Forty Love.

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Forty Love.

by

Angharad.

She was a little nervous wondering what was going to turn up, so she’d suggested a coffee bar she was unlikely to use again. Well you can’t be too careful. This was the first meeting, to set a protocol for a further interview and to discuss areas she needed to learn about.

She stirred her cappuccino again then licked the froth off her spoon then looked at her watch, nearly time. She’s agreed to wear something red and have a copy of the Times with her. She was busy trying to do the quick crossword in the second section, Times Two, or whatever they called it. She couldn’t concentrate, well it’s not every day she met with a gender bender. There was that pretty one, Paris somebody or other, and that weirdo that won the Eurovision in a dress with a beard—really!

Poo, how do you spell germane? Relevant was the clue and she knew it began with the letter G and seven letters, had to be germane, now was that ending in ane or ain? No, the latter was the name, so it had to be ane. Phew, it was usually easier than this. She’d written all sorts of fiction but had never ventured much into gender other than normal men and women. She’d hinted in her last book that one of the women was lesbian, but it was pretty sketchy. Her publisher had liked her outline for the next book, a romance with a difference. Boy meets and falls in love with girl—who used to be a boy.

On reflection she’d wondered if it was such a good idea. How could you turn a boy into a girl. To start with boys are bigger. Heads are usually bigger, shoulders are wider and feet and hands were a dead giveaway. She casually watched the comings and goings in the coffee shop, no transwotsits had entered so far, of that she was sure. She checked her watch again, he/she was late.

Send had to be transmit, she decided looking again at her crossword and as she wrote in the letters with her expensive ballpoint, she became aware of someone standing in front of her. She glanced up and saw a very attractive woman. “Are you Letitia?” asked the stranger.

“Yes,” answered the writer, “You must be...”

“Deborah,” answered the new arrival. They shook hands, well they clasped hands and then let go. Women don’t usually try to rip each other’s arms off to impress.

The new comer summoned a waitress and asked for a latte coffee and Letitia agreed to another cappuccino. They waited for the coffees to arrive. Once that was over, Letitia explained what she wanted.

“Procedures are available from the internet, why did you need to speak to someone?” asked Deborah.

“A procedure won’t tell me what someone is feeling.”

“True,” conceded Deborah.

“Have you—you know—had the—um—op?”

“Why is that important?”

“I’d like to know what you thought about, how you felt, was it successful...”

“For sex, you mean?”

“Amongst other things—yes.”

“And you want to know this for one of your characters in your new book?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” repeated Letitia.

“Yeah, it’s okay.”

“Oh I see.” Letitia blushed.

“Yours okay?” asked Deborah cheekily.

“My husband thinks so.”

“Ah, but what about you—is it okay for you?”

Letitia felt very uncomfortable, “Yes, but I don’t see that as germane to this meeting.” Crosswords obviously had their uses.

“No? How can you describe a romantic encounter if you’ve never had one.”

“I beg your pardon?” Letitia felt quite annoyed. She was forty years old, a natural female and here was this—this woman, who can’t have been more than twenty something—questioning her sex life.

Deborah finished her coffee. The conversation had stalled. “I read your last book, Medicine from the heart, none of my colleagues resembled the doctors you wrote about, and the lesbian nurse was nothing more than a shadow. If you can’t do better than that with ordinary people how are you going to write anything about extraordinary ones?”

Letitia was verging on incandescent feeling that if she got any hotter she’d actually start to smoke. “How dare you tell me how to write; I’ve published twenty novels and had good reviews.”

“Obviously people’s tastes vary. I thought they were all poorly written and very formulaic. The women characters were all the same dozy and desperate.”

“And you know all about being a woman, don’t you?” Letitia thought it was about time she gave this upstart the coup de grace.

“As a gynaecologist, quite a bit—more than you by the look of it. When you’ve learned what making love is really about, not just the soppy stuff you write which is more stereotyped than Meg Ryan’s exhibition in the diner, come back and I’ll talk to you about my experiences. Thanks for the coffee.”

Deborah rose from her seat leaving Letitia in a state of shock. The author watched the elegant surgeon ease her way through the tables. She wore an expensive suit, and her figure was quite trim. Was she a transwhatever or a biological woman?

Letitia felt a tear escape her eye and dabbed at it carefully not to smudge her immaculate makeup. Deborah had only worn a touch of mascara and eyeliner, yet she’d looked attractive and professional. Was she a real woman? Letitia suspected she’d never know and given the attack upon her writing, did she want to. But Deborah was correct about one thing, her sex life was pathetic, John, her husband was a nice enough bloke but it was common knowledge he was fucking his secretary so didn’t do much in bed at home except sleep.

Perhaps Letitia needed to do some further research of a more practical nature, what was the name of that nice young man at her publisher, oh yes, Russell. She ordered another coffee and picked up her mobile...

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Comments

What is Deborah doing?

Rhona McCloud's picture

I like the put-down but would Deborah have really read books of which she had such a low opinion or if she'd gone to that much effort been so brutal and abrupt?

Rhona McCloud

Probably to see how this writer was...

going to threat the TG community. She must have liked her a little bit, why read her stories otherwise?

One reason...

One reason is to know a bit about the person you're meeting... In this case, since it was supposedly (as I understood it) to get some background information on transwhositns, someone who was being asked to provide this kind of information would be doing themselves a favor in seeing how said author represents people in general.

To the story itself... More interviewers need to be brought up like this! You ask about my sex life/genitilia, I can ask about yours. "How long have you known you were a ____?" Oy... This author sounds less qualified than some... And is only considering including a transwhatsit because they're in the news lately.

Annette

Someone is up on the Gender Bender Scene

BarbieLee's picture

Yes the abomination at the eurovision contest was a shock. She-He pulled out all stops and rendered the boy and girl divide into shreds. And yes, I called it an abomination. I can accept those who try such as bubba in a dress who really are trying. What that one was doing was total shock value and needed to be the bearded lady in the circus.

Now back to your story. Not bad for pointing out the indicators of a late term transsexual. The ones who transition early are usually all girl except for possibly DNA test. I could see the elements of real life in both sides of the characters. Those who think TS can't possibly be girl and certainly not sexually fulfilling. Then there is the TS who made the change and look a hell of a lot prettier and more feminine than the GG.

For those outside looking in. The boy-girl usually studies every single detail of the girl side. They are female experts on what it is to be feminine. The dress, the makeup, the color co-ordination, the jewelry, the manners, the walk. You understand? They studied it because they wanted it, were driven to be a girl. GG accept what they are and seldom put all the effort into being a girl because they don't have to.

Yep, for a general summery. You NAILED it.
Good story.

Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl

For what it's worth...

It's possible for your blood to reflect female DNA, even if you were apparently born male (Male to Female TS) and vice versa. There's more than one way for this to happen. That said, I don't know of any practitioner who would do what's needed for a TS to have blood that reflected the "right" DNA consistently over a long period of time, unless the person had the other (severe) medical conditions that would lead to use of a therapy that might result in this as a side effect. {Most effective way that I'm aware of is via Bone Marrow transplants that are used to treat some forms of advanced Leukemia.

Annette

“No? How can you describe a

“No? How can you describe a romantic encounter if you’ve never had one.”

And that is why I can't write those scenes, I have no idea what goes on in and around one, let alone a scene involving sex.

A great short story

This was more game, set and match than forty love.

Letitia had her prejudices blown away and her pomposity well and truly popped.

I am always amazed that you can give us two characters so real that the comments reflect how well you write.

This short story deserves more than a single kudos.

Love to all

Anne G.

FOURTY LOVE

Christina H's picture

Lovely story, really well thought out

Letitia appears to be a bit

Letitia appears to be a bit of a round-heel . Love the put down.
As usual, great story Ang.

Karen

Quick and incisive

Iolanthe Portmanteaux's picture

That moment when one realizes their imaginary picture of "those people" doesn't extend to their actually being people.

Neat little story!

- io