George, Donna and... Charlie? Ch. 02

I'd like to thank Randi for her editorial help and assistance in making this story more polished.

Several months after the events at the airport, George was working in his office when his secretary buzzed him and said, "George, your 10AM appointment is here. I have sent her into conference room three. I have made sure she has a drink. Are you needing a drink?"

"No thanks, Nancy, I'm good," said George.

He looked at the name on his appointment diary, Charlotte Reed. He shook his head, slightly, as the name rang a bell with him.

When he arrived in the conference room, he saw a reasonably personable woman of middling age. She was conservatively dressed in modern but feminine business attire; she was made-up discreetly and if George was any judge of such things, her hair was a blonde wig cut in the modern style much loved by older women recently.

They shook hands. "Hello, I'm George Johnson, you are Charlotte Reed, my 11AM appointment. Nancy, my secretary, has told me you have a drink, so if there's anything else you need, please let me know. Please take a seat."

They sat facing each other over the small conference table.

"This is awkward," said Charlotte "I am surprised you didn't recognise my name. I am, or rather I was, Donna's husband, Charles, or Charlie, before I became Charlotte."

George's professional training as a lawyer kicked in. He said "Oh."

Charlotte looked nervous. "I am told, well, Donna told me that you are a very good litigation lawyer and I know you have good reasons to hate me, but I need a really good litigation lawyer because..." at this point she began to cry and George passed her a box of tissues that were always to hand, tears not being uncommon in a lawyer's conference rooms.

"Thank you. Please, can I at least tell you my story and see if you can help me?"

George nodded. Despite what he had expected, he found himself warming to Charlotte. "Please, go ahead, would you prefer me to address you as Ms. Reed, or as Charlotte?"

Charlotte looked up at him, sharply. Damn, she was beginning to see why his wife, former wife or whatever she was, had fallen for George. He seemed nice, solid and dependable, but without being a stuffed shirt. She grinned at him. "Charlotte will be fine, thank you, George?"

George nodded, giving her a brief grin. Damn. Now he was starting to like Charlotte, which wasn't what he had expected at all.

George went through the preliminaries, including informing her that they were being recorded by both video and sound.

George said: "Charlotte, I don't hate you. In fact, although I did hate, or perhaps hate is too strong a word I now realise, dislike or despise Donna for a short time, I realised, or rather, my therapist helped me work through those troubling emotions and guided me away from them.

"Of course, I deeply resent how Donna and her daughters used me, but well, what's done is done and there's no use going over old ground again and again. But what do you think I or our company can do for you? I'll be honest, it's probable that under the circumstances I will have to recuse myself from working as your lawyer, but there are plenty of litigation lawyers here at Bogle, Mattherson and Drew who will be able to help you. In fact, we have two lawyers who are members of the LAGLA, and represent LGBTQ rights, frequently. If your potential case involves any aspects of LGBTG laws, they'll both be able to offer you their considerable expertise and knowledge. Would you like me to see if one of them is available to sit in on our preliminary meeting, now?"

Charlotte shook her head. "No, that won't be necessary at the moment. I can understand why you might not be able to be my lawyer, but Donna has told me what a good compassionate person you are, and I am beginning to like you as a person."

"I like you, too, Charlotte," replied George. "Though I wasn't sure I would. Please, tell me why you need a litigation expert."

Charlotte explained how, ever since childhood, she, or rather he at the time, had always felt awkward and different. Charlotte's parents had been somewhat unconventional, but in the strange, cookie-cutter way that all people who pride themselves on being unconventional behave.

George nodded in understanding. "So, in their own way they were just as conventional as everyone else of their generation?"

Charlotte grinned, briefly. "That's all too true. They weren't bad parents, but they were somehow a bit indifferent to my needs. I was an only child and perhaps that didn't help? I don't know.

"Anyway, I began dressing up in my mother's clothes in secret. I didn't find that especially sexually exciting, but rather it was more liberating, perhaps more a case of who I was.

"Even at age 12, I knew I wasn't a typical boy. Oh, don't get me wrong, I loved my sports, baseball, football, soccer and with the encouragement of a rather butch British female sports teacher, I even played a bit of Rugby and cricket. I never passed as a jock, but I got on well with the jocks, fact was I got on well with nearly everybody at my school. So, I wasn't bullied, though if I'd let slip my liking for dressing up in female attire, I guess I would have been bullied. But I learned to keep my mouth shut at an early age. My parents were swingers to an extent and they quickly taught me the advantages of being very, very discrete. Our city was a relatively small one and that kind of thing had to be kept very quiet for fear of being ostracised by society."

Charlotte took a sip from her glass of water before continuing. "Anyway, I went away to college, met Donna and after we dated for a year, we got married and gave birth to our beautiful daughters. And we launched our very successful business

"But still I didn't feel right, and after some counselling I realised that there was something missing from my life, that I needed to be a woman. Rather than discuss this with Donna, like a coward I made the business over to her, kissed her and the girls goodbye and went off to "find myself".

"Actually, the truth was I had already found myself, or rather found out what or who I was: a woman in the body of a man, and I felt shamed, so ashamed that I couldn't share this with Donna.

"The girls were too young to understand, or so I felt, so I took the coward's way out and slunk off to San Francisco where I lived with a friend whom I'd met on a Trans chat forum a couple of years before. I helped him run his studio. Yeah, it was a male; actually, he'd transitioned from a woman to a man. He'd never been married, so he had few entanglements, if I can put it like that, in his life. His parents disowned him, apparently she was their only daughter, so they lost the chance to be grandparents."

"Nothing like looking at things through the lens of your own needs" commented George, shaking his head.

"Anyway," continued Charlotte, "I lived there for several years and I decided to make the proper transition. I saw a counselling service that promised to help people transition, and after several months of counselling they booked me into a transformational clinic in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"I was so excited to be able to finally set out on my ultimate journey of becoming who I was..."

"What happened?" said George, kindly, for he realised there was going to be a fucking huge "but" associated with her story.

"They did all the operations over a period of several months, They told me that I was now a beautiful woman and they gave me affirmation sessions so that I was raring to go! I felt I could take on the world! During the psychological sessions I realised that I still had unresolved issues regarding Donna and the girls. Although I now identified as Charlotte, rather than Charles or Charlie, I came to realise that I was still a husband (in a way) to Donna and a father, or perhaps now a second mother to the girls.

"I got in contact with Donna, told her I was coming back, but like the cowardly fool I was, I didn't have the courage to tell Donna or the girls that I was now identifying as a woman. Was, actually, a woman, in fact.

"It was only when I was at the airport when I met them as I came through security that I realised how badly I'd fucked up when Donna fainted and the girls looked horrified at their mother lying on the ground. Then I saw a reflection of myself, saw that I didn't look like a woman but more like a really bad drag act and I lost it myself. I wasn't a woman; I was a fucking freak!"

She began crying again and George awkwardly reached over and patted her shoulder. "Yes, I saw the photographs of you at the airport taken by some nosy bastard that went out on social media. But I have to say, if you don't mind me saying this, you look really classy, now. What happened?"

"I got all of us to Donna's apartment, and though it was awkward we chatted and reached some kind of resolution. I was very, very cross with Donna and the girls to a lesser extent, over what they'd done to you. Donna never even mentioned you to me. I swear if I'd have known, I'd not have come back into their lives. Donna had a crazy notion about getting our family back together at any cost, even the cost of your happiness. And that was wrong. I have insisted that she and the girls started in therapy. I think my leaving like I did fucked her up in the head more than I could have expected."

George shrugged "Well, that's water under the bridge, now. So as I said, you look much better. What happened?"

I went back on the trans forum, told everyone what had happened. Despite some nasty trolling, I received some helpful comments, too.

"Apparently the so-called trans counsellor in San Francisco was a cousin of the surgeon in Brazil and there had been many complaints over the years about them due to the standard of their work. The good reviews I'd seen at the counsellor's office were, I suspect, faked.

I got a recommendation for a good transformative surgeon, locally, and she and her team were able to sort out the problems with the botched breast augmentation, and it turned out I had an infection in my new vagina that they were able to cure. They also have an ex Hollywood make-up artist on their books and he was able to fix my disastrous make-up and give me lessons on, as he put it, looking like "a classy broad, not a cheap hooker."

George glanced down at his notes. "Well, this looks like a standard litigation case to me, though the international aspect of it may well prove interesting and a bit of a challenge. However, we do have international contacts and I feel sure we have an associate law firm in Brazil who will be of assistance. It's possible, if there have been a number of cases involving the transformation counsellor and his cousin, that there could be a class lawsuit in the making, which could involve a good deal of work."

Charlotte paled "expensive?" he whispered.

George shook his head and smiled. "Yes, but expensive for someone else, not you. I feel this is the type of case my company will take on a contingency basis: no win, no fee.

"I was wondering which of our two LGBTQ rights lawyers I should ask to become involved, but I have the gut feeling that this case could become a cause-celebre with dozens of clients or more, even, so they could be very busy for some time to come. I feel I am too close to this to be involved, well, damn it I am an honorary uncle to the girls, so I best keep a professional distance!"

Charlotte looked at him and then they stood, and awkwardly embraced. "George, I know things will probably always be a little difficult between us all, but the girls are missing you and there is a matter of a delayed birthday celebration, I believe, so can I invite you to dinner, please?"

To his own surprise George said: "Sure. Why not? You check with Donna and set a time and date and I'll bring a bottle of wine. Can I bring a date, please?"

Charlotte nodded and said: "Sounds a good idea. And could you please call me Charlie? I think I'd like that."

George said: "Okay, Charlie, that's cool."

They shook hands and he escorted her out of the office saying: "I have your contact details, Charlie, I'll write my notes up and send them to the secretaries of our LGBTQ rights lawyers, Amy Brown and Keith Bogle, so they can get the ball rolling. Can you send me the details of the trans forum, please? We'll need to reach out to the other victims to help them get closure, too."

As George re-entered his outer office his secretary said: "You look pleased with yourself. Good meeting?"

"Oh, yeah," he replied. "A very good meeting. Say, you fancy going on a dinner date in the next few weeks to meet some interesting folk?"

She nodded saying "Sounds good to me!"

There were times when the fact that a law firm had been set up by a trio of freethinkers back in the day who had decided that adults in the workplace should be treated like adults, which included no non-fraternization policy was a very good thing indeed, George thought.

"Shit's getting weird, George!" he said to himself. He'd missed the girls and now, after several months had passed and he'd had a number of counselling sessions he might be allowing himself the luxury of starting to miss Donna. But only as a friend. Because all other boats had foundered and sunk. The trust had gone, and without trust and with the looming presence of Charlotte or Charlie (she was a tall woman), he realised that any romantic relationship with Donna was a thing of the past.

Still, he had a feeling that the small yet busy LGBTQ rights division at the law firm was going to get even busier. They might even need more lawyers with LGBTQ specialisms? He'd have to send a memo to the three founders of the firm. Bogle would be especially interested as his son was one of the two current LGBTQ rights law experts.

This, George realised, would increase his kudos within the company. Funny how things worked out, sometimes, he mused.