Working Girls

by Caroline Jane Bradley

 

Caroline turned to her audience;

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it - the business plan and funding details for our new venture. Thank you for your detailed questions and for showing your support in coming here today; my colleagues and I will be pleased to answer any other questions you may have over drinks. It only remains for me to ask you to join me in wishing "Working Girls" a successful launch onto the UK stock market later today".

With that, Caroline sat down and smiled to her fellow directors as the financial analysts in the audience applauded. It was clear that the many months of hard work had been really worth it and, from the whirlwind of meetings they had attended in the last two weeks, the floatation of their new company was already many times oversubscribed - making most of the directors paper millionaires.

After the last analyst had left, the Board Directors collapsed into an exhausted giggling heap. The original idea of developing a company, run by women for women, had grown from a frustration felt by some of the founding members. The slow evolution of the company, offering a full business service function to established and fledgling companies, had been so successful that their initial backers had finally insisted that Working Girls go public.

Caroline smiled as she checked the immaculate hemline of her Versace suit and looked at her carefully manicured and varnished red nails at the large diamond and sapphire eternity ring that had been a wonderful present that morning from her partner. Eyes twinkling, she looked over the rest of the female members of the board and her mind recalled the events leading up to today's great success.......

 

The idea

With his wife, Joanna's, approval Steve now spent most weekends and some evenings dressed as Caroline. They often went out together and met up with Brenda and her live-in-lover Diane as well as Sandra, the first one to fully understand and help Steve in his quest for femininity. One evening, Caroline and Joanna went to the local Italian restaurant with Sandra and her new boyfriend, the "girls" enjoying his attentions and obvious fascination with the relationship between Caroline and Joanna.

Joanna had become increasingly depressed since that evening when she had returned home early from a business trip to find Steve fully dressed up as Caroline for the first time. They had talked about the reasons and she finally admitted that the new boss of her company's overseas investment division kept coming on to her and he did not like rejection. The reason for the early return from the last trip being that he had only booked one room and fully expected Joanna to sleep with him.

They were talking through the problems and opportunities one Sunday morning over breakfast when Brenda dropped round. Seeing Caroline she smiled

"Hey, love the nightdress. Ever thought of a career in modelling?"

They all joked and enjoyed the "girl talk" on new fashions, jobs and the future. Joanna began to look glum and confided in Brenda the problems she was having at work.

"Men are such bastards, present company excepted" Brenda said, "But why stick with it? I know you get paid a shit load of money, but is it really worth it?"

"But if I leave, what can I do - my boss will make it really difficult to get another job in the City and we can't afford to live just on Steve's salary" Joanna smiled at Caroline who nodded.

"Listen, love, there are a few friends of mine who have an idea to create a business services company aimed at women. They think that the banks, agencies and other support services for small business are too focused on the needs of a male-dominated network. We've been talking this over for what seems like years, but never had the guts to try and start it up as a venture - we've always got stuck at the fund raising stage. You know, most bank managers, including female ones, won't even look at the idea". Brenda was really into the enthusiasm of the idea.

Joanna looked at Brenda. "You know, with my contacts with the financiers in the City and in Wall Street I should be able to pull in a few favours and get some seed corn capital"

Brenda was getting more and more excited. "My friends include an Advertising Agency Art Director, a Market Research specialist and an Accountant as well as a Solicitor/Attorney who specialises in Company Law". She paused for breath, "we have enough to set up a full-service show for women, run by women"

Joanna smiled:

"One step at a time, we need to write a business plan to present to a select group of potential backers so they can see where they can get a return on their investment. Do you have access to anyone who can get the basic facts together, I can run a business model and do the math, but we need a leader to be able to present the concept an act as the public face of your new enterprise"

Both women turned to look at Caroline. Caroline's composure slipped and Steve's voice boomed from below the blonde coiffure:

"Me? You're joking. I don't know the first thing about business plans, I'm a trained designer and only really know how to put office plans together and present the ideas to clients....."

Caroline trailed off under the grins from Joanna and Brenda.

"But, I thought this was going to be a company run by women for women, they wouldn't accept a guy as the front man"

"Who said anything about a guy?" beamed Joanna. "You wanted to be able to dress up as Caroline more often, here's the opportunity - now where do we start?"

 

The planning phase

Brenda had been visiting the house regularly with detailed updates from the various future partners and Joanna had been working closely with Steve/Caroline to develop the detail into an overall business plan. Despite his fear that he knew nothing about business, Steve found that his skills in design blended well with Joanna's finance experience to create a well balanced business plan. It took most evenings and weekends to put the finishing touches to the core documents and Steve almost forgot the likely next steps as he got more and more involved in the excitement of creating a new company. Their market research expert had got the results of a survey that clearly showed that there was a need for such a service agency to help a wide range of clients from areas as far apart as the more classical women's businesses in fashion and hairdressing to computing and civil engineering.

With the research results and the business plan finalised, Brenda announced that she had called a meeting of the key people to hear the results of their efforts and to act as the first "Board meeting" for the new company. The hadn't got a name for themselves yet, but Steve's suggestion of "Working Girls" was accepted as an initial start point.

The first Board meeting would be the first time the other partners would have met Steve, so Joanna and Brenda spent a lot of time helping Steve brush up his appearance as Caroline. They spent hours in the more up-market clothes shops looking out smart, flattering business suits and, during the weekend before the meeting, Joanna and Steve went to an exclusive health and beauty spa where all tastes were pandered to without question.

Arriving at the spa, with Steve already dressed as Caroline, they were greeted by a stunning blonde who introduced herself as Naomi. She explained that she and two other beauty therapists at the spa were male-to-female transexuals and had experience in helping TVs and TSs develop feminine deportment, speech and appearance. Commenting on Caroline's already well-developed female persona, Naomi said that they would concentrate on "Hair, make-up and how to look good in a business suit".

The weekend was a whirl of massaging and toning leg and thigh muscles to improve the look and shape, endless walking and hand gesture sessions and, every hour, short speech therapy activities concentrating on both pitch and sentence structure. Throughout, Caroline was expressly forbidden to lapse into any male attribute, even being refused a beer in the bar after a very long first day - she had to have a Campari and Soda. Later, collapsing into bed with Joanna they held each other tight, Caroline barely remembered Joanna's "I'm really proud of you" before falling into a deep sleep.

Six a.m. the following day, they were woken by the maid delivering tea and, 10 minutes later, a call from the front desk to confirm that the day's sessions were beggining for both of them. The pace slackened in the afternoon with both Joanna and Caroline attending make-up, manicure and hairdressing sessions. Caroline's own hair was still very short, but the spa had a magnificent collection of wigs in all styles and the professional hairdresser chose a carefully designed medium-length dark brown creation for Caroline. She had many wigs at home, but this one seemed to suit the professional businesswoman image Joanna said was essential.

Acrylic nails of a shorter length than Caroline normally wore were bonded to her own nails and varnished with a subtle deep red. Finally, the make-up and her own jewellery allowed the two ladies to enter the spa's clothes rental area where they each chose a dinner dress for the coming final evening's party.

Caroline was shocked when she and Joanna walked into the bar for a pre-dinner drink. In addition to the ten or so couples, mostly wife and "girlfriend/husband", there were at least 20 men dressed in dinner jackets. Naomi, wearing a beautiful black cocktail dress, walked up to them:-

"Good evening, and I must say you both look really great. You're probably surprised at the extra guests this evening; well as part of the final training we have secured the discrete services of these gentlemen to escort all the ladies for dinner and a disco. Don't worry, they know that some of you aren't female by birth, but they do not know who - there's a prize at midnight for those whose origins are not correctly identified by their partner. So, enjoy!"

Caroline looked at Joanna. "Go ahead, darling and have fun. I'm a big girl and I can look after myself, the question is - can you?" With that she winked and walked purposefully into the bar where Naomi swiftly steered her to the side of a tall, tanned Adonis.

Before Caroline could gather her thoughts another of the men had detached himself from the bar and had walked up to her. "Hi, my name's Paul". Caroline smiled and remembered her lessons from the last two days, she was determined that she was going to win this prize.

The evening was a great success, Paul and Caroline chatted and talked animatedly at dinner to each other and to the other couples around. During the disco they both danced energetically and Paul at one point was "cut in" by Joanna's partner, the two girls grinning at each other. At a quarter to midnight the music's tempo slowed and Paul pulled Caroline close for a slow dance at the end of which they kissed passionately.

Midnight struck at Naomi took hold of a microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the time has now come to discover - if that is the right word - our winner for tonight. As most of you know, some of the delightful ladies here are not what they seem and our escorts for this evening have each been given large incentives to discover the truth. Those who have guessed correctly will receive a cheque for #500 when they leave this evening, an incorrect guess will not earn anything. Therefore, can I ask the gentlemen to come into the drawing room to state their intentions"

With this, Paul squeezed Caroline's waist, kissed her on the cheek and went into the room with the other men. Joanna came to Caroline's side and winked at her.

Ten minutes later, the men walked out of the room and stood in front of Naomi. She called each of them in turn and they had to state the sex of their partner, Joanna's partner was one of the early ones and he was right - Joanna was all woman. There seemed to be no obvious pattern to the calling of names, but Paul was the last to come forward. He smiled at Caroline and stated to the microphone "Caroline is 100% female"

This smiled melted rapidly as Joanna jumped up with a squeal and kissed Caroline. Naomi announcing that Caroline had won the prize - #500 worth of jewellery and cosmetics. Caroline was ecstatic, but she walked over to a crestfallen Paul and took his hand

"Paul, thank you for a wonderful evening and I am sorry to have deceived you. I can only say that, were I truly a woman, you could make me very happy indeed."

Caroline called Naomi over and whispered into her ear. Paul nervously said goodbye and was surprised when Naomi pressed a cheque into his hands, turning to Caroline he smiled and mouthed "Thank you".

Later that evening, flushed with success, Caroline had removed the cocktail dress and was carefully cleansing off her make-up. Joanna was already in bed and Caroline chose a long satin night-gown that she pulled over her head before removing her bra and false breasts.

"Caroline, I was so proud of you tonight. You seemed so relaxed and feminine yet I know you said you are not attracted to men. Listen, it seems a shame to go to all the trouble of you changing from Steve to Caroline and back again, if we're going to make a success of our new company you are going to have to be Caroline much more often - do you want to make the change permanent?"

Caroline gently slid into the bed at Joanna's side:-

"I don't think I want full gender reassignment surgery, if that's what you are saying. But I would love to make a few more changes if you are agreeable - like trying hormone therapy to grow my own breasts and growing my hair and nails"

Joanna smiled and opened a bedside drawer from which she removed a large tube of hormone cream that she started to rub gently on Caroline's naked chest. The vigour of the rubbing, their proximity in the bed and the feel of satin on their smooth bodies soon arose their passions and they made passionate love before falling into a deep slumber.

 

The test

The following week, Caroline and Joanna shopped for smart business clothes and prepared the presentation to the new Board of directors. The first meeting went of without a hitch and all the members were pleased with the detail of the plan and voted unanimously for Caroline to become Chief Executive.

With Joanna's help, initial capital came in from 4 backers and "Working Girls Ltd" started trading with mailings and advertising to women's groups and local business centres. The test came when two prestigious women's magazines and the Sunday Times all contacted the company to ask to do a feature on the concept and the key officers. This all went without a hitch until one reporter asked Caroline about her past, apparently they had done a search and credit reference on her and had come up with no trace. This was passed off as they accepted the argument that Caroline had gained her work experience in the USA and Australia and had not worked in the UK as she had been a housewife until the collapse of her marriage.

Talking afterward, Joanna and Brenda were both very worried about Caroline's lack of credentials. What could be done, how do you get credit cards, passports, social security numbers and the like without revealing Caroline's true identity?

Careful investigation of transgender resources and other networks solved the credit card problem, social security numbering was equally solved, but the need for a passport to allow them to travel seemed insuperable.

"We need a birth certificate, or for Steve to change his name by deed poll" Brenda stated. "But that could cause problems with your marriage and could be easily traced back, you know what these journalists are like"

With Steve's parents both dead, he vaguely recalled something in the small collection of their memorabilia. Taking a battered suitcase down from the attic, they searched the contents and found a whole wad of birth certificates from the family. One, for a little girl called Emily born two years after Steve, they could not remember ever having heard of.

"Maybe she's dead or has emigrated" Joanna ventured, let's get a check run on her whereabouts now.

Over the next few days, no trace was found in any register of deaths or marriages, so they decided to risk applying for a change of name by deed poll using Emily's birth certificate. The completed certificate was received a week later - Caroline now had a past and a birth certificate to prove that she was born Emily Jane Winstanley. The passport took a few weeks longer, but finally a crisp red UK passport arrived by registered post showing a flattering photo of Caroline.

 

The future

The next moths were very busy getting Working Girls up and running. Caroline seemed to be forever in a car, train or plane going from one presentation to the next, she always worked and travelled "En femme" - the first time through an airport security barrier was a little scary - especially as the female officer insisted in giving her a hand search before going through her overnight bag.

The hormone therapy was slowly working, looking at herself in a hotel bathroom mirror, Caroline could see the gentle swellings of her tiny buds. She and Joanna had talked again about surgery but Caroline did not yet want to take an irreversible step, even though it would now be almost impossible to revert to being Steve. Caroline's penis was still an important part of their lovemaking and they had both discussed having children at some point in their lives.

 

 

 

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© 2002 by Caroline Bradley. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.