After a morning’s relaxation (??!!) Christine and Andy have dressed for the afternoon’s encounters

No explicit details are contained in this chapter, so no need for CAUTION.

Chapter 11 — The afternoon that Bev and Heidi……did!!

As she stepped down the stairs, her stockings an hand, Astrid thought ‘what a lucky girl I am’. She thought of her wife who loved her enough to treat her the way she did, to treat her as an equal, to love her both as a man and woman. A wife who is as attractive as a girl as a guy. A woman who loved making love and being loved. She felt her clothes swish as she took the final step with a skip, her strappy white sandals holding her feet tightly.

She clasped the small vial of nail lacquer in her right hand and made for the lounge where she would paint her toenails before putting on her stockings — the final touch before she was ready for the world.

It was already 3pm — so long had their enjoyments upstairs taken. There was not much time to lose. Bev would be waiting for Christopher and, at 4pm, Heidi would be expecting her at the salon.

Christopher continued to watch his husband enjoy herself all the way down, before following her downstairs after adjusting his shirt in the mirror. Christine paused for an up-close inspection. Gee, she was pleased she had no need to shave. How could guys put up with that crap? Every day?!! Her complexion was smooth and rather unmanly, but what the hell, the overall impression made her feel good. This was a guy who was out to pull a brassy barmaid. Christine particularly liked the almost slutty look of her suitor from the pub. It made her feel all the more male for the day.

Astrid was taking great care to get the nail polish on her toes in the most perfect way that she could. Of course, she wasn’t proficient, so there was bound to be a mis-hap and, sure enough, Andy had to start over again on the second foot. The first was really professionally done. He admired his handiwork. But he admired it too much. As soon as the lacquer hit the first toe on the next foot, he realized that he had overloaded the small dipping brush. Astrid’s hand wavered and the toe was immersed in too much paint! “Damn!, Damn!..... Damn!” he said out loud.

“What’s the problem, honey?” asked Christopher, coming across from the foot of the stairs. “Oh, I see…. I’ll get you some acetone and a tissue…”

“I have the tissue but forgot the acetone…..” Astrid was disappointed. She wanted to do this all herself and do it well.

Christopher returned with the acetone lacquer remover from upstairs. “Here, let me do it for you. I like putting lacquer on your toes and I’ve done it before…. Let me help…”

Astrid felt tears welling up in her eyes….. She wanted to do this herself…… But she managed to hold the tears back, knowing how crying would mess up the carefully applied make-up… especially the eyeliner and mascara.

“No, darling. I have to do this for myself…..”

“Ok, Ok, you do it darling. I’ll get myself finally ready outside so’s I don’t distract you. We do have time, so take it. And if you want, I’ll set off to meet Bev before you have to leave for the salon.”

Astrid smiled a faint smile, uncertain if she could do this actually. The problem was that, being right-handed, she found it difficult to paint the lacquer on her left foot. She soaks the tissue in acetone and wipes away the excess lacquer. Ready to start again!

(The author pauses at this point to enact the process of painting her own toenails and, sure enough, finds it no more easy than ever. But, heavens above, she manages to complete the adornment of her own toes without making the same mistake that Astrid has made!! Woo-hoo!)

It takes longer than she thought but the final result is beautiful. Astrid sat back and admired her handiwork as the toes were allowed to dry. The temptation to rush the process and to put on the sheer stockings that she loved so much was resisted. The lacquer would be spoilt if it were not dried fully.

Astrid said to herself out loud, “Geez, I do love the girly feeling when I have such red toenails!” She admired the white strappy sandals that she would be wearing. Their low heels were enough, just enough, to bear the skip in her step, her girly steps, that she would be making up the street. But before putting them on, there were the stockings. She picked them up and almost absent-mindedly ran them through her hands. It made her think that she needed moisturizer for her hands. They needed to be as soft as they could be. Especially if there was to be no nail polish on the fingernails. She didn’t have time for that…. Or did she….? No, she didn’t,…. As much as she would have loved to have that as the finishing touch….. ‘Maybe tonight?’ she said out loud again.

She picked up some moisturizer from the kitchen and applied plenty to her albeit manly hands. She wished, in that instant, that she had been born with a smaller frame. OK, she and Christine were of similar build, but it would have made life so much easier if she, Astrid, were lighter and smaller than Andy had been born.
Never mind the ‘being born in a man’s body’ thing…. Astrid just would have loved to have had a woman’s body. Maybe, she thought, the ideas for her to develop tits of her own would come to pass.

As she walked back to the lounge, she pushed her bra upwards, hoping to accentuate what little cleavage she had been able to create. Her bra straps twanged against he skin, giving a delicious feeling.

She bet down and touched the lacquer on one of her toes. It proved to be dry. Dry enough to roll the stockings and slip them up towards her thighs. The first went on a breeze. As she stood, to fix the clasps to the stocking top, she looked at the outline of her leg. She was blessed with quite long legs and stockings certainly made them look very feminine indeed. She closed the final clasp, to the back of her thigh, and smoothed her hands over the sheer nylon. She shuddered with beautiful joy of the feminine thing she had become. She recalled that climax while they had been making love. In her head. A woman’s thing…… Oh! Joy!

On went the other stocking. With similar ease until the clasps evaded her. It took quite a time, with the third and fourth proving very elusive to fix. Enough o make Andy break into something of a sweat.

He was conscious of this. “Girls don’t sweat, they glow” he had once been told….. A few deep breaths caused his heart rate to slow and the feeling of a sweat to disappear. He fluffed his hair in the mirror, thinking again how it was this that would be his very next, and perhaps quite major change in his appearance.

Heidi had suggested highlights for his hair. How far to go with those? Whether to or not? Whether to make them subtle or bold? Phew! There were thoughts to be had on the walk up to the salon. He fluffed the unstyled hair again. After the shower she had taken, it was neither girly nor boyish as it was.

“Are you ready???” came a cry from outside. Christopher was getting impatient and was wanting to get up to the pub where Bev would soon be waiting. He imagined her tarting herself up before emerging to meet him. Christine felt quite wet between her thighs at the prospect.

“Yes, I am. I’ll come with you even if it means I’ll be early at the salon. I’d quite like that, I think. I’ll be able to see how Heidi runs the place. After all, in any case, I think it’s going to take me some time in there. I’ve no idea what time she closes.” Astrid closed the door behind her to find her handsome husband waiting at the garden gate. She felt very girly, to be walking out with a guy like him.

Even though she knew who and what he was, Andy fancied Christopher. Astrid also fancied Christine…. Hugely. If either attraction was the stronger, it was Astrid’s attraction to Christine. Girl to girl. But….. Andy recalled the old saying that we are, none of us, 100% heterosexual or 100% homosexual. Right now, Astrid was no longer feeling 100% lesbian…. “Confusing? If I’m confused, what will he be thinking?” Astrid said to herself under her breath as she walked towards her husband.

“What did you say, honey/ By the way, you look fabulous.” Christopher knew how to melt a girl’s heart…. Not surprising, after all, being a girl himself. Astrid fell into his arms and said “Wish me luck.”

“You’ll need no such thing. You’ll love every minute. Heidi’s a brilliant hairdresser. I know that for sure. I’ve always been delighted with what she’s done with mine.”

“Yes, but….”

“No buts, mo maybes… he’ll make you look stunning. Even more stunning.”

“Yes, but….”

“But what!???”

“But, what shall I say if she says she’s worked out who I am. Who we are….? How do I handle that first question.” Astrid clung to Christopher’s body.

“She’ll make it very easy for you, I’m sure. That’s not the issue. You need her insights into other people in the village. So, if it makes it any easier, why not confess your secret early on. It will save you the embarrassment of being discovered, if that’s what’s worrying you.” Christopher had a practical woman’s angle on this, provided by Christine’s understanding of her husband’s reticence.

“Ok, ok, it’s not a big issue. This should be fun…. This should be the first day of the rest of our lives… our different lives. This place may never be the same. It all depends on the next hour or two…… You’re such a great visionary, you know. This is all down to you, Chrissie. You’re the most fabulous woman I’ve ever known and I love you so very much. Take my hand and let’s play ball, as Pierce Brosnan said in the re-make of the Thomas Crown Affair”…….” Astrid found happiness again. All Christine had done was listen.

“You always loved the vision of that lad in that film, didn’t you.” Christopher began. “What was her name again?” Astrid jumped in, enthusing, “Renee Russo, that was her, what a stunning redhead she was. So, so sexy…… There was that part in the film where they went away to some Caribbean island and he burned a Monet painting just to taunt her about what he possessed and what he knew. Then they fucked all night. There was nothing shown that a young audience couldn’t see, but all the grow-ups in the audience just loved every minute. I bet there were many marriage beds rocking that night when the people got home!”

“I remember it well.” Christopher said as they arrived at the door of the hair salon where his wife would be spending the next two or three hours. He kissed Astrid gently on the lips, careful not to mess with her lipstick this time, and turned on his way towards the pub at the top of the village. Again, he thought, they had seen not another living soul on their walk. This was such a quiet community.

Astrid turned away and opened the half-stable door and she looked inside. “I hope you don’t mind if I’m early”, she said, as she looked across the room. It was quite crowded, albeit with only three customers either waiting or being styled. Heidi was alone as the stylist, but there was a young lady who was clearly acting as Heidi’s shampoo girl or junior stylist. She was at the little desk by the door.

“Come in, come in,” she said. Astrid was later to find out that her name was Charlotte, shortened to ‘Lottie’ by Heidi.

--oo00oo–

Christopher headed off to reach the pub where he hoped to find Bev waiting. He had a load of questions to ask her but, in the back of his mind, Christine was thinking that she hoped to push in the direction of a sexual encounter with Bev before long. Not to rush her… Ladies don’t like that. She would find the opportunity to begin a little ‘wooing’ of this attractive-in-a-slutty way girl.

Christopher pushed the door of the bar, half expecting it to be closed and bolted as the pub was not open all day at this time of year. But the door was open. He went in a surveyed the now-empty bar. All the customers had left, rather as he hoped they might have. There was nobody behind the bar either. The place was silent.

Christine thought about calling out to the back room but chose instead to wait for her target to arrive. She sat, as any man would, at the bar, playing with a card mat which served to dry any spills of beers or other drinks. She piled several on top of one another. She flipped one over, playing as she had seen Andy do many times when idly sitting in a bar. “Geez, men are easily amused!” she said out loud, when to her surprise, a voice behind her said “Aren’t they just!?”

Bev had arrived from a side room and entered the room quietly. Christopher didn’t know that he had been watched for several seconds before Bev said what she said, to surprise him. Bev obviously wanted to be ‘on the front foot’ in this conversation.

“You been there long?”, asked Christopher.

“Long enough…”, said Bev in a crafty, knowing sort of way.

“I’m pleased to see you..”, said Christopher.

“Not half as much as I am to see you……..”, confessed Bev. “You see, I’ve never met anyone quite like you before and I couldn’t resist accepting your offer when you made it.” Bev smiled, as if suggesting, ‘your turn’. Of course, Bev knew. She knew that Christopher wasn’t a Christopher……. But she wanted to play him along…. Like a fly-fisher plays a salmon with a fly. Bev could be seen as a brightly-coloured fly, teasing her prey and getting him to bite. Again and again, if she could she would cast the line and fly the fly. Keeping the salmon on tenterhooks but not actually on the hook for landing.

Christine suspected as much but played along. Her Christopher voice was still deeper than her own. She played the role.

“You look very fit today, if I may say.” She looked Bev up and down, admiring her magnificent breasts encased in the still tight blouse, one of a different colour to that she had been wearing previously. This was a purple one. A deep, “fuck me” colour. Her skirt was pencil-thin and tight on the hips, white with a flash of matching purple. Her shoes were heeled, thought not impossibly high. A higher class whore than previously seen perhaps! Christine admired her. She felt very drab by comparison.

“Will you have a drink?” She asked Bev.

“On the house. I’ll have a gin and tonic. A large one. What about you?” Bev answered.

“I’ll have the same thanks.” said Christopher.

“So, not a pint of something heavy?” Bev replied suggesting something, but not saying what.

“No, no, I keep that for evenings with my mates…..”

Bev looked him straight in the eyes. “Right, I’ll get them in and we can talk. I do suppose that’s what you want to do? To get to know each other”

“That’s the idea. Let’s see what we have in common.” Christopher’s answer opened a door for Bev to walk through if she wanted to. To stop playing her game or to continue?

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll have lots in common. You seem like a fit man yourself. You said you’re called Christopher, right? Well, Christopher…” she paused, “.. What does Christopher do for a living?

Christine was taken aback for a second. She hadn’t actually given any thought to Christopher as a character outside of her plan. “Umm, well, I’m a creative at an advertising agency in Oxford. I design the campaigns after clients give us a briefing and we develop campaigns for them.”

Bev swallowed the lead, continuing to practise her ‘fly-fishing’ routine. “Must be fun….. Do you work with interesting people?”

“Oh, yes indeed. People of all sorts. And different products too. We’re working on a cosmetic range just now. Hugely enjoyable. Very creative….”

Bev could contain herself no longer. “Interesting people like yourself, then? I mean, you’re quite different, aren’t you? Handsome man like you, must have loads of friends……..”

“Yes, I’m lucky…”

“Lucky enough to find acceptance, then?” The final fly was cast……

“Acceptance?........” Christine knew she was hooked now.

“Yessss…. As you are. I mean, you make a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but you’re something more, aren’t you?

--oo00oo--
/
Astrid was seated on the only spare chair in the salon. There was a lot of chatter among the others in the room and Andy did his best to join in. There was talk about the forthcoming summer fair that people were organizing for the village charity. She and Christopher would be expected to run a side show if they were there on the day — which Andy hoped they still would be. There would be fun in choosing a game, depending on how far Christine’s plan got by the time of the fair!

‘Lottie’ was as much a part of the conversations and was responsible for finishing off one older lady client’s set, spraying her with lacquer and removing here gown before taking her payment.

Heidi, meanwhile was putting the finishing touches to another lady’s colour processing. This woman, too, was having highlights. Heidi explained that this was quite a complex treatment as the lady had chosen not one but three colours for her highlights to be woven together. Heidi said she liked doing things like that. It made her skills develop so she could do better and better services for her customers. Lottie, meanwhile shampooed the third woman’s hair and sat her at the only remaining vacant styling position. The woman looked at herself in the mirror and said very little.

When Heidi finished the highlighting, she put the woman’s head under the special developing lights that accelerated the time she needed to finish. Lottie would then wash the colours out and the woman would be ready for her set or blow-dry, or whatever…... Andy thought but didn’t say “I’d love a blow job with Heidi! And to give her something similar in return” but he told himself he was way away from that level of intimacy with this woman he hardly knew.

Andy continued to read his copy of “Hello!” Magazine with all its showbiz gossip and pictures of Royalty and similar stuff. He didn’t get to see that sort of material very often and there were plenty of images of women that he would dearly love to look like in there. Astrid looked with envy at Rihannah, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Adele, Kerry Katona and Jessie J. from the current crop of girl singers. She marvelled at their hair and their make-up. She lusted over the immaculate clothes they wore for the cameras. She wished that she could be photographed that way.

Minutes passed and the two other customers reached the end of their appointments. The highlights were indeed beautiful. The woman had lustrous long hair and had decided to take bold streaks into the front half of her head and a more subtle blend of narrower strands over the back. She looked almost, but not completely blonde, from the front where golden and ginger streaks lay together. The back was more frosted. A lovely creation. “But too much for me.” Astrid said to herself.

The woman who said little had said even less and departed with a conventional blow-dried bob style. One that Astrid always loved and wished for if only she could grow her hair longer. Perhaps she was entering a phase of her life when she could. Might make life difficult for Andy but, what the hell!, she mused to herself.

So, the time came, sometime after Astrid’s appointment had been set for, when she was alone in the salon with Lottie and Heidi.

There was a prolonged discussion, during which Astrid had to remain focussed on using her girly voice to maintain the image she wanted to project top these young woman. That of a late-30s woman who took pride in her appearance and who was looking for a change in her appearance.

“What work do you do…er… What may I call you?.... asked Heidi, standing over Andy and looking at him in the mirror.

“Oh, that’s easy. Call me Astrid, please do….. I work in a Publishers company in Oxford. It’s ever so boring really. I do need a change… in fact I need a lot of changes…..” Andy meant that more than anybody knew!

“What would you like to do then?” Heidi asked as she played with Andy’s hair, lifting section, twisting others. She was clearly thinking through alternative styles for Astrid’s hair. She wondered just how much of a change this customer wanted. She looked into the eyes that faced her and her thoughts went off at a tangent.

“Fashion, I think. Something in fashion. I need something that’s a lot more fun. Something that would be a surprise. I’m ready for that. I suppose that’s why I’m here today. I fancy a change in the way I look.”

“Well, you’ve come to the right place, hasn’t she Lottie?”

Lottie nodded but said nothing. She just smiled. She was learning about the ways Heidi interacted with different customers. She had seen the ‘change’ moments before. Heidi gave consultations and ideas freely. Customers knew and liked that, so they came back more often.

More questions. “Have you thought of having extensions in your hair?” Heidi said.

“Not really, I think they’d be too much bother…..”

“Ok, I think you might be wrong there, but lets think… How long is it since your hair was cut? It looks like just a few months…. Getting to this length. You do need some split ends taking off. That will help it to grow faster, if that’s what you want.”

“Oh, yes indeed. It’s been that long and I know it needs conditioning and the ends sorting out. I’d really like to get beyond my chin length, which means there’s a way to go yet.” Astrid was fully into her character now. Andy was a mile away in her mind. She kept her eyes focussed on the stylist’s mirror in front of her. She briefly wondered how Christopher was getting on.

“That’s easy — split ends are no worry. The length will take two or three more cuts, over two or three months and we’ll get you closer to where you want to be. You may want to be careful with a ponytail…. I see that the ends probably get damaged when you hold it back now. I wouldn’t do that for the next little while. Give the hair a chance to strengthen.”

Astrid knew she was right. The little ponytail that she made up sometimes was often hard to get out and the hair did split. This girl knew what she was talking about.

“The good news is that I think highlights will look really good on your head and we can do a stunning selection for you today. Will you let me be the judge of what colour or colours will suit you best? Heidi was in full ‘customer service’ flow now.

Her tangential thoughts came back from moments ago as she stopped talking. In fact, they were boomerang thoughts…….

We’ll put the colour in your hair here and then I’ll put you under the developer like you saw the other client before. Is that Ok?”

“Sure, it’s wonderful, thanks” Astrid answered.

“While we’re doing the colour, you can tell me how a guy lives like you do. It must be great fun! We don’t get many guys in here.

Andy came rushing back. Heidi had sussed his situation, but appeared totally cool with the whole idea.

Chapter 12 will get the information that Christine and Andy need, but not before their appointments are finished.