"Good morning, Cecile," said Shirley sweetly as soon as he sat down.
Cecil answered her, smiled at her, and admired her trim, little figure. Shirley was a cute little girl, he thought. The boss in the office thought that she was nineteen, but she had confided to Cecil that she had added two years to her age when she'd left home in the North two years before.
"Come downstairs with me for coffee at eleven," she whispered into his ear, "I want to talk to you it's very important," she added in her silent little voice.
He nodded, smiled and watched her wiggle her way across to her desk opposite his. What did Shirley want now? he wondered.
"Hello, Tim," said Cecil to the youth who had paused at his desk.
"Hello, Cecile," said the young man, blushing as he leaned forward and tried to stare down the front of Cecil's sweater, "you look good enough to eat," then he hurried across the room.
Cecil stared after him thoughtfully. Would he have said that if he'd known? He patted his hair, feeling glad that it had grown so quickly and grateful, too, to the hairdresser who had made it look so casually but carefully groomed. All through the months that he'd spent studying stenography, Cecil had been training his hair to grow the way he wanted. His efforts had not been in vain.
He glanced across to Shirley. She sat behind one of those old – fashioned desks that looked like a board on two filing cases. Tim loved it, thought Cecil with a smile, every time he was passing Shirley's desk, he found some excuse to bend down and stay down to peek, glance or stare transfixed up Shirley's legs. Cecil stared up them now. For such a small girl, she had wonderful legs, he noticed not for the first time. She had panties on today, black ones… yesterday her thighs, buttocks, and hairy little belly had been bare. Cecil knew that. Shirley had accidentally – on – purpose shown him that in the tiny powder – room that Shires provided for their female staff. For their female staff! he thought with a pleasant thrill. He still got a tiny blast out of being a girl. Then he wondered why Shirley wore panties one day and not the next!
"I'm going to move," said Shirley as they sat at the counter in the main floor drug store and waited for their coffee.
He turned to her with a small sense of shock. "You're leaving Shires," he murmured, sounding concerned, "Oh, no!"
Shirley smiled, reassuringly. "Not Shires," she said. "I'm moving into an apartment." She had been telling Cecil that she hated the pokey room that she had rented in an apartment – cum – rooming – house in a seedy part of the city.
"Well!" Cecil sounded surprised, "Didn't take you long to find one it was only yesterday that you told me you were going to move."
"I've been looking for a long time," she said with her demure self – consciousness that reminded him of Beverly the old Beverly. "The only thing is," Shirley went on, "the rent's too high." She stared into Cecil's face.
"How high?" he asked – and Shirley told him.
"If I shared it with someone and it's big enough for two it would be perfect, Cecile just perfect!"
"Do you know anyone you'd like to share with?" he asked quietly.
"Yes," said Shirley. "You!"
Cecil felt his heart race. This sweet little chick! But… could he continue to keep up his act? His act that was so real so important yet so fragile! "Why me?" he breathed.
Shirley placed her hand on his. "Because I like you, Cecile. You're you're like me not like some people some girls " she stopped speaking suddenly, gripped his hand, then: "There's a girl just come in who would share with me but but she scares me."
"Why?" Cecil looked at Shirley curiously, wondering why a girl could scare Shirley, when the small girl jogged his elbow, pointed carefully: "Look, Cecile over there that's the girl – that's Eunice!"
Cecil looked, casually at first then with a small puzzled expression. The girl looked vaguely familiar. It wasn't until she turned and showed herself, full face, that Cecil recognized the girl that he'd seen with Beverly in the Eros Cafe.
"That's Eunice?" he asked.
"Yes," whispered Shirley.
"I'm glad you didn't share with her," said Cecil, carefully. "That girl's a lesbo!"
Shirley snatched her hand away from his.
"How do you know?" she snapped.
He stared at Shirley in surprise. "I I saw her in a Cafe where they're all lesbians," he murmured.
"You, too?" asked Shirley, disappointment and disillusionment in her voice.
"No," Cecil suddenly wanted to laugh, "Gee " he stopped himself before he swore like Benny, "No I just happened to go in there with someone we didn’t know it was for lesbos only!"
Shirley stared at him suspiciously.
"Are you telling me the truth, Cecile?" she asked in a prim, aloof voice.
Cecil shrugged his shoulders. "Why should I lie?" Then he added slyly, "It's you who were suggesting that I share with you… I wasn't asking you!"
Shirley bridled. "You've got a darn nerve!"
Cecil rolled his eyes over Shirley's body in a parody of desire and she smothered a small laugh, that threatened to bubble up.
He leaned towards her, whispered into her ear, "If I was a lesbo, Shirley, I'd go for you you sweet, little doll!"
Her face flushed scarlet, then Shirley began to giggle. "Funny you should say that," she murmured, then they both giggled together like a pair of baby chicks. When they stopped, Shirley said: "Will you?" And when Cecil raised his eyebrows, she asked it: "Share my place?"
"Sure," said Cecil devoutly, "Sure I will!"
Chapter 18
Cecil had stayed at Benny's since he had left home. It took him an hour to get to Shires, but when the little shop owner had found out that he had not obtained a room or any place to stay near to his new job he had insisted that Cecil stay with him.
"I wish you'd stay with me forever, Cecile," he'd said wistfully and Cecil had hated to see the disappointment on Benny's face when he told him that the arrangement was only temporary. Benny had his own small apartment inside the store. The space was meager for two people but Benny didn't mind and neither did Cecil, at first.
"You'll sleep with me, Cecile," said Benny, then added humbly: "You don't mind that, do you, baby?"
"No, Benny," Cecil had told him, "I don't mind."
Now that he wore female clothes all the time' not just on stolen moments of delight when he could sneak away from home Cecil began to think, as well as feel, more like a girl. Sometimes he shocked even himself with his reactions. The girl had come out of the dressing room in Benny's store just as Cecil entered the door, coming back from Shires. "How d'you like this one, Benny?" the tall girl in the skimpy ballet outfit had asked, pirouetting for the shop owner's benefit. "Geezus, that's okay, Evelyn," Benny had murmured when he glanced up, saw Cecil. He had walked over to Cecil, led him to the side door to his living quarters, murmuring, "I'm busy with a customer."
Benny followed Cecil through the doorway, then recoiled in shock when Cecil had wheeled, spat: "Who's that bitch?"
"Why, Cecile," murmured the little man, "It's Evelyn she's a steady customer has a ballet school near here!"
Cecil's face was strained. "You've been fuckin' you old bastard, haven't you?" he spewed viciously.
Benny's face reddened then he leaned limply against the wall, said: "So help me you're jealous, Cecile!" A small smile crossed his features and he murmured it again, unbelievingly: "You're jealous of a poor old bastard like me!" A low cackle came from his lips.