The Housekeeper - Chapter 64 Part 2 of 3

The Housekeeper

By Karen Singer

Chapter 64 Part 2 of 3

A short while later, Candy was outside getting ready to work on the front of his house.  One of the best things about Janice and Carol being away was that with them gone, he didn’t need to get “tied” into his corset every day.  He was consequently enjoying being without it.  He was just getting ready to get his sledge hammer to start demolishing the old cement porch when his phone rang again.  Getting the phone out of his jeans pocket was getting to be more and more difficult.  “Hello?”

“Hey Candy,” Jennifer’s voice replied.

“Hi Jenn,” Candy said.  “What’s happening?”

“I was just wondering what you were doing this morning?”

“Working on my house,” Candy replied.

“Again?”

“I’m building a new entryway,” Roger replied.

“Finally!” Jennifer exclaimed.

“I take it that you think my house needs it?”

“Only a lot!”

“Gee thanks!  Well, I’m finally getting to it.  Why?”

“Um…”  Jennifer was silent for a moment.  “Candy,” she started again.  “Stan called me a few minutes ago.  He said you were crying.”

“Yeah, well, I seem to do that a lot now.  I thought he didn’t want to see me anymore and it just kind of got to me.”

“Yeah,” she replied.  “He said it’s more than a bit confusing for him.”

“I guess it would be.”

“Candy, since you’re going to be home, do you mind if I stop by for a little bit?”

“Sounds great to me,” Candy replied.  “Anytime.”

“Good.  See you in a few!”

Candy stuffed his phone back into his jeans pocket and entered his workshop.  His sledge hammer was in a pile of other things leaning against one of the corners.  He had to move a few things out of the way to grab it.  But when he picked it up, he was more than a bit surprised at the weight of the thing.  He didn’t remember it being so heavy. 

He carried the heavy hammer out to the front of his house and surveyed where he wanted to start with it.  Bracing himself for a task that he knew was going to be a lot of difficult work, he swung the hammer up, and brought it down.  Ugh!  Damn the thing was heavy!  He did it again… the cement cracked, but it didn’t break as much as he expected it to.  He swung again.  The cement broke more, but it still wasn’t as much as he expected.  After five more swings, he had to stop for a rest.  The hammer was a lot more work than he remembered it being.  But in the back of his mind, a more troubling thought started to take root.  Were the hormones now taking away his body strength?  It was another crushing blow to his manhood.  But unfortunately, he knew it would be starting soon.  He picked the hammer up and attacked the cement again, fortunately with slightly better results. 

Half an hour later, Candy’s arms and shoulders were aching as he looked up to see Jennifer’s car pulling into the driveway.  He gladly dropped the sledge hammer on the ground and walked toward her car.  “Good morning,” he greeted her brightly as she got out.

“Morning, Candy,” Jennifer replied.  She looked around at the large construction area.  “Wow, you’re doing a lot!”

“New porch – bigger porch!  Roof over it.  New steps.  And a sidewalk. 

“You’re not going to pave the driveway?”

“Um… right now I’m not planning on it.”

“You should,” she told him.  “I hate getting my car all dirty every time I come here.”

“It’s too expensive,” Candy told her.  “I’m not even sure I can afford to do this right now.”

“But you’re building it anyway?”

“I’ve got nothing better to do.  Business is slow right now.”

“Sorry to hear that,” she replied.  She looked at him.  “Um… Candy?”

“Yeah?”

But Jennifer just looked at him for a few moments.

“You have a problem with me too?” Candy asked softly.

“No… and yes,” Jennifer admitted.

Candy sighed.  “This seems to be my day for it.”

“Sorry,” Jennifer replied.

Candy looked around.  “I know we’re in the middle of nowhere here, but why don’t we go inside.  That way if I start bawling again at least no one will see.”

Jennifer’s wry smile told him that she thought it was a good idea.  Candy led the way through his mess and into the house. 

“It sure looks good in here,” Jennifer noted.  “Janice does a nice job with the place.”

“It’s part of the reason I’m starting on the outside now.”

Jennifer spotted the quilt on the sewing table.  “She’s making a quilt?”

“Actually, that’s one that I’m making.  Janice is teaching me.  She and Carol have been making tons of them for charity.  I’m kind of just learning now.”

Jennifer walked over and ran her hand over the colorful fabric.  “Nice,” she exclaimed.  “Very nice.  I didn’t know you were interested in doing anything like this.”

Candy just shrugged.  “Why not?  Everything else I seem to do is awfully masculine.  And to tell the truth I’m kind of enjoying it.  I can’t tell you how different all the colors and patterns in things look to me lately.  It’s like I’m seeing life with a whole new set of eyes.”

Jennifer looked at him.  “I guess you are.”

Candy only nodded.  “Coffee?” he asked.  “There’s still some left from when I made it earlier.”

“Sure,” Jennifer replied, “but where’s Janice?”

“Hiking!  She and Carol went off on kind of a mini vacation to wander in the woods somewhere.  To each their own.”

“Yeah, well you like fishing.  Hiking sounds better to me.”

Candy chuckled.  “Not me!”

“Yeah, you and Stan have always had that in common.”

Candy poured both of them some coffee and they took it to the table to sit.  “So what about me is bothering you?”

Jennifer shook her head.  “What about you isn’t bothering me?”

Candy sighed. “This really is my day for it!  I had just thought that you had accepted it and you were happy for me… based on the way you acted in the beauty parlor and at school the next day.

She looked at him for a moment.  “I am… sort of.  It’s just hard not seeing the old you anymore.  I was more than a bit hung up on you.”

“But not enough to keep me,” he stated.

“No.  I couldn’t.”  She took a sip of her coffee as she considered where to start.  “Candy…”  She looked up at him.  To her it looked like he was expecting the worst.  Maybe that was a good thing.  “You know that Stan and I are… an item now, don’t you?”

Candy rolled his eyes.  “How could I miss it?  I don’t know what he’s got that I didn’t, but I guess it doesn’t matter now anyway.”

“He’s got nothing that you didn’t have!  In fact, I liked you better in a lot of ways!”

“But in the end, you dropped me and wound up with him instead.”

“I had my reasons,” Jennifer replied.

“That you won’t tell me about,” Candy stated.

The two of them looked at each other for a moment.  Jennifer looked away and sipped her coffee.  When she looked back up at him, he was still staring at her expectantly.  “Candy,” she said finally.  “I need to know… how do you feel about Stan?”

Candy was very surprised by the question.  “He’s my best friend!”

“No, that’s not what I mean.  How do you feel about him… sexually?”

“Sexually?”

“Damn it Candy!  He’s a man.  A good man!  A fine looking man!  And now you’re changing your entire sex to be a woman.  So how the hell do you fell about him… as a woman would feel about a man?”

It was a moment before Candy could even grasp that concept.  “I never thought about it.  Honestly, I’ve never ever thought about it.  In fact, to be honest, I’ve never even considered another man sexually.”

“But you’re still turning yourself into a woman?”

“Yeah.  It’s complicated.  Sex with someone really has nothing to do with it.”

She looked at him for a moment.  “I guess that makes some sense.  More so than I thought it would.  And I guess it means that you’re doing this for all the right reasons and not just to get some guy.”

“Like Stan?”

“I guess,” Jennifer replied.  “But to be honest, any guy.”

“Like Stan,” Candy said again.

Jennifer finally nodded.  “Like Stan,” she agreed.

Candy took a sip of his coffee.  “Are you going to marry him?”

Jennifer shook her head.  “Don’t ask me that!”

“Has he asked you yet?”

“No!” she exclaimed quickly.

Candy was surprised by the way she had replied.  “Do you want him to?”

This time her reply was a bit less enthusiastic.  “Like I said, don’t ask me.”

The two of them sipped at their coffee, neither one of them looking at the other.  Jennifer stared into her coffee cup and finally asked.  “Do you… still like women?”

Candy’s eyes went wide as he looked up at her, but she was still purposely looking down into her cup.  “You mean… sexually?”

She only nodded.

Candy let out a big breath.  “Do I still like women sexually?  Yeah, a bit too much still.”

Jennifer’s eyes came up questioningly.  “Too much?”

“It’s kind of a problem for me.”

“She nodded.  “You think you have to like men now instead, yet you’re still attracted to women.”

“Not quite, but it’s been worrying me,” Candy replied.  “Let’s just say I’d feel better if I wasn’t so attracted to women right now.”

“Are you feeling any attraction to men yet?  At all?”

Candy shook his head.  “None.  Not yet.  But…”

“But?”

“I don’t know.  More and more lately, I find myself wondering about it.”

Jennifer just looked at him.  She watched as he took another sip from his coffee, then he looked back at her.  The two of them sat silently like that for a few moments.  “I won’t marry Stan if he asks me,” she finally said.  “But please don’t tell him that.  Please!”

Candy was surprised.  “You won’t?”

“No.  For the same reason I broke up with you… before you could ask me to marry you, which I was worried you were going to do.”

Candy thought about that for a moment.  “I guess that makes sense.”

Jennifer looked down into what little remained of her coffee.  She purposely didn’t look up as she asked.  “Candy, would you be interested in making love to another woman?”

Candy was shocked by the question.  “I’m not sure what you’re asking.  Are you asking about me going to bed with another…”

“Me!” Jennifer stated.  “I’m asking, if you would ever consider going to bed with me again.  You… as Candy… and me!”

Candy could barely breathe… let alone reply.  All he could do was stare back as he tried to find an answer.

“I never told you why I broke up with you,” Jennifer finally said when she didn’t get a reply.

“You would never say,” Candy managed to get out. 

It as a moment before Jennifer could speak.  “Candy, if I had stayed with you, I wouldn’t have been fair with you at all.”

“Huh?  In what way?”

Jennifer had to pause for a moment to find the courage to reply.  “Candy, I’m… I guess you would call it… bisexual.  Yes, I need a man to make me feel good.  Oh God, believe me I need to feel that!  But at the same time, I crave a woman’s touch as well.”

Candy’s jaw simply dropped open.  “I never had a clue,” he replied.

“You weren’t supposed to.  I hid it.  I’ve always hid it.”

“Have you ever…” Candy started to ask.

“Yeah.  More often than you would believe.  I go a couple of times a month to a club in Atlanta where I can find… the kind of companionship I have to have once in a while.”

“I never suspected,” Candy breathed, still trying to take it in.

“And I never suspected you wanted to be a woman,” Jennifer replied.

Candy would have replied, but there was no good answer.  The two of them stared silently at each other for a moment.  “You won’t tell Stan, will you?”

Candy shook his head.  “No.  Stan is my friend.  I’d still like to think of him as my best friend, but I think that title is going to have to take some work again.  But still, as my friend, I should tell him.  But I think of you as my friend too.  Even though you dumped me, you’re still my friend.  And because of that, I won’t tell him.”

Jennifer breathed a sigh of relief.  She reached her hand across the table and grasped his hand.  “Thank you,” she replied.  “Thank you.  I really don’t want this to get out.”

Candy only nodded. 

“So… would you?” Jennifer asked again, her hands still grasping his.

“Would I?” Candy asked, not sure what she wanted.

“Go to bed with me.  Make love to me… woman… to woman.”

Candy’s face clouded over as he thought about the disaster last week had been with Jessica.  “I’d love to… but I can’t,” he replied.

She nodded, then remembered something and shook her head.  “I don’t mean like you think.  I guess your… man parts aren’t working anymore from the hormones, but I’m not interested in that part of you this time.  We could still do it… like women.”

But all Candy could think about was the painful cold he had endured last week.  “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet,” he replied.  “Maybe someday.  But right now I have enough to try to figure out.  I don’t need to add sex to the top of the list.”

“Are you sure?  I can show you how you can feel… absolutely incredible!” Jennifer urged. 

Candy shook his head.  “As much as I’d really like that, I better not.”  He was only grateful that there was no sign at all of that frigid cold in his groin just then.  He didn’t know why that was, but he was grateful.  “Maybe… someday,” he added as he thought about the fact that because of what Janice had done to him, he would be seeking out sexual reassignment surgery as soon as possible.  Maybe then he could enjoy… some kind of sexual relationship with a woman again.

Jennifer was clearly disappointed.  “Okay,” she replied softly, looking away.  She got up from the table.  “I better go then,” she added as she threw her purse over her shoulder.

Still sitting, Candy reached out and grabbed her arm as she started to walk past.  “Will you still be my friend?” he asked.

She smiled.  “Of course.  Besides, maybe someday you’ll change your mind.”

“Maybe someday,” Candy replied, thinking again about the surgery. 

Jennifer started to pull away, but stopped.  “Candy, is there any chance you would ever consider… a threesome?  You, me, and a man?”

Candy’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped open again.

Jennifer came over and hugged his head since he was still sitting down.  “Think about it for me sometime.  Will you?”