Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Bet - Chapter 49 (Friday – week 7 part 4 of 6)

The Bet
by Karen Singer

Chapter 49 (Friday – week 7 part 4 of 6)

Chad got back to work before Robin – he checked to make sure she wasn’t back yet just to be sure. And since she had said to fill all his bottles again, he had brought his diaper bag back in with him. But now he was faced with figuring out the best way to go about refilling them. Since he had nothing else, the only thing he could think to fill them with was water.
He had four bottles to fill, but where should he do it? The men’s room? Or the ladies room? He thought about what he was wearing and opted for the ladies room. He started to pick up the big diaper bag and stopped. What if another woman came in while he was in there? The diaper bag would be too much of an odd thing – especially since he didn’t have a baby to change in there – other than himself, and he had already been recently changed. His purse would be much better and it wouldn’t be at all out of place in a ladies room. He tried to stuff all the bottles into his purse, but he could only manage to fit two of them. He’d just have to make two trips with it.
Since Robin wasn’t back yet, he started out for the ladies room with the first two bottles. He was glad to see that there were no other women in there when he went in. He quickly went to the furthest sink and pulled one of the bottles out of his purse and filled it. The second bottle followed quickly. Then, with the bottles hidden back in his purse again, he went back out, feeling relieved the moment he got out of there. He brought them back to his diaper bag and stuck them inside.
“Sissy? Is that you over there?” Robin’s voice called over the wall.
He hurried around to see her – curtseying to her the moment he got into her cubicle.
Robin stared at him for a moment and shook her head. “Where does your thumb belong?”
Sheepishly, Chad returned his thumb to his mouth.
“You’re worse than a child!” she muttered half to herself. “You can’t seem to learn anything! Did you fill all those bottles again?”
“I…”
“Wait!” Robin shook her head again. “Can’t learn anything! Thumb out of your mouth… curtsey… speak!”
“I was just working on it,” he replied. Then before Robin could say anything more, he curtseyed again and stuck his thumb back in his mouth.
“Why isn’t it done yet?”
Chad took his thumb out of his mouth and started to speak, but he stopped himself quickly and curtseyed first instead. “Because there were too many bottles to fit in my purse at the same time.” He paused for a moment, then curtseyed again and put his thumb back in his mouth.
Robin was confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Chad had to go through the whole curtsey routine before speaking again. “Because I’m trying to fill them in the ladies room and the diaper bag was too big and noticeable to carry down there.” Then he had to go through the curtsey routine again, finally finishing with his thumb in his mouth. What a pain! It was worse than Mel!
Robin thought she had it figured out. “Next time, either get back from lunch earlier, or find another way. Now hurry up and finish and bring me your bag as soon as you’re ready.”
Chad curtseyed again and hurried back to his cubicle. He loaded the last two empty bottles into his purse and headed off to the ladies room. But when he got there, he was quick to realize that he wasn’t alone, another woman was at the sink washing her hands, and he noticed one of the stall doors was closed.
“Sissy,” the surprised woman at the sink exclaimed. “I don’t see you in here too often.”
Chad felt very uncomfortable in there now. “Um… I don’t… often have to come in here,” Chad replied. Glad that he had figured out something halfway logical to say. Unfortunately, the woman seemed to want to talk.
“Aren’t you lucky,” the woman said as she reached for a paper towel to dry her hands. “By the way, I love that skirt. It’s so cheerful! Where’d you get it?”
Chad couldn’t believe it, it seemed like the woman just wanted to hang out and talk! He told her the name of the store.
“Um, excuse me for asking this,” the woman replied, “but… well, I’ve been wondering about this for a while.”
Chad braced himself for something bad.
“Do they ever give you any trouble when you go out shopping, like for clothes and stuff?”
Chad was actually relieved at her question. “No, not really. In fact, I don’t remember having any real problems. I mostly stick to just a few places to shop though.” Then before the woman could continue delaying things he added, “If you’ll please excuse me…” Then he pointed toward one of the stalls.
“Oh! I’m so sorry! Go ahead. I’ll see you later… at break?”
“See you then,” Chad replied as he went into the stall and closed the door behind him. The woman was still out there so he pulled up his skirt and sat down on the toilet – not that he could do anything there, with his pantyhose and girdle in the way – not to mention his plastic panties and diapers. Using a toilet was pretty much out of the question. But he needed the woman to think he was using it. He sat there for a few more minutes, waiting to hear the woman out there leaving, but she seemed to take forever! He finally realized she was probably fixing her makeup.
Finally, he heard the bathroom door close. But before he could move, he heard another woman talking to him from the other stall. “So they don’t give you any problems when you’re out shopping?”
Chad wanted to scream. How was he going to get his bottles filled and get out of here? Robin was going to get mad… madder! “No,” he replied politely. “Not so far anyway.” He wondered if the woman was going to be a long time. If she was, maybe he could get his bottles filled and get out of there before she came out of the stall.
“That’s so nice,” the woman replied from the other stall. “But I guess it only makes sense. They’re all just out to sell something. What should they care who buys it? Especially in this economy.”
“Fortunately for me, I think you’re right,” Chad replied as he stood up and flushed the toilet. He went out to the sink and turned the water on. The woman was still in there. He pulled the first bottle out and filled it as quickly as he could. He got the nipple back on and stuffed it into his purse and pulled the second one out. But just then, the stall door opened and the other woman came out. As fast as he could, he stuffed the empty bottle back into his purse again. Then to cover what he was doing, he started acting like he was looking for something in his purse.
“You know,” the woman said as she casually headed for the sinks, “shopping is one of my favorite things to do. Of course, I can’t afford to buy everything I like. But still… Is that how you feel? Do you love to shop for clothes too?”
Chad paused in his search through his purse to look at her. She was just starting to wash her hands. “I guess so,” he replied. “I do love the clothes,” he added a bit sheepishly. Then he went back to his purse. He reached way past the bottles and managed to extricate his compact. Which he opened as he looked at his face in the larger mirror.
“Well, I kind of thought you did,” the woman replied. “I mean, you wouldn’t be dressing that way if you didn’t. Right?”
Chad just looked at her. “Right,” he agreed with a smile. He started trying to touch up his face a bit. But the darn woman wasn’t leaving! She was just watching him!
“Does it take you a long time every day to do your makeup she asked?”
Ugh! Why wouldn’t she leave? “Yeah, I guess so. Especially in the mornings,” he replied. Go away lady!
“Me too,” she said. “But I guess for someone like you… no disrespect intended… it must take a bit longer. I mean, you have to be a bit more… careful?”
Chad nodded. “I guess I do,” he replied. What was it going to take to get rid of her? He returned his compact to his bag and started searching again… and she still wasn’t leaving!
“It looks like you need a bigger bag.”
“Or I need to clean some stuff out of it!” he replied as he reached past the bottles again and found his lipstick.
The woman giggled. “I’ve always got that problem!”
Instead of answering, Chad put a fresh coating of lipstick on his lips – that he didn’t need! And still the woman wasn’t leaving. He gave up and closed his purse as soon as he dropped the lipstick back inside. He picked up his purse to leave, and the woman turned to leave with him. She had been waiting for him so she could leave with him! Ugh! She chatted amicably with him all the way to the corner in the hallway, where she turned and went her separate way. Chad continued on as if to go to his own cubicle, then a minute later, he turned around and hurried back to the ladies room where he finally filled his last bottle and got out of there before anyone else could come in!
“Geez! It took you forever and a day to fill two little bottles,” Robin complained.
“There were…”
“Stop!”
Chad realized what he had done wrong again. He quickly curtseyed before he answered. “There were two women in there this time, and they both wanted to talk… separately!” He curtseyed and put his thumb back in his mouth.
“What did you do?”
Again he curtseyed. “I talked with one, then I sat in one of the stalls for a while. Then the other one came out and just wanted to talk and talk. She wouldn’t leave till I left. So I had to go back again.” He hated having to end everything he said with a curtsey… not to mention having to put his thumb back in his mouth.
Robin figured she got the picture. But she wasn’t sure if she should be mad at him about it or not. She checked the clock then grabbed one of his bottles out of his diaper bag and handed it to him. She watched as he sank to the floor to start drinking it. Maybe he could learn things after all. Maybe. She turned to her desk to get some work done.
The water from the sink didn’t taste very good, but Chad figured it was still better than Mel’s lousy tea. All he could think about as he worked on the bottle was that it was too much to drink. Way too much! How was he going to make any progress at holding back? So far, despite constantly trying, he hadn’t been able to manage much of anything!
When his bottle was done he stood up silently and waited for Robin. Two minutes later, he curtseyed for her and quickly went back to his own cubicle to finally get down to work again. But he didn’t open up their project. He opened up his spreadsheet for keeping track of the bet instead. He found yesterday’s date and put the curser in the column for how long he had managed to hold back. He filled in five minutes. Five minutes was good, he figured. But he wished it was better. Five minutes had been the time he started the week with. But what would he be putting in that column next week? If Robin kept shoving baby bottles at him to drink all day, he wasn’t going to have much of anything to put in that spot!
He looked at the daily countdown. Fourteen days! Officially two weeks. Yet it felt no different than fifteen days had seemed yesterday. Still, it was looking more and more like he was going to win this bet… if Robin would just lay off making him drink so much!
He briefly glanced at his list of reasons for winning – self-respect, friends, and a life! But while he knew what he originally meant by each of those things, today he wasn’t really sure what they meant. Not wanting to dwell on it, he closed the spreadsheet and opened up his project to get back to work.

Robin glanced at the time on her screen. It had been an hour and a half now since she had made him drink his last bottle. Since she had decided to go along with Mel’s request, she figured that an hour and a half between bottles should more than meet Mel’s needs.
“Sissy…” she called over the wall. She only had to wait a minute for him to come around to her cubicle, curtsey for her, and stick his thumb back in his mouth to signify that he was ready to hear what she had to say. But instead of saying anything, she pulled another bottle out of his bag and handed it to him. Something inside of her was laughing as she watched him dispiritedly sink down to the floor with it… although she wouldn’t allow herself to admit that. “You better hurry up with that,” she told him. “If it’s not done before break, you’ll be drinking another one as soon as you get back!”
She purposely turned away from him and acted like she was ignoring him. He had plenty of time to finish that bottle. Almost half an hour. The jerk! Drinking from a baby bottle! And he did it all the time! Everywhere! Even in public! The jerk. He deserved it!
Chad’s spirits were sinking fast. A little while ago he had actually managed to hold back over a full minute! Now he was drinking yet another bottle. Would it ever stop? Yeah – two weeks from now when the bet was finally over. Maybe not even then if he didn’t win!

At break time, Chad – his thumb still in his mouth, followed Robin out into the hallway. His thumb left his mouth the moment they turned the corner to head down another hallway. He was glad nobody had spotted him sucking on it – so far.
In the break room, he was tempted to try to get just a partial cup of coffee again, but he quickly realized that Robin was watching closely over his shoulder. He filled his cup, then headed for the women’s table which was filling up quickly.
One of the women he had met in the ladies room earlier sat down with her own cup of coffee. There seemed to be a minor lull in the conversation, so she filled it. “Sissy and I were talking in the ladies room earlier,” she started. “We were discussing the fact that none of the stores he shops in ever gives him any trouble.”
“They don’t?” another woman asked Sissy.
Chad wasn’t at all glad to be the center of attention again, but he had suffered through worse topics. “Not so far,” he replied.
“And do they realize… um… what you are?” another woman asked.
Chad rolled his eyes at the question. “They must! I mean, just look at me!”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“Well, obviously I’m still a guy under all this. A guy in a skirt, but still a guy.”
“I don’t know. You don’t look so bad though,” another woman countered.
Chad smiled, “Thanks.”
“But the point is,” another woman added, “you can tell that he’s still a guy.”
“For now!” another woman added laughingly, which seemed to bring a few chuckles from some of the other women.
Chad knew it was pointless to insist that he wasn’t going to get a sex change. Some people wouldn’t believe it, no matter what!
“So are you planning to do anything to make it less obvious what you really are?” one of them asked.
Chad shook his head. “What can I do? I’m surprised I look this good!”
“Well, there’s always surgery,” one of the women suggested.
“But he said he’s not getting a sex change,” another woman countered.
“Well, he doesn’t have to get a sex change to change a few things.” The woman turned to Chad. “So are you planning any plastic surgery?”
“Uh… Not right now,” Chad replied.
“How about later?”
Some people just wouldn’t give up! “I’m not planning any surgery… at all!”
The banter went back and forth between shopping and Sissy for the rest of break. Chad didn’t appreciate it – even though they were all trying to help. But because they had talked to him so much, when break was over, he had to gulp down half of his coffee so Robin wouldn’t make him get another cup. He just prayed when they got back to their desks that she wouldn’t hand him another bottle to drink!


2 comments:

blisteredraw said...

Another great chapter, Every Tuesday and Friday morning as soon as I get up,I look for the next chapter to see what new humiliation poor Sissy is being put through.

I love the addition of Robin as tormentor. Thanks again for another terrific chapter.

sarah penguin said...

Poor soggy Sissy :) What fun :) I like that Robin is in on it now, but I wish she wasn't angry whenever she looks at Sissy. I wish she'd get her head back around and it go back to being friends, even if it was a different sort of friendship.