A young man with a different housekeeper

I believe it’s the click of my wedges that causes those entering to half their entrance once they appear out of the foyer. I see a housekeeper, one who is dressed like Jeffrey, but whose skin is more of a lighter brown rather than the darker black skin of my personal housekeeper. He rolls a pair of suitcases, which come to a stop before him as he turns to regard my presence. Behind him is a young man, similar to my age. He is shorter than my height in these wedges. He sports an oversized T-shirt with baggy pants and sneakers. On top of his head, he wears a cap, which is facing backwards, but it’s not enough to cover a distinct ponytail. While the housekeeper regards me with respect, this young man looks at my female body as if I was a goddess to him.

“Ah, it seems one of your cabin mates has made it here before you, Mr. Raymond,” the housekeeper addresses the young man. He looks towards me and offers his greetings. “Hello Miss…” he trails off to allow me to answer him.

“Charlene,” I say.

He nods in consideration and possibly even to make a mental note of my name for familiarization. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Michael. As you are aware, there are passengers like yourself that we’ve made an offer of a room upgrade, with a catch of course. Mr. Raymond here is another.” The young man’s mouth raises in a shy smile and nods once at me. He turns once again to Raymond. “Sir. I will leave you to explore the room and however you’d like to spend your time here on the ship. I believe your other cabin mates are out and about and should return before evening.” Michael slightly turns towards me to include me in his address. “They’ve requested we bring your dinner straight to the room, but that would be some time after sundown.” And with that, he leaves me and Raymond in the suite.

“X-Change, huh?” I ask, mostly for clarification. Raymond nods. “Well, you heard him. I suggest you get a Pink and a change of clothes and head to the bathroom.” The young man nods as if taking my suggestion into consideration. I wonder if he has any experience with X-Change as I have. He must have been really gutsy about wanting to become an X-Change passenger on this cruise without prior experience, I’d assume.

Raymond goes through his luggage in such a haste that I notice some items fly out of his bags and onto the floor. Before I can protest, he disappears into the nearest bathroom. I walk over to a familiar card, which is the dual ID-card that has both an X-Change user’s male and female identities. The card is face up, showing his male persona. Out of sheer curiosity, I flip it over, seeing something of the same face as Raymond, but with more defined feminine qualities. And her name is Rachel. I take the card, knowing it’s an important document and identification and wishing that Raymond, or Rachel, would take better care to store items like these. I take the card to the dining table and take a seat, intending to flag my cabin mate over for a conversation.

When they finally reappear, I see a young woman with a similar height to Raymond, who was already short, probably up to my shoulder (with wedges on, of course). She has raven-black hair, seemingly to a length measuring down to the small of her back, though it is made up into a single braid, draped over her left shoulder. She has a petite build, but she had the golden ratio of proportions about her. You can say that we have a similar figure, but I’m just taller than Rachel. She is wearing a crop top which exposes a considerable amount of her midriff. The lowered collar of the garment also exposes much of her collar bones and what appears to be a tattoo marking her left shoulder, partially obscured by the single braid. Her bottoms are a pair of short shorts, exposing much of her thighs. On her feet are a pair of sandals.

I flag Rachel to the table, the dual ID card in my hand, which I set upon the table in front of where Rachel chooses to sit. “Oh, sorry. Thanks for keeping this safe,” she says, taking it and placing the card into her pocket. “I just thought I was late.”

“I only got in a couple hours ago,” I answered. An awkward amount of silence ensued until I spoke up. “So, what do you think about this offer we took?”

“It’s an upgrade, right? I think that the housekeeper said that even our services are premium too. And to have dinner sent straight to our room?” Rachel replied.

“But what’s the catch? Surely our other cabin mates, the ones who are actually paying for this room, are guys who are looking for company to spend the trip with,” I explain my take on it, immediately going for the possibility that we, as male users of X-Change who most of the time will be in female bodies, are to be at the least eye candy for our cabin mates.

Rachel shakes her head, almost enthusiastically. “I think that our roommates are guys like us who take X-Change. To think a suite like this could contain a group of sexy women who in secret are a bunch of guys.”

Our discussion is cut short when we hear the door unlocking. Our eyes dart to the door, watching it open before us.