Something Borrowed
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

That is my sister Amelia. You can probably see the family likeness. And that is me – dressed as a bride. And looking at Amelia in this photo it now seems pretty clear to me that this was what she wanted all along, although maybe not dressed this way.

You see, Amelia always thought that I was a gay man. I never really thought that I was. I was always looking at women, and I always found gay men, in particular obviously gay men, to be shallow and stupid.

When I dated women things always went well, it was just that the sexual attraction was not there. So, Amelia was always trying to set me up on dates with gay men, and I was not keen.

I suppose that I thought that I might be asexual or something – that I was just not interested in any kind of sexual relationship. It was not until Amelia started going out with a guy called Steve that I slowly began to understand what was wrong with me.

Steve had four tickets for a show and Amelia had said that we should double date – her with Steve and me with some gay guy called Dario.

“I would rather go with Steve and you could go with Dario,” I said.

“The problem there is that Steve is straight,” she said. “He is only interested in women, so if you were a woman, he could take you and I would go with my ex-boyfriend Jack, who is still chasing me.”

It suddenly struck me that she had explained who I was. I was attracted to Steve because he was a heterosexual man and what I really wanted was to be a woman. I loved being with women because that is what I wanted to be. It explained feelings that I had experienced in my childhood and even my extremely close relationship with my sister – it was like I was her sister.

“Do you mean it?” I said. “Do you think that you could make me look like your sister so we could go out together with me as Steve’s date?”

“Hey! What are you talking about?” she said. Then I could see the same light coming on in her head. I said that we were close. We had both reached the same conclusion.

“I could do that,” she said. “But before the night is out you will have to explain things to Steve. I would rather rekindle things with Jack, but I don’t want to upset Steve.”

“Neither do I,” I said. It all made sense. I ached to have Steve date me as a woman and see me as a woman, but he needed to know the truth. I was now officially a transwoman, facing a transwoman’s most fundamental problem.

As it happened, the first man I dated as a woman was the last man I dated, which I why I am in a wedding dress. Actually, the hair under the veil is the “something borrowed” in my outfit and a bit of a joke between us. It is the wig I borrowed from Amelia and wore on that first date. But under it now I have a full head of long brown hair, and under the bridal gown I have a woman’s body fashioned by hormones and a skilled surgeon. Steve knows it well, but as of this afternoon it will be his forever.

The End

Authors Note: From an idea by Erin – “A guy's sister thinks he is gay and keeps sending gay guys around to hit on him but he's not attracted to gay guys who want a male lover, he's attracted to straight guys who want a female lover … his sister’s boyfriend!”

© Maryanne Peters 2024