanelle was a genius! This was going to work!

It didn't take long for me to get caught up in her excitement. With her encouragement, I started throwing in ideas of my own. I couldn't believe some of the things I was saying! Those ideas really weren't like me, but they sure made sense at the time.

Now that we had a plan, we set to work immediately. She started collecting things in her bedroom, while I set to work on her computer. On the one hand, I was dying to carry out this plan immediately. On the other hand, we would need every hour before Thursday night to get this all set up.

When it was time for her to leave for the club where she worked, she dragged me along with her. I'd never been to a place like that before. It's a cabaret with all female impersonators. This was a whole different world then what I was used to. Chanelle introduced me to her friends as her "sista" and told them all a brief version about my problem with a disgusting guy who was stalking me. To my amazement, all of her friends swore to defend me to the death. Apart from Eduardo, no one ever stood up for me before! And I actually believed that they would defend me if it came to that!

I was at the club when Eduardo called that night. I had to run out the back door to be able to hear him.

"Hi Darling! I really miss you!" I said.

"And I miss you, my love. You sound better tonight."

"I am doing better. My friend Chanelle is taking care of me today."

"Chanelle? Do I know her?"

"No, but you will. She took me out of the apartment to take my mind off of how I feel."

"I am most grateful to her for doing for you what I cannot. But you are better?" he asked again.

"I'm still really out of it and exhausted. But I'm able to eat again, which really helps. I plan to take the rest of the week off to recover."

"If you wish, I can return tomorrow."

"Thanks for the offer but I'll be fine. I just need rest. But I just can't wait for you to return! Next time you go away, I'm going with you!"

"That would be delightful. Next time I will insist upon it."

"I'm sorry, but I have to go now. You'll call me tomorrow?"

"Of course, my love. You get some rest. I love you."

I will never get tired of hearing those words from his lips! "I will. I love you too."

After I hung up I felt on top of the world. Like the song goes, "what a difference a day makes!" The night before, I thought my life was about to end. I had several worst case scenarios floating around in my mind and every one of them was unthinkable. I felt utterly helpless and hopeless. Tonight, I had these new friends and protectors, strong women who surrounded me like mother hens. And I was offered a plan that was sure to get the horrible Fernando out of my life.

 

Chapter 11

Come Thursday night, we arrived at Eduardo's door at eight sharp. Fortunately, no one saw us go up to his apartment. We must've been quite a sight: two pretty girls in very sexy clothing. We both wore long, straight wigs. Mine was blond and Chanelle's black. We probably looked liked like two prostitutes calling on a client. Who knows? Maybe this was a common sight at his door. Chanelle knocked. I was so nervous that it took all my concentration not to run away. Fernando opened the door.

"Right on time. Hey, I like you as a blond. And you brought a friend with you." He leered at Chanelle for what seemed like forever, looking her up and down, especially at her exposed cleavage. "Come on in," he finally said.

We came in and closed the door behind us. The apartment couldn't be more different than the one I saw in my dream. It looked like a student dorm, with mismatched furniture that probably came from Goodwill and tacky posters on the walls. He didn't even bother to pick up the place for us.

"Who's your friend?" he asked me as if Chanelle wasn't there.

"Chanelle," she said, extending her arm to him elegantly.

"Fernando," he responded back, kissing her hand. He turned back to me. "I appreciate you bringing a friend. Is this going to be a threesome?"

"I'm afraid not" was all I managed to say.

He turned to glare at Chanelle's breasts again. "I don't mind doing your friend here tonight. That will save you the $500 this week. But you do realize that this just postpones for a while when I do you."

While he addressed her breasts, I watched Chanelle's face. It hardened in a way that I'd never seen before. She looked dangerous and that scared me. For a moment, I was more afraid of her than of Fernando. I was glad that he didn't see that look. When he finally did look up at her, her face immediately softened as if she were perfectly happy to be there.

"Where shall we start?" he asked.

"Maybe you could get us a drink," Chanelle suggested.

"Right. What'll you have?"

"Bourbon, straight up, if you got it," Chanelle said.

"I'll have a glass of wine," I said.

"Coming up." He disappeared into the kitchenette. Chanelle and I took off our coats and settled ourselves on the futon that he used for a coach. Chanelle discretely pulled something out her purse. She looked at me and raised one eyebrow suggestively.

He returned and put the drinks in front of us on the beat-up trunk that he used as a coffee table. He put down another glass of bourbon for himself and pulled up a kitchen chair to face us.

"You two sure look hot tonight."

Chanelle pointed to the poster behind him. "Who's that, Britney Spears?"

He turned around to look. She took the opportunity to drop a small pill in his glass. He turned back to look at Chanelle. "You don't know who Shakira is?" he asked.

"Sorry, Honey," she said, "I guess I'm behind the times."

For the next half hour or so, he tried to make small talk while I waited for him to take a drink and after that, waited for what it would do to him. The suspense was killing me. And I still wasn't sure I could go through with the plan. I was strongly opposed to the date-rape drug stuff that Chanelle suggested. As much as I hated him, I didn't want to hurt him either. I assumed that we would just get him drunk. She insisted that this drug would be much more effective and reliable. She also assured me that he would enjoy it.

At first he started to slur his words. Soon after, he started to sway in his chair. Finally he started to laugh hysterically and fell off his chair. He just lay there, laughing into the floor.

Chanelle turned to me. "It's show time. Help me lift this piece a shit and get him on the couch."

He didn't resist at all as we dragged him up on the couch. He just kept laughing. Chanelle took keys out of her purse and handed them to me. "Sweetie, go down to my car and get our bags."

I nodded and ran off in my overly-high heels. When I returned back to the apartment with the two overnight bags, this time I was seen. An elderly neighbor was looking out her door, probably wondering about the sound of laughter that was still coming from the apartment. She gave me a disapproving look. It sure looked bad, but then it wasn't my reputation that was at stake here. She probably saw all types of girls going through that door. I smiled at her but that just made her scowl harder. I let myself in and bolted the door behind me.

When I turned to look over at the couch, I was treated to quite a sight. Chanelle had stripped him down to his underwear and was shaving his chest. Given all the laughter, he really was enjoying himself. This was going to be one strange evening.

 

Chapter 12

She assigned me to shave his legs while she shaved his upper body. It was disgusting to have to touch him, but I didn't want to make Chanelle do everything. I was also afraid that the drug would wear off at any time. I had to admit, he had nice legs for a guy. I guess it comes from all that dancing. We covered different parts of his body in shaving cream and washed it off of the razors in a big bowl of water. We got it all over his ratty furniture, but that hardly mattered. In short order, we had his entire body shaved and wiped clean.

"Now it's time for a little make-up wizardry!" Chanelle announced. We dragged him upright as best we could and she pulled the chair up to him. I grabbed a floor lamp, moved it next to them and turned it all the way up. She started working on his face while she had me laying out outfits on the dinette table.

After quite a while, Chanelle had performed her magic. The face on this skinny male body looked extremely feminine, even pretty, if maybe a bit garish. It raised another concern in my mind.

"Chanelle, you really did an amazing job on him. But maybe you did too good a job. He doesn't look anything like himself anymore. Once we put him in a wig and a dress, how will anyone know this is him?"

"Don't worry girl, we gonna use context." She pointed to the poster behind the couch. "How many guys have a poster of Antonio Banderas on their wall?" She had a good point. "If you want to make sure, why not take a few pictures now before we put a wig on him. Go get your camera girl."

I got my digital camera, came back and focused in on his beautifully painted face. He had a ridiculous expression on his face. Before I could snap the picture, Chanelle interrupted me.

"Wait a minute girl – this man needs some boobs! Go get him those boobs of yours. Also get the gaff and a matching pair of bra and panties."

This made me smile for the first time in a while. I ran back to the kitchen, got the items she requested and ran back. I'd long since taken off my high heels. I let Chanelle put the garments on him because I couldn't bear to touch him or even look at him without his underwear. Once the breast forms were in place, he pawed at them absently, trying to figure out what was going on. I pulled back and framed the picture. Then I noticed something wrong.

"Chanelle, I can see the edges of the breast forms peaking out of the bra."

"You think I'm that careless? I did that on purpose to make this fool look careless. I'll fix it for the later shots."

I nodded and framed the shot again, centered on his face and upper body. "Smile Fernando!" I said and he complied happily. I took several shots, both with and without flash. He just kept smiling. I made sure that the Antonio poster was visible in the shots.

"Now get him a wig!" Chanelle told me. In addition to my old breast forms, I had brought most of the wigs that belonged to Eduardo's deceased wife. I didn't bring her favorite auburn wig because it was also his favorite and mine too. I didn't want him to defile that one. I got out a medium length, dark brown, curly wig and ran back to the couch.

Chanelle was busy taping the skin of his chest together with medical tape. She was creating artificial cleavage. She repositioned the breast forms in the bra to hide them and pushed the extra flesh out of the tops of the bra cups. It made for a very realistic effect. We put the wig on him and combed it out. He was turning into a sexy girl.

This time we took loads of pictures. We took close-ups and full body shots. Chanelle repositioned his arms and legs several times. We took turns ordering him to do silly things like "Lean forward into the camera and give us a kiss!" or "Stroke your legs" or "Lift up your boobs!" He did whatever we asked and enjoyed every minute of it, just as Chanelle said he would.

When we got tired of this, we put my old waist cincher on him and Chanelle pulled it so tight that she practically squeezed him in half. We then dressed him up in the first of the outfits that she brought. She and Fernando were about the same height so my clothes would be much too small for him. She put stockings on him and even squeezed some high heels onto his feet. We moved him to one of the nicer looking chairs and took lots of shots in different positions.

We developed a routine. Every two or three outfits, we moved him to another part of the house, put a different wig on him and changed the lighting. Chanelle wanted it to look like the pictures were made over a long stretch of time. She even changed the lipstick color and other makeup effects between these photo sessions.

While I was busy taking photos, Chanelle started going through his stuff. She came out with two sets of satin sheets, one in bright blue and the other in black.

"Look what I found! What you say we do some boudoir pictures?"

She laid the black sheet out across his bed and we dragged him over to it still stumbling in his black high heels. We put him in various combinations of lingerie and had him slither across the bed in various stages of undress. He was really getting into it. We even put him into a couple of bikinis and a one piece bathing suit.

We had gone through most all the clothes she brought and we were now down to two formal gowns. We decided to do a "glamour" photo shoot with these outfits. Chanelle removed the exaggerated makeup and replaced it with a professional job. Meanwhile, I taped the blue satin sheet to one wall, positioned a barstool in front of it and directed every portable light in the house at the stool. When she was finished, we walked him to the stool and positioned him on it. We positioned his legs just so and had him lift his dress. It took a lot of tries but we managed to get a few shots of him looking elegant instead of just dazed or goofy.

When he teetered dangerously far to one side, I asked "what if he falls off the stool?"

"Then we prop him back up on it and I fix his makeup!" Chanelle answered. It felt good to laugh again.

 

Chapter 13

Finally, we decided that enough was enough. I had taken over 400 photos and my camera was almost full. We dragged him back into the bedroom and changed him back into the original bra and panties. I collected and repacked all the clothes and accessories. I put the apartment back to the way it was and even cleaned up a bit.

Meanwhile, Chanelle was digging around on his computer. She downloaded all the evening's photos into a hidden directory. We made two copies of this directory in unlikely places on his hard disk. While he snored away on his bed, we went through each picture and pulled out our favorite ones.

"Should we tie him up or something in case he wakes up?" I asked, looking at him nervously.

"Honey, he ain't wakin' up anytime soon. And if he does, we can handle him."

For the last step in our plan, we downloaded our favorite pictures to the website that we set up over the past few days. We looked through his address book and made references to people in it, some complimentary and some not. We even added some fantasies about having sex with his male and female friends while he was dressed up. We added his e-mail address to every page. We had a femme name picked out for him already, but we decided to change it everywhere to "Shakira".

"Can you believe this guy uses 'way2sexy' for his e-mail?" I asked.

"Hey, that works both ways. And did you ever know a guy who actually puts stars by his girlfriends' names in his address book? That's so eighties!" She shook her head. Then she pocketed the address book for future use.

When everything looked finished, we clicked the button to upload the whole thing to the Net. This was secured by a password so he couldn't take it down again. We copied the website and stored it on other servers, just in case. And if there was anything else we wanted to add, we could do that later.

We created profiles for "way2sexy" on lots of hosting servers and included his e-mail address and homepage link on each. We also started a late night e-mail blitz, composing a sexy, imploring message and then sending it to every horny guy we could find online. We put his homepage link in every transgender group and link page we came across. By the time we gave up, his femme name and picture was in hundreds of places around the Net. He was going to make quite a splash online.

In another burst of inspiration, Chanelle used his credit card to buy all sorts of clothes, wigs and other stuff from various transgender shopping sites. We must've maxed out his card in less than an hour. He was going to receive a lot of surprises in the mail in the coming weeks.

When it was almost four in the morning, it was long past time to go. We were undecided how to leave things. We figured that he wouldn't remember any of this when he woke up. We had left his new homepage up on the screen for him to find, but that wouldn't have quite the impact we wanted. We wanted the whole experience to come exploding back to his memory.

In the end, we decided to leave him dressed up as he was in Chanelle's underwear and my old breast forms and my least favorite wig. She argued with me about the forms.

"Girl, those boobs are expensive!"

"Sure, but it's not like I have any use for them." I looked down at my chest for emphasis.

"Well, I can think of a few sistas that could use 'em."

I went back to the bags and pulled something out. I came back and showed her the tube.

"What you got there?" she asked.

"Breast form glue. And I didn't bring the glue solvent with me."

"Sweetie, you is a genius."

"And with the money I'll save on blackmail payments, I'd be happy to buy all of your 'sistas' breast forms of their own."

"You do that for me and I'll call us even."

I gave her a hug. "Chanelle, that would be small payment for what you've done for me. You've saved my life tonight. In any case, you really did save this jerk's life. I'm absolutely sure that Eduardo would have killed him."

"Well, we can't be having your man in jail."

After we glued on the breast forms, we got the bags and started for the door. Chanelle went back to do one more check on the latest member of the transgender community. Her head poked around the door.

"Honey, you gotta see this."

I rushed into the bedroom. She was pointing to the computer screen. Fernando already had several eager e-mail inquiries to the letters we just sent out. Apparently, there were a lot of sex-starved guys online at 4 in the morning looking for attractive transvestites.

"What's this bitch's address again?" she asked. I told it to her.

She composed a message inviting all takers to come over to his address right now. She told them that the door was unlocked and the lights were out. Just go into the bedroom beyond the kitchen and climb into bed with "Shakira", even if she was sleeping.

"You're not really going to send that out, are you?" I asked, incredulous.

"Just watch me."

She clicked the Send button. We got out of the apartment as quickly as we could. We didn't want to be around in case any of them lived nearby.

We laughed like school girls all the way to Chanelle's place. Once there, we finally had the drinks that we had no time for at Fernando's apartment. Eventually we fell asleep on her bed, fully clothed, and stayed asleep until late in the morning. It had been a hugely successful night and I felt the first taste of freedom and relief since all of this started. The nightmare was finally over.

 

Chapter 14

The next afternoon, after getting ourselves something to eat, we downloaded the camera to Chanelle's computer and looked at the photos again. We also checked out his website. This website was only up for one morning and he already had over 200 hits! Word certainly gets around fast.

By the light of day, with the adrenaline worn off and the exhaustion lessoned, I could look at the pictures and the website more critically. I couldn't believe what we managed to pull off! No one would believe that these pictures were all taken in one night, or that he was unaware of what he was doing. This website chronicled the flaunting of an otherwise secret life by someone who had invested a lot of time and money in his secret.

When we set up the website in the last three days, we really outdid ourselves. We created a brief but candid biography. It described a youth of secret dress-up sessions in his mother's clothes. It described his history of outwardly macho behavior that really hid his true feminine nature. But no longer! Now he pined for a man who would understand him and love him for who he was and how he dressed.

We even created a fake blog for him with lots of entries over the last months. We described his sensitivity, his longing to express his feminine side to a non-judgmental world. We put in every cliché we could think of. We filled the pages with flowers, hearts and happy faces.

Now that the pictures were added, the website was phenomenal. I could almost admire this person we just created. Best of all, I knew that Fernando would utterly despise this person. He had far more to lose by the revelation of his "secret" than I did from mine.

We joked that his e-mail would quickly max out the server with letters from his admirers. We talked about whether to keep up with the e-mail for the mail lists that we created in his name. We speculated about whether one or more men showed up and let themselves in and what happened next. He was so out of it and so malleable, he would have agreed to anything they wanted.

I actually felt awful about that. He deserved the total humiliation we gave him. But the guy might've been assaulted after we left.

"Don't you feel sorry for that piece a shit, girl!" Chanelle scolded me. "He was gonna rape you and when he was finished with you, he was gonna tell Eduardo all about it to destroy what you got goin'. He don't deserve yo' sympathy. He needed to be punished so he don't go doin' this to any other po' girl."

Chanelle was right. This was not just a matter of revenge. It was something that we could hold over him to keep him in line. He's probably done things like this before. Given the chance he'd do it again. This whole scheme was really painful to carry out, at least for me, but it had to be done. I was bound to feel guilty about it, but I sure felt better than when he had me under his thumb. Chanelle volunteered to keep a watch on him by spreading his name through her vast network of contacts. He could not do too much harm without someone she knew finding out about it.

"I sure would've liked to see his face when he woke up today and looked in the mirror at those fine boobs you gave him," Chanelle said.

"What a fabulous idea! I wish we thought of it earlier. We could've installed a camera and put in a live video feed of him streamed to his website. Then everyone could've seen that look on his face!"

"Hmmm. That is one good idea. We'll save it for next time. We could call him and ask how he's doin' today."

I suddenly remembered my cell phone. I turned it off Thursday evening. I didn't want anyone calling me while we were at Fernando's apartment. Eduardo was probably worried about me! I turned it back on and listened to his messages. He was worried about me. Each message was increasingly frantic. He told me to call him on his cell phone anytime I got the message. So I called him.

"Hi Eduardo, it's me. Is this a good time to talk?"

"Or course, darling! Your cell phone was turned off. I was worried. How are you?"

"I'm doing much better, thanks. I'm sorry about that. I somehow turned it off and didn't know it was off until now. I've been really out of it and sleeping weird hours this week. I'm sorry I made you worry about me."

"What is most important is that you are doing better. Tell me more about how you are feeling."

"Basically, I took the whole week off. I guess I needed the time off to get better. And as I told you, my friend Chanelle has been taking really good care of me. She's with me here now." I smiled at her. She patted me on the arm.

"Please express to her my gratitude for her kindness to you. Perhaps we can have her over for dinner very soon."

"That's a great idea. I'll ask her. You're working now?"

"Yes. I fear that I cannot speak for long. But I will call you when I am at the airport."

"I promise that I'll leave the phone on. God, I miss you so much! I can't wait for you to come back tonight."

"I miss you too. And I love you very much."

"I love you too, Eduardo. Bye."

After hanging up, I turned to Chanelle. "He really, really thanks you for taking care of me. He has no idea how much you did for me, of course, but he still really thanks you. He also wants you to come to dinner at our place soon."

"Well, it's about time I got to meet your man."

"He really should meet the woman who saved my life and marriage and honor and who knows what else. We should do that this next week before I get caught up in yet another emergency."

"You just pick a night I'm not working, and I'm there. And you can bring him to the club sometime to see me perform."

"That's not really his thing, you know. But if that means a lot to you, I'll make him come. It'll be an education for him."

At that moment, my cell phone rang. I didn't recognize the number.

"Hello?" I answered. I was almost deafened by the profanity on the other end. I moved the phone away from my ear. "It's Fernando!" I told Chanelle.

"How's he got your cell number?"

"I have no idea! I told you, this guy is really bad news!"

"Let me talk to him." She took the phone away from me. "Girl, what you be bothering my girlfriend for?"

She held the phone away from her ear. The screaming continued. When it subsided, she said "What you mean you're no girl? What're you wearing now? You still got your boobs?"

She held the phone away from her ear but there was only silence this time. I had to cover my mouth to avoid laughing out loud. Chanelle continued.

"You see your homepage yet? You did? I bet you didn't know you were that cute. I bet you got yourself a ton of mail from admirers by now. Everyone wants to write to Shakira and tell her how sweet she looks."

This brought on more screaming. I made out lots of threats against both of us.

"Girl, I'm tired of you bad-mouthin' us. Let me tell you how it's gonna BE. If you ever talk to or even look at either one of us again, I'm sending out more messages and this time I'm sending them to people you know. You probably didn't figure this out yet, but I got your little black book. If you ever hurt Emerald or anyone else I know, I'm comin' after your ass. Believe me, Honey, I got a whole mess 'a girlfriends. I must know half the girls around here. You see, I got myself a long razor and I know how to use it. If you ever mess with another girl, I will come over and make sure you fit into those panties real good. Then you'll always be Shakira."

There was silence again. Chanelle closed the phone.

"I don't think he'll be messin' with my sista' again."

"Let me see his address book," I asked. Chanelle dug it out and handed it to me.

I looked through it. "My name and number is in this."

She looked over at it. "And you got yourself four stars."

 

Chapter 15

I met Eduardo at the airport that night. When I saw him, I ran to him, threw my arms around him and smothered him in kisses. He was a little overwhelmed by this welcome. He still isn't used to the idea of displays of affection in public places. But he eventually warmed up.

"You really did miss me," he said.

"God, yes! You can't believe what a terrible week I had. And to live through all that without you by my side!"

"You must tell me about your terrible week."

"First, we got to get you home where you belong."

While waiting for his luggage and lugging it home, I made him tell me about his week and the trips there and back. He had been very busy and a little stressed out, but nothing like what I faced. I only half listened. I spent the time trying to decide how much I should tell him, or whether to tell him anything at all.

Chanelle had strongly advised against it. She insisted that I let this particularly nasty sleeping dog lie. She thought I should just go with my current story about feeling very sick and being disoriented without him to support me. "You won't be lyin'," she said. "You just won't be tellin' the whole truth."

To me not telling him all the truth was not much different from lying. I once promised him that I would keep no secrets from him. But I was still worried that he might hurt that damn Fernando. Or get hurt by him. I was sorely tempted to follow Chanelle's advice.

But even on the short ride home, I could barely stand keeping this in. I felt like there was this giant monster which was trying to hide behind me. I can't pretend with anyone, but especially not with Eduardo. He would notice that something was wrong and ask about it and sooner or later the truth would come out. It'd be best if I told him everything from the start. But how to keep him from doing something that we'd all regret?

We were finally safe at home with glasses of wine in our hands, sitting on the couch with his arm around my shoulders, holding me tight. I would've been happy to stay that way forever. But the truth still gnawed at me.

"So, will you now tell me of this terrible week of yours?"

I took a long sip of wine. I took a deep breath. I took another deep breath. What was I going to say? I started with the most immediate truth.

"I really want to tell you, but I'm afraid."

"Why would you be afraid to tell me? Did you do wrong?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so."

"Than I promise I will not be angry with you." He sealed his promise by kissing me on the head. I snuggled up even closer to him.

"It's not me I'm worried about. I'm afraid you might hurt someone."

He pulled back to look into my face. I was getting even more worried by the look in his eyes. "This is so bad that I might hurt someone?"

"I'm afraid so."

He took his arm from around me and said to me sternly "Then you must tell me."

"Only if you promise that you won't hurt anyone."

"If your honor has been threatened or compromised, I cannot promise this."

"I swear to you that the person responsible has been severely punished for his sins. So you need to trust me and promise that you will not hurt him."

He looked into my pleading eyes. The determination was still there, but the sternness was fading.

"I do trust you completely, as you know. I will promise you this. I will take no action against whoever he is for 24 hours. You will have that much time to calm me down and talk me out of rash actions."

I thought about this and decided that this was probably the best deal I could hope for.

 

Chapter 16

I was so nervous, I didn't know where to begin. I got up and paced a few times across the room. I got no further than "Well, it started on Saturday." The loud clacks of my heels made me even more nervous, so I took off my shoes and threw them on a chair. I paced a few more times back and forth across the study.

Eduardo couldn't take it anymore. "My love, please calm down! Come sit beside me."

I did as he asked. I took one final deep breath and I launched into my story, speaking rapidly. I started with Fernando's unwelcome arrival at the dance studio. Eduardo got angry immediately. When I got to the part about Fernando's blackmail attempt, Eduardo jumped up off the coach.

"This cannot be tolerated!"

I stood up too and shook my finger at him. "You promised! Now sit down and calm down!"

I had never ordered him to do anything before. It felt very strange. To my surprise, he did sit down and calmed a bit.

"Just let me finish my story and then you can react."

I sat back beside him and told him about meeting him the next day. I told him about the demand for either cash or sex with me that week. I told him that I took out the money out of the bank on Monday while I tried to think of how to get out of the dilemma. I didn't tell him how horrible and helpless I felt during those days. Finally, he just couldn't bear it anymore. He jumped up again, remembered his promise and then sat back down again.

"Why did you not tell me from the start? I would have returned immediately."

"And killed Fernando the moment you saw him."

"This is true," he confessed.

"I really wanted to tell you. It was killing me not to tell you. But I knew what you might do and I had to avoid that at all costs."

"But you know that I would not leave you, even if he told the whole world about your past. That would not matter to me. We could simply move to a new place. He had no true power over you." Thumbelina jumped up on his lap. Eduardo pet her absentmindedly.

"I don't think it was that simple. He could've really ruined things for us. We would've recovered, maybe started over. But that wouldn't change the fact that you might've killed him. There was no way I was going to sleep with him. I figured I'd pay him off to buy time until I thought of some plan to work this all out."

"What did you do to punish him then?"

"I didn't know what I was going to do. Then I had this horrible nightmare. I guess that was Monday night." I got up and started to pace again. He motioned for me to sit back down again. "I dreamed that I went to his house to pay him off and he tried to rape me anyway. In my dream, he cornered me, I found a knife and I killed him with it. I woke up screaming." I realized that I was looking at my hands for signs of blood.

"I wish that I was here for you that night."

"So does Mr. Lebowitz. He came to the door to make sure I was okay. He insisted that he come in to look around and make sure that no one was hiding in the apartment. He was really brave. We need to do something to thank him for that.

Anyway, that dream inspired me to take action. I knew I needed to get help but I didn't know who to ask. Then I thought about Chanelle. She came up with an ingenious plan. It was really sneaky. I don't think anyone could have punished him more without actually hurting him."

"By all means, tell me about her ingenious plan."

"Well, Chanelle is a transgender person like me but with a really different personality. She is the showgirl type. Real strong and gutsy."

"She is what they call a drag queen?" he asked.

"I don't think she would call herself that, but you get the general idea. I promised her that I would take you to see her show sometime. You can see for yourself then.

Anyway, we both went to his place last night. He immediately wanted to have sex with her too. Apparently, he doesn't have any self control. She slipped him some kind of drug. It didn't knock him out, but it made him real agreeable to anything we wanted to do. So we dressed him up in women's clothing and a wig and took lots of pictures of him."

Eduardo's face was blank. "I do not understand," he admitted.

"Perhaps it'd be best if I showed you." I took him over to my computer and pulled up his website. I showed him several choice photos, including the picture of him without the wig.

"You and Chanelle did all of this? And he did not know that you were doing it?"

"It's pretty amazing, isn't it?"

I showed him other parts of the site, including the biography, beauty tips and personal diaries.

"This is perhaps the most strange website that I have ever seen," he said.

That got my hackles up a bit. "Given what you know about me, you shouldn't be surprised by something like this," I snapped. "There are an awful lot of websites like this. And lot stranger ones than this one."

He raised his hands defensively. "Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean to condemn people like this. It is that there is so much in the world that I cannot even imagine."

"It's probably better for you that you don't know what's out there."

"How did you do this so quickly?" he asked.

"We did almost all of the work before Thursday night. Remember, I took the whole week off. Chanelle and I have been working on this non-stop since Tuesday. All we needed to do this morning was add the pictures and published the website to the world. We also put out his personal e-mail everywhere we could and wrote suggestive e-mails to lots of skuzzy 'admirers'. We were pretty mean actually. If this gets out, he will probably lose every friend he ever had. He might make a few new friends he would rather not have."

"I understand now. You responded to his blackmail by blackmailing him in return. That is ingenious!" For the first time since I started my story, Eduardo appeared relaxed.

"So you see, you don't need to do anything to avenge my honor," I said. "He wouldn't dare to say or do anything to me. We have too much over him. And if he does get out of line, we sick Chanelle on him. She can do him a lot of damage without doing anything that would put her in jail. I'm afraid we can't trust you with that."

"I see the wisdom of your words. But do not worry. You have avenged yourself by arranging his public disgrace better than I could have avenged you by killing him."

"That's a relief!" I said, snuggling up against him. "You know, it's really late now. We're both tired and we have to get up soon for the class."

"You are right once again. I will put all of this out of my mind and we will sleep in each other's arms."

This is just what we did. As much as I wanted to do more than that, we were just too tired. At least tomorrow night we could sleep in.

 

Chapter 17

In the morning, before we left for the dance studio, Eduardo said "He may be foolish enough to come to the class. Perhaps you should remain here today."

I squeezed his hand. "Thanks, Sweetie. You need me there today. I'll come and let you protect me from all of the Fernandos in the world. And I need to hold you to your promise not to kill him. But when you go away, I'd prefer that you find someone to substitute for me also. In fact, I'd prefer that you bring me along. A week is just too long to be apart!"

"I understand completely. This is no trouble to do."

"Thank you, Eduardo. That takes a lot of weight off my mind. I don't want to ever dance with a guy like Fernando again."

"And you never shall. Would you prefer that I find another instructor as a permanent replacement?"

"You'd do that for me? That's very sweet. I really liked teaching dance before Fernando came along. But I was never very good at it."

"This is nonsense!" he declared. "You are one of the best dance instructors I have ever worked with. You have so much patience and charm. You can better instruct the newcomers than I can myself."

"Really?"

"Did you not notice that attendance has increased since you became an instructor? You are even better as an instructor than my departed Maria."

"You're just saying that because you love me."

"I would not say it if it was not so."

Of course, I had to kiss him for that one.

*****

We went back to our routine from before the Fernando incident. I stayed on as an instructor twice a week and grew more confident about my role there. We set up a code for future predators. If any man made me feel uncomfortable, all I needed to do was call him a "Fernando" and Eduardo would discretely ask the guy not to return again.

We also went back to practicing rigorously. Because the national competition was coming up quickly, we had to practice harder than ever. I was getting to be sore all over again. I was also starting to get irritable about it.

During one practice, I lost my footing and fell to the floor on my side. I didn't hurt myself, but I was too tired to get up again. When Eduardo offered his hand to help me up, I refused it.

"What is wrong?" he asked.

"I'm tired of being tired all the time." I took off my high heels and got myself slowly back on my feet. I hobbled painfully to the couch and he followed me. He was kind enough to fix us both drinks.

"You are not happy?" he asked.

"You know I love dancing with you. But this isn't dancing, this is a workout. We never have time together just to dance with each other anymore."

"Then we will make time to dance together."

"I'm too exhausted all the time to dance for the pleasure of it."

"It is very hard work to prepare for a competition. But you will grow stronger over time. I do this for you."

I finished my drink and poured myself another. "Actually, I'm doing this for you."

"You do not care to compete?"

"Sure, getting second place at the state finals was great. But that was plenty for me. I'm not a competitive person. It just isn't me. But if it's important to you, I'll dance with you at the Semi-Nationals."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I confess that I thoroughly enjoyed the last competition. It made me feel young again. But once is enough for me as well. It is selfish of me to make you do this. I will withdraw us from the competition."

I put my hand and upon his arm. "I don't want you to give up your dream. I want us to spend more time dancing and just being with you. You should compete with another dance partner, someone with a lot more talent than me. I don't mind."

He smiled at me. "Now that I have found you, do you think I could ever dance with another? When we dance it will be for us and no one else. All that we do together will be for us."

"I don't want you to give up the competition because of me."

"We will let those who feel the need to win have their championships. We do not need to prove ourselves to anyone. It is enough that we be ourselves."

"Thanks, Eduardo. I love you."

"And I love you."

"There's something else I've been thinking about. You're a terrific dancer and instructor. But dancing was once more your passion than your profession. I've been thinking that maybe you should go back to teaching at the university. That seems to fit you better."

"I've been away from academics for too long. My brain has slowed with time."

"Don't you dare use age as an excuse again! Most of the professors at your old university are older than you, aren't they?"

"This is true," he admitted.

"And don't tell me that you're not as brilliant as they are, either. I read some of your articles online and they were above my head. And you know that I'm not stupid."

"Which articles did you read?"

"The ones about Borges. So I read translations of the original works and I didn't understand those either."

"I could explain those to you," he offered.

"Of course you can! Which is why you would be such a great teacher!"

*****

The nightmare really was over. The curse lifted and the princess did get to live happily ever after. I never heard from Fernando again. Despite all of my protectors, I was still afraid that he would suddenly jump out of the shadows whenever I was out alone. He was my personal boogey man for a while. But I eventually got over that.

For a long time, Chanelle and her friends took turns writing blogs and sending out e-mail on behalf of Shakira. They copied me on the messages for a while but it made me too nervous. I was also worried about the people on the other end who were taking these messages seriously. They couldn't all be jerks.

The whole incident made me less ashamed and secretive about my past. I don't announce to anyone I meet that I used to be a man. But I don't try to hide it either. I now see Chanelle a lot and sometimes my other transgender friends, including those I made through her. We even invited some of them to one of our parties with Eduardo's friends. Did they ever make a splash!

None of this had any negative effect on my relationship with Eduardo. He didn't hold it against me that I didn't tell him right away. He agreed that by not telling him, I probably kept him out of jail. He was actually proud of how I got help and stood up to this guy even though I was scared to death of him.

A lot of good came out of this, besides putting Fernando on a short lease and making Eduardo think twice before killing someone who challenged my honor. Now that we dropped our dance practices, Eduardo and I spend more quality time together. Our dancing now is heavenly. Also, I finally convinced Eduardo to contact his friends at the university to see if he could get his old job as lecturer back again. He really belongs in that environment. He has so much more to offer beyond teaching people to dance or winning competitions.

I feel like a different person after the experience, although I don't know what changed. I felt violated by Fernando, even if he never did it physically. That feeling is hard to shake. Maybe I'm a little bolder and more assertive now. Maybe I'm a little less afraid of everything. Truthfully, I don't mind letting Eduardo be the fearless one and I his damsel in distress. We seem to be good at those roles.

Maybe what changed in me is that I'm not as innocent as before. I finally figured out that there are a lot of really awful things in the world. I assumed I knew that because I was miserable most of my life. Until my life with Eduardo, I had no idea both how good the world could be and how bad it could be. The worst is behind us now (God, I hope so!) and the best is still before us. I'm incredibly grateful for that. Maybe we have a shot at living happily ever after!

  

  

  

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