It's Hard to be a Man (11/?)
                

                  It's Hard to be a Man Part Eleven

	"You're going to have to stall Patrick," Abigail said over the
phone. "I won't be able to get there before he does."

	"B-but what do I do?" Ian replied fearfully.

	"Just talk about anything. Just keep him occupied for as long as
possible. I'll give the signal to Amanda. With luck she can get out in
time without meeting Patrick or alerting Hank. Now move!"

	Ian headed as quickly as he could down to reception. His heart
was racing. What was he going to say to Patrick? He was the last person
on Earth Ian wanted to talk to. It meant having to face up to having
had sex with a man.

	The minutes passed slowly and Ian was beginning to hope that
Abigail had got it wrong and Patrick had gone somewhere else. That hope
was dashed when he saw Patrick's car pull past reception and into the
car park.

	Ian tried to act casual as his boss walked into reception. He
had to keep Patrick from realizing what he was doing. Despite himself,
his mouth dropped open when he saw what Patrick had on.

	His boss was wearing a short, and rather tight, black
mini-skirt, a revealing blouse and a dark jacket. He also had several
rings and bracelets on. The effect was topped with make-up and clip-on
earrings. Patrick turned to look at Ian. "Hiya," he said brightly.

	"Uh...hi," Ian managed to reply.

	"Are you okay? You're looking an odd color."

	"S-sorry, I was just thinking about what happened last time we
met." Idiot! he berated himself, couldn't you find something else to
talk about?

	"It's disturbing you, isn't it?" Patrick asked softly.

	"Well, yeah, obviously. I mean you're a man after all."

	Patrick shook his head. "Not anymore. I'm a woman now and I
always will be. Anyway, Hank doesn't have a problem with my body."

	"Of course he doesn't! He doesn't know you're Patrick!"

	Pretending not to notice what he was doing, Patrick brushed back
the jacket, revealing the curve of his breast through his blouse. He was
amused to see Ian's eyes flick over his curves. Men were so easy to
control. "Look, Ian. I'm a woman, a very sexy one in fact, and I turned
you on so much you lost control. It's hardly your fault. It's a pity I'm
with Hank; you're not bad looking yourself." Patrick moved closer and was
amused to see Ian stumble backwards. "Don't worry, I don't bite. Unless
you want me to." He turned and walked over to the elevator.

	It took Ian several seconds to recover and remember what he was
supposed to be doing. He barely had time to catch up with Patrick before
the elevator doors closed on him. "You... you shouldn't deceive Hank like
this. It isn't right."

	"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not deceiving him. I'm exactly who I
appear to be. Anyway, what are you going to do about it? Tell Hank?"

	Ian was silent. Of course he couldn't tell Hank. He'd never be
believed.

	They arrived on the fourth floor and Patrick set off as fast as
he could on his high heels towards his office.

		*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

	Inside Patrick's office Hank was trying to work out how to
comfort Amanda. Out of nowhere Patrick's ex-girlfriend had appeared in
some distress. "I just don't understand what happened," she said once
Hank had taken her into Patrick's office. "He changed in some way and
then he dumped me!"

	"Well, he was acting a little odd last week, but I didn't see
anything really wrong with him."

	Amanda shifted closer towards him. "You've never been...intimate
with him as I have. I know him better than you do. I've never known
anyone who could satisfy me the way he does. I don't know what I'll do if
I can't get him back." She knew her approach was as subtle as a smack in
the face with a baseball bat, but it seemed to be having the right effect
on Hank. He only saw a sexy woman making advances, perhaps unconsciously,
on him. If Hank was anything like Patrick used to be, then he wouldn't
pass up this opportunity. The trick would be getting out of there without
raising his suspicions before it went too far. If she managed that then
she could set Hank up in some public spot like a bar or restaurant and
then get Patrick to discover them.

	They talked some more. It was obvious to Amanda that Hank was
trying to find out if she was available or not. He probably thinks he is
being subtle about it, she thought disdainfully.

	Her mobile phone rang twice inside her handbag and then stopped.
Amanda pretended to ignore it, but she knew what that signal meant. It
meant Patrick was on his way here and she had to leave now. She looked
again at the desire on Hank's face. Maybe she could play this to her
advantage.

	She shifted closer still to Hank and laid her hand on his arm.
"Perhaps it was for the best that Patrick left me. I've admired you
since I first saw you."

	Through the door of the office she heard a familiar female voice
ask. "Is Hank around?" Patrick was here.

	Hank's eyes widened in alarm, but before he could do anything
Amanda had thrown an arm around him and kissed him full on the lips. She
heard the door open before Hank could do anything.

	There followed an uncomfortable silence.

	Finally, Hank recovered enough sense to push Amanda away. "I can
explain, Rebecca! This isn't what it looks like."

	"Bastard!" Thundered a decidedly male voice behind Amanda. She
looked up to see Hank's shocked face just seconds before Patrick's fist
hit it. Hank toppled backwards and thumped his head on the desk as he
went down.

	Amanda turned around to see a very angry, and very male, Patrick.
His female clothes were stretched almost to breaking point by his larger,
masculine form. He glared at Amanda and she worried a little for her own
safety.

	Then his body rippled and shrank as he regained his female form.
Without waiting to straighten his clothes, Patrick fled from the room in
some distress.

	Susan watched Patrick leave and then went into the office. "What
the hell is going on?" she demanded.

	"Ah, it's a little complicated," Amanda replied wryly. "Give me a
hand with Hank."

	Together they hauled the disorientated man into a chair. As Susan
went looking for the first-aid box, Hank tried to piece together what had
happened. He had a confused memory of hearing Becky's voice and then
seeing Patrick - in a skirt? - bearing down on him. He quickly dismissed
the absurd vision and held his aching head.

	Deciding that he'd be alright, Amanda slipped out of the office.
She hurried out into the hallway and over to the elevator. She was glad
that was over with. She had hated doing that as it made her feel a bit
dirty. Never mind, it appeared to have had the desired effect. Only time
would tell if it had truly worked, though.

		*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

	Patrick had had to stop driving as he could no longer see the
road through his tears. He had no clear idea where he was going anyway,
so he pulled over to the side of the road to calm down.

	How could Hank have been so stupid? They had been perfect
together and now Hank had ruined it. All Patrick's plans of marriage and
children were in tatters.

	Marriage? What on Earth was he thinking of? Hank was a good
friend, but he wouldn't marry him. In that case, a part of his mind
remarked, why have you spent the last four days in bed with him?

	Patrick's mind whirled in shock. He had done just that. He had
made love as a woman and thoroughly enjoyed it! Just as he had feared,
the man he had fallen in love with was Hank.

	He remembered Abigail telling him that he was in shock from the
first time he had had sex as a woman. At the time he had thought she had
gone mad, as he had never felt better. Now, however, he could see the
truth of what she had said. His male psyche had been unable to deal with
what he had done, so it had simply shut down and been replaced by a
female one.

	If only Abigail had managed to stop him escaping his apartment
on Friday and had succeeded in breaking the curse. Patrick's stomach
gave another lurch as he remembered how he had escaped by giving Ian a
blowjob and then breaking free.

	He couldn't turn back into a man just yet; the clothes he had on
were too obviously feminine. He calmed himself down, dried his eyes with
a tissue, and started driving again. He would go back to his apartment
and dress in his male clothes. Then he'd burn every piece of female
clothing in the place.

		*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

	Ian rode his motorbike the few streets to where Abigail and
Amanda were waiting.

	"Did Hank see Patrick turn male?" was Amanda's first question.

	"I don't think so," Ian replied. "He seemed more worried about
what Patrick would do when he found out. He wasn't too happy you'd
disappeared either."

	"Typical," Amanda remarked, "he wanted two women at once and now
he's surprised he's lost both."

	"The big question, though," Abigail pointed out, "is: Has this
worked? Are we still dealing with 'Rebecca', or is Patrick back in
charge?"

	"I hope it worked," Ian said fervently, "I do not want to go
through that again."

	"You two get some rest," Abigail said. "You've done everything
possible for one night. I'll go over to his apartment alone and see what
sort of state he's in."

	Amanda was a little reluctant at leaving at that point. She
wanted to know if her plan had worked. Ian, however, was only too happy
to get home and relax.

	Abigail's car was still playing up a little, but it worked well
enough to allow her to reach Patrick's apartment building. She knocked
quietly at the door to his apartment and waited. She wished her own
psychic powers were good enough to see if he was in there or not.

	She knocked again and waited nervously. She was about to leave
when she heard a movement behind the door. Then the door opened a crack
and she was relieved to see Patrick's male face poking around it. He
looked so forlorn that she couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

	Without saying a word, Patrick let her into the apartment. They
looked at each other in silence for several long seconds. Finally Patrick
spoke, "You three planned that, didn't you?"

	"Yes," she admitted, "it was Amanda's idea, but we all went along
with it. It was a desperate move, but we had to do something. I'm really
sorry, Patrick."

	He signed and slumped down in an armchair. "I don't think I've
ever been so happy than I was this weekend. Everything was perfect. Or
so it seemed at the time. Now I can't believe a quarter of the things
I've done in the last few days. I was totally and completely in love
with Hank. I would have done anything for him. Anything! I was even
playing with the idea of getting pregnant! I thought that would bind us
together forever. I probably wouldn't have seen him for dust if I had
told him he was going to be a father." Patrick's hand flew to his belly.
"You don't think I did get pregnant? We didn't use any protection!"

	"It probably doesn't matter. You're a man right now and even
if... something did happen... it probably disappeared when you turned
male."

	Patrick managed a weak smile, "That's probably a good thing. I
don't think I'd make a good Mom." He was uncomfortably aware that a part
of him was upset by the idea of a lost child.

	"I really, truly, am sorry about all this," Abigail told him. "We
will do everything we can to sort this out, but it is going to be a few
weeks before we can perform the ceremony again."

	"I'm stuck like this for several more weeks?" he asked
despairingly. "I'd forgotten the strain it took just to stay male. I can
feel the pressure already building within me."

	"Perhaps you should take the next few weeks off work. Just until
everything is sorted out."

	"I can't do that! There's far too much to do."

	"It can wait," she replied exasperated, "Your health is more
important."

	"Don't worry, Abigail. I'll be fine."

	"Are you sure?"

	"Yeah."

	"Okay, but I want you to call either me, Amanda or Ian if you
need help."

	"I will," he replied. He felt a little reticent at going for
Amanda or Ian for help, but it wasn't like he'd have much choice. He
would have to depend on these three considerably over the next few weeks.
He hadn't needed to be supported like that since before he had gone to
University and it hurt his male pride a little.

	Abigail didn't want to leave Patrick alone, but he insisted. He
said he had a lot of things to think through so she left him to it.

	After she had left, Patrick returned to the main room and sat
back in the chair. His emotions were a jumbled mess and nothing seemed
certain anymore. His affair with Hank went against every fibre of his
being and yet, it had felt good to be held in those powerful arms.

	He winced as he remembered how he had tricked Ian into freeing
him. He was a good few years younger than Patrick, but he was so cute.
Patrick wished he could stop those odd little thoughts entering his head.
He knew it wasn't a sign that he might snap back into sex-kitten mode,
but it showed that his whole perception of the world had been permanently
altered.

	Soon, he was going to have to change into a woman again. Every
second spent male meant he had to expend effort to stop himself changing
sex. He was going to have to spend most evenings as a woman to give
himself the mental energy to last the day at work as a man.

	This was a battle he could win, he decided. All he had to do was
hold back the female desires for the several weeks necessary. Then, when
fully male again, the female desires would slowly disappear. A part of
him didn't truly believe he had the stamina. The way he had so
disastrously lost control before deeply worried him. The knowledge of
what could happen if he slipped again only increased his determination to
resist it.

	He allowed his body to turn female again. He was relieved to find
that his mind didn't change as well as his body. It looked like 'Becky'
was gone for good. He just wished that his male body felt half as
comfortable and familiar as this one did.

		*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

	The office was filled with a tense atmosphere the next morning.
Everyone was worried about something different, but it all led back to
'Becky'.

	Hank was worried about what Becky might have said to Patrick. She
had been a weird girl, but very good in bed. He still couldn't make any
sense about what Amanda had been up to the previous evening. It was
almost as if she had been trying to drive a wedge between himself and
Becky, but why would she want to do that? He wondered if Amanda really
was available. It would be best to leave that well alone as he was
probably in enough trouble over Becky as it was.

	Ian was terrified about meeting Patrick for the first time since
his boss regained his senses. How would Patrick react to what he and Ian
had done together?

	Susan was wondering what the hell was going on with everyone and
how it could affect her job.

	Outside in the car park, Patrick was trying to calm himself down
before heading up to the office. He had let his body become mostly female
so he would be able to concentrate on driving. Now he had reached work,
he gathered his will together and concentrated until his body turned
fully male again. He adjusted his clothing and then headed inside the
building and into the elevator.

	He worried over meeting Hank again. How could their friendship
survive the intimacy they had shared? Even if only one of them knew they
had been intimate with the other.

	"Hiya, Patrick!" Hank said smiling broadly as Patrick walked
into the office. "I was sorry to hear about your cousin." Hank's eye was
bruised and swollen.

	Patrick remembered the cover story he had given as Becky to
explain his disappearance. "It's okay, we weren't that close, but there
was no-one else to deal with everything." He frowned at Hank's black
eye. "What happened to you?"

	"Oh, that," Hank said and laughed a little nervously. "I...uh...
walked into a door."

	Patrick couldn't help but smile at the lame excuse. "I hope she
was worth it."

	Hank relaxed a little. He assumed by Patrick's attitude that his
friend and boss had no idea what had happened between him and Becky.
"She was."

	Patrick looked up at the rest of his staff. He saw Ian at the
back looking nervous. "Right, we've got a lot to do, and no time to do it
in. So I need one-hundred and ten percent effort from all of you today."

	He headed into his inner office and sighed at the mountain of
work. It had certainly built up while he had been playing the bimbo. He
settled down behind his desk and relaxed his control on the lower half
of his body.

	Within a few seconds his hips widened as he felt a by now
familiar pulling sensation in his crotch as he turned physically female.
He squirmed in his chair to get comfortable and then turned to the
reports.

	Despite his attempts to concentrate on the files, he couldn't
help but return to thinking about his condition. It was only natural that
his female form would feel more comfortable than his male one as he had
spent so much time in recent days as a woman.

	As the hours passed his headache started to return with a
vengeance. If only he could be a woman and keep his job, he thought to
himself. Then he wouldn't feel so sick all the time. It was, of course,
impossible as his female self did not officially exist, had no
qualifications and had no job history.

	Was being a woman so bad anyway? As long as he kept his own mind
instead of becoming Becky again. Sex on the opposite side had been
fantastic. Patrick looked through the glass partition at the rest of the
office. He'd always see Hank, Ian and perhaps all men in a different way
from now on. He could now see the beauty in men's bodies. He found
himself scanning male bodies just as much as female ones. That was
discomforting to him, and he hoped that his bisexuality would fade in
time. Even if it did, he doubted it would be a door that would ever
fully close.

	By lunchtime, his headache was getting serious. He knew he'd need
to take time-out and rest in his female form at Abigail's bookshop.
Patrick would have preferred to have set an example to the rest of his
staff and work though his lunch break, but he knew he'd never survive
the day if he did.

	Barely able to keep his body male, he headed down and out of the
building and over to Abigail's shop. Patrick sensed someone following him
and he turned to see Ian a few feet behind him.

	Ian looked embarrassed, "I-I need to talk to you."

	Patrick nodded. If anything, Ian was more disturbed about what
had happened between them than Patrick was. "Okay, let's keep walking. I
need to get to Abigail's for a break."

	Ian clearly didn't want to say anything in public so they walked
in silence the short distance to the New Age bookstore.

	Abigail smiled as she saw Patrick enter. "How are you?"

	"Splitting headache, but other than that, I'm okay." Patrick
replied. He could see she was surprised Ian was with him. "Could I ask
a favor?"

	"Of course," Abigail replied.

	"Ian and me need to talk in private and..."

	"Say no more," Abigail interrupted. "Go on upstairs."

	"Thanks, Abigail."

	Abigail smiled at Ian as he passed her on his way upstairs. He
smiled back nervously and then followed Patrick up the narrow stairs to
Abigail's apartment.

	Patrick slumped down in an armchair when he got there and undid
the top few buttons of his shirt. Ian was about to ask Patrick why he was
doing that when Patrick's body started to writhe and change.

	Ian's jaw dropped open as he watched his boss' body turn female.
He had never seen the change up close before. His eyes ran over the
voluptuous woman's body enclosed in a male suit with a mixture of horror
and lust. Despite himself, Patrick's feminine form was turning him on. He
consciously avoided looking down Patrick's exposed cleavage. This only
confirmed that the decision he had reached was the right one.

	Patrick broke the silence, "So, what did you want to talk about?"
he asked in, what seemed to Ian, a devastatingly sexy female voice.

	"Well..." Ian started. "I can't get over what happened, and being
around you and Hank every day only makes it worse. I've decided to
resign. It'd be better for both of us if we didn't see each other."

	"You don't need to do that," Patrick replied quietly. He could
see how much pain Ian was in. "The last few days have been traumatic for
all of us, but we can work it out. In time everything will get back to
normal."

	Ian's realized his gaze had slipped down to Patrick's barely
concealed breasts again. He looked away and shuddered. "You don't
understand. Part of me doesn't want anything to change; it wants you so
much. That's why I have to back off." Patrick took in several long gasps
to try to calm himself down. "I gotta go," he said abruptly before
bolting for the stairs down to the shop.

	"Ian, wait up!" Patrick called, but Ian didn't listen and was
out the shop as fast as he could go.

	Patrick walked over to the window and watched Ian run off. He
could feel tears in the corners of his eyes, but couldn't quite work out
why he felt so sad.