As Girly As It Gets - The Dress Code - Part 12

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Doreen and Moira met for lunch at a new restaurant on the other side of town where they were unlikely to see or know anyone.

After their initial pleasantries and drink orders, Doreen said, “Moira I have decided that I must be one of the most unobservant people in the world.  The only person more clueless than me at the moment is probably Terry.  After our discussion yesterday, I watched Terry moving around the office and when you two left.  If I didn’t already know who Terry was, I would have assumed he was just another one of the women from the office.” Moira was interested in this comment.  “Which women around the office?  I mean, if you did not know who Terry was, what kind of woman would you have thought he was once you evaluated the look and the dress?” Doreen thought about that, “Well, I guess like any of the other girls in our area.

I mean I realized he is the only man in the office who does not use a laptop.  And he carries that tablet around in that little purse that I assumed was a briefcase.  Of course, when we were at dinner and I saw the matching wallet and cover for the tablet I realized it was a purse.  In fact, if I don’t miss my mark it was an expensive purse.  Right?” Moira confirmed that Terry had a very expensive designer purse.  “Doreen, he thinks it is a briefcase I picked out special for him.

Of course, it is one I picked out for him special.  It’s just not a briefcase.  I told him since it all came together he should use it all and I have never referred to it as anything other than his ‘bag’.” Doreen asked, “And, he has no idea that he is wearing women’s pants and women’s designer pantsuits?” “He has no idea.” Moira confirmed, “I want that to continue.” Doreen looked around and asked quietly, “What is he wearing underneath his women’s pants?” “Panties with a certain amount of spandex.  You didn’t see any panty lines did you?”  Moira asked back. Doreen responded, “No that’s why I asked.  How did you get him to wear panties?”

“Natalie at All of U told him his pants looked ridiculous and told him that the dress code essentially required it.  I had nothing to do with that.”  Moira said proudly.  Then she returned to an earlier question, “Doreen, I asked you before; if you did not know who Terry was, what kind of woman would you have thought he was once you evaluated the look and the clothes he is wearing?” Doreen thought about his clothes and the type of outfits he was wearing.

She thought about the tablet.  “If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Terry was one of the secretaries or executive assistants depending on titles.” Moira developed a broad smile, “Good.” Doreen wasn’t sure why that was good.  “Why is that good?” Moira thought about her answer before delivering it.  “Because I have selected Terry’s image from the inside out to be identical to the administrative staff.  I have avoided high-end suits like an executive woman might wear.  His new suits are not 100% wool from some uptight shop.

They are from the shops where you and I like to shop.  If you saw Terry’s wardrobe and his closet, you would think he was someone just entering the professional world and trying to build a basic wardrobe on a budget.  His closet would look like a starter version of yours or mine.” Doreen queried, “You want your boss to have the same wardrobe you do?  Why?” Moira stated, “Terry is the person that decided to tie the women's dress code rules to having breasts.  Those rules were principally designed to ensure the male executives had women wearing a certain uniform shall we call it.  The dress code dictates what is expected and our salaries are limited as they are dictating what we buy.  They want stylish suits and they want to see nice blouses with a little lace underneath.

They want stockings and they want to require heels and stylish hair and polished nails and certain types of piercings in the ear.  I want to ensure that Terry has the same experiences you and I have and hopefully, he will learn from his mistakes.  But, I don’t want him to learn too soon.  This is a life lesson and these types of lessons take time to really understand.” Doreen thought and said, “You want him to experience all the little inconveniences we experience and you want him to do it from our perspective since we are the ones he and the other executives are trying to manipulate.” Moira agreed. Doreen asked, “Did you say you want him to have polished nails and wear heels?” Moira said, “He already has polished nails.

He gets a manicure every Friday just like I do. They paused for a few moments.  Doreen asked, “Assume I know nothing.  Can you tell me what he is wearing from the skin out?” Moira smiled conspiratorially.  “Terry has several bras all presently in a 38B.  But as I mentioned, he will probably have to move up a cup size soon.  He has some matching sets that include panties and camisoles.  He has some separate items.  He prefers camisoles that have wider straps like a tank top.  But he doesn’t do the wash all the time so he has been wearing some of the regular lacy camisoles with spaghetti straps that match his other underwear.

The panties are mostly fitted and surprisingly his package is hardly noticeable in most of his panties.  He has blouses that are broadcloth and man-styled.  He also has a blouse with French cuffs and a couple of silkier fabric blouses like he wore on Friday.  He is getting comfortable with wearing his clothes and the fact he believes no one has noticed yet.  I told you about the suits and the pants.  We bought several pairs of shoes in a slide style and one pair of boots.  As you know, his ears are pierced and he has been wearing simple studs and now hoops in them.  The purchases we made will add new variety to his ears soon.

He styles his hair himself every morning with his blow dryer and then he applies his lipstick which is neutral-colored to avoid people noticing.  And since we have started working out in the morning at the All of U facilities, their stylists finish him off each morning before we leave.”

Doreen hadn’t thought she could be surprised further.  But, “Terry is working out at All of U every morning?” Moira reported, “Yeah, HR decided he was not meeting their workout and health expectations.  So they automatically signed him up for a trainer at All of U and then since they only pay for one place, they canceled his old membership.  We are doing a combination aerobics and toning workout program on an every-other-day basis.  I decided I could use some more exercise and I joined the same classes.” Moira and Doreen talked back and forth about several other things.  They enjoyed a leisurely lunch.

Doreen asked, “So, what are your next steps?” Moira said, “I want to get him doing more secretarial work.  Basically, I would like to sort of turn the tables and get him to do my job and let me do his job.  I would like to get him in some heels.  I would also like to corner him into a situation where he has to wear either a skirt or a dress.  Maybe he could be mistaken for someone else.  Maybe they don’t know who he is.  What do you think?” Doreen loved the ideas.  “I definitely think we need to get him doing more secretarial stuff.

We should corner him into getting coffee for more of the staff.  We could get him to do all the morning copying and have it take up more and more of his time.  I already had him do some copying for Susan.  Add some filling and you could kill his morning productivity.  We probably have to do it slowly.  The other thing is we need to get him a couple of suits in a more feminine pattern or color.  We could evolve his suits to lighter colors or pastels.  Some color no guy would be caught dead in.

Another thing is some of his new suits should have shorter jackets riding above the hips and approaching the waist in a way only women’s jackets are made.  Any new blouses have to be more feminine.  You know somewhere down the road he could always get highlights in his hair.” Moira and Doreen were laughing as the ideas flowed.  They made plans and Doreen promised not to tell anyone.

Terry was at home on Saturday and he drank his lunch smoothie that Amber had provided.  His appetite lately had been much less than in the past.  He actually thought he may have lost some weight already.  Terry did the wash and cleaned up around his apartment.  Since he had to hand wash many of his new lingerie, his wash took longer.  He regularly applied his lipstick.  It occurred to him that since he checked his makeup and clicked the icon more often now, he was hearing the reminders less.

Terry ordered some Chinese food for dinner and found himself staring at the closed door as the deliveryman left saying, “Thank You, Mam.” Terry was wearing his now favorite jeans and a T-shirt with one of his bras.  He assumed the guy saw the bra and decided he was a girl.  He shook it off, ate his dinner, and watched a movie. Sunday found Terry shopping at the grocery store.  He ran a few errands.  He wore a coat to avoid any more misunderstandings.

He unconsciously grabbed his lipstick and applied a quick coating when his phone chimed.  No one seemed to notice and he was so used to it that he didn’t even look around to see if anyone was looking. Terry cooked himself a nice dinner and planned his week.  Knowing what a hit the exercise program had taken out of him last week, Terry went to bed early to ensure he was well-rested.  Over the last couple of weeks, Terry changed his clothing habits when sleeping.

He used to often sleep in a pair of boxers.  Since he never wore boxers anymore, he found himself sleeping in a pair of his panties and he had a comfortable bra that he had relegated to wearing to sleep.  For some reason, his new breasts lose, and moving around bothered him.  For sleeping, he liked having his breasts in a soft cup bra.  Sometimes he threw on an old stretched-out t-shirt in case the covers fell off during the night.

Week 4 By the fourth week, things were starting to develop a pattern.  Terry always liked to know what he was going to do.  He was that kind of guy.  He knew what to expect and though strange, he was getting used to it.  Each morning, he would get up and shower.  He would dress in clean underwear and a sports bra along with his workout outfit and his old tennis shoes.  Then he would gather his outfit for the day.  He liked the idea that some of the things matched.

So he tried to keep panties, bra and camisole set together.  He would wear either trouser socks or a few times he tried pantyhose.  He didn’t know why but he liked how his pants slid along the hose.  He would select a suit and a blouse.  Then he selected one of his neckties and put the necktie in his bag to put on after exercise.  After putting on his shoes he would grab a hair tie and eat something quickly while waiting for Moira to pick him up.  Terry and Moira would complete their exercise, shower, and redress before stopping at the stylist's for a little finishing touch before heading into the office.  Terry and Moira were always the first ones in their area.

Terry would remove his jacket, and grab his cup along with Moira and Doreen’s.  After starting the coffee and pouring cups for the ladies, Terry would deliver their coffee, pick up any files and copying they had set aside and head for the filing room.  After finishing the filing, he would head for the copier.  When he finished the copying, stapling and any other preparation needed, Terry would deliver the finished product, collect Moira and Doreen’s cups and return to the kitchenette.  After filling all three cups, Terry would deliver coffee for the second time to Doreen and Moira and finally sit down in his own office and have a sip of his hot coffee.

As the week started, he got the copying done by about 10 minutes after nine.  By Wednesday, he was still in the copying room at fifteen minutes past.  Susan dropped by on Wednesday and gave Terry a few more things to copy. Terry did not get to his office until 9:45.  At lunch Terry and Moira dropped off their dry cleaning. Thursday and Friday, Terry felt the volume increasing ever so slightly and he was still not in his office until 9:45 on Thursday.  On Friday, Susan and another girl, Karen, dropped more copying off and Terry found himself copying until almost 10:00.

Terry felt like he needed to talk to Moira about the amount of copying he was doing.  On the other hand, Terry had not fallen behind on any proposals.  In her free time, Moira had done a lot of the preparatory work for most of the proposals they were working on.  Terry was able to make the calls and put the finishing touches on the proposals with less work than he typically had to do.  At lunch, after drinking their smoothies, Moira informed Terry that she needed to run a quick errand.  She explained that due to the time, she would be hard-pressed to make it to the dry cleaners.  Terry quickly volunteered to pick up the dry cleaning for both of them.

Week 5, On Monday of the fifth week, Terry found himself swamped in the copying room at 10:00.  Doreen and Moira had given him their slowly growing piles of copying and filing.  But at about 9:15, Susan had come in with a huge copying job.  While Susan stayed to help Terry with stapling and organizing, other women brought in smaller jobs.  As Terry and Susan finished her large urgent job, she grabbed the copies and ran to deliver them to the executive that had ordered the job.  It was 10:00 and Terry now had several other jobs for various women in the area.

It was almost 11:00 before Terry was finally able to sit down in his office and finally have some coffee.  Moira was finishing her coffee and stepped into Terry’s office.  She told Terry that she had taken a call for him regarding the Carson proposal.  Since Terry was not in the office, Moira had collected the information and entered it into the proposal.  Terry was surprised.  Normally, Moira would have taken a message and let Terry call back later.  Moira said, the man had called twice and she thought that since they were working as a team on these things it would be just as easy to get the required information and enter it into the proposal.

Terry agreed that it was better to get it done and not upset the caller.  But in the back of his mind, it felt like he was letting go of a little more of his own responsibility.  The reason he was not there to take the call was that he was in the copying room doing the copying.  He could have been sitting in his office doing nothing waiting for the call.  That felt wrong.  Terry and Moira had their smoothies for lunch and took a walk to get some fresh air. As they walked, Terry asked, “Moira, it seems like there is more copying in the morning than there used to be.  I didn’t get back to my office until almost eleven this morning.” Moira was intrigued that he didn’t ask why he was doing the copying.

His question seemed to imply he was supposed to do the copying but the load had increased.  “Well Terry, that’s how it goes with copying.  Sometimes there is almost nothing.  And then there are days where you feel like you get nothing done because you spend all day in the file room or making copies.  And then if someone else comes in, you end up helping them or doing it for them.  By the time you get back to your own desk, it feels like you never got any of your own work done.  How many times in the past have you asked me where I’ve been when you can’t find me?  Usually, it’s because I was either copying or filing or helping someone out.

I guess now you understand how people can get caught up in these things.”  Terry agreed, “Yeah, Susan came in with some rush job, and even with her help it took till 10.  Then I still had to finish the other jobs people dropped off while we had the machine tied up.” Moira came back with, “I sympathize with you.  Some days are just like that.  Tomorrow will probably be much easier.” Moira made a mental note to tell Doreen that tomorrow they would give Terry a lighter load.  On Tuesday, Terry got out of the copying room by 9:10.  He was very pleased with himself.

He was collecting Doreen and Moira’s cups for their second round when Susan asked him if he wouldn’t mind getting her a cup also.  Terry grabbed a platter from the kitchenette and carried all four cups back to the women’s desks and his own.  He returned the platter to the kitchenette and then retreated to his office.  Moira thought he looked a little like a waitress delivering the coffee. On Wednesday, the volume of filing delayed Terry getting to the copying room.  While Moira and Doreen did not have a lot of copying, the delay due to filing put him in the room when Susan, Karen, and others came to do their early morning copying.

The girls offered Terry advice on how to more efficiently accomplish certain tasks.  But they were happy to have him complete the work.  He did not get out of the copying room until almost 10:30.  Coffees for himself, Moira, Doreen, and 2 other women and he was in his office just before 11.  Several of the women in the office had initially been reluctant to hand off menial copying jobs to Terry.  But Terry seemed happy to help and he never complained.  Doreen, Moira, Susan, and Karen were all happily using his services so others joined the process.  As each day progressed, they dealt with him as more of a colleague than an executive.

Terry and Moira took a short walk on Wednesday after drinking their smoothies and dropped off their dry cleaning.  After they got back to the office, Moira asked Terry if he could help her with a big copying job so she wouldn’t be tied up all afternoon.  Terry and Moira ended up spending about 45 minutes in the afternoon in the copying room.  Terry joked that he was beginning to think of the copying room as an annex to his office.  Moira smiled and agreed.  On Friday, Moira asked Terry to pick up the dry cleaning during their morning break.

She said she needed to talk to Doreen about something and she was worried they might not have time at lunch.  Moira gave Terry several dry-cleaning tickets.  Terry left the building and swiftly made his way to the dry cleaners.  He was surprised to find more items than they normally picked up.  Terry’s arms were full as he made his way back to the office.  Several people gave Terry odd looks as he returned to the office with a large load of dry cleaning.  Terry went to his office and tried to start sorting the items out.  Moira entered his office and mentioned, “Oh, I had no idea there was this much.”  Moira helped Terry identify his items and she then started pulling several items he recognized as hers.

Moira then looked at the remaining items and slid her hand between them separating them into two bundles.  Moira grabbed one and said, “Terry, can you give that bundle to Doreen?  I’ll drop these others off at Chris’s office.” Terry quickly picked up the other bundle and walked it over to Doreen.  As he was handing it to her, Doreen thanked him effusively. “Terry thank you so much.  I was tied up earlier and I really appreciate you grabbing these things for me.”  Terry mumbled that it was no problem and made a beeline for his office.  Several people were looking at him again.  When he heard Moira return, he called her in.

Terry looked upset and mixed up, “Moira, did you say that the other clothes I picked up were for Chris?” Moira looked at him and responded, “Yes, why?” Terry was incredulous, “Chris Martin?” Moira raised her eyes and said, “Of course, is there another Chris around here?” Terry asked, “Why would you ask me to get Chris’s dry cleaning?” Moira said, “I asked you to pick up some items since you needed to pick up your own dry cleaning.  Chris and Doreen had asked me to pick the items up.  I thought it made no sense for us to make two or three trips.

I often pick things up or drop them off for other co-workers.  Is there something wrong with you helping me or Chris out?” Terry was still trying to process this, “It’s not that there is something wrong with helping out.  It’s just that I shouldn’t be picking up Chris’s dry cleaning.”  Moira got a hard look on her face.  “Is it because Chris is a woman and you shouldn’t be picking up her clothes?  Are you too good to help out?  You pick up my clothes.  I pick up your clothes.  We are just helping each other out.  I would think that you would be willing to help anyone who needs it for the good of the company.” Terry thought this was getting twisted around.  “It has nothing to do with Chris being a woman.  I am not too good to help out.

You are twisting my words.  I am happy to help.  I just didn’t know.” Moira looked at him, “So you have no trouble helping others out.  I help you out all the time lately.  I often volunteer to help people with their cleaning if I am going myself.  You’re just upset you didn’t know you were helping other people out?” Terry again felt something was being twisted.  But he did not want to upset Moira.  He needed to get out of this conversation.  “I guess I overreacted.  I just didn’t know.  It somehow felt wrong.  I don’t know why.  I am happy to help out.

Just try not to surprise me.  I’m sorry I got upset.” Moira thought about that for a few moments.  “I guess I will accept your apology.  But I just want to be sure I understand.  You are happy to help out.  And I can count on you to work with me and do whatever is needed.  Is that right?” Terry agreed quickly.  “Yes, yes.  I’ll help out where needed.  You are certainly helping me out.”  Moira continued, “Then I will only accept your apology if you also agree to handle the dry cleaning for the next couple of weeks.  It will be your responsibility.

Not mine or someone else’s.  Agreed?” Terry agreed without really thinking about the deal. Moira turned and left his office.  She ticked a little box in her brain.  Terry handles filing and copying and now he is handling the dry cleaning.  I have taken on more responsibility in the preparation of proposals.  I wonder how many people’s laundry he can handle.  We’ll see.