Girl Suits and Boy Residues

Girl Suits and Boy Residues

Sam had waited in his car in the airport's "cellphone waiting lot," the
engine on to keep the air conditioner running, for only five minutes
late that Saturday morning when his phone rang.  The number was in the
local area code.  "Hello?" he said, answering it.

"Hello, Sam-Sam," said the woman on the phone.  Sam thought her voice
very attractive.  "This is Girl Suit Twenty-Three.  Pick me up at the
door beside Baggage Claim Fourteen.  What are you driving?"  Sam was
known in a particular chat room as "Samantha" and he'd agreed to pick
up someone known there as "girl suit23," sight unseen, at the airport.

"A Malibu, last year's model, in silver," said Sam.

"I'm a cute little redhead," said Girl Suit.  "Today, anyway.  I have
two big suitcases and I hope your car trunk is empty.  See you soon!"
She ended the call right then.

Sam backed his car out of its space and was soon out of the lot, headed
for Arrivals.  In under five minutes he was at the right set of doors,
and a small, very pretty woman no older than twenty-five, her long red
hair in a loose bun, came out into the heat, pulling two big suitcases,
one black, one gray.  She wore a lace-trimmed white blouse and a long
dark-blue skirt almost to her ankles, and looked intensely feminine to
Sam.  She headed right for his car.  Sam put the car into Park, popped
the trunk, got out, and went to her.

"Sam-Sam!" she cried out in the voice he'd heard over the phone.  She
let go of the suitcase handles and opened her slender arms wide.  They
hugged and Girl Suit gave Sam a peck on the cheek.

"You don't look like a girl suit," said Sam.

"I'm a real girl for now," she said, "but I became one using a girl
suit.  And you can too!  Let's get these in the trunk and get going."
 Sam put the suitcases in, closed the trunk lid, opened the passenger
door for Girl Suit, and then got back into the driver's seat.  Soon
they were on their way out of the airport.

"I can't just call you Girl Suit," said Sam.

"Why not?" she asked.  "It's weirdly cute.  I use the name Caitlin when
I'm this particular woman, so you can call me that if you like.  I'll
call you Sam.  So, do you like my body?"

"You're so very beautiful," said Sam.

"You mean, my body's beautiful, and maybe also that I wear it well,"
she said.  "But it's not me, really, 'cause it's not my original body.
Though I admit it grows on me: I'm tempted to spend a decade or two
this way.  You can wear it some time, if you like."

"Well..." said Sam.

"You're still wondering whether this is an elaborate prank," she said.
"I don't blame you.  Someone you know from a chat room arranges to meet
you, bringing a girl suit that really changes you into a girl.  It's so
inherently unlikely -- impossible is a better word -- that of course
you're still apprehensive."

"And if it's all real," said Sam, signaling and putting the car onto the
ramp for the freeway, "what's in it for you?  You say that it's magical
and a gift you're supposed to share..."

"And you have only my word for it," she said.  "Or somebody's word for
it.  I mean, I claim to be your friend Girl Suit Twenty-Three, a guy
like you originally but for now a small, cute woman, but it's so much
more likely I was born a girl and grew up into who I am now."

"I suspect I'm going to be very embarrassed before this is all over,"
said Sam.

"I promise you that you won't be," she said, "but, again, what's my
promise worth?

They said nothing for a while.  Caitlin was good at silence, as was
Sam, usually.  Eventually Sam got the car onto an exit ramp, and said,
"Short flight here?  Or did you take a red-eye part of the way?"

"How do you know I'm not a local who just got dropped off at Departures
and made her way to the baggage claim?" Caitlin said.

"I don't," he said.  "Are you?"

"Wait and see," she said.  "There weren't any luggage tags, were there?
I could have torn them off, though."  She paused for a while, then went
on, "Oh, and you don't mind being a short woman like me, do you?  These
girl suits don't work unless the girl you turn into is rather smaller
than the male you, and it's also easier to make and carry suits of small
women rather than big.  So it's sweet and petite for us."

"I'd prefer being a short woman," said Sam.  "I fantasize about it, but
how's that even possible?  I'd have to weigh half of what I weigh now."

"Again," she said, "all I can say is that you'll see.  How much further
to your place?"

"Less than a mile now," he said.  In two minutes, Sam took a right turn
and the car went past the entrance to a housing development called Pine
Ridge despite few pines and no apparent elevation over its surroundings,
and soon he was parking the Malibu in the driveway of his townhouse.

"Not bad," she said, and got out.  Sam popped the trunk, got out the
suitcases, shut the trunk, and opened out the handle of the gray one.
Caitlin took the black one, and they wheeled them to Sam's front door.

Once they were inside and Sam had instinctively locked the deadbolt
behind him, Caitlin said, "Nice place."  They pulled the suitcases
into the middle of Sam's living room.

"Thanks," said Sam.  "Can I get you a drink?  I've got beer and diet
soda and orange juice in the fridge."

"Diet cola if you have it," she said.  She followed Sam to the kitchen,
where he got a full two-liter bottle from the refrigerator and poured
a large glass for each of them.  Caitlin took a generous sip of hers,
and said, "Okay, I brought two girl suits and they're both in the gray
suitcase.  Clothes for the girls are in the black one.  You have your
choice of a skinny thirty-something blonde -- natural blonde, by the
way -- or a curvy Latina just turned twenty-five.  We can turn my body
into a girl suit for you to wear, but it'll be tedious, so don't expect
to be Caitlin today.  Maybe tomorrow."

"You're really serious," said Sam.

"Yes," said Caitlin.  She went into the living room and with difficulty
lifted the gray suitcase onto the love seat.  She opened the zipper of
its main compartment all the way, then opened it up.  "Have a look!"

Sam looked and saw what looked like the living skins of two women, but
without women inside them.  "They look so real..." he said.

"They don't, really," said Caitlin.  "They look alive.  If they were
really skins of women, they'd look dead.  Oh, and they're warm, as if
they had healthy bodies inside them.  Don't ask me how, 'cause I don't
know.  They're somehow staying near body temperature with no source of
energy I know of."

Sam touched, gingerly, first one skin, then the other.  "I'm starting
to believe you now, Caitlin," said Sam.  "Maybe I'm just credulous, but
I can't see how this could be faked."

"Okay, underfed older blonde chick or hot little Latina?" she asked him.
"The blonde's brand new and she doesn't have a name yet.  The other suit
used to be my girlfriend Amanda until she went very Anglo indeed.  She
hadn't gotten back into it since then: I guess she won't be Amanda again.
The blonde, like the suit that made me into Caitlin, is artificial.  You
don't get a head full of girl memories and it doesn't make you think and
feel like someone else.  With the Amanda suit you'll think and feel like
Amanda, know what she knows, tend to act as she acted."

"Will I think I'm Amanda if I put on the Amanda suit?" asked Sam.

"You'll remember you were Sam," said Caitlin, "but with an Amanda brain
that Amanda used almost all her life, and Amanda memories and abilities,
you'll find it easy to think of yourself as really Amanda.  Which is fun
in its own way: you'll be Amanda, but an Amanda who remembers she's
actually Sam and probably should be Sam again sooner or later."

"Actually being someone else..."

"I've kept up her identity by occasionally turning into her and showing
up as her," said Caitlin, "so you could simply get inside her and take
over her life.  She was a nurse and there's a nurse shortage.  You could
try on the Amanda suit today, and if you like being her, turn into Sam
again just long enough to quit your job.  Next week you could be working
as Amanda."

"So Amanda became a different girl and her body became this girl suit?"
asked Sam.

"Well, it's trickier for us girls," said Caitlin, "because you have to
turn into a boy first, and doing that makes your girl body into a girl
suit.  That's how I got the Amanda suit."

Sam thought about this.  "So you're really a local."

"Amanda lives twenty minutes from here," said Caitlin.  "Or rather has
a room in a friend's apartment for when she exists.  I live nearer by,
and the blonde who was the original Amanda lives near me."

"So what do I do to turn into one of these women?" asked Sam.

"Strip, and I'll help you into one of the girl suits.  They look and
feel like live girl-skin, but they're way elastic.  You'll look rather
grotesque wearing the splayed out skin of a cute little woman.  Once
you're completely inside, I'll seal you up and you'll start to change,
and in a few minutes you'll be the girl."

"I'll undress in my bedroom."

"Shy?" she asked.

"I keep the laundry hamper there," he said.

"Oh," said Caitlin.  "Practicality, not shyness."

Sam went off down the short hallway to his bedroom, and in a few minutes
returned naked.  "Decided on who to be yet?" asked Caitlin.

"I'd actually remember having lived as Amanda for most of her lifetime
if I put her on?" asked Sam.

"Yes," said Caitlin.  "All her memories up to two months ago, plus
those from the times I've spent wearing her since then.  And of course
a brain that's used to having Amanda's self in it.  You'll tend to think
more like her than like Sam, but sometimes that's a real vacation from
being oneself.  And of course you'll have a nursing job waiting if you
stay Amanda."

"Wow," said Sam.  Caitlin politely ignored his erection.  "I think I'll
be Amanda."

Caitlin helped Sam get the Amanda skin out of the suitcase.  It was as
warm as a live woman's skin, and looked exactly like one apart from
being empty and having a slit from the point of its chin to just above
its navel.  "I wasn't expecting it to be this heavy," said Sam.

"It weighs as much as skin is supposed to weigh, adding in the blood
that would be flowing through the veins and capillaries," said Caitlin.

"It's so small!"

"But elastic," said Caitlin.  "Sit down and I'll help you get your legs
inside hers."  Sam sat on the edge of one of the chairs by the coffee
table and lifted his feet, and Caitlin started putting the Amanda skin
on him, legs and arms and head trailing on the carpet, his feet into its
abdomen just above the bottom of the slit in its front.  The skin was
both soft and slick inside, and blood-warm.

Sam's feet and legs slid easily into the empty Amanda, but Sam's
erection looked as if it might pose a problem: he seemed on the verge
of orgasm.  "You use Kleenex?" asked Caitlin.

"What?  Oh, yeah, there's some in the bathroom down the hall, atop the
toilet tank," said Sam.  She went to get it, and returned just in time
for Sam to pull a few sheets from the box and ejaculate copiously into
them.  He put the soiled tissues on the coffee table.

"Sorry," said Sam, "but..."

"This is a masturbation fantasy come true, Sam," said Caitlin.  "I don't
blame you."  Soon Sam's feet were inside Amanda's, female skin stretched
tight over big male shapes, and Caitlin had Sam stand up.  Sam had to
masturbate again, and painfully this time, before she was willing to
pull the girl skin up to his waist.

After that, getting the rest of Sam inside Amanda was easy.  Sam had a
moment of worry that his hands would tear the tiny ones of the Amanda
skin, but Amanda's stretched obligingly.  Soon Caitlin was pulling
Amanda's empty head down onto Sam's head, then tugging at the distorted
feminine features to fit them into place over his.

"How do we close up my front?" asked Sam, voice muffled by the hollow
Amanda head.

"It's like a zipper," said Caitlin.  "It's probably best that you aren't
seeing yourself in a mirror.  Guys always look so gross in a girl skin.
Anyway, nothing happens until I seal the slit shut.  Then the changes
hit.  Should take ten minutes tops, and you should probably be sitting
down for them."

"Will it hurt?" asked Sam, and had to repeat himself for Caitlin.

"It looks and feels really weird," said Caitlin, "but it's not painful."
She zipped the Amanda skin almost shut, but not quite.

"Where does the rest of me go, the part that doesn't turn into Amanda?"
asked Sam.

"You'll see," said Caitlin.  "It's weird too, but it makes sense.  Now,
Sam, sit down and relax.  It'll be Amanda getting up, not you."

Sam sat in the chair and then Caitlin sealed up the Amanda skin with
him inside.  At once the Amanda skin became very tight-fitting indeed,
and in a few moments Sam's body began to change shape.  Every distortion
in the Amanda skin that had resulted from Sam putting it on began to
reverse itself.  Sam's head shrank perceptibly and started to shift to
a more feminine shape.  Sam's hands and feet grew smaller, and his rib
cage; his arms and legs and thighs shortened, and hips and buttocks
changed shape.  The empty Amanda breasts began to fill with flesh.
The male bulge under the Amanda crotch shrank and vanished.

The only part of the Amanda skin not asserting its shape was the belly.
The not-quite-Amanda at first looked pregnant, but the bulge soon was
far too large for a full-term pregnancy -- and just kept growing.  The
more the rest of the body in the woman skin became a small woman's, the
bigger the bulge grew.  "Are you okay?" Caitlin asked.

"Am I pregnant?"  The voice wasn't Sam's.  It was a woman's, if not
quite Amanda's yet.

"All the extra Sam stuff you don't need when you're Amanda," said
Caitlin, "you're about to give birth to it, sort of.  Don't worry!  It
hardly hurts at all -- nothing compared with childbirth, I'm told!"

When the person in the chair was entirely Amanda apart from her absurdly
gross belly, something gave way.  Caitlin helped her spread her thighs,
and with almost no strain, something apparently boneless and clad in
Sam's skin began to emerge from her stretched-wide vagina, head first.
Caitlin took hold of the thing by what looked eerily like the hair of
Sam's scalp and Sam's facial skin, and tugged at it, helping pull it
out of Amanda as Amanda braced her feet against the floor.  Soon Sam's
entire skin, mouth and eyes shut tightly, and filled with something
jelly-like made from whatever parts of Sam hadn't been needed to make
the body inside Amanda's skin, lay on the carpet.  Swiftly Amanda's
belly shrank to its proper size, soon showing no signs that it had ever
been distended at all.

"Okay, you're Amanda Ruiz now, or rather Sam's self in Amanda's body,"
said Caitlin.  "Just relax for a few minutes, catch your breath, and
savor your first moments as a real woman."

"The original Amanda is Mike now, Caitlin?" said the new Amanda a minute
later.  "The original you?"

"Not at the moment, but she's spent a lot of time as him," said Caitlin.
"Once she learned I was going to give up being Mike and become Caitlin,
she insisted on being Mike right away," said Caitlin.  "My new Caitlin
body had only just given birth to the Mike residue when she stripped and
started stuffing it up her pussy!  In a few minutes, the new Mike was
shedding his Amanda suit."

"Residue?" asked Amanda, sitting up in her chair.

"See that thing on the floor that came out of you, that looks like Sam's
skin with some extra sort of jellied Sam stuff inside it?" asked Caitlin,
and Amanda nodded.  "Think of it as residual Sam, what wasn't needed to
fill up your Amanda skin with a proper Amanda body.  Don't  get rid of
it unless you're sure you don't want to be Sam again, and don't want
anyone else to become Sam either."

"I need it to turn back into Sam?" asked Amanda.

"Yes," said Caitlin.  You stuff it up your sweet little Amanda twat,
and it takes over your girl body and makes it into Sam's body in an
ill-fitting Amanda skin again."

"But any woman can do that with it and become Sam?" asked Amanda.

"Exactly!" said Caitlin.  "And that's where the Amanda skin -- and your
new body -- came from, Amanda.  The girl who used to be you is usually
a girl now, but a very Anglo sort of blonde.  Everything that made Sam
physically Sam is in the Sam residue, hence everything a woman needs if
she wants to become Sam.  You're completely Amanda physically, you have
her DNA and only hers, and since you know I used to be Mike, you're
using your Amanda memories."

Amanda looked down at her body.  "So I'm finally a girl!" she all but
squealed.  She looked at her tiny new hands and flexed them, hefted her
plump breasts, felt at her crotch.  She got up.  "That didn't even hurt!
I don't even need a shower."

"Get a good look at yourself in a mirror before getting dressed, Amanda,"
said Caitlin.  "Later you'll treasure your first few minutes as a girl."

Amanda seized Caitlin -- they were of a height because Amanda was
barefoot and Caitlin in heels -- and gave her a sisterly hug and a
not-quite-sisterly kiss.  "I'm so sorry I doubted you when I was Sam!"
she said.

"Who wouldn't have?  Now let's have a look at you in the mirror."

Amanda led the woman who'd been Mike, her original's boyfriend, to Sam's
bedroom.  She began to admire herself in the mirrored doors of the
closet.  "I'm a real girl..." she said.  "I love this Latina look.  I'm
so hot I smolder!"

"Lovely rack, lovely rear, trim little belly, cute face, sensuous mouth,
creamy skin," said Caitlin.  "Can you even tell where your pupils end
and your irises begin with those eyes?  If being Caitlin didn't make me
so utterly a straight girl, I'd so make out with you."

"Maybe you'd better put that Sam residue away for safekeeping," said
Amanda. "I'm tempted to throw it out so I'll never be Sam again!"

"I'm keeping the Mike residue," said Caitlin, "though that's tempting.
Your original still likes putting it inside her sometimes to be the old
me.  Also, a girl needs a residue to turn into another girl.  Remember,
you can't put on a girl skin and have it change you, not unless you're
a guy."

"Oh," said Amanda, practicing a sultry look in the mirror.  "I guess
that's enough reason to keep it, unless I never want to be any girl but
Amanda."

"Amanda, don't take this wrong, but I'm so tempted to put Sam's residue
inside me and be Sam instead of Caitlin.  No, no, I don't want to steal
your original life.  I love being Caitlin!  Usually.  I'd just like to
make out with you and enjoy it."

"And you're completely a straight girl when you're Caitlin."

"Yes," said Caitlin.  "When I see you, Amanda, I remember being Mike
and how great sex was with Amanda. Also I like Sam and want to think
and feel the way he does for a while.  So if I became Sam..."

"I'll want to watch you change, Caitlin," said Amanda.  "Why don't you
strip, put Sam up you, and turn into him?"

"Shouldn't you get dressed?" asked Caitlin.

"Sure, after you're Sam," said Amanda.

"If you're sure you don't mind..." said Caitlin.

"Be Sam and take me to dinner!" Amanda almost squealed.  "Sam hasn't
had a date in months and I'm just his type.  Then, afterwards..."

"Well, I know from experience that there's nothing like going on a date
with your former self to make you feel like a real girl," said Caitlin.
"I mean, how can you possibly be Sam if Sam's the guy taking you on a
date, Amanda?"

"Oh, yes, I can see that!"  Amanda went straight for Caitlin's hair,
undoing her bun and making her hair fall past her shoulders.  Caitlin
giggled and Amanda started undoing her blouse.  Soon Caitlin was as
naked as Amanda and both were back in the living room.

"I seem to be bi," said Amanda.  "And you're scrumptious.  You really
don't go for girls, Caitlin?  Not ever?"

"I think the older blonde skin in the suitcase might be a lesbian,"
said Caitlin.  "Just now I'm almost ridiculously straight, but I know
I have a hot little body and it's turning you on.  Anyway, have a look
at the Sam residue."

Amanda touched it, felt at it, prodded it.  "It's got Sam's junk,"
she said, "and it's his skin on the outside and some sort of soft, uh,
stuff inside.  It's warm, like a real body."

"It's soft and boneless," said Caitlin.  "Anyway, I'm entirely a woman,
just as you are now, but like any woman I can become Sam by stuffing
myself with his residue."

"How do you fit all of that inside your body?" asked Amanda.  "How would
I fit it inside mine?  I'm only a little bigger than you are, Caitlin!
That residue must weigh at least as much as either of us girls.  Maybe
I'm stuck being Amanda -- which I admit wouldn't be all bad."

"You have to be persistent," said Caitlin.  "Once you get enough of it
in you, a residue starts making room inside your belly.  It's sort of
like the way you changed from Sam to Amanda, only in reverse.  The fat
belly shrinks as the male form uses what's in it to make the male body
from the female one.  When it's done, the seal of what's now a very
distended and over-full girl skin pops open, and the man in it unzips
all the way and sheds the girl skin."

Caitlin sat naked in the chair in which Sam had become Amanda, and
Amanda hooked her hands under the armpits of the Sam residue and dragged
it closer to her.  "Thanks," Caitlin said.  "Now, this is a bit tricky.
I've got to shove as much of this jelly-filled skin up my twat as I can,
and after a point it'll start making room for more of itself inside me.
In the end it'll suck all of itself into me somehow, and then I'll start
turning into Sam."

"I'm not sure I'll find him attractive enough," said Amanda.

"Surely the kinky appeal of screwing yourself will help," said Caitlin.
"But we don't have to make out.  From all I can tell, Sam's a perfect
gentlemen and he won't make you do anything with him that you'd rather
not do."

"True," said Amanda.

"Okay, here goes..."  She grabbed the head of the Sam residue by its
hair and began pressing it against her vagina.  She made little progress
at first, and the soft material inside the Sam skin seemed to shift
away rather than going inside Caitlin, but after several minutes the
Sam residue began to be sucked into Caitlin.  "There we go!" she said,
and she and Amanda watched in fascination as the Sam residue vanished
into her and her belly grew grossly distended.  Once the last of the
residue had vanished inside her, the changes began.

In not much over five minutes after that, Sam unzipped the grossly
distorted Caitlin skin he wore, and stripped it off himself.  "Is it
me?" he asked Amanda.

"Well, it's certainly not me any more," said Amanda.  "On the one hand,
I'm sort of turned on.  You actually look kind of cute to me now that
I'm Amanda and I know you used to be Mike.  On the other hand, my new
friend Caitlin is just an empty husk, and I miss her already."

"You can be her, though," said Sam.  "Well, I'd have to turn into the
blonde in the suitcase and squirt out a Sam residue, then you'd have to
stuff that up you to become me, and only then could you finally put
Caitlin on and be her.  She has memories only from when Mike first
became her, but that would still give you an idea of how to be her."

"Sounds like a lot of work," said Amanda.  "And I don't want to stop
being Amanda Ruiz, not yet."

"Okay, now I'm very attracted to you, Amanda," said Sam.  "We're both
naked and I'd love to take a shower with you, but we haven't even
gone on a date yet.  Yes, yes, you used to be me, I used to be Mike,
I've been you too... it's still just not quite right."

"Do we really need showers?" asked Amanda.  "You took one before going
to the airport to pick up Caitlin, and I don't feel or look sweaty."

"We could get dressed for our date and start it early," said Sam.

"You're Sam and I'm your guest Amanda now," said Amanda.  "let's take
my suitcases to the guest bedroom."

"Okay," said Sam.  He went to the gray suitcase on the love seat, shut
it, zipped it up, put it on the floor, extended its handle, and followed
Amanda, who was already wheeling the black suitcase with the women's
clothing to the guest bedroom.

"Oh, Sam, you're such a gentleman!" said Amanda, "Not insisting I share
your bed tonight, I mean."

"Nice guys finish last," he said.

"There could be nocturnal traffic between this bedroom and yours," said
Amanda.  "Look, let me unpack my clothes and get dressed, and you can
go get dressed, and we can start our date early.  A Saturday matinee
movie full of noisy kids and a risk of bubble gum in our hair, maybe?"

"Neither of us have been to the art museum lately," said Sam, "and you
know we'd both like it."

"Yes..." said Amanda.  "Holding hands with my usual body, a demure
little art-loving woman with her man... I could go for that."

"See you in the living room when we're both dressed, Mandy," said Sam.

"Ooh, Mike called me Mandy," said Amanda, and Sam grinned at her and
went to his bedroom.

Amanda went back to the living room and picked up the Caitlin suit and
the clothes Caitlin had worn, and hung them up in the guest room closet,
with Caitlin's heels on the floor under her skirt.  Sam had of course
provided plenty of hangers.  She hung up the thirty-something, possibly
lesbian blonde woman, and then unpacked the black suitcase completely,
putting the lingerie and such in the drawers of the dresser, a makeup
kit and other female paraphernalia atop it, and the other clothes on
hangers in the closet, the shoes underneath them.  It was deliciously
strange to be in Sam's house, in the guest bedroom rather than Sam's,
as Amanda and not Sam, unpacking women's clothes as if she were a
young woman visiting Sam and not Sam in the least.  Then Amanda got
dressed and ready for the date.

Amanda returned to the living room, a push-up bra and lace panties
under her Little Black Dress, simple high-heeled black pumps on her feet
(such tiny shoes on such tiny feet!), and a small red purse hanging by
its straps from her left wrist.  She wore only a little lip gloss and
mascara to enhance her looks, and a little perfume behind each ear.  Sam
was waiting for her in his best summer-weight jacket and slacks.  "You
look stunning, Amanda," he said.  "I appreciate the perfume, too.  It
was Mike's favorite on you."

"You packed it in the suitcase when you were Caitlin," said Amanda.  "I
didn't.  It's all your doing."

"You didn't have to wear it," said Sam.

"You've spent time as me and you knew I would," said Amanda.  "I'm
Amanda Ruiz, only with a nice guy inside me who's dreamt all his life
of spending time as a girl."

"So?" asked Sam.

"You're trying to be Mike again, only in Sam's body, so you can date a
kinder, gentler version of Amanda Ruiz!" said Amanda.

"And you don't think you'll enjoy that, Amanda?" asked Sam.  "Did you
expect you'd be a hot Latina in a Little Black Dress today, going on a
date with the man you usually are?  If you had, wouldn't the prospect
have excited you?"

"You win, Sam," said Amanda.  "Let's go to the art museum."


"It's amazing," said Amanda, as they walked out into the daylight and
back to Sam's car a few hours later, "but we really have remarkably
similar tastes in art."

"Well," said Sam, "it's largely because we're both Sam.  Sort of."

"I guess you're right," said Amanda, sighing.

"Then again, it makes us compatible," said Sam.  "Yes, it's completely
artificial.  So what?"

"Sam's self in a girl body dating Mike's self, who's usually Caitlin,
in Sam's body," said Amanda.

"Hey, if it works..." said Sam.  They reached the car and he opened the
front passenger door for her, let her get in, shut it for her, went
around the front of the car and ended up in the driver's seat.

"I always do that for a woman when I'm Sam," said Amanda.  "I like it
more when I'm the woman."

"Just being Sam for you, Mandy," said Sam.  He started Sam's car and
backed out of the parking space. "Let's see, now, Beast's Bistro?"

"Sure," said Amanda.  "Being Amanda makes that a favorite of mine.  But
you've never been there."

"Not as Sam, no," said Sam.  "Mike bought you a lot of dinners there."

Beast's Bistro wasn't that far from the museum, and they were there
before six so that the wait for a table wasn't long.  As Amanda and
Sam waited, a tall, statuesque woman with flax-colored hair framing a
faintly ruddy face noticed Amanda and went over to her -- but addressed
not Amanda but Sam.  "Got a guy to be Amanda tonight, I see," she said.

"Oh, good evening, Kirsten," said Sam.  "Yes, and he kindly let me be
him."

"You make such a sweet little Amanda," Kirsten told Amanda.  "Like it
in there?"

"Yes," said Amanda.  "It's quite a thrill, actually, being me."

"Better you than me, Amanda," said Kirsten.  "I never really felt at
home in that body, but I'm glad someone's enjoying herself."  She said
to Sam, "Look, I'm sorry about Mike's residue, but I really wanted to
be a big, tall girl.  Maybe I can get someone to build it up again."

"I'm mostly Caitlin anyway, these days," said Sam.  "No emergency."

"Certainly not if you can use another guy's residue," said Caitlin.
"At least she likes being herself and doesn't mind you being who you
are.  Anyway, looks like Lars and I have a table.  So long, you two!"
She rejoined her date, a very tall, thin blond man, and a waitress led
them to a table.

"You were hoping you'd meet her here tonight!" said Amanda.  "She was
born me, wasn't she?"

"Yes," said Sam.  "Even she thinks you're an improvement."

"She trashed your residue somehow, becoming a girl who's so big and
tall," said Amanda. "You can't change without some other guy's residue,
you can't be Mike again, so you're using Sam's instead!"

"True," said Sam.  "But don't we both benefit?  I get to borrow Sam's
residue, you get to turn into hot chicks like, well, you.  I'll let
you be Caitlin tomorrow, if you like."

"Damn you, Sam, why do you always have to be right about these things?"
asked Amanda.  "And if you pay for dinner, I end up paying when I'm
you again."

"You should have a credit card in the wallet in your purse, Amanda,"
said Sam.  "Caitlin uses it when she's you, and pays it off every month.
Don't worry, your Amanda Ruiz signature should come naturally."

"So if I pick up the tab, you end up paying for it," said Amanda, "and
if you do, I end up paying."  Just then, a waitress led them to their
table.


"Thanks for paying for dinner, Amanda," said Sam, as they left Beast's
Bistro.

"You're welcome, Sam," said Amanda.  "It's the least I could do to make
Caitlin end up paying for it."

"Back to my place?" asked Sam.

"The place that goes with your Sam body and identity?" said Amanda, and
Sam nodded.  "Sure."

They went back to Sam's car, Sam drove to his duplex, they went in.
"Spending the night, Amanda?" asked Sam.

"Well, unless you lend me your car so I can go to Corazon's place and
crash in her guest room that's nominally mine, yes," she said.

"The guest room here is yours," said Sam.  "It's got girl clothes in it.
Some of them fit you."

"And two girl suits that don't," said Amanda.  "You're doing a fine job
of being Sam, Sam," said Amanda.  "You say just the sort of things I say
when I'm you -- as I usually am."

"Thanks," said Sam.

"Yes, since I don't think you'll bring up the subject, Sam, I would like
to have sex with you this evening, and probably again tomorrow," said
Amanda.  "I clearly remember many of the times Amanda has had sex before
I became her, but I would actually like experiencing it for myself.
Also, I suppose when I'm Sam again I'll remember sex with this Amanda
body, and seeing as you haven't had sex in quite some time, I guess I
should go screw myself just for that."

"I'm fine with that," said Sam.  Amanda approached him, arms open wide,
and they embraced and kissed.


That Monday, Sam gave his employers his two week's notice.  He had a
week of vacation time to use up, so on Friday afternoon after work he
cleaned out his desk, did the exit interview, and went out with his
co-workers for a farewell party at a favorite bar and grill.  He was
vague about his plans for the future.

The Monday after that, Amanda Ruiz returned to the nursing staff at Mercy
Hospital.  The hospital was glad to have her back, but some doctors and
nurses who'd worked with her before were not.  By Friday they wondered
what had happened to Amanda during her months away: she was as competent
as ever, but there was a new cheerfulness, a new gentleness and kindness
to patients and fellow staff members alike.  "It's like she's someone so
much nicer, just somehow she looks like she's Miz Ruiz," one of the
older LPNs told another.

Sam's neighbors found out, soon after that, that Sam apparently was no
longer living in his duplex but leasing it to a beautiful young nurse
named Amanda Ruiz.  She was slightly more sociable than Sam had been,
though that still wasn't saying much.  A short, very pretty red-haired
woman visited Amanda once or twice a week, and sometimes they would go
out together, and after that Sam would appear and take Amanda to dinner.