Vice Versa

Brian was standing nervously next to Michelle, just outside of the spa they arranged to meet at. It was unbelievably awkward and peculiar to stand next to her wife and about to take a glimpse of the side of her that he hardly ever saw when she was in her own zone. Brian wanted to take Tholomew for some sort of support or consolation, but he couldn’t really bring a cat to these kinds of places. He grimaced, imagining his best friend wreaking havoc in a clothes store. He knew Jimmy would enjoy being a cat too much.

“You okay? You seem… nervous?” Michelle nudged Brian, bringing him out of his thoughts.

“Uh - oh, yeah, nervous.” It was all he could sputter out.

“I bet it’s a bit weird, coming from another country.”

“Oh no, I used to come from Long Beach… you know, transfer…” he trailed off, remembering the lies that Alice made up about her sudden presence.

“Oh, okay. That wasn’t that far.” Michelle replied. Brian smiled, confirming.

“You know what? You really remind me of Brian. I could see… not looks, obviously, but the way you act.” She said. He raised an eyebrow.

“Just like that! He does that when I talk like that. It’s… uncanny.”

I could explain, Brian thought. He couldn’t tell her the real reason though, for obvious reasons. Michelle turned around and looked at Alice, intensely studying her face. Brian froze. He knew that his wife knew him inside and out. He didn’t want to be found out and overcomplicate things. She had a probing and suspicious look in her eyes.

“Alice.” She said.

“Yes?”

“I think you’re up to something.” Michelle rested her hands on her hips. Her brown eyes were firmly holding Brian’s darkened brown orbs.

“Up to something? I –“ He was interrupted by a littering of greetings. He turned around to see three familiar women standing, hugging and saying hello. They are just as he knew them; Lacey, Gena and Val. Val walked up to Brian and gave him a friendly hug.

“Hey! I think it’s time to break the ice for you, eh?” Val smiled kindly. He silently nodded. Val was shoved aside by Gena who gave him another hug. Brian was quite overwhelmed. Was it how women greet each other? He wondered. Of course, he would give manly man hugs, but not like this.

“This feels kind of natural. Like I have known you for a while.” Gena commented.

“Obviously.” Brian muttered under his breath, taking a quick glance to Michelle. She was glaring at him. He gulped. She only glared at him like that when she caught him doing something she didn’t like.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go in.” Val led the four other women, including Brian in the reception for the spa. Just before they all could go in, Michelle gripped his arm and pulled him aside.

“I don’t know what you’re up to, but if you are going to hurt the man I love, better watch it.” She hissed before pushing him back inside. Brian had seen his wife being possessive, jealous or defensive over him, but he never had been the direct end of it. It kind of unnerved him. However, he was pleased to find out that Michelle cared and loved him enough to protect him.

“Where have you guys been?” Lacey questioned just as Michelle and Brian joined the group.

“Oh, we’re arranging sleeping arrangements and stuff we forgot to discuss.” Michelle quickly replied.

“Yeah.” Brian went along with Michelle’s excuse. Val raised her eyebrows, accepting it.

The first thing they did was to take off their clothes and change in their togs to soak in the spa. ‘To relax your muscles and mind’ as the spa professionals described it. During the spa pool time, Brian was shocked and appalled at what the women talked about, as well as being utterly disinterested. The usual stuff was clothes, shoes, the typical things that women talk about.

But the things that shocked him were how open about themselves and their personal things they were. They discussed how their husbands and boyfriends were in bed in gross detail. Sure, Brian and his friends describe their sex lives with each other, but not like this. He even heard Michelle’s verdict of how he was. She described him as “good with the fingers and tongue” and a “passionate” lover. Mostly good things, except about last night. Michelle described how ‘Brian’ was avoiding her sexual advances and the fact he couldn’t get hard for her ever since his ‘memory wipe’. Brian quietly chuckled at Alice’s misfortune.

The next thing at the spa was the massages. The masseurs were beautiful chiselled young men and the women were already gossiping quietly on which was the hottest and which probably had the biggest dick. Brian couldn’t help but roll his eyes. One man with clean cut brown hair and a pair of thin pink lips beckoned Brian. He smiled, his green eyes twinkling.

“That has to be the best looking out of the lot. What do you think?” Gena whispered to him. Brian couldn’t bring himself to agree. He was straight; as far as he knew when he was in his body anyway. He decided to spew a little white lie.

“Um, I’m lesbian.”

“Wow, really?” Gena’s mouth was wide open, clearly surprised.

“Yep.”

“I didn’t know. You didn’t seem like it. Good on you!” she said as she marched to her own massage table. Brian settled on his massage table, already tense at the discomfort of a man touching him.

"Hi. My name is Rory.” His masseur introduced himself, waving.

“Hi Rory. Alice.” Brian nodded. He rested his head on the comfortable bench, tuning out the gossip of the others. He was already sick of the amount of talking the women did. He couldn’t believe how much and how fast they talked. He flinched slightly as he felt Rory’s hands on him but soon relaxed.

“You don’t seem comfortable.” Rory said, tensing out the knots in Brian’s shoulders.

“No, I’m not.”

“You don’t go for men, don’t you?”

“How did you know?” Brian glanced up, turning his head slightly to look at the massager working on him.

“I can just tell. And I’m gay.” Rory explained. Puff goes the chances of the other women with Rory. Brian chuckled darkly under his breath, that Rory didn’t catch him. He didn’t think it was worth it for the others to hurt his best friends.

“Just relax, you’re really tense.” Rory said, his voice soothing. Brian rested his head on his folded arms. He was still thrown off at the tattooless slenderness of his new arms. He twisted his head in the direction to Michelle’s bench. She was conversing animatedly with her masseur. His eye twitched. She was his. He went through listening to his wife criticising his sex skills and listening to the others that provided him an image that he couldn’t shake off. And to put top of this, he hated seeing his wife being so friendly with her masseur or any other man.

“Calm down. You’re tensing like hell.” Rory said, bringing Brian’s thoughts back to reality.

“Sorry.” He exhaled, trying to calm down. But seeing Michelle being so liberated still set him on edge. ‘As long she’s seeing, not touching’ became his mantra to relax. After an hour of massaging in through his fluctuating tension at Michelle and being exfoliated, he was finally freed. But he was faced with another thing at the spa. Manicures and pedicures. He groaned.

He chose purple for his toes and nails, not caring what Alice would think. Sure, he did get pampered, especially for television interviews and photo-shoots, but he never had a pedicure before. It didn’t take as long as before, especially to the fact that he didn’t bother to listen to the other women chat.

Here came the next circle of hell for Brian. He already regretted agreeing to Michelle taking him along for this trip. He couldn’t even fathom the fact that he was once excited for this day. Obviously, he was terribly mistaken.

Spa time was over, but shopping was the next thing. He didn’t want to look at shoes, or listen to Michelle or Gena complain that they were ‘too fat’ or ‘didn’t suit my skin tone’. He certainly didn’t want to choose handbags and find matching wallets or coo over lingerie… Maybe he wanted to see Michelle in some lingerie, but he couldn’t because he was in Alice’s body.

“I feel sick.” Brian groaned, making up an excuse to get out of shopping. Val studied Brian with a concerned face. He wasn’t lying this time, he did feel sick.

“Are you sure? You can drive home if you like?” she said just as Brian confirmed her questions. Michelle reluctantly gave Brian her keys to drive home, seeing that Michelle still didn’t trust ‘Alice’. He rejoiced inside as he said goodbyes and rushed to Michelle’s car to get as far away from the spa and the mall.