Trust him

"Okay..." She said as she made a mental note to press him on that soon.

"So when is our date?" He asked.

She replied, "Uh, 6pm. Wait, our date?"

"I'm as invested as you are!"

She warned him. "No funny business. Leave me alone. I'll do my part."

He raised one eyebrow, skeptically.

She arrived in a silky green dress that hung off her hips elegantly and the captivating hair and makeup she had worn all day. On her feet were black sandals with a two-inch wedge heel. He spotted her as she walked in and stood up until she made her way over.

The wine bar was dark and woody. Nice music flowed through the place. This early, only a third of the tables were occupied, so it was easy for her to spot Eric and focus on walking to him in the new shoes.

"Hey, Amanda!"

"Hi."

They bumped heads as they hugged awkwardly. The sommelier waiting for her to sit tried not to snicker.

Even Amanda knew the date wasn't going well. Despite the wine and the ambiance of the bar, their conversation had made it from work, through weather, back to work again.

She saw the man yawn theatrically and flick his wrist from all the way across the bar.

Eric, unknowingly, made conversation. "I have to say, Amanda. I can't say I noticed you around the office before. How is that?"

Her heart sank slightly, hurt that he didn't notice her in the three years she'd worked for the company.

"I don't ... know." She was too distracted to make an articulate reply, thanks to the unfortunately familiar sensation of tugging fabric underneath her. The dress shrank slowly under her. She fidgeted on it, fruitlessly trying to tug the hemline back to knee length as it was moments before.

She glared at the tiny man across the bar, prompting Eric to turn and look around and ask, "Is everything okay?"

"OKAY! Okay." She spoke as if replying to Eric, hoping the creature would hear it too. She put a hand on Eric's knee and giggled to diffuse.

Eric looked confused by her reply.

She drank the remaining half of her glass of wine, leant forward, and as flirtily as she could manage she said, "I noticed you." She drew from a pool of confidence she had no idea existed in her and walked her fingernails up his leg. She tried not to show surprise in her eyes when she noticed that, at some point, they had lengthened significantly and were painted bright red.

He looked conflicted and bit his lip. "Oh yeah?"

Some time later, she excused herself to the bathroom for a break.

She was confronted with the reflection of a stranger in the large mirror. She was wearing thick, beautiful makeup with smokey eyes and her emerald dress was now only fit for a cocktail bar. It would be generous to call it thigh-length. It accentuated her much smaller waist than when she had woken that day and did nothing to hide her generous curves. Very little about this woman resembled who she'd been for the last 25 years.

She was no longer surprised at how easily seduced Eric had been. She reflected on how different her life would have been if she'd always been this way.

She thought about returning to Eric in the bar when the reality of the situation hit her. She could make him hers tonight. She could sleep with her dream man. The creature would be out of her life. All it would cost her is her vow.