It had been quite late, when Abigail and Walter finally took me home to Fortis Green Road and I had definitely been tipsy. The way Walter had behaved it seemed, that he was convinced I was a full female and I was amazed, at how much my desire, aided by the hypnosis had made me female. My make up had been repaired by Florence, so I had to take it all off, before I went to bed, trying to be quiet not to wake Sandra or possibly Sandra and May. I had left a message on the answerphone the day before to warn them of my absence all day and so I was not surprised, when Sandra woke me the next morning fully expecting a detailed report of what had gone down.

As she came into my bedroom it was already quite light and Sandra explained, that I had been sleeping so soundly, that she had thought I was thoroughly exhausted by whatever had happened so she had let me sleep. I happily accepted the mug of steaming coffee and padded the bed next to me for her to sit down. Sandra smiled and complied.

“So,” she said “What happened yesterday?”

“Honey, it was absolutely incredible. Fist of all I got on like a house on fire with the writer of the musical and I love her idea and concept. Then I surprised everyone with being better prepared than any of them for the meeting and with my concept for the technical side of it. My idea was enough for Florence and Abigail to call in their husbands, who have major financial stakes in the venture and I had to explain everything to them over dinner, that Florence and I prepared together.”

“And?” Sandra asked impatiently.

“In the end they offered me to build the rig I planned and become a partner and managing director in the enterprise, that will hire out the rig after the tour to other theatres.”

That was the first time I saw Sandra speechless since my arrival. Then she gently took my mug, placed it on the bedside table and hugged me fiercely.

“Oh, Honey I am so proud of and so happy for you! All that is missing now is that that silly girl comes round to see what a treasure you are!”

I hugged Sandra back and held her tight for a good moment.

“You are my good luck charm, Sandra.”

“Oh,” she giggled “if that is all it takes.”

“It seems like it. Without you and May I would never have had the courage.”

“Whatever.” Sandra said “The important thing is that you’ll stay.”

“Definitely. Sandra, I will be busy today starting to organise things. Would you mind to find out about epilation of my face?”

“Of course, Honey.”

So after a good breakfast and more coffee I had gone back to the office of What Else, where everyone was already waiting for me, but none of my three co-conspirators was in any way offended by me being late. All three hugged and kissed me in greeting, Valerie having been informed by Florence and Abigail of what had gone down the night before.

“Monique,” Valerie said after our hug “I cannot properly express how happy I am, that we took the decision to try and help you. I am so looking forward to working with you. You are an absolute delight of a woman to be with and your professional qualifications are more than I ever expected to find.”

Again I was close to tears. Everybody was so nice to me, even Cheryl had smiled happily at me as I got in and now I learned, that she already had prepared an office for me, as Florence led me to it. Cheryl had even placed a nice flower arrangement on my desk for me and that really got the happy tears flowing again.

“As you can see, Monique,” Florence said with a grin “everybody appreciates you here. Shall we start planning the tour?”

“Yes, certainly Florence, if you give me a moment to repair my make-up?”

“Once you got rid of the bit of facial hair you have, Monique, you’ll be perfectly able to do without, may be a boon for a cry-baby like you.” she said while gently cleaning my face with a tissue she had got from her bag “As you can see I came prepared.”

I could not help but to laugh.

“Oh Florence, I am so happy to be here with you all. You have really changed my life.”

“Let’s just say we helped you change it. Yours is the major effort here, Moni.”

“Would you mind to keep that abbreviation to our private conversations, Florence? I’d like to reserve that name for a few selected people, like you and Sandra, for the time being.”

“Sure! I am honoured, little sister.”

“Don’t make me cry again, silly.”

We both giggled.

Florence and I then returned to the conference room, where we spread out documents and a map of the UK on the table, to try and organise our thoughts on where to go in what order. They already had a list of cities they wanted to visit and two festivals they did not want to miss. Since those festivals were both open air I immediately saw the chance for a second and third contract for the hire company and we agreed to contact them first thing, to get dates and possibly an agreement to use the rig for the whole festival, since we then could organise the rest of the tour around those dates and places. The decision made we went to work to get details about the festivals and their organisers. Cheryl got busy on the phone.

We soon decided for Brighton and Edinburgh. Both were well established and drew enough audience to warrant a sophisticated open air venue that we would provide. If we could get our foot in the door there, our work as a hire company would be cut out for years to come. For the time being and with Cheryl’s happy agreement, it was decided that she would double up as my PA for the hire company or rather the future hire company, as for the current time What Else would negotiate for the contracts as the creator of the system. Since Brighton was in May and Edinburgh in August we could squeeze in at least four appearances on the way North, so I set Cheryl to look for suitable theatres and cities between the South East and Scotland.

She came back after lunch suggesting the following itinerary, that surprised and delighted me: Brighton festival, Norwich Theatre Royal, Leeds Grand Theatre, Hull New Theatre, Newcastle Tyne Theatre and Opera House and then Edinburgh festival. From there to Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre, Inverness Eden Court Theatre, Glasgow Theatre Royal, Liverpool Royal Court Theatre, Milton Keynes Milton Keynes Theatre, Swansea Grand Theatre, Bristol Colston Hall and finally Plymouth Theatre Royal. The reason I was so delighted was, that Cheryl had evidently understood everything I had said during the two meetings perfectly. The seating capacity, apart from the 830 seats at Inverness, were between 1100 and 1500, so there would not be that much need for modifications of the system. I went to thank her myself.

“Cheryl, thank you so much for your fabulous work. It seems you have grabbed all the vital facts intuitively, even though I have not even mentioned all of them in the meetings. You are one gem of a PA!”

I do not think I have ever made anyone more happy than Cheryl in that moment. She was beaming at me, proud and admiring at the same time. Abigail, who had been watching from her office, waved to me to come in for a moment and motioned to close the door once I was inside.

“Monique, you are amazing. None of us has ever been able to motivate her like that.”

“Maybe,” I said with a smile “you have never challenged her enough? I must admit, that I myself thought of her as a slightly too blond blonde the first time I saw her. But when I found the flowers she has put on my desk this morning that changed my view of her.”

“She put flowers on your desk? Well I never...”

I laughed.

“Abigail, we all have our little prejudices and misconceptions. But honestly, I can hardly believe HOW nice everybody has been to me. In any case, I have the firm intention to steal Cheryl for the hire company.”

“Oh, I’ll tell Florence to promote her to your personal assistant and hire a new receptionist. No problem there, you nasty thief.” she laughed.

“Oh my, Abigail, it is such a delight to work here.”

“It seems so for everybody since you arrived, darling. We are all happy to have you.”

I could not help but to stop by at Cheryl’s desk again.

“I forgot to thank you for the flowers, Cheryl. And I have stolen you from What Else, you are, from the moment Florence has hired a replacement, my full time PA, are you happy with that?”

She actually started crying and I beamed at her.

“Great, so I am not the only one here to cry at good news.”

I took a tissue from the box on her desk and carefully cleaned her face a little. She looked at me with big puppy dog eyes and I thought that I had made her very happy.

“Thank you, Monique, you are the first one to take me seriously. It was not difficult to understand where you are coming from. It is pure logic.”

“It is, Cheryl, but only for people with a purely logical mind. I will be more than happy to work with you.”

“Thanks.”she whispered “So will I.”

That day had gone better than I expected. It was time to think about my team. Now that I had Cheryl I only needed two more assistants, one for the lighting design side, and here I was definitely hoping for Josephine, and one for the technical side. I would have to hold a meeting and then get to know my girls more closely to make a choice. So I asked Cheryl to call them together at the theatre where I would introduce them to Will, who’d love it, and get them organised according to their preferences and abilities. Cheryl started leaving phone messages right away and I told her I’d invite her for dinner once she was done. Then I went into my office and though about how to rearrange it to accommodate Cheryl here as well.

I let Cheryl chose the place to go to and she chose the little Italian place again, a choice I was perfectly happy with. She was a bit shy to start with, but it did not take her very long to gather her courage to ask, what evidently had been on her mind all the time.

“Monique, may I ask you some very personal questions?”

She asked after we had had a first sip of our white wine.

“Cheryl, as long as all my answers stay a secret between you and me, I will try to answer whatever questions you may have.”

“Have you been dressing as a woman before? Did you always want to be a woman?”

“No, and yes, but I did not want to acknowledge that. That is a very painful topic for me, Cheryl.”

“I am sorry, Monique,” she said touching my hand on the table “I have no intention whatsoever to hurt you. I am just soo curious.”

“I know since I found your lovely flowers this morning, darling, that you do not wish me ill. I just wanted to warn you that some questions might make me cry.”

“Oh, I can very much relate to that. I cannot possibly imagine what it could be like to live in the wrong body. At least that is what I assume it to be like for you?”

“I was never really aware of that, Cheryl. It started with my voice. I was the lead Soprano in my school’s choir and then I saw a concert of the Wiener Sängerknaben and they gave an act from a Mozart opera. After that I wanted nothing more than to sing like a girl in such lovely dresses. My father was of a completely different frame of mind. It was hell, even worse with the onset of puberty. But I repressed all my feelings and tried to man up. It hasn’t worked, as you can see. The mistake with my name was a saving grace.”

“I could not believe the transformation, when I saw you the second time, Monique. There was nothing, really I mean it! nothing male left in you. You are so feminine and pretty. It doesn’t matter that you do not even have breasts yet, one hardly notices.”

She paused a moment, seemingly choosing her words.

“On the other hand you are so confident, so logical and yet sensitive … I so admire you.”

“Cheryl, you are all those things, too. May I ask you a very personal question, too?”

“Of course!”

“Why do you make yourself even more blonde and try to give off that vibe?”

She cast her eyes down.

“My boy friend. He really wants a bimbo, I think.”

“Sweetie, you are worth a lot more than that, as you have just proven to me this morning. What is so special about him, that you do it?”

“I really love him, you know? He is not a bad guy, he treats me well and ...”

“He is quite insecure.” I concluded her sentence.

She looked at me wide eyed and then a grin spread across her face.

“Of course, Monique. You understand things from both points of view. What should I do?”

“Lets make a deal.” I said giggling “You teach me girly things and I tell you about how a lot of boys really are.”

“Oh that sounds wonderful, Monique!” she said taking both my hands in hers “Friends?”

“Yes, Cheryl, friends.”

Our meals arrived and we had the most intense conversation over them. I explained how a lot of boys were insecure in puberty, how they tried to cover that by exaggerating or even inventing encounters with girls, and how they felt threatened, every time when they had a pretty girlfriend, thinking some stud would come along and steal her.

“I would bet, that your boy friend fears, that if someone found you to be not only beautiful but intelligent his chance would be over. You need to try and give him confidence in the fact, that it actually is your intelligence, that makes you stay with him. Challenge him intellectually to accept you as equal, because otherwise you will tire of him and your role as a bimbo and start hating him.”

“Wow,” Cheryl replied “no wonder you are such a good leader. You see and understand things.”

“As do you, Honey. Make good use of it and don’t be afraid of losing him. If he doesn’t understand himself, he’s doomed to lose you one way or another in any case.”