Single Ticket

"Ahh, you're an adult, you can masturbate whenever you want Sabrina." He chuckled.

"Can I, ha, well she was behind me, I was moving the hair that was in my eyes, I was very satisfied. She was looking over my shoulder at you on my screen. She told me she was happy I could get off while looking at a man with all of his clothes on. She laughed and went and told Jaime."

***

We got a call on the hotel phone, it was from Rex the bartender.

"Are you coming down to the bar? I know you two are leaving soon, I want you to meet my wife."

So we got dressed up, we told the man behind the counter in reception that we were going to stay another night. We walked into the bar, it was busy for a Monday afternoon. We kissed our favorite bartender and met his wife Daisy. She was a tall brunette and striking-looking. We both had on the same color. It was the purplish sweater dress that I wore previously, I was running out of things to wear.

"This is a sign," Daisy said, touching the fabric on my arm. "You are now my new best friend, and if you tell me those heels are from 9West I'm adopting you."

"They are."

She hugged me laughing. "You are so going to love your new room." I smiled at her, little did she know but I was looking for a new place. Rex then gave us our new favorite martini. I gave him my credit card, but he didn't want to take it.

"These are on me, I love having you in my section of the bar," He laughed.

"Well, then can you make some for everyone else?" We looked around it was crowded for a Monday afternoon. I bought drinks for everyone in the bar, even one for the man working in reception. I wanted to say goodbye to this wonderful place, and thank everyone else for being here with me. I wanted to thank everyone for a fantastic weekend. I saw Rex glance at my card.

When he came back he put the card on the bar. He was looking at me, he had a slight smile on his face. We drank our drinks with everyone and he made more.

"Um, Sabrina?

"Yes, favorite bartender."

He held up my card. "Who's card is this?"

I had been living as a woman for the last four months, ever since I took the job at YSL, I had changed everything but my credit cards. even my driver's license had my new name.

I smiled at him as Daisy and Craig watched. I would love to be a woman with a stolen credit card. Or a woman with a secret identity and a shady past, on the lam, whatever that was. But I took my card, it was Discover, it looked like a cassette. I was quite proud of it, it was proof that I was a different person now. I held the card up and pointed to my name, I had long red nails, I tapped the card.

"This," I looked at the three of them, I was hoping the rest of the customers at the bar could hear me. "Is when I was a different gender. A completely different person." I smiled at Rex, he didn't seem too surprised. "This is to remind me, that there was an old me, now this..." I pointed between my breasts, "Is the new me. The new improved happier me," I laughed, and then so did the rest of them.

I turned around and Daisy had her phone out. "This is to remind ME, that there was an old me. She had a huge bright smile on her face. She had dark purple lips and she moved the phone closer to me. It was a picture of a man, he was looking at me over his glasses, he had a thick beard. I smiled at the beautiful Daisy. I bought drinks for the entire bar again. We had a wonderful afternoon. I suddenly didn't care that Linda thought I had no empathy or compassion, I now had new friends and a wonderful story to tell my old ones.

We reluctantly said goodbye, but Craig and I were going over to their house for dinner on Friday. I wanted to see my new room, I kiddingly told them. I would have to bring something special to share with them. Maybe bagels.

We said goodbye to everyone else in the bar. I had so much fun. I would never, ever forget my twenty-sixth birthday.

***

"What a fantastic weekend," I said mainly to myself.

Craig and I were relaxing in the glorious bed, it was after seven we still had the whole night.

"Is this what we could have been doing before we got distracted years ago?" He asked me.

"No way, I needed those years to learn how to be a girl, Mitzi says I am almost ready to graduate, haha."

"Alright, another party, a graduation party. I always knew you were so much fun."

I moved on top of him and started playing with his manhood. He was easy to make hard, he told me my long nails on his body and a whisper in his ear could make him hard in seconds.

We then kissed, my silky, slinky lingerie felt so good sliding against his naked body. A naked man in a bed, could this be my favorite birthday present?

My phone was going crazy, I brought it into the other room, it was distracting.

After a couple of minutes, Craig moved up onto his elbows. "You know when I looked at your phone to get Mitzi's number you had a bunch of messages. Maybe you should answer if you know who, is calling, maybe something happened."

I have been avoiding my phone most of the weekend. I didn't want to get on with real life, I was having such a great time. I went into the other room to get the cell phone to appease Craig. Mitzi, my mother and sister, and an Aunt all texted me. I texted them all back. I now had nine more from Linda. She called six times, it started ringing again.

"You have to answer it, baby." Craig was now sitting up. I was nervous, I didn't really want to talk to her.

I put it on speaker and laid the phone on the bed between us. "Hello?"

"Sabrina?" It was Linda, she sounded upset. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm at the Roxy Hotel." I looked at Craig.

"Still? I have been calling you all day. I'm so glad you're okay. Why didn't you answer?"

"Um, I'm sorry, I was busy, I didn't realize you were looking for me."

I heard her talking to someone else, "We are ALL looking for you. When are you coming home?" Her voice was shaky.

I didn't want to tell her over the phone that home was now in my mothers' basement again, at least until I found a new place.

"Everyone is here, you are so late for your party."

"My party? You didn't say anything about a party." I was getting confused, I sat closer to Craig, he put his arms around me.

"Well, it was supposed to be a surprise. How long before you can get here, everyone is waiting for you."

"Everyone? Is Mitzi there?"

"Mitzi? no."

"My parents? My sister is in town too."

"No, I have my friends from work, a couple of guys from Jaime's gym. I want you to meet everyone."

I looked at Craig and he shrugged, she didn't invite anyone for me. She invited all of her and Jaime's friends, this party was for them not me.

I heard her start to cry. "Did you see the pictures I sent?"

"No, why? What's going on. You are making me so nervous."

"Sabrina, I wish you were here, I miss you. I was so scared, you had never been quiet this long before. You were the one that was always there." I heard her crying, I was hoping that Jaime was holding her. I suddenly wished I WAS there, I knew how to make her feel better. I started to cry and Craig held me tighter. "Did you see the pictures?"

She was still crying as I looked through the messages. I didn't know what I was looking at, it looked like another hotel room. "I see them," I told her, while I sniffed.

"That's your room, Jaime, and I decorated it for you. You are going to love it. I'm sorry, please come home. I have to go, I have to cry, bye baby." She hung up. I felt terrible. I started to cry even harder as Craig held me against his chest. We stayed like this for so long, I almost forgot about the phone call.

***

We were in the Holland Tunnel leaving New York, everything was backed up, it was taking forever to get out of the city. I was shaking, I was nervous so Craig was driving.

I was brushing my hair, trying to relax. It was freezing out tonight, so I had on another sweater dress, this one a grayish purple with a turtleneck. It was long-sleeved but the hem was short and I had another black belt around my waist. I had on black stockings and heels, I wanted to look good for Linda and her party guests, though I had a feeling they would be all gone by the time we got there.

We were moving slowly, but at least we were out of the Tunnel. We probably still had over an hour to go before we got to Linda's place.

"Sabrina?" Craig called to me, I was looking at the view of the city on the side of us.

"Mmm."

"What's that?" He pointed up. There was a huge billboard above us as we made our way to the Parkway. "That's you!"

I looked, oh my god it was me. It was a picture of me from months ago. I was wearing all white. Short white dress, white stockings, and heels. Even my long nails were white. Linda hated this outfit, but Jaime said I looked exquisite. She told me once again about all the men of this world and the billboard. That was her favorite line to me. Now I was on a billboard looking down on the angry travelers coming back from New York.

"It says," Craig read it to me, I started to cry. "Happy Birthday Sabrina! Hope You Had Fun!"

I cried, I felt terrible. Mainly because I did have fun, I wouldn't have had this much if I was alone or even with Linda and Jaime.

***

We were outside of Linda's building. It was nice here, there was a little fountain and everything was lit up. It was a beautiful building in a nice part of New Jersey. I loved it here, but I said goodbye to this place three days ago. It was so hard to do, I didn't think I would have the strength to do it again.

"Are you ready?" Craig asked me, he was holding my hand. I moved toward him after I took off my seat belt. I wanted him to hold me.

I started to cry again I was so confused. The women seemed so mean to me. Even when I think back on it, it still seemed a little mean. If this was their plan it was a terrible one, it didn't even come off well. It was almost eleven, everyone would be gone.

I whispered in Craig's ear while he held me. "I don't need another party. I never needed any party, I just wanted someone to want to be with me. Like you did." I started to cry a little harder. "Why don't either of them, sniff, spend time with me. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the way." I was getting confused again. I took my arms from around Craig and I wiped my tears away. I looked in the mirror, the tissue dabbing under my eyelash.

He was watching me. He liked to watch me. I looked at him and laughed a little as I cried. "Am I ever in your way?" It was rhetorical, I was just being facetious.

He shook his head and smiled. "No, but there is always someone or something blocking my view of you. There always was someone in my way, I want to be with you. I want to watch you, you are so beautiful and funny, and friendly, you always were." He smiled and touched my cheek. "But I know how you feel about Linda, it's okay. Thank you for letting me watch you. This last look is the hardest."

"Why, what do you mean?"

"You go, I don't want to be in the way either."

I looked at him and then kissed him, I put my arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Are you going to make me do this myself? haven't you learned anything this weekend?"

***

Jaime opened the door and hugged us, I think she was surprised to see Craig. The apartment was a mess, I was the one that kept it clean and organized. Linda walked out of the bathroom, her mascara was a mess she ran to me. She started to cry again as she grabbed me.

"Please don't ever do that again. We thought something happened." I was thinking something did happen. There was a complete shift in my thinking. I held her, I loved the way she smelt and I love the contour of her body. When we first met we would sit on her couch and drink two entire bottles of wine and just talk. That was a couple of months before she got back with Jaime. We would fall asleep, we made love in the morning after we sobered up. I would always remember...

That was when I didn't have a voice. Now I had one. My voice was perfect, it was perfectly feminine. I was all grown up now.

She led me to the formerly empty room in the back, it was beautiful. She held my waist as I moved in. It matched the rest of the house. It looked just like Linda's bedroom. I smiled and walked out of it. It was too little, too late. Next door was Jaime's, hers looked almost exactly the same. All three rooms were Linda's. I didn't want to be their roommate. I didn't want to be the third wheel anymore. I was going to be happy just being their friend.

We walked back into the kitchen and I took Craig's hand. Linda watched. This was her plan months ago, I don't know why she had such a surprised look on her face. She knew our history.

Jaime walked in.

I gave her another hug, "Thank you for the billboard, I think you are so crazy." I gave her a sad giggle and kissed her cheek. Tonight was the first time I touched anything but her hands.

"I'm sure you weren't expecting that. I wanted to surprise you." She smiled.

"Oh my god, we were so surprised. I took so many pictures."

"You didn't take any of your presents though, and you missed the play yesterday."

I looked at Craig and grabbed his arms, "No we went, we even went to see 'Wicked' too, Mitzi came with us both times."

"Mitzi?" Linda watched me.

"Yesterday my parents, my sister and her husband came too. We had such a fantastic time. We all went out to dinner afterward, they sang Happy Birthday to me and they made me cry. I had such a great time. We all did."

Craig smiled at me and hugged me a little tighter.

"I can't believe you two would think that I would do those things alone." I was looking at Linda, tears once again forming in both of our eyes. I did love her, but she never made me feel special or even loved anymore. Once she was with Jaime I was just a distraction. That was okay, I think I understood now. I just wish she told me she could only love one person at a time, it would have made more sense.

I could now love both of them.

I said goodbye in my perfect, sexy feminine voice.

They both thought I was going to stay, they were so confused, they wanted me to enjoy the new room but I was happy to leave. I would only come back if they invited us over for dinner. We could spend time together the four of us, just like so many months ago when Linda wanted to play, to tease me. I didn't want to play and I only wanted Craig to tease me, I wanted to be with friends.

The best part of seeing them was when Jaime gave me the Jane Eyre book, I thanked her again, I really did love this. I started to realize that Jaime knew me so much better than Linda ever did.

***

We were in the car, I didn't know where we were going. It didn't matter. I realized that I had to slow down, I was doing too many things, I was too distracted. I had three jobs and lived in two different places, I needed to stop using my 'Single Ticket.' I practically lived on the Garden State Parkway, I only had to end up in the one place.

With Craig.

***

I had Jane Eyre in my hands and up covering my face. Craig was watching me, a bemused smile on his face. I loved the smell of an old book that someone has enjoyed. Soon, I would make Craig read something with me, something classic, something romantic with lots of sex, maybe D.H. Lawrence. I was planning on only wearing a bodystocking and maybe some six-inch pumps, we'll see. I might lean on his chest, I don't know, I'll come up with an interesting position. I was thinking maybe reading wasn't such a lonely hobby, after all, it could be shared. We could drink a cocktail and I could sometimes play with his cock, that D.H. Lawrence is pretty racy. That sounds like a nice Sunday.

And no one will get in our way.

***

Two Months Later

"Oh, I sent you a text. It's a list. Did you see it?"

"I did."

Take a class

Learn a new language

Volunteer

Take a hike...

I stopped reading, it was pretty long, I threw another throw pillow at him. It was a list of things to do by yourself.

I was never alone anymore.

***

The End

***