Planning the next stage

With the alarm signaling the start of the day, Molly could tell by the groan from Paul’s side of the bed that he wasn’t in the best of moods still. “Morning, sweety.”

“Ugh, mornin, hun,” Paul groaned. “Sorry, I barely felt like I slept.”

“Well, it’s a new day,” she leaned over and kissed him, “take it easy and maybe we can have fun tonight,” she sensually whispered in his ear before jumping up to get dressed.

Well, Paul was definitely awoken by her tease and watching her strut nude to the closet, he laid his head back and covered his eyes trying to will the world better.

Paul was only aware of the passage of time when he heard Molly open the door and shout out, “don’t sleep too long. I aim to see you this evening; love you, babe!”

Paul finally dragged his butt out of bed. Grabbing one of his loose tank shirts and some running shorts he tossed together a bagel and went to do work. Setting down, he realized there was some backlog to really address and quickly got to focusing on projects and getting caught back up.

Getting the alarm that the training session was supposed to start soon, Paul saved his work and grabbed a small snack & water before returning and kneeling down at his spot. Looking down at the dots outside his thighs, his mind idle went back to yesterday running the salon fiasco through his head.

Bill connected up and could see Paul kneeling there almost pull in on himself. The missing the shirt and kilt were indicators were an issue but even his tight body language communicated more. “Hey, Paul, everything okay?”

“Oh, hey, trainer Bill. Just kinda in a funk from yesterday.”

“Yesterday? I thought our session was going pretty well.”

“Well, it was, but it was getting to my appointment late where things went bad.” Paul proceeded to relay what he could recall happening but there were definitely some hazy details in his recollection while Bill listened closely to the whole story.; even taking a few notes.

“....and honestly, I just don’t know I need to go back to that,” Paul finished.

“Huh. Quite an event.” Bill said after pulling it all in. Bill was pretty sure this was all skewed via Paul’s classic filter, and was pretty sure it was again a lot of people trying together to fix something & Paul just not seeing the bright side of things; again.

“You could say that.”

“Paul, let me put a few things out there that might help with it.”

“Ok”

“So, you show up late and you’re wearing clothes she specifically told you not to.”

“But..” Paul tried to interject his points.

“NO!” Bill forcefully stopped with his voice, “I listened to you. You hired me to help you, let me analyze this. So just sit and listen.”

Paul shrunk back down and sat quietly listening.

“So, you showed up AGAIN in clothes she told you not to specifically to avoid the ruination you already had to take an entire day for them to fix. They go through an entire process spending their time and skills to give you a high-quality result, which by the way shows.”

“Thank you.” Paul responds almost blushing a bit.

“Not done.” Bill sternly replies. “Then they provide you with additional supplies to let you leave in disguise to get out of their facility while looking like nothing unusual, but still ensuring your fresh finish is not affected.”

“But, they were girly stuff...”

“Yes, it’s a salon, Paul; not the local WalMart. I’m surprised they even had anything but the fact it was a skirt and top is not surprising considering 95% of their clientele is women & it was probably easier for them.”

“Ya, but the steel plug...”

“Did you walk better with it?”

“Um, I guess, I don’t know....”

“Again, it's something you’ve been using as an aid, and they sent someone out to get you one just to make you feel more comfortable in the result. That is all something only a very high-end facility would do for a very special client. They want you to succeed, they want you to be a walking advertisement for them, and they want you to be the best you can.”

“Maybe...”

“Paul, did anyone laugh or make fun of you during any of it?”

“Well, no....”

“No, everyone you mentioned to me was there to get a resolution for you and you walked out of there like any other high-class housewife they service.”

Paul mumbled a response.

“What was that, Paul???”

“I’m not a housewife,” Paul responded incredulously.

“No, but it sure sounded like they made a good facsimile.”

“But I probably looked like a farce.”

“Did anyone other than the salon girls see you?”

The drive home with odd sounds played through his mind, to getting home and seeing no neighbors, running inside.... “the delivery driver!!”

“What was that? A package delivery guy make fun of you?”

“No,” Paul replied sheepishly. “Since I was running late, I had ordered a food delivery and thought I put to arrive late and contactless delivery. But the guy was knocking on the door when I was halfway to the bedroom.”

“And you answered it and he said something?”

“No, I stayed silently inside,” Paul replied embarrassed.

“Okay, so what does that have to do with anything?”

“He shouted out ‘*miss*, I have your food, *ma’am*’”

“Okay, so he saw you run in and thought you were the lady of the house. That was the goal wasn’t it?”

“But I didn’t want to be seen at all dressed like a chick!!”

“Um, Paul, what is the point of all of this?” Bill pointed out the obvious question. The realization of everything kind of hit Paul all at once and he really wondered if this really was a stupid idea. “Yes, it's for Halloween and it's in a few weeks, but you told me you wanted to be convincing, passing, not a joke. Well, sounds like that was a test run.”

“But, that... I can’t...”

“Paul, take a step back and realize that this is more people looking to help you, not make fun of you. They knew you have been training with me to walk well in heels and they had the skills to make you look elegant. The problem is you weren’t in a head space to accept it. You weren’t ready to accept it because you weren’t 100% ready. Ideally, you wouldn't be in public until you’re ready, but that was an emergency situation, and it sounds like you made it with their help.”

“I guess...”

Taking a long-exasperated sigh, Bill continued, “Paul, we’ve been working really hard on your walk and movement, and you’ve been making good progress, but I think you should treat this as an indication to move to the next stage.”

“How so?”

“You’ve said repeatedly that you don't want to look like a joke, and you want to be able to pass as convincingly as you can. You have Katie using her artistic skills on your make-up and Molly is getting your attire together. You’ve enlisted my help to get your walk & gait passable as girl who has been walking in heels. A lot of my work has been getting you comfortable with the movements, motions, and beat back habits you’ve had for decades.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, part of your issue is getting comfortable with it. We’ve been doing hours and hours of work over the past few weeks, but you’re still not fully comfortable in the role. That’s understandable; you’ve been walking the way you have pretty much your whole life, but you haven’t done really ANY training of an outfit or make-up like the girls did yesterday, so you have absolutely no comfort in and you were really stressed by it.”

“Oh.”

“And frankly, you only have a few weeks to get to the point of getting comfortable. Because if you are stressed out about people seeing you on the day of because it's completely alien to you at the party, you’re not going to be able to keep up appearances no matter how many miles you walk on a treadmill.”

Paul stared at Bill like a deer in the headlights, “what are you suggesting, Bill?”

“I’m suggesting you get some more feminine outfits and where them every day to get used to them.”

“Bill, I will NOT dress like a chick in front of Molly without being ready. I did some with Katie with Molly there as a proof of concept, but that proved there was a lot to do, and I don’t want her to see it until I’m ready. I am NOT going to have her come home and laugh at me,” Paul replied visibly nervous.

“No, Paul, and I wouldn’t expect you to,” Bill replied frustrated. “You don’t wear your training outfits when she gets home. You change clothes before our sessions. So, instead of putting on training outfits and changing out later, you put on a girly outfit for our session and then change out when you’re done.”

“I guess, but I am not going to wear what they put me in and I couldn’t possibly wear Molly’s stuff.”

“Paul, frequently for my other.... training partners... I get them regular outfits too. Especially when they need different outfits that don’t fit their bodies as they continue training. I could probably get stuff delivered by Monday.”

“Ya, but am I really going to be able to ‘train’ in those? How is that going to be different than a kilt and pirate shirt? And why would that be ‘comfortable’ with them? I’m still not comfortable with the other training stuff you got me.”

Bill questioned whether or not he was really uncomfortable in them, but that’s not a delusion worth fighting, “okay, maybe wear the outfits during work so they feel more ‘normal’ and then using the training outfits if you need that.”

Paul sat there and pondered over all this.

“In the end, you want to look convincing, you’ll be home and just one other exercise. Nothing to it; just clothes. I’m sure you’ll do fine, and this is just going to make it easier for you."

Paul relented, “fine, I guess we could try it. In for a penny....”

“Perfect, I’ll get it going. Also, if we’re talking about things that need to improve, there were a couple other things."

“Ya, lay it on me. What’s one more thing.”

Bill replied chuckling, “it’s really not that big of a deal, but I’m noticing the response to the gadget is lagging and its nothing specific on you. I see something, I press the button, it’s sent over the net, the gadget receives it, it buzzes, you feel it, and talk to me. By the time all is said and done, you have taken a dozen steps. You’re the geek in this relationship; if you know of something I can get your attention faster while you’re listening to your vocal training. You’re getting good enough that I think you’re going to need the faster response to better fine tune the remaining issues.”

Paul picked up that he was saying he was doing good and was smiling from the subtle compliment that was warming up his body, “yes, trainer Bill. I’ll work on that. You said there were a couple?”

Bill was a little surprised to see the fast drop in Paul but was glad to see it. “It's the vocal training. It’s not my skill set. I’ve got lots of general suggestions from some friends, but they don’t have time to do direct training at the moment. However, still working on it for you, but you might want to check with Katie and see if she has any contacts or suggestions; with all her cosplay stuff its likely she knows someone.”

Paul was glad to hear Trainer Bill taking such effort even outside of the sessions; he really needed to start contributing more. “yes, Trainer Bill, I’ll reach out to her.”

“K, we’ve spent almost this whole session just talking and its been productive, but I suspect you haven’t even stretched much today.”

Paul blushed at being caught, “no, Trainer Bill.” Paul kicked himself for the stupid pity party.

“Bad girl, Paulie,” Bill chided Paul and chuckled when he saw a pout go over his face. “Why don’t you go put on your boots & stuff, and we can do a few sessions.”

“yes, Trainer Bill,” Paul said standing up and headed to get his boots.

While Paul ran off, Bill pulled up his browser to start ordering something before the shipping cut off for today.

As Paul grabs his boots out of the bag from the salon, the kilt and shirt from yesterday catch his eyes and looks at his crappy workout clothes he was wearing. Turning to his stash, he grabbed the orange training gear & kilt with a fresh shirt. Getting quickly dressed, he’s reminded that his gadget and aid are out in the car still.

Heading to the door he’s really tentative about going out. Remembering how the hat and glasses hid his face, he ran back to the stash and grabbed the big hat and dug out the sunglasses. Working the hat over his head to have the tresses from the wig line up right, he tosses the glasses on and heads back to the front door.

Taking a deep breath, he reminds himself, “Trainer Bill said he wants you to get more comfortable with it. This is what you got right now. You can do this.” One more breath and he opens the door and dashes out.

He grabs the three bags and runs back in. Throwing the tied-up bag of the prophylactic in the trash, he takes them to bathroom. Cleaning the aid with spray and hot water; he was glad to see it wasn’t bad. Running as quickly as he can in the boots, he takes them to the depleting jug of oil and works to get the aid installed. Surprised how the still warm aid seemed to be as it pushes back his sphincter, he had the aid installed in record time.

Returning back, an almost perky Paul slid into his spot pushing his tight legs just barely past the dots and looked up to the screen to see Bill looking off in the distance, “I’m back, Trainer Bill.”

Looking over at the screen, Bill is surprised at the lady kneeling before him. She was no model, but the wide brim hat, faux hair, and glasses really did hide his natural face and contours at first glance. “Oh, hi, Paulie! Didn’t mean you had to do a full wardrobe change, but glad to see it.”

Paul had a wide grin plastered on his face; congratulating himself for pleasantly surprising Trainer Bill.

“Is it really that bright in there though?”

It took Paul a minute but realized in his rush he still had the shades on, “oh, sorry, Trainer Bill.” He put them up on the table next to the laptop. He started to grab the hat, but Bill stopped him. “No. Keep the hat on for now. Let's see how you can incorporate it into our walk; go ahead and get on the treadmill.”

“yes, Trainer Bill,” Paul said as he stood up and took a few steps towards the treadmill <BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ> The long run of the gadget caught Paul completely off guard and had to take a few panting breathes from it, “yes, Trainer Bill?”

“Oh! You are wearing the gadget. Okay. It just wasn’t responding to your earlier responses, so I thought you weren’t wearing it. Wonder if its battery is finally dying.”

“Oh, I left it in the car last night, so it didn’t fully charge up, Trainer Bill.”

“Well, remember to charge it up. Now take a walk with the hat, missy.”

“Yes, Trainer Bill,” Paul replied as he started the treadmill.

After the first few steps, Bill could see the edges of the light hat flapping on the bridge. “Ah, I was pretty sure it would do that. Can you see the edge of the brim? See how its bouncing? That’s what you want to try at this point.”

“yes, Trainer Bill,” Paul took note of it and immediately started smoothing out his stride, softening his knees, and focusing on keeping the brim still. <BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ> Paul nearly stumbled but caught himself.

“Was doing good for a bit there. Focus on what you did to minimize it and we can come back to it.”

“yes, Trainer Bill.”

They continue on like that for several minutes, but Bill didn’t want the session to go on much longer since they spent so much time talking. “Alright, lets close out, Paulie.”

“yes, Trainer Bill,” Paul replied as he knelt down.

“Okay, we had a lot of learning today. Lots of new opportunities opened up, too, so I look forward to accelerating your training even more soon.”

“yes, Trainer Bill,” Paul replied almost excited.

“So, I’m getting things ordered, but not sure which day they will get there. I need you to think about communication options and reach out to Katie for vocal options. Next week, we’ll focus on comforting, but we got one more session this week we can use to focus on performance essentials.”

“yes, Trainer Bill, I will work on communications and vocal training.”

“Good girl,” Bill reflexively replied, “sounds like your day is doing better. Keep it up and I will see you tomorrow. Bye, Paulie.”

“Bye, Trainer Bill.”

Feeling much better about things, Paul quickly got up and tossed items in laundry seeing the back log of items. Going to the kitchen, he gets some dinner going in the oven to be ready in a few hours, while he returns to tidy a few things up.

Realizing the time, he got out of his clothes, put the hat, glasses, and gadget back. Running to the bathroom to clean off his aid, he returned that before going back to the bedroom to dress in casual attire in time to finish dinner and greet Molly.

Having a much happier dinner, Molly pointed out the change in attitude, and Paul mentioned that he was able to work through some issues today and get things back on track. Molly thought it was just work tasks, but was so thrilled to see him happy, she practically attacked him after dinner.

Moving quickly to the bedroom, she rode him to mutual exhaustion before rolling over and sleeping peacefully.