[This is yet another story from my archives. Circ 2011]

“Do you Katya Collins take Lauren Allen as your lawful wedded wife?”

“I do.”

“Do you Lauren Allen take Katya Collins as your lawful wedded wife?”

“I do.”

“Katya, will you please recite your vows?”

“I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, Katya Collins to take you Lauren Allen to be my lawful wedded wife to love and to cherish from this day forward.”

“Lauren, will you please recite your vows?”

“I, call upon these persons here present to witness that I, Lauren Allen to take you Katya Collins to be my lawful wedded wife to love and to cherish from this day forward.”

“Who has the rings?”

One of the two bridesmaids stepped forward and produced the rings.

Lauren took one and slipped it onto Katya’s finger. As she did so, she said,

“I give you this ring as a symbol of our love. All that I am I give to you, all that I have I share with you. I promise to love you, to be faithful and loyal in good times and bad may this ring remind your always of the words we have spoken today.”

Then Katya did the same and recited the same words as Lauren did.

With a smile on her face, the registrar said,

“It now gives me great pleasure to tell you both that you are now legally Wife and Wife. Congratulations.”

“You may now exchange kisses.”

Lauren and Katya lifted each other’s veils and kissed passionately for a few seconds. Both of them knew that there would be time for a lot more of that later.

A few minutes later the happy couple left the Council Offices in their identical white wedding dresses with huge grins on their faces.

[15 months before]

“Hi Lauren,” said Tom as he answered the phone with more than a bit of resignation in his voice.

“He has? The bastard.”

“Well…”

“No, I don’t have someone here with me. You know me.”

“Ok. See you in five.”

Tom put the phone down and let out a big sigh. His ‘little’ secret was about to be exposed. The only upside he could see was that at least it was his best friend Lauren that he would be exposing himself too.

As he went into the kitchen to tidy away the plates from his evening meal, he realised that that was about to happen was pretty well inevitable especially as he’d been more daring about his secret passion in the previous few months.

Tom’s secret was that he was a closet Transsexual. His very religious upbringing meant that it was buried really, really deep. Until very recently, he only dressed when he felt that he would not be found out. He was scared of that happening because in his opinion, there was no way in hell that he could actually live as a woman.

His family would disown him in an instant. As his Father was a Minister in the Free Church that was a given. The ‘Free’ Church had broken away from the mainstream Church because they were too Liberal. Years of listening to sermons liberally laced with the words ‘Hell’, ‘Damnation’, ‘Fire’ and ‘Brimstone’ as places you’d go if you dared commit even the slightest sin had an effect on Tom. For years he repressed his desire to be a woman. Even though he was sure in his belief that he should have been born a woman, he repressed all desires to even admit to himself that he could live as he wanted and not go to hell as his father had preached.

In the end, going away to University allowed him for the first time to even dare to think that he could even dress a little bit ‘feminine’ and not be a sinner and thus be condemned to eternal damnation and hellfire.

As a result, by the time he’d graduated, he had a small stash of clothes that he wore in the evenings and at weekends.

Lauren came breezing into his life a year after he’d graduated with a first in PPE. PPE stood for Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Most of his fellow students wanted to become Politicians. Tom wanted nothing to do with Politics and duly got a job as an Economist with a research Institute. The fairly decent salary meant that he was able to afford to rent a one bedroom flat in East London.

Lauren had rented the flat next door and moved in just over a month after Tom. About a week later, a leaky pipe in her place meant that she knocked on his door looking for some help, and that was that. Something between them clicked and they became firm friends.

Actually, Tom wanted a lot more than that but he was afraid of losing her even as a friend. He was afraid because Lauren was way out of his league as well as his little habit. Her ravishing beauty naturally attracted a lot of men. Many men that she dated literally ran away when they realised that she was not the ‘Blonde Bimbo’ they assumed her to be. She was actually a Mathematics lecturer at a University which made her anything but the ‘Blonde Bimbo’. Even so, there were some on the University staff who had doubted her qualifications.

Lauren also had a weakness that was far beyond the ability of any mathematical formula to describe.

Her problem was that very few of the men who dated her were up to her standards so the relationships were usually short. Those who got past the second date inevitably did something to end it.

In this case, her current boyfriend, a banker by the name of Tristram Beauchamp had walked into the restaurant where he was supposed to meet Lauren with one of Lauren’s colleagues on his arm. Lauren retaliated by throwing a carafe of wine over the two of them and left them to clean up the mess.

So, she turned to Tom. He was her rock. She could pour out her heart and he’d comfort her and give her words of encouragement.

The problem was that this messed up Tom something rotten. Every time she did it, it became harder for him to just remain her friend.

Inevitably, he shrank into his shell and turned to the only thing that he knew for sure that wouldn’t’ run away or answer back, his female alter ego, Katya.

He chose the name for her simply because it sounded nice and well… different.

---

On this particular Friday evening, Tom was dressed as Katya because he’d had a hard week at work. One very important piece of research had uncovered a lot of problems and it had been up to Tom to sort out the mess. The stress of doing that inevitably took its toll on him. Some people would have gone out and got drunk. His relief was to become Katya. It was also hard for him/her as it was the third anniversary of Lauren coming into his life.

Katya was dressed in a long black lace evening dress. She wore her decently long hair up in a bun and was fully made-up. Very long black gloves adorned her arms.

Katya had just finished eating when he heard a door slam. He knew in an instant that the noise came from next door, Lauren’s flat. She was home early which could only mean one thing, Lauren’s latest relationship was over.

Katya sat down and tried to ‘review the situation’. For an instant, the song of that name flashed through her mind. She reasoned that there was no time to become Tom again so tonight was it. Lauren was going to have to know not only about Katya but the love that she felt for Lauren.

A small smile crossed her face as she stood up and looked at herself in the mirror.

“That’s as good as it gets girl,” she remarked as she tidied up a loose strand of hair.

Then the doorbell rang.

After taking a deep breath she walked towards the front door. The only sound was that made by her heels on the wooden floor.

“Here goes,” she said quietly as she reached the door.

Katya opened the door.

Lauren took a sharp intake of breath as she saw Katya.

“Tom?”

“I am afraid Tom is not here this evening. Won’t you please come in. My name is Katya.”

As Lauren stepped over the threshold the two of them burst into laughter.

“Well Tom, you certainly know how to cure me of my troubles.”

“Please call me Katya. Let me get you a drink then we can talk.”

Lauren sat down and looked at her friend. Slowly she realised that Tom knew just about everything there was to know about her but there was really very little she really knew about him.

“Here you go, I’ve made it a double. You have had more than one unexpected surprise tonight.”

“You can say that again,” said Lauren as she took the tumbler from Katya.

She took a hefty swig and then said,

“You didn’t dress up just for me, that much is obvious. So?”

“Lauren, I’ve wanted to tell you about this for years. Ever since we became friends. This is the real me. Not the one called Tom.”

She just sat there with her mouth open.

“Why? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I… I was scared.”

“Scared to tell me that you are a transsexual?”

Katya shook her head.

“It was not just that.”

After a moments pause she added,

“It is because I am in Love with you. Ever since the first time you came knocking at my door in the middle of the night asking for help. I fell in love with you then and I’m still in love with you.”

Lauren started to say something but Katya put up her hand to stop her.

“Please don’t stop me now. If I don’t tell you everything now then I’ll never be able to tell you,” said Katya.

“Every time you came here with a broken heart I loved you even more but every time you did, you became even more out of my reach. Well, chance, fate, call it what you will gave me this opportunity to tell you about myself and my love for you. Now that I have done it, would you please leave me alone?”

With that Katya walked out of the room and into her bedroom leaving Lauren sitting there holding a half empty tumbler of Scotch.

Lauren tried to say something but no words came out.

After a minute or so, she put the tumbler down and followed Katya.

She found Katya sitting on the bed with her head buried in a towel and sobbing gently. Lauren sat down next to her and put her arms around her friend.

“You’ve been here for me all the times I’ve come and cried my heart out. Now it is my turn,” she said softly.

The pair sat together for nearly an hour before Katya asked,

“Why are you doing this? Aren’t I an embarrassment to you?”

“Shhh. I’m here and that is all that matters.”

Katya looked at Lauren with bloodshot eyes.

“I’m here because I want to be. But why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I was scared. I didn’t want to lose you as a friend.”

“I’m your friend because I wanted to be. You were a safe place for me to go because I thought that you were gay. Now I know the real reason I…”

“Fuck it Tom, Katya or whatever you are called, you don’t make it easy for me do you?”

“Wh… what do you mean?”

“I really don’t care how you want to live your life as long as I am part of it, a really big part.”

Katya looked at her friend.

“Are you saying that you love me?”

“I… I think so. Since you told me about your love for me I have had this feeling about you that makes me go all wobbly inside. Part of me wants to kick myself for being so blind that I couldn’t see that you were attracted to me and part of me wants to kiss you now.”

“Kiss me please.”

Lauren brought her lips to Katya’s and they kissed gently put passionately.

When they broke apart, Lauren said,

“I think I should go now. I have a lot to think about. Seeing Katya instead of Tom is going to take some getting used to but lets’ take things one step at a time?”

Then Lauren kissed Katya again before leaving and going home.

Lauren did not speak to Tom/Katya until the following weekend. On the Saturday morning, she knocked at his door.

“Hi Tom, may I come in?”

“Sure, I’ve just made some fresh Coffee. Like a cup?”

“I know,” grinned Lauren,” I smelt it.”

Tom poured a cup for his friend as they sat at the kitchen table.

“I’m sorry about last Friday,” said Tom.

“No. Don’t be sorry. There is nothing to be sorry about. It was a bit of a shock seeing Katya for the first time but now that I’ve had time to think about it, I realise that you’d been dropping little hints about her for a long time. I just thought that you were being you. Well, you really were but not in the way I assumed.”

She reached over and took his hand.

“I’d like to try for us to have a relationship if you are willing?”

Tom smiled.

“I’d like to get to know Tom better first.”

“But Tom is not who I want to be.”

“I know but Katya is going to need a lot of work before I want to be seen with her on my arm. I think we need to get to know each other as a couple and see how we get on before we go much further.”

“Don’t we know each other already?”

Lauren shook her head.

“There is a lot I don’t know about you and that’s my fault for not asking. For that I am so sorry.”

Then she looked down at the table.

“This is the first time that it has not been all about me, me and more me. When I moved here it was supposed to be a new start for me but all too soon, I was only interested in me and… well, it hurts.”

“Lauren? I didn’t mean …”

“Stop right there! You are and have always been the perfect Gentleman with me. I realise now that I have been really dumb not to realise what I had right in front of me if only I’d looked.”

“But I put up so many walls.”

“Yes, you did. By being the perfect friend, I took you for granted and… let us just say that I used you. For that I’m sorry. Let’s say that it was my ‘blonde’ moment eh?”

They both laughed.

“So, what do we do now?”

“Firstly, you take me on a proper date. Then we get to know each other properly and then? Who knows? But I will say this, if we don’t click romantically then I will always be your friend even if it is with Katya.”

The way Lauren gripped her friends hand made this very plain to see.

---

That night, they both got dressed up and Tom took Lauren out to dinner. Lauren had made a very special effort to look her best. Sadly, this did attract the attention of someone else.

“Well, if it isn’t that frigid babe Laura. Got out of those twisted knickers yet then Darlin’?”

“Hello Oscar. It is not nice to see you again.”

“Who’s this then? Your latest ‘about to be dumped’ friend?”

“No. This is Tom, my neighbour. We have been friends for a couple of years.”

Oscar laughed.

“Don’t worry Tom. Come and see old Oscar here when she’s done with you. I’ll find a good lay for you. Just you see!”

“I don’t think I’ll be needing your services. Weren’t you the one who cried off a date with Lauren claiming that you had to work and then were spotted with some bimbo on your arm going into ‘Traders’? It is no wonder Lauren dumped you in a flash,” said Tom.

Tom turned to the flaxen haired beauty he had on his arm.

“This one is out for just one thing. If you say no to him, then you are history but he won’t have the good manners to tell you that. Just be warned.”

Oscar’s date looked at him angrily.

“No Babe. It’s not like that. Let me explain?” cried Oscar.

“Don’t Babe me,” she cried. Then she hit him on the arm with her very large handbag and stormed off.

Oscar glared at the couple before heading off after his now ‘ex’ date.

Lauren cuddled up closer to Tom.

“Thank you darling. Well done.”

Then she kissed him.

Later that night they were back at Tom’s.

“Thank you for a lovely evening. It was great to go out and enjoy ourselves and have no hidden agenda at the end,” said Lauren as they cuddled together on his sofa.

“Hidden agenda?” asked Tom,

“Don’t come all innocent with me. Going to bed and having sex with me. That hidden agenda.”

“That was never on my mind,” said a very red-faced Tom.

Lauren looked at him and slowly a smiled grew on her face.

“You’ve never done it have you?”

Tom’s face went even redder as he looked decidedly embarrassed.

Lauren’s grin disappeared as she took hold of his hand.

“I’m sorry. I should learn to keep my big mouth shut.”

After a long kiss, she said quietly,

“Am I forgiven?”

“Yes. Well as long as it is never mentioned again.”

“I won’t if you answer me one question?”

Tom sighed.

“Oh, very well.”

“Did you never have a girlfriend before me?”

Tom just looked anywhere but towards Lauren and gave a little shake of his head.
“Nothing serious”.

“Oh, you poor thing.”

She hugged him tight for a long time.

---

Tom’s revelation meant a lot to Lauren. In the following days, she spent a lot of time on the Internet reading about Transgendered people and their often very varied approaches to life. She also found a number of sites that contained stories about Transgendered people. Some of them made her smile but others were quite depressing.

It didn’t take her long to begin to understand why Tom had been so shy about expressing his feelings to her. The fear of failure and rejection seemed to come out in so many posts that she began to have doubts of her own. Then she realised that she was being silly and really didn’t want to lose Tom from her life. If more than a day went by when she didn’t see him or her, she felt that something was missing from her life. That was enough for her to put more effort into their relationship than she’d ever done with one before.

She did know one thing and that was the next few months were not going to be easy on him and as for her? Well, she wasn’t sure if she could go the whole way with him but there was a lot of water that needed to flow under a lot of bridges before she needed to make that decision.

Now that he was out in the open, Tom would change into Katya every evening when he returned home from work. At first there wasn’t a lot of choice when it came to clothes. Lauren had thrown most of his old wardrobe out because to quote,
“I’m not being seen going out with a Tart!” exclaimed Lauren when she saw the pitiful state of the collection of clothes that were lying on the bed in front of them.

To compensate, they spent several evenings shopping on-line for a more suitable wardrobe. Lauren actually started to enjoy herself. She loved shopping but not alone.

“There you are Kat, you now have a small but functional wardrobe for this season,” joked Lauren when they done shopping one evening.

“You think so?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

“We aren’t finished yet you know?”

“Eh?”

“What about you? I think yours needs a bit of livening up. Don’t you?”

She thought for a bit.

“But… I have to dress conservatively for work.”

“So?”

“What do you mean?”

Katya grinned,

“On the outside maybe but underneath… Well, just say that in my opinion, there is a lot of scope for improvement.”

“Why you….”

Then Lauren started to laugh.

“You are having me on, aren’t you?”

Katya remained straight faced.

“You could dress underneath to please both of us. Nice bra and panties instead of those plain white things you wear now. Then instead of tights you could wear stockings?”
Then she grinned,

“And perhaps a little….”

Then Katya made an hourglass shape.

“Oh….. You….”

Lauren stormed off back to her flat.

Katya sat back smiling. She loved winding up her friend. That was just how far their relationship had developed. Since Katya had been revealed Lauren had not even thought of getting into a relationship with someone else. When she realised this, she smiled inwardly to herself.

Over the course of the next few months their game of cat and mouse continued. Lauren gradually gave in to Katya’s requests to dress for them both. She knew in her heart that she’d ‘dressed down’ for years to make herself appear plainer than her beauty deserved. Her natural looks and stunning blonde hair was a magnet for the majority of men. It was oh, so easy for her to give the appearance of a ‘Blonde Bimbo’ when she was an academic. Dressing down was her way to keep the ‘trophy’ hunting men away from her. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Dressing down also kept the more amorous of her students at bay. Many of them were in their first year away from home and anything from the opposite sex was considered fair game.

Her one condition for wearing in her view skimpy underwear was that Tom wore the same. Obviously, he could not wear a bra but knickers and stockings were the order of the day for him as well.

Even though they weren’t sleeping together they had breakfast together every morning. This was ended by the two of them showing off their underwear to the other one and getting a seal of approval. This bonded them in a way that few other couples would experience.

Lauren never forgot Katya’s ‘hourglass’ prank. So, unbeknown to Katya, she bought a waist clincher and tried it in the privacy of her home in the evenings.

Sadly, the experiment was a failure. After a few days, two seams gave way so she threw it away in disgust.

After a period of reflection, she took the plunge and bought a corset. This instrument of torture was similarly discarded after a few days when it started chafing her hips.

Undeterred, Lauren took advantage of a trip to Paris for a ‘seminar’ on the theorems of Leibnitz where in some spare time she visited a Corsetiere. It didn’t take long for her to realise where she’d gone so horribly wrong with the first one.

This time she was measured properly and she learned how to not only wear but to care for the garment. As she was being measured, she pondered on how to get Katya into one as well. There was nothing more for it but she had to ask the Corsetiere.

“Madame Ducrois, as I said before, my boyfriend wants me to wear a corset.”

“Oui, Mademoiselle, this is not uncommon. He wants to liven up your sex life non?”

“That is true but I’d like to get him to wear one as well.”

The Corsetiere smiled.

“We cater for all shapes and sizes.”

“Madame. That is good to know. My boyfriend also like to dress up.”

“Ah, I see.”

Then she looked into her eyes.

“You must love her very much Non?”

“Oui. Yes, I do.”

“Then make an appointment for her. For our more special clients, we can do it in the evening if you prefer?”

“Madam, you are wonderful.”

Lauren started to wear her new corset to work almost every day. It didn’t take her long to appreciate the difference between the old and the new.

After she’d been wearing it for a couple of weeks, she took the plunge and put it on before she had breakfast with Tom. Prior to that, she’d been putting it on after their shared breakfast.

One the day of the revealing, Lauren went to Tom’s as usual wearing a long dressing gown.

“Good morning Darling”, said Lauren as she let herself into his home.

“Hi ya. You seem in a good mood today?”

“Yes I am.”

Then without further ado, she slipped out of the dressing gown.

Tom’s mouth dropped open in amazement.

“Well, cat got your tongue?”

“When….. sod it Lauren, you look even more beautiful than ever.”

“I’m glad that you appreciate all the hard work that I have put into this,” she replied sitting down beside him.
Before he had a chance to reply she added,

“Madame Ducros will see you on Thursday at six in the evening. She will measure you up for one of your own. She’s in Paris. I’ve booked us tickets on Eurostar and a hotel. We’ll be back in time for work the next day. ”

Tom almost choked on his Muesli.

“Me? Paris?”

“Yes, you my darling. Paris is where the corsetiere is.”

“But my Job?”

“Isn’t it about time to take that next step then Kat?”

Tom knew that she was right.

“If I get one and start wearing it then I’ll have to go full time.”

Lauren nodded.

“Well, isn’t Kat worth it?”

“What about you? Is it Tom or Kat for you?”

“Hey, don’t try to put it on me. I’m going nowhere. I love Tom and now know that I have for years but now that I’ve gotten to know Katya, I’d like to spend the rest of my life with Kat. You are an even nicer and more rounded person when you are Kat.”

“But I don’t think I could handle it if you were to leave me. Let’s face it Lauren, you are stunningly beautiful. Me? I’d be just about passable even a good amount of plastic surgery. You could have your pick of pretty well any man you wanted. I don’t think I could handle it if you were to leave me.”

“I’m going nowhere. Those men would want me only for my body. You don’t, you appreciate that I have a mind and am a real person. Besides, you are the only person I’d ever want to dress up for. Why do you think I’m wearing this eh? For you.”

“Don’t you like what it is doing to your waistline?”

Lauren grinned.

“Well… there is something to be said for it. A few people at work have commented on my improved figure.”

“All men I’ll bet?”

“Half and half but the most favourable comments have been from my male colleagues.”

“There you go.”

Lauren came and hugged Tom.

Tom went to work a couple of weeks later for the last time. His ‘team’ were celebrating the arrival of a new baby for one of them. When it was time for him to speak, he almost got cold feet.

“Raphael, like everyone here, I’d like to raise a glass to you and your ever increasing family. From the looks of her, Sonia is going to be a real handful later in life. So, to Raphael and his family!”

All those from the team who were present at the small wine-bar raised their glasses.

“And before anyone slips away… Yes Dominic, we all know that you are itching to get off home and watch Arsenal on the tell, I have a few words to say.”

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

“Some of you know that I’ve been seeing my next-door neighbour Lauren for quite some time. Well, she and I are going to get married in a few months. You will all be invited to the reception wherever it may be but I there is something else that you all need to know.”

He cleared his throat.

“From next week onwards, I won’t be called Tom. I’ve already changed my name to Katya Collins.”

There was a moments silence before someone said,
“But ‘Katya’? Surely that’s a woman’s name?”

“Yes, it is,” replied Tom trying not to grin. The feeling of relief that was welling up inside her was almost too big to contain.

“I wondered why Tom was looking so slim. He’s been dieting…,” exclaimed another.

Katya raised her hand.

“This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long, long time. It is hard for me to stand here and say this…. What I’m asking for is a bit of forgiveness if I get things wrong.”

Then she looked at everyone.

“If anyone can’t handle my change, please go and see HR on Monday. They know about my announcement today and are prepared to deal with any objections or complaints. As you all know, the company has a documented, policy towards LGBT employees but it seems that I’m the first Trans person in the company to come out. Naturally, my office door is always open and I’ll be willing to talk to people one-on-one if they have any misgivings about what I am doing and… well anything and everything.”

There was silence in the room.

“Well, if there are no further questions, the next round is on me,” said Kat.

Then she sat down, her hands shaking. Then she took a big gulp of her wine.

That was the day that ‘Kat’ came of age.

The following Monday, Kat walked into work with her head held high. Her team were all waiting for her.

As she approached, they started clapping her. After a brief hesitation, she smiled and carried on. Waiting for her in her office was possibly the biggest bouquet of flowers in the world. Her No2, Dominic stuck his head around the door and smiled.

“That is from all of us. We heard that some of the others on this floor were not altogether happy with you transitioning so we decided to show our support.”

Katya managed to hold back the tears until he’d gone.

As she sat looking at the flowers and reading the card, the words to a very famous song came into her mind.

Hey, Kat, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

Letting Lauren into her life had certainly made it better.

Hey, Kat, don't be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better

Kat felt a lot better that she’d eventually let Lauren get under his skin. Otherwise Kat could well have been hidden forever. She did feel a lot better for finally letting Lauren meet Katya.

That weekend, Lauren proposed to Katya who shed a few tears and said an emphatic ‘Yes’. Tom had truly metamorphosed into Katya.