A Man in a Woman's Body: The Story of a Habentem #Wattys2016 #JustWriteIt

Chapter 19 - New girlfriend

I arrived early with the kids for our Friday dinner. Max and Penny were excited to be seeing Tony's kids and had been stunned to learn that I was a friend of Tony's. Max bounded up to the door after we got out of the car. As he was about to knock on the door a tall thin woman with long wavy brown hair came to answer the door. She wore minimal makeup but she had a fierce natural beauty with pouty red lips, high chiselled cheek bones, thinly penciled eyebrows and stunning blue eyes.

"Hello young man, I'm Alicia and you must be Max?" she swayed gracefully and bated her long eyelashes as she opened the front grate door. She was wearing a short strapless dress with a floral pattern and she must have been in her early twenties.

"Hello Alicia, it's nice to meet you" I said.

"Hello Cherry, and you must be Penny, you are so cute!" she screwed her face up into a cutesy wrinkle and made a pinching gesture with her fingers.

"Hehe" Penny giggled adorably.

"Come in to our lovely home" she said and I was shocked that she would refer to it as her home when she had come from out of nowhere and Tony's wife had just left. Reggie turned up just as I was walking in the front door.

"There you are Reggie, nice to meet you, I'm Alicia" I turned around stunned that she would know who Reggie was. I felt like something wasn't adding up.

"Hello Alicia" Reggie said extending her hand to shake Alicia's "it's nice to meet you" and Reggie gave me a quizzical look as she stepped up onto the verandah. I took Reggie's hand and we walked in ahead of Alicia to where Tony was greeting us at the end of the hall. The kids had already run up to meet their friends and we quickly moved into the kitchen.

"Can I offer you ladies a drink?" said Tony.

"Yes a wine thanks" I said "and what can we help with for dinner?"

"Oh I've already made got the roast ready and cooking" said Julia. That was not how Tony and I normally ran our Friday afternoon dinner preparations together over a drink.

"Well this young lady is efficient, isn't she!" I said to Tony. Reggie and I were taking our seats at the small table and Alicia was hanging off Tony like he was a dancing pole.

"What can I say, I'm from good stock" said Alicia shamelessly boasting.

"So I hear you've just moved in, how long have you known each other?" asked Reggie and it was like bringing a sledgehammer into a glasswares store. Tony froze and I didn't know what to say but Alicia wore a grin and I couldn't decide whether it was evil or cute.

"We've known each other a long time now" came her reply "it just got more serious recently and she nudged him.

"Yes our bond just grew too strong to ignore any longer" said Tony. I heard Tony's oldest child make a barfing noise in the next room and Alicia shot a frustrated glance at Tony. I got the sense that there was more to this situation than Tony was letting on.

"Once Tony's wife left him I just had to have him and now it feels like we've known each other forever, we were meant to be!"

"Dad can you come and play Xbox with me?" said Tony's youngest. Tony looked to Alicia as if asking permission and she shook her head subtly.

"No not now, maybe later." said Tony.

"Anyway we're in love and we're both adults so who cares if we're moving a bit quick" said Alicia, and no-one else knew what to say so we all sat quietly for a moment. "What about you two? Are you an item?" said Alicia pointedly.

"One day she'll ask me" said Reggie to my surprise.

"Well one day might be right now!" and she leaned over and kissed me. Tony gave me a disapproving glare and I thought he was hardly one to make comment since he was jumping into a relationship so soon after his wife had apparently left him. I had had enough of the elephant in the room by now so I decided I would have to don the devil's advocate hat.