Anything Goes - Theatrical Capers

Expecting this I reached for an envelope off my mantelpiece and handed it to her without a word. She opened it, extracted the contents and promptly collapsed on realising what it was taking me completely by surprise. Thankfully she rallied within seconds of my crossing the room to her side and I handed her a tissue as she burst into floods of tears. I took her in my arms and she clung to me as if her life depended upon it as she sobbed. The tears took nearly as long to stop as the silence had, a wall had broken down and a lifetime of pent up emotion released.

When the crying finally stopped the talking began and flowed faster than the tears had as Marika unburdened herself. Born in rural Poland as Piotr, the second child to a farming family with a sister 10 years older, realisation dawned at about age 12 she was in the wrong body and told her parents. It went tragically wrong and they immediately threw her out of the family home, disowning her - they would not and could not accept that their son believed he was a girl, it went against everything they believed. The young Piotr managed to travel across country to Warsaw where the older sister, Joanna, was in university studying medicine and thankfully she was totally understanding and supportive allowing him to live with her. Somehow they managed to survive with Joanna raising Marika as her sister and finding a transgender specialist to treat her for free as a charity case so she had access to medication and all the surgery she needed as she developed.

Marika could not legally reassign gender when she reached 18 because under Polish law her parents had to agree in a court and never would - at 22 she managed to travel to England using a black market passport and worked dozens of odd jobs moving regularly to avoid problems until she arrived in the village by chance, found work as a shop assistant and landed the vacant role of theatre stage manager after a recommendation by her employer who was one of the society members.

Marika had made one mistake about a year into the job, she had left her computer in the theatre signed on and Brian had accessed it. He used all of the private photos, emails and correspondence with her friends & sister to work out what had happened and threaten her with exposure & police investigations for fraud and being deported as well as Joanna facing losing her job & possible arrest when her involvement came to light.

She couldn't risk or allow any of that and just paid Brian whatever he asked - because he was repulsed by the idea of her being transgender he never demanded anything physical only money which Marika had accepted as a blessing. Due to recent developments in her personal life Brian was trying to get even more money out of her, money she couldn't possibly afford and this time she couldn't run.

"My guess is this photo is what he tried to use to extort more money", handing her a heavily cropped shot of a man and woman kissing in the theatre car park. The man was Leo, a 6'3" rugby playing mountain who was playing the role of 'Moonface Martin, public enemy number 13' in our production, the woman was Marika.

"That's the one, we thought we were so careful but he got it from the outside CCTV."

"How serious are you pair?"

"As serious as it gets, it was love at first sight for both of us and he knows everything about me, I told him on our first date fearing and expecting him to run away but he didn't. In fact other than you and Brian he is the only person who knows my true story and it doesn't matter to him, Leo doesn't care who I was only who I am now and he wants us to marry one day. The only reason for not wanting this photo to get out is that his parents are as conservative as my own were and would never understand or sanction such a union."

"OK, in that case the cheque for £20,000 in the envelope I gave you can go towards the wedding. Brian kept a spreadsheet detailing everything he extorted from you and the cheque covers all that money plus interest and rounded up for ease. The email in there is 100% on the level - my solicitor has already begun to petition for your reassignment hearing which will be supported by a suitably edited dossier from your specialist. Your passport was good enough to get you into the UK so will get you back to Poland accompanied by one of their barristers who is Polish to represent you as soon as this show has finished its run. Once the paperwork is complete for the gender reassignment then they will facilitate a new genuine passport to return on, all legal and above board.

They've assured me it will take about 4 weeks in total but I don't see why Leo cannot join you for some or all of the time if you want.

There is one other thing you need to know that has been turned up by the legal team, I know you and your sister were completely estranged from your parents but when your father died he left the farm to your mother and before she died she sold everything and put the proceeds into trust for you and your sister. It seems she wanted reconciliation at the end but didn't know how so she did what she did in a attempt to make amends. Should you choose to accept it then you will both gain a substantial nest egg to support each of you."

Disbelief and shock were the primary emotions showing on Marika's faces after this revelation accompanied by a struggle to process everything. I made a suggestion that rather than me taking her home to come to terms with this all alone she should stay in my guest room and I would pop her home in the morning to make a fresh start and maybe begin getting things together for her trip. There was a brief pause which may have been her long developed self protective system kicking into make sure I wasn't about to take advantage before she relaxed a little & accepted and I led her upstairs. The heady cocktail of bodily chemicals released by the shock, exhaustion and relief she had gone through sent her to sleep within minutes of her head touching the pillow.

* * * * * * * *

Eventually the silence ended and the challenge recommenced, genuine burning anger backed up the finger jabbing my chest and the words shouted into my face.

"You lied to me!"

"I've never lied to you - every single thing I have told you, your dad or anyone else I've met since coming here has been 100% the truth. What I have done is withhold a hell of a lot of stuff about me that I don't feel it's necessary for any of them to know." The calmness in my voice and manner surprised me.

"You said you moved here because you couldn't afford a house in London and that you'd had an inheritance from an aunt to buy your house - but I know you are sodding squillionaire! LIAR!!

Someone had been very busy, either Poppy or one of her drama society friends had obviously cyber-stalked me if she knew about the money - I was mildly impressed as these days I regularly made sure I had a fairly low key online presence even down to my old business profile and had no accounts on any of the common social media platforms.

"What I actually said was property prices in London were ludicrous and crippling, I never said I couldn't afford them - I just don't want to any more. I did have an inheritance from my aunt too, the one who brought me up as a child after my parents death, the same aunt I told you about on the very first night you came back to this house with me - I had bought her the house she lived in when I started to get successful to try and make up for all the crap I put her through as a snotty kid when she didn't have to take me in and to make sure she had a comfortable life. When she died it all came back to me as her sole heir.

Again she was deflated but still held a fire within her for some reason.

Whilst she pondered her next line of attack I took a turn to pose a question -

"Why did you come home with me that night after the first show?"

Now Poppy looked awkward, I must have hit a nerve, and begrudgingly she told me that it had started off as a stupid drinking game & bet between 5 single women in the society including Poppy on the night of the dress rehearsal - the loser had to find out more about me and what I had done to the inside of my cottage; was it a seedy bachelors passion palace or a single bloke's muddle filled bomb-site. She lost the drinking game, got carried away with me in the heat of the moment the following night and things got a bit out of hand.

A bit out of hand - that was putting what we did mildly - totally out of control would be a far better way to put it in my view.

I asked why she was so upset - she denied she was - I kept pressing and pressing until she finally snapped & ranted about how her fiancée of 4 years had hidden a secret life from her. A life that had including a long term partner he was dating whilst with her and even a child he had fathered with that partner.

The lies were horrendous but the child was the worst part, it was something she could never have because she really had been a miracle baby to her own parents since her mum carried a defective gene which Poppy had inherited - in her case a gene that rendered her sterile. It had broken her heart and she was still hurting right up to the moment first she met me that evening in the control booth and something she couldn't explain clicked back into place giving her a sense of ease around a man she hadn't had for years.

She admitted she had deliberately lost the bet just to spend a little private time with me but when she found out about my apparent subterfuge it brought back all of her pain of betrayal and fears of rejection.

I paused to weigh up this new information before asking, "So what has changed? Why are you here at this time of night?"

A lot of the bitterness had left her voice when Poppy answered my question,

"I had a really awkward conversation with dad straight after the performance this evening. He lost his temper with me, which he hasn't done since I was a kid, because of my attitude towards you. I let fly about you being an untrustworthy low-life and then he shut me down by giving me this really brief speech about how you had found out stuff about Brian and what you had done to protect the society and lots of its members. He wouldn't give me any specifics but he made sure I knew how he regarded you and how mistaken I must be about you.

I sort of accepted that you might have a good streak but I still thought you were a cheating womaniser because I had seen you move straight on from me to Marika the night of the second performance after I had the chat about us cooling things down & maybe just being friends. Then I saw you talking to her in the pub a few hours ago and how she was all smiles and laughter - I lost my temper again and came here to have it out with you face to face no matter what my dad thinks of you. I didn't know about Marika and Leo being a couple, I didn't see their cars parked up either when I arrived. Guess I got that hook up completely wrong too."

I sat there wanting to laugh and cry in equal measure; to laugh for the relief that I hadn't done something hideously wrong to upset her, that she had somehow felt something for me as I had for her, that there might still be a slim chance for us to be an 'us'. To cry for many of the same reasons as well as empathy for what she had gone through in the past.

"Yeah just a little bit wrong I'm afraid. I hadn't moved on to Marika there was simply something I needed to sort out with her after the Brian unpleasantness. I cannot give you the details only Marika can if she should choose to but it was both very important & urgent. Something that had to be resolved privately."

We went into the kitchen and while I made us hot chocolate I gave her the full unedited version of my life to date.

"The reason I don't go around telling everyone I am a retired 34 year old multi-millionaire orphan is it tends to attract people for the wrong reasons, in fact the last two women I had dates with before making the move down here had actually managed to research me and my regular movements to gain an "accidental" meeting with an aim to using me as a 'sugar daddy' and parting me from some money. In the last year I even had a woman drive into the back of a car I was driving to get my details and a date. She was even planning to claim compensation for accident 'injuries', it was unbelievable and a bit freaky, it was the main reason I began to consider moving house.

I'd love to know how you or a friend got any info on me though as I thought I was well hidden now."

A guilty look had me guessing it may have been a joint effort and any friend was probably someone working for the hospital or health trust who had been snooping when they shouldn't - pulling up my medical records, scouring historic addresses & such then backtracking on the web but I was prepared to let it pass because it was done with good intentions - for Poppy I knew I would let anything pass as long as it meant we were at least talking again.

An air of quiet calm had descended on the kitchen where we sat opposite each other across the island, Poppy staring into her mug while I couldn't take my eyes off her. Finally looking up and meeting my gaze she smiled and my heart leapt with joy.

"I'm so sorry for acting like a spoilt child and a completely hysterical bunny boiler, you can kick me out now if you want to."

"If I was going to kick you out it would have been right on the heels of Marika and Leo leaving. Given everything you've been through in the past your reaction may have been extreme but I completely understand, there is no need for any apology. In fact I am more than happy to forget the last few days have happened at all - a clear slate just like the first evening we met in the theatre."

Poppy tilted her head lightly to one side as she pondered what I said, it was cute beyond measure, before asking me "Maybe we don't need to go that far back, things were pretty good right up until I left for work on Tuesday morning, we could consider that as a nice starting point."

"That absolutely works for me if you are certain."

"Yep, I am certain. Do you think this counts as our first argument as a possible couple?" Poppy asked.

It was a bit left field and puzzled I thought hard before responding "Well yes I think it probably does but why do you want to know?"

"Well if it is our first argument then maybe we could try another first, our first make up sex?"

Oh boy, it was going to be a long and amazing night...