Working Title

"It's Leanne now, Leanne Lewis. You know that. You named me. Or should I say, you re-named me?"

"Sorry... Leanne. I - I have a couple of your DVDs. You are really something else."

"My bank account thanks you and so do I," I purred.

"I just wanted to say you look... really good."

"Thank you again," I replied sincerely. "I feel good about myself, too. Better than I have felt in a long time."

"How do you know Max?", she inquired. I told her the truth - mostly.

"Oh, he's a fan. He invites me to these little soirees to act as 'hostess'. He has been helping me out in my career for almost a year."

"Almost a year," Gayle repeated thoughtfully. "A couple of months after you left.... When you walked out, disappeared like that, I was... worried about you. I was afraid something had happened to you."

I stepped closer to her and lowered my voice, making sure only she would be able to hear my words. I summoned up every once of venom I had been storing up for the last fourteen months, awaiting this very moment.

"Now listen up, Bitch. Something did happen to me. You happened to me. Your affair with - what is his name? Craig? - happened to me. Your subsequent guilt trip, which caused you to transform me into 'Leanne', happened to me. I went through that transformation so willingly because you convinced me you wanted that for us, to bring us closer together."

"I did want to bring us closer together," she pleaded.

"Don't even try to lay that lame claim on me," I retorted. "If it had been about 'us', 'us' would have been consulted about Craig. 'Us' would have had some input on your little peccadillo. 'Us' would have been leveled with from the start about your real reasons for wanting me to become a woman. 'Us' would have been treated like a human being, instead of first, a cuckold, then a Barbie Doll.

"You say it was about 'us', but in reality it was about you wanting me to understand a woman's desires first-hand, you wanting to take away my masculinity so I wouldn't be mad about you shacking up with Craig.