Coffee Conversation

Sitting down at one of the metal frame tables outside the coffee shop, Megan set out her laptop and booted it up before taking a sip of the cafe mocha she ordered. She sat uploading the dress photos into her computer and opening them up in photoshop along with the photos of Bailey from that morning. Slowly she started to weave them together and then adjust her lovely niece to fit the age she thought she should be for each dress. Eighth grade dance for the blue dress, Sophomore Homecoming for the green, Junior Homecoming for the pink, and Junior Prom for the red. The word wouldn’t be complete until she got some shots of Bailey in some different heels for the outfits, but she was extremely proud of her work. While she was working she had lost her awareness of her surroundings, with all her focus on her creation. “Oh wow she looks so pretty, wait.. Is that Bailey!” Megan looked up at April, her sister's best friend and stood up. “April! So nice to see you.” She said with a hug. “Yeah, my little niece needed some photos from when she was younger and I figured I could do just that.” Megan said proudly, she hadn’t really used that class she took after the divorce much until now and she was extremely happy how things turned out with the images.”That and the documents you said you had made. Was that real, like you really have legal documents for Bailey Ann Best?”

Megan sat back down in her chair and motioned for April to take one of the other chairs. She almost sat down before looking at Megan's drinks. “Hold that answer, I could use something like that first.” She said before going into the shop. Megan went back to changing Bailey in the images, altering the hair an even color, or shrinking her size. "My little niece looks do cute, Amanda would have been beside herself with joy seeing her grow up." She said to herself as she remembered showing her photos of Becky and her friends and dates going off for her prom night. It made her wonder if Bailey Ann had been around growing up if her Rebecca would have been different with her ditzy, loving attitude.

"So tell me what you have been working on." April said as she sat back down with a large coffee. "How about I show you instead." Megan said, turning her laptop to face the dark haired woman. "Oh it is like a photo album of Bailey through the years. Photo with Santa is so cute!" She looked up from the laptop amazed. "That is incredible, did you alter the image you found online or one of your daughter when she was little?" That was just too good and she just had to show her the truth. "No, actually I just used a picture I took of Bailey. Here let me show you her sitting in front of a green screen." Apil was going to ask about the use of female pronouns, but those words died as she saw Bailey in different poses wearing that dress and little bow. "Okay, tell me how that came about!" April was astonished seeing Bailey looking like some cute girl that no one would see as an eighteen year old, let alone a twenty five year old man.

"Well that was partly me, not sure of you heard about the fight my sister had with Bailey." April swallowed a mouth full of her caffeinated drink. "Yeah, Amanda was pretty upset, even after talking to you about how Bailey left in the middle of the night to go work on this with you." Megan made a face at that. "Well… that isn't the whole truth, but you can't tell Amanda. She would break if she heard what really happened." April leaned closer. "That isn't what happened?" Shaking her head Megan told the story of how Bailey ran away from home that night. “So you see in the end he fled because he couldn’t stand the idea of having to keep acting like some bimbo teenager, his words.” Hear the story April was wide eyed at the idea that he would just run in the middle of the night and not talk to Amanda about it. If he hadn’t looked so much like a young girl and been accused of stealing a credit card he would have ruined Amanda and her career. “Though after a long discussion he did agree to keep this going and he knows how bad he fucked up. I told him how if he didn’t want to act like a bimbo he shouldn’t have chosen that as the personality and he just kinda shrugged, but I said we can work on that image to improve it.” Squeezing her hand around the chair’s armrest, April didn’t say a word at first, just seething mad that he would go and do something like that and that idea that he was tired of keeping up appearances of something he shouldn’t have done to begin with. “Why the heck did he decide that is how he would act?” Megan held in a smile as she gave a small shrug. “He told me about the date he went on with your brother, said he acted flirty and coy with him, giving him little touches and innuendo like a girl should on a date.. I would imagine the answer would be the same considering what he came up with to help him stay in character.” April’s anger subdued for a second and went to puzzlement as she remembered Bailey had gone out with August. He had acted so happy and recently asked her to see if Amanda would give her some more free time for another date soon. “He actually said that is how we should act on dates? Wait, what did he come up with?”

Megan tapped a few keys on her keyboard, moving to a different folder and hit enter to start the video clip of Bailey looking in the mirror in his little girl outfit doing curtseys and reciting the good girl motto. “He came up with that himself, the clothes were my idea as a kind of punishment. Said he was acting like a child running away so I dressed him like one.” April watched the video and then restarted it to watch it again, mouth hanging open. “So girls should act flirty on dates, they should be obedient, seen and not heard.” Megan could see the other woman's jaw clenching. “If it makes you feel any better, that date with your brother is one of the reasons he couldn’t stand the act any more. Apparently he learned what happens when a girl flirts too much with a boy. Seems all the touching let August… his name is August right?” April nodded her head, but didn’t say a word, wanting to hear the rest of the story. “Well August, kissed my flirty niece and he didn’t know how to get him to stop.” That made April break into a full laugh at the idea of the small man that she had seen all over Amanda, being at the mercy of her brother. “Wow, just oh wow, that is too much. I can’t imagine my brother playing tonsil hockey with another man, but seeing those images you created and how much Bailey looked like a teenage girl that is just too much.. Well maybe just the perfect amount.”

After looking through all the photos, April smiled and started to type out a text message to Amanda after an idea struck her.

April: I have an amazing idea!

April: For the party let's hang some twine in the area with photos of the girls.

Amanda: That is a good idea, we have a few from this last week.

April: Oh no, your sister has done so much magic with her laptop. Here look at this photo of your daughter when she went to her Sophomore Homecoming.

Amanda: …

Amanda: She made this?

April: She has a bunch and I think we should use them.

Amanda: I want to see them all! Yes, this is fantastic!

Amanda: Bailey looks so cute!

Putting her phone down on the metal frame table and smiled at Megan. “Those photos are going to be a hit at Bailey’s eighteenth birthday party. I’m sure Bailey will be so happy for everyone to see her growing up.” April finished off her large coffee before watching the video one last time. “Okay, I won't tell Amanda about Bailey running away, he did come back after all, but I am absolutely going to tell her about her daughter’s little motto. If Bailey thinks that is how a girl should act, then he will have to keep that up at home.”

Standing back in front of the store Bailey tried to get his thoughts in order, it was just difficult like moving through mud. He thought, no he knew this was bad, but to work up enough emotional energy to be angry was difficult. It wasn’t like Friday night when he just felt so drained he had nothing left, it was like if he tried hard enough he could, but then he might lose focus on everything else. “You Aunt left her card number on file with us, Megan Lilly Best, oh I love that name. You are so lucky to have a good last name like that, mine is as generic as they come, Smith.. Ugg so bland.” Bailey tried to grimace as her, but all he mustered was pursing his thick lips. “Hey.. that is like my last name.” He said not liking her making fun of his name, Smith wasn’t bad, like… like… Agent Smith, he was cool and powerful and stuff. Thinking of the action movie made Bailey smile as Heather looked at him from her register. “Ahh yeah I know girl, and it is awesome. OH do you ever tell people you are the best?” Bailey was already nodding, remembering telling Candi he was the Best sister and let out a giggle at the memory. She was fun to be around, draining, but spending time with someone who was just naturally happy felt good. “Well now I say you look your BEST, so how about we schedule you for another appointment with Tatya to keep that going?” He did need to see her again, he was supposed to tell her to fix his lips and undo it. Wait.. Heather was supposed to cancel this, but she said she did. “Yeah, yeah I do can like I see her now? My lips, she did my lips.” Heather started typing into the system and stopped after just a few keystrokes. “Someone is fishing for compliments.” She said with a smile. “Tatya can see you say next week, I will just go ahead and book it for you now. Your lips Miss Best look the Best and we will make sure they stay that way for you.” Heather beamed a smile, happy at using the girls name. “Can, can I see her sooner?” Bailey pleaded, not fully grasping what she was saying. “Afraid not, she is a popular girl and we are happy to have her here and you as a steady customer. Now I hope you have the BEST day you can.”

Walking out of the store Bailey wasn’t watching where he was going, looking down at the card held between two of his long nailed fingers that had the store's name and his appointment time. The card fell from his hands as he bumped into a man. More startled than anything Bailey looked at the very annoyed expression on his and what looked like his girlfriend or wife's face. “Oops, like sorry I wasn’t watching and like didn’t think…” The huffy woman that was at least now holding the man’s hand interrupted Bailey. “You don’t do much thinking do you.” It wasn’t a question and Bailey just thought that it really was hard to think, and how that champagne really hit him hard, but at least he didn’t have a headache thanks to the aspirin. “Yeah…” He said with a giggle thinking about the small victory again of not having a throbbing head after spending so much time in the salon and hoped to remember to take some before his next appointment. “Oh, I need my card!” Bailey said, turning around and putting his feet together before bending over to pick it up. “Henry!” The girl said, raising her voice and Bailey saw her slap his chest as he got up holding his card. She looked a lot madder now than before as she pulled the embarrassed looking man away. Bailey heard something about a slut and looked around for who her man might have been looking to get that kind of treatment, but found no one. Pouting a little when he didn’t find someone right away he crossed his arms over his chest, about to complain about not having any luck when he caught sight of a red headed woman in tight jeans and wearing high heeled sandals. “Oh, there she is!” Now with a smile on his face Bailey followed the woman, eyes glued to her rear.

“Bailey dear, what are you doing?” Hearing his name Bailey’s attention fell away from the women and looked to the side where the voice came from and saw Aunt Megan and Miss April sitting. Looking back at the woman who was now looking at him perplexed, he smiled at her and answered the question looking between the three women. “I like was looking at your jeans and was trying to catch up to ask where you got them.” The woman gave a bright smile as she looked down at her pants. “I just got these at Macy’s, they are on sale right now twenty percent off!” It worked, girls always want to talk about clothes he thought “Well they like look great on you.” The woman seemed happy with the compliment and thanked Bailey and wished him a good day. Turning back to the others Bailey had been so lost in what he was doing that he had completely forgotten about meeting up with Aunt Megan. “Bailey what happened to your lips?” April said seeing Bailey for the first time in a while. He had changed so much, his hair style was super girly, with it fading to platinum, his nails, his eyelashes and his lips. “Bailey we canceled the lip appointment, you were just supposed to get your eyes done, though I do admit you look good.” Megan said, a little perplexed looking at him. Shaking his head enough to cause his earrings and hair to move about Bailey moved forward with a quick mincing pace. “Nooo! They also did my teeth, see?” He said, opening his mouth and pointing to his now much whiter teeth. “She said I look krasivaya not good and like I made another appointment to make sure I look right.” He said handing over the appointment card.

April was shocked that Bailey was acting like a vapid girl, wanting to show off what she got done and making appointments to maintain it. Megan had said how he wrote and was trying to follow good girl lessons, but this was far beyond that. It was like he was doubling down on the personality he chose to act out back on the day of the picnic. She wasn’t sure if his goal was to make Amanda look bad by having a bimbo of a daughter if he had to keep up the act, but he was dead wrong and if he wanted to play that game she was more than happy to make sure he or well she stayed in the lane that was chosen. Maybe then he would see how much those stereotypes hurt. “Bailey, a good girl always looks her best, that is why you chose to get your eyelashes, lips and teeth done right?” Bailey gave a small smile and nodded his head. “A good girl always looks her best.” He repeated automatically, his mind telling him no that wasn’t the question after he had already said it. “What else makes a good girl?” April asked, already knowing the answer from what Megan had shown her. Bailey wanted to tell her he didn’t want this done, but he had to answer her question. "A good girl always looks her best. A good girl is polite. A good girl is always obedient. A good girl always smiles. A good girl is seen and not heard. A good girl never argues or complains. A good girl never uses foul language. I am a good girl, happy and proud." April stood up from her chair and gave Bailey a small hug and looked the disguised man in the eye. “Good, I will make sure you are just that.” She said, tapping her index finger to his nose and giving a smile. “Well I have to get going. Megan, always a pleasure and send the rest of those files when you get a chance.” Bailey didn’t want her to leave thinking this was his idea. “No, wait, stay. Aunt Megan took me to the salon and..” April looked back at him, interrupting the whiny talk before it went too far. “Yes and you look lovely or what was the word you used krasi…” She struggled to remember the word and pushed on without it. “You look lovely, but I have to go. We will see each other tomorrow morning when I pick you up for a doctor's appointment.”

“Krasivaya… and what doctor?” Bailey said in a small and confused voice. “We will talk tomorrow more about that and all of… this.” She said, waving her hand over Bailey. “You two enjoy the rest of your day.” Bailey looked back to the blue eyed woman who had started all of this with confusion, hoping she would tell him what was going on. She closed her laptop and put it inside her bag before standing up. “I think the last thing we need to do now is get some photos of you in some shoes, oh and if you are good maybe we can see about that sale on jeans. I bet you would love a pair of sexy jeans to squeeze into.” Jeans, pants, yes that was exactly the kind of thing he wanted and he knew she would try to trip him up so he couldn’t have them, but.. But..” Bailey shook his head, the mental fog still giving him trouble and he hated how his lack of food had caused him so much trouble. No he wasn’t going to let her win, he was going to be a good girl and get a pair of jeans! “YES!” Bailey cried out happily. “Shoes and then the sale!”