Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

Robert was wearing a nice black polo shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Sarah's message had told him to “dress casual,” and considering how wide that spectrum could be he chose what he thought would be a safe bet.

As Robert exited the elevator and turned the corner into the hotel lobby he froze in his tracks

Sarah was standing there, in a way he had never seen her before. She was dressed in a white spaghetti strap tank top, with an orange plaid shirt on over it, unbuttoned. A pair of distressed, short jean shorts left her long, slim legs largely uncovered aside from the pair of light brown cowboy boots she had on. The boots were embellished with elegant stitching that ran up the sides, tracing an angular geometric pattern. Her dirty blonde hair was down, and hung in long wavy curls about her face. It was all a far cry from the professional business look Robert normally associated with her and it stunned him.

Sarah had been watching the elevator bank expectantly, and grimaced as she saw Robert standing there gaping.

“I'm sorry...It's a bit much, isn't it?” She said hesitantly, gesturing at her outfit.

Robert finally regained his wits.

“No...It's a good look!”

Sarah smiled slightly After seeing her so confident in the office, it was weird watching her be this uncertain. It truth, it was a very good look for her. Physically, Sarah couldn't be anymore different from his date yesterday. Samantha was short, delightfully chubby, and had curves for days. Sarah was tall, slim, and besides a perky butt and the soft swell of her tiny breasts, had almost no curves to speak of. What she did have were legs a mile long, legs that her jean shorts put on full display. The tight white tank top clung to the small inward dip of her waist, before flaring back out slightly over her chest.

As Robert crossed the lobby to join her, Sarah took a few uncertain steps to meet him before stopping, taking a step more, stopping again, and then sliding into a awkward smile while she waited for Robert to finish closing the remaining distance. He always knew she was tall, but with her cowboy boots on, he actually had to look up slightly to meet her eyes as he drew next to her. She looked over his polo shirt and jeans, before laughing slightly.

“You're overdressed.”

******

Robert wasn’t sure what he was expecting from Sarah’s date but it certainly wasn’t this. The hard-nosed manager had led him to a country dive bar located in the basement of a nearby building. Bob’s Country Bunker was dingy, dim, and loud. Even though they were the only two customers, a jukebox in the corner was blaring country-western music at a level that ensured they had to nearly yell to be heard. They were sitting at the bar, a crude wooden slab that had seen some mileage, on two tall bar chairs. Robert was quite aware that his seat had a noticeable wobble. The rest of the dive was spotted with rough-hewn high-top tables scattered across the worn wooden floor. On the opposite wall from the bar stood a small raised platform that seemed to serve as a stage, a surprisingly large dance floor spread in front of it.

At Sarah's insistence, they had both started with a tequila shot apiece, before moving on to cold beer. She had placed an order for some brisket nachos (to share) with the solitary bartender working the dive, while Robert's eyes explored the rough and tumble bar with wonder.

As his eyes came back around to Sarah he found her with a sheepish face, which was a strange look on the usually confident woman. She seemed to be waiting for Robert to pass judgment on all of this; her outfit, the location, herself. Robert could feel the anticipation but wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

“So why here?” He decided deflecting with a question to be a safer bet.

A shy smile crossed Sarah’s face.

“I figured I might as well rip the band-aid off. That one transformation in the first round already hinted at my background, so I figured I might as well just be open about it.”

Robert surveyed the bar again.

“Soooo, Texas?”

Sarah’s face darkened and she snorted into her drink.

“God no. Oklahoma.”

“Why hide that?” Robert asked with confusion. “The transformation description seemed to imply you didn’t want people to know.”

“Do you know how hard it is to be taken seriously in Los Angeles when people learn you’re a girl that grew up on a cattle ranch in some podunk town in middle-of-nowhere Oklahoma? People make assumptions. I’ve never really hid it, but I’m definitely not open about it.” Sarah took a long pull of her beer. “Well, except for the accent. I did intentionally hide that.”

“The accent?” Robert was seeing Sarah with new eyes.

“Yeah, it was pretty rough. Took me most of college to lose it.”

“Do you still have it?”

Sarah flashed him a teasing grin.

“Nice try, but I haven’t drank that much yet.”

Robert took a sip of his own beer and grimaced. It was a cheap canned brew that Sarah had ordered for both of them. He figured it must be part of the “experience.”

“So is this like your hometown bar?”

Sarah laughed.

“Oh no, my hometown bar is much worse than this. Between the oil roughnecks and the cowhands it was a quiet night if there was only one fight. No, this is more like the places I frequented while I was in college.”

“Really? You never struck me as the ‘going-out’ type.”

“It was a long time ago. You’d be surprised.”

It was hard to imagine Sarah frequenting anyplace but an office building, but Robert could almost envision a younger version of her in a place like this. Her current outfit was doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Her denim shorts accentuated her long, slim legs, while clinging tightly to her pert butt.

“So where did you go to college?” Robert took another sip of the watery beer, trying his best to ignore the taste.

“Oklahoma State.”

“How'd you end up in California?”

“I went to Stanford for my law degree. I just never left after that.”

“Wow, Stanford huh? What drew you there?”

Sarah shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she slowly spun the beer can in her hand.

“I just needed a change of scenery. I'd spent my entire life in Oklahoma, and I needed to see what was beyond that state.”

Sarah finished her beer and waved over the bartender for a second one. Robert felt the need to keep up and took a giant swig of his own. As he lowered the can, he saw Sarah eyeing him with amusement, but before he could ask her about it she popped a question on him.

“Well, you know more about me now, only fair I get to know more about you. So! Where did Robert West grow up?”

It was Robert's turn to stare uncomfortably at his beer.

“Pennsylvania born and raised.”

Sarah playfully arched an eyebrow at him.

“So we're both a long way from home.”

Robert stifled a grimace. Pennsylvania hadn't been home for a long time. Maybe never.

“Yeah, well. It's like you said, I needed a change of scenery.”

“Any family back East?”

Robert's free hand clenched into a fist, his fingernails biting into his skin. He hid it under the bar.

“Just my mom. She's the only family I have.” Left, he thought bitterly. “You have anyone back in Oklahoma?”

He finally brought his eyes back up to meet Sarah's. She looked like she was studying him. I pivoted too quickly...

“No, I don't.” She finally answered. “My mom died three years ago and Dad went a few years before her. I'm an only child.”

An awkward silence fell. This started out so well...

Thankfully the brisket nachos arrived at that moment, providing a natural break to the conversation and simultaneously supplying a new safe discussion topic. Robert thought the nachos were pretty good and Sarah agreed, though she insisted she'd had better back in Stillwater.

“So where did you go to college?” Sarah asked him while trying to maneuver an overloaded chip into her mouth.

“University of Pittsburgh.”

Sarah's eyes lit up.

“Were you there for the West Virginia upset in 2007?”

Robert laughed.

“No, I just missed it. I graduated the spring before. Our football team was terrible while I was there.”

“As a neutral viewer, that was a great game.”

“College football fan I take it?”

A sly grin slid onto Sarah's face.

“Ever since I was a kid. Dad was a Oklahoma State alum and used to take me to games.”

“How was the football team while you where there?”

It was Sarah's turn to laugh.

“They were OK. I did get to watch us beat Oklahoma at home my senior year, so that was pretty great. Hey, how do you feel about Pitt joining the ACC?”

Robert rolled his eyes.

“Dumb, but I guess we can blame WVU for blowing up the Big East. We're going to lose so many traditional rivalries. Who cares about playing Wake Forest?”

And just like that the easy-going nature of the date returned. OK, just avoid family talk. Got it. Robert thought to himself.

I can understand that.

******

“Why'd you give Robert such a hard time earlier?”

Chloe and Robin were sitting in the opulent hotel dining room eating dinner.

“I'm sorry, how am I supposed to treat the man we're all sexual slaves for now?”

Chloe sighed and rolled her eyes.

“It's not like he had a say in the matter. He's not even supposed to be here. Ava pulled him by mistake.”

“And that's somehow supposed to make me feel better about his ownership over me?”

“Why are you so up in arms about this? I thought you told Sarah we shouldn’t try to fight this.”

Robin stopped eating and glared at Chloe.

“No, I told her we shouldn’t try to fight the Host right now. I told her that we didn’t know enough about this situation to go in guns blazing against someone with seemingly magic power beyond our understanding. There’s a difference between trying to fight whatever that is, and just accepting that I now belong to another person.”

Robin turned back to her plate, angrily spearing some green beans with her fork. Chloe debated if she should pursue the conversation any further when Samantha and Cassandra arrived.

“Hey, do you mind if we sit with you guys?” Samantha asked.

Chloe looked over to Robin, who was busy chewing. The goth’s eyes still held a hard edge, but she waved her fork at the two empty chairs at the table while shrugging her shoulders. Chloe turned back to the other two women with a “Sure,” and a smile.

“Thanks,” Samantha seemed to be a little more reserved than the few other times Chloe had seen her. She looked over to Cassandra, but the other woman wouldn't look up from her food. Chloe turned her gaze back towards Samantha and eyed the screen writer carefully, weighing a thought in her mind. She knew she should drop it, but she just couldn’t help herself…

“So Samantha,” Chloe asked with a wide smile she didn’t feel, “how did your date go yesterday?”

It seemed to take Samantha a beat to realize Chloe was talking to her. She coughed on the bite of food she was eating before she managed to **** it down with a gulp of water.

“It went pretty well,” Samantha admitted blushing slightly, “We went and got Italian before we went back to his room.”

“What do you think of Robert then?” Chloe gently pressed. She pointedly ignored Robin’s scowl, instead keeping her eyes on Samantha, who held a guarded look.

“Look, if you don’t want to talk about it I won’t **** you,” Chloe reassured her. “I’m just trying to figure out what type of person he is.”

Samantha seemed to be weighing Chloe’s words. Robin continued to scowl, apparently quite aware of what Chloe was playing at, while Cassandra was pretending to still be more absorbed in her food then the conversation.

“I mean, he seems pretty nice.” Samantha admitted slowly. “We like a lot of the same movies so that’s what we spent most of dinner talking about.”

“Yeah, but how did things go when you got back to the Master’s Suite?” Robin suddenly demanded.

Samantha’s eyes went wide and darted between Chloe and Robin.

“We...I…”

Her gaze dropped down to her plate.

“I fell asleep on him…” she quietly admitted in a small voice.

Chloe just managed to stifle a giggle. Robin looked like a storm cloud was forming on her brow.

“Well, what about before that? Did he try to pressure you into doing anything before you feel asleep?” Robin pressed.

Samantha’s face and elongated ears went beet red. Her eyes were fixed on her plate, refusing to look up. She muttered something that none of them could understand. Robin asked her to repeat herself.

“No, but he wouldn’t have had to pressure me…”

Chloe couldn’t stop her bright airy laugh this time. She felt bad for her roommate, but after watching Robin so determinedly try to prove that Robert was a awful man, it was downright funny to see Samantha rebuke her so innocently.

Robin was taking her steak knife to a piece of meat like it was personally responsible for her being stuck here. Samantha continued to stare at her plate red-faced, while Cassandra’s confused eyes flicked from one woman to another, trying to make sense of the confrontation.

“I’m sorry, I’m missing something…” she wondered aloud.

Chloe went to answer, but Robin cut her off.

“Nothing, just a moral argument.” She muttered darkly.

Cassandra’s eyes met Chloe’s, but Chloe just gave her a small wry smile. She didn’t see the point in embarrassing her roommate any further.

“So…” Chloe started in a way that signaled she had nothing further to say on the previous subject, “What have you two been up to today?”

“Shopping,” Cassandra said simply, her attention dropping back down to her plate.

“Shopping for what?” Robin inquired.

Cassandra just shrugged, but Samantha quickly chimed in.

“Transformation upgrades,” she seemed determined to shift the focus of conversation to someone else.

“Oh really?” Robin cocked an eyebrow, turning her full attention to Cassandra. “For who, exactly?”

Cassandra continued to pretend to be absorbed by her food, but Samantha chimed back in.

“Just for Cassandra!” She replied defensively. “She didn’t have enough BP to buy an upgrade for herself and she asked me for help.”

Robin wrinkled her nose in disgust while Chloe couldn’t help but stare at Cassandra. The former starlet defiantly raised her head and met their gaze.

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in formal wear. I asked Samantha if she could help me purchase the upgrade for my Red Carpet Ready transformation.”

“’Help?'" Robin's eyes narrowed as they shifted towards Samantha. "You mean she bought it for you?”

Cassandra shrugged again before nodding.

“I helped because I wanted to!” Samantha exclaimed with a pout.

Robin looked like she had more to say, but Chloe cut her off.

“Well, did it help?” She asked Cassandra. “The upgrade?”

“Kinda.”

“Kinda?”

“Well I’m not stuck in just formal wear anymore, but I still don’t get to choose my own clothing.”

Chloe was about to ask Cassandra to elaborate, but Robin suddenly accidentally knocked her drink glass off the table. It hit the hardwood floor and shattered, scattering glass, ice, and water across the floor. Before anyone could react, Cassandra was out of her seat and on the floor, soaking up the water with her cloth napkin. Chloe could only watch in shock as Cassandra’s blue dress begin to shift.

Short puffy sleeves seemed to materialize out of nowhere. The fabric around Cassandra’s torso became less satiny while remaining tight-fitting. The plunging neckline squared off, but showed no less cleavage. The dress shortened into a short frilly skirt, complete with a pair of tight, white stockings that ran up to her mid-thighs. Her stilettos plumped out into more sensible black pumps, but the heel height remained the same. Cassandra’s long black hair gathered itself up into a tight prim bun, while a white apron materialized around her, finalizing her light blue maid’s dress. The former starlet seemed too caught up in cleaning the mess on the floor to realize what had just happened to her clothing. As she stared, Chloe became painfully aware that Cassandra’s skirt wasn’t quite long enough to keep her panties from being exposed while she was on her hands and knees.

Chloe, Robin, and Samantha could only gape as Cassandra’s transformation compelled her to clean up the mess. Chloe finally managed to tear her gaze away from Cassandra’s panties, only to meet Robin’s own shocked eyes. Samantha continued to stare.

For her part, Cassandra had only sighed resignedly as she finished soaking up the spilled water and begin to gingerly gather up the ice and remains of the glass.

“Uhhh, Cassandra?” Robin said.

“Sorry, my other transformation made me clean this up. Maybe I should have upgraded this one instead…”

“Cassandra!” Samantha blurted out.

“What?” Cassandra asked with annoyance. She reached around to pull the hem of her dress down, and it was only then that she seemed to realize what had happened to her clothes. She managed to stop cleaning just long enough to rise up off her hands and look down at herself. She let out a small shriek before she was **** to return to her hands and knees and resume cleaning, exposing her panties and stocking clad legs again.

“She can’t stop!” Samantha exclaimed.

Chloe got up and rushed around the table. She figured sf she helped clean up, then Cassandra would be stuck like this for less time. As she began to help pick up the glass and ice Robin seemed to clue in, and came over to help. Thankfully, with the three of them it didn’t take long.

With the mess fully cleaned up, Cassandra was able to finally rise to her feet. She was red-faced, and awkwardly tugging at the hem of her short, frilly skirt. Now that she was standing up it barely reached the top of her stockings, and Chloe wasn’t convinced that the maid’s dress didn’t show off even more cleavage than the dress Cassandra had on earlier.

Cassandra managed to stammer out a quiet “Thank you,” before she fled from the dining room. Her clothes were already beginning to shift back to formal wear as she disappeared from view. Samantha rushed out after her, calling her name. Chloe could only stand there, watching the two rush out while she held the soaked cloth napkin with the shattered remains of the drinking glass wrapped up inside it. Robin sighed heavily and sank back into her chair.

“I knew that shop was trouble,” she muttered, stabbing at another piece of steak.