Stephanie Unmasked Pt. 01

"Stagnant Stephanie". That's what her few friends called her, a name she earned by going through her early years of adult life focused on work - not relationships. Her friends invited her out to dinner and to the occasional party (which was becoming much less frequent now that she was 22), and sure, she went. She would arrive 20 minutes early, drink next to nothing, and be the first to leave. Before things got even a little bit messy.

Stephanie Vice worked hard, and was proud of her achievements and her 'sensible' outlook on life. But to others she came across as pretentious. Was she somehow above having fun? And was any man good enough to draw her attention?

Men did find her intimidating, or at least unapproachable. She had a tendency to, (in her nervousness, the truth be known), promptly dismiss any and all would-be suitors. They did try, of course. Stephanie was quite beautiful, if you looked past the plain t-shirts and jeans, her no-nonsense hair style, and understated makeup. She was fit; she ate healthily, and backed that up by hitting the gym four mornings a week with her best friend Bella. A girl didn't need to be actively interested in men to look after herself!

Steph was of average height and slim build, with curves that were modest but suitably feminine. As for the important parts according to male interest: tushy on the small side, but nicely rounded and tight, and a respectable C-cup bust. Her facial features were a fair reflection of the elegance in which she lived her life. You looked into Stephanie's deep green eyes, and you saw her pride and her independence. Straight up, what-you-see-is-what-you-get, without an ounce of fakery. She kept her mousey brown hair long, but always tied back in a simple ponytail.

Work life was of the legal flavour, a clerk at Masterson and Croft - a medium sized firm in her city. It was a position that required a degree, but she had a ways to go before she could make it as an associate lawyer, and, in a typically unjust system, she worked more than most of the lawyers, understood the cases just as well, but took home less than half the pay. She deserved better, and she would let nothing jeopardise her in getting there.

And so Stephanie pushed on, day in, day out, collecting her respectable-ish paycheck, paying her rent as the sole occupant of the small duplex she leased, and managing to stash a respectable chunk into savings. She got up at a sparrow's fart most days to sweat it out at the gym, followed that up with work hours that exceeded the full-time schedule she was paid for, and turned in to bed early so that she might have the energy to do it all over again tomorrow. It was a lifestyle that was busy enough to allow her to overlook her loneliness. But she was stagnating.

Stagnant Stephanie. She hated the nickname, all the more-so because she knew it was true. After all, it was ultimately out of love that her friends bestowed her the title.

One morning, a girl from the front desk, Lily, extended her an invite to an event that one might have considered as unlikely to appeal to Stephanie as any. A masquerade ball, of all things. It seemed that the founding partner of the firm, Jerome Masterson, was a major benefactor of some charity, and was extending the invitation to the few single girls in their office. Steph scrunched up her nose at a bad feeling. Only the single girls?

Your boss is looking for escorts.

"I know what you're thinking," Lily predicted. "But I don't think it's anything like that. He just wants the event to be glammed up a little more. A few extra girls in frocks. And ones who aren't going to answer every question with 'Oh! I have a boyfriend!' I'm gonna go, I mean, a masquerade? In the 21st century, it feels like a once in a lifetime chance. Come on Steph - I need a wingman!"

That did sound about plausible enough. Jerome Masterson was an enigma, and only staff who had been there several years had even met him. He too, had a nickname around the office, and it was well earned. 'Mysterious Leader'. It was rumoured that their General Manager was the only person who actually spoke to him with regularity. These days, he seemed to be more like a majority stakeholder than an active CEO. Though, Steph knew for a fact that he still worked the occasional particularly difficult case remotely.

A little while ago, she had handled a request from him involving some research for legal precedents in a niche problem under imports. It sounds boring, yes, but such was the work life of Stagnant Stephanie, and to be assigned a task from the big man himself had been her idea of an exciting week.

"I don't know... and it's in another city. We are going to have to catch a plane? I don't think I could even get leave approved at such short notice."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Stagnant Stephanie! It's only a few hours away and our Mysterious Leader is putting up the flights and a hotel room just for us girls. You'll be back home before the weekend's done and still have time to do your laundry! Please, Steph, I really want to go - but not on my own."

Having her arm twisted like this was often enough to make Stephanie cave.

"Alright alright. I'll go! Jeez."

Steph rather enjoyed Lily. Her mother's family had immigrated from China a full generation ago, and, as was often the case when you mixed asian genes with a different race, Lily had been blessed with beauty that turned heads. But what Steph liked about her was the fun, lively girl who could always make her day with one of her stories. By her own accounts, Lily hit the town pretty hard on Friday or Saturday nights. That was never Stephanie's scene, but the way Lily spoke of her exploits (and yes, often this included sexual encounters), Stephanie couldn't deny that she was always intrigued. Such a life was not meant for her, but, as with her best friend Bella, she got a little thrill out of living through her friend's stories.

Lily seemed outwardly surprised and delighted that Steph agreed to the invitation. She must have understood that the dedicated clerk would be stepping way out of her comfort zone for something as formal and intimidating as a masquerade ball. Who even did those anymore? But, that was just the thing. This would not be anything like the nasty frat parties she used to get roped into, with the excessive drinking and shameful, meaningless hookups.

This was a masquerade ball, and, while a rare opportunity, it was also just the kind of high-class event that had the potential to make Stephanie Vice pull out all the stops. People were unlikely to throw up in the pot plants way through the night, or swim naked in a decorative fountain.

"You know you'll need a formal dress, right?" Lily asked tentatively. Was she trying to scare her off? But it was also a fair comment, and a necessary consideration. About the most glammed up Stephanie ever got was for work, whereby she did actually present very well in a plain blouse and long black skirt or pants.

"Don't worry, I can scrub up nicely enough. In fact, you're never going to call me 'stagnant' again after this!"

Lily's face lit up. "Wow, I don't know who you are or what you did with my work buddy, but I like you. After this, you can be the one telling the crazy story at the Monday lunch break. Deal?"

"Oh, umm... I don't know if I should go that far! I just meant that I will at least have something to wear."

Steph already knew which dress she would choose. Her long, violet silk gown from prom night. It had only been worn on that one occasion when she was 18, but four years later she was confident it would still fit right. Yes, there were some dividends to her hard working lifestyle. People close to her admired her efforts to stay in such great shape, but the question would always come up - 'so when is someone going to see this body you put so much effort into?'

Another girl, Anne from accounts, also accepted the invitation. Steph didn't know Anne nearly as well as she did Lily, but she was a little more comfortable knowing that three of them would be going.

Nearly two weeks later, Steph got a call from Lily to join her at the front desk. When she got there, Anne was already present too. On top of the bench was a package. It was addressed to, 'the three ladies in waiting", and was signed, (something that could have been) Jerome Masterson.

Stephanie found her stomach turning in knots. Since accepting the invitation, she had been trying not to think about the upcoming ball. It was fair to say, she had only agreed to it on an absolute whim. It was almost as if she had said 'no' so many times, that a 'yes' was just an eventual, statistical certainty. A random spin of the wheel that finally landed on the space everyone had been waiting for.

In quiet moments, Stephanie felt a naggy tugging at her soul, an abstract idea that she desired something more out of life. Not the silly sex and alcohol fuelled social lives of some of her acquaintences, but... something. Of course there would be alcohol at this ball, but the premise was different. And what could be sexier than everybody checking out everybody dressed to impress... all the while hiding their wandering eyes behind a mask?

Still, when she considered the revealing neckline on the dress she had planned, the idea that men might be able to hide where their eyes went even as they spoke to her face to face... it was potentially, in the worst case, a creep-fest. She had given Lily her verbal agreement, and she had the dress in mind, but she maintained her typical list of reservations. Basically, she was carefully reserving her right to pike. In any case, she had thus far considered the event a rather distant concern; not something she need actually worry about. At least not yet.

But that was to change right now. Today, their Mysterious Leader had sent them a mysterious package, and from the note, they knew it was related to the upcoming ball. The knots in Steph's tummy gave way to busy butterflies as her anticipation mounted.

But Anne rolled her eyes. "I didn't realise he was this lame," she said.

Steph didn't find the quip about 'ladies in waiting' particularly funny either, but felt that Anne should show more respect. The note did it's job though - she was about ready to rip the package open like a child on Christmas morning. In Steph's opinion, Anne was unfortunately as dull as the stereotype of her accounting role. Steph didn't think of herself as dull, and she resented being called stagnant. She just tried to be professional at work, and didn't dress like a whore. And she harboured the belief deep down that the right guy would recognise her quality when he came along. Suddenly, she wondered if Anne also had another side to her; why exactly was she going to this ball?

"Well, let's have a look!" Lily made no effort to hide her own excitement as she broke the seal on the postage satchel. Inside was a solid cardboard box, and when she lifted the lid, all three girls gasped in unison. Nestled in a bed of velvet over a foam insert, were three beautiful, expensive looking masks. Masquerade masks. They had jewel-like surfaces; polished enamel, in deep, brilliant colours. Red, green and blue, and they shone like ruby, emerald and sapphire respectively. But their beauty had a frightening element, as each mask featured menacing looking, long, beaked noses. All were slightly different; hand made, most certainly.

This shit just got real.

The three young women gawked at the exquisite items for a moment, before Lily reached straight for the red one. "Sorry girls, but can I take this one? I was already planning on a red dress."

"Go for it," Anne said. "I don't even know what I'm wearing yet. You pick yours, Stephanie, I don't really care."

Steph likewise wasn't that concerned with which colour she got. She would have accepted any of the masks as a beautiful, generous gift. But in consideration of her purple dress, she thought she would prefer to accessorise with green over blue. And besides, the green looked particularly stunning, and she thought it might also bring out the colour of her eyes. Steph reached out and took the chosen mask carefully. It was lighter than it looked, and had a thin leather strap for attaching behind the head. These were not those disposable, cardboard masks that people had to hold up to their faces on sticks all night, or rather, for the first 20 minutes until the novelty wore thin.

"Figures," Anne said with a huff, and snatched the remaining blue mask before walking off.

Jeez, if she had wanted the green, she could have just said so.

Steph thought of swapping with her, but hesitated. Why should she reward such childish behaviour? And she realised that though she had only held her gorgeous new accessory for moments, she was already rather attached.

A few weeks passed, and it was to be a regular Friday morning in the office. The ball was to take place the following night, and all the appropriate reservations had been finalised by Lily.

Since accepting the mask, Stephanie's attendance had been cemented as an affirmative. Naturally, she remained apprehensive about the whole thing, but she also harboured a desperate curiosity to see it through. She had spent a few minutes each day holding that mask, feeling the smooth, enamel coated moulding, and trying it on in the mirror. She really, really liked this trinket. Her precious gift from their Mysterious Leader.

Wearing this, and looking fabulously daring... what kind of people would she meet? The ball was intended to raise money for charity, and so she imagined the men would be the respectable, quality sort. And, she wondered at the apparent likelihood that Jerome Masterson would be there in the flesh. Her heartbeat quickened each time she went there, though she didn't allow herself to dally on any particularly silly thoughts.

Sexual arousal was hardly an uncommon occurrence for Stephanie, it just wasn't an urge that she believed needed to be scratched at this point in her life. Never mind that she was still a virgin; the girl had never had a boyfriend, and didn't even masturbate. And when Bella had given her a huge, fancy vibrator for her 21st birthday, she had gone 12 shades of crimson and hidden it so deep in old junk that she would never be able to find it today. Even if an advanced alien race appeared, and declared that her great big pink dong was somehow needed to save their distant galaxy from ruin, still she would not dare to try and exhume it from the forgotten depths of the junk tub.

"Earth to Stephanie, hullo?" She finally snapped to attention. There was Lily, standing before her workstation.

"What can I do for you?" She tried to sound professional, as if she hadn't just been daydreaming on the job. Lily rolled her eyes in a fashion that anybody would find irritating, but did not press her for her thoughts.

"Grab your purse, and let's go. We're going on an excursion this morning."

"What are you talking about? We don't have 'excursions' here. I've got mountains of research to do for the Baker case, due tonight-"

Lily cut her off. "You'll be fine, come on. This is all approved, so just relax. The Barka case will be just fine until you get back, I promise."

Stephanie wrinkled her nose. "Baker case."

"It's like, a Japanese joke."

"I thought you were Chinese?"

"I'm an American. But I watch anime."

Stephanie didn't get it, but suddenly she realised that her handbag was over her shoulder, and she was standing. "Ok, but we have to be quick, yes?"

"You'll be back in time for your next coffee, Stagnant Stephanie. Relax!"

A short stroll down the street later, and Lily was ushering her into a beauty salon. One of those Chinese-run ones that she assumed were cheap and busy. "I might have known," Stephanie sighed. "Of course an excursion with you wouldn't be work related."

"Oh, but it is. The ball is tomorrow, and Mysterious Leader has us representing his company. This here, my young padawan is official work business."

"Right. I suppose our employer is going to pay for your manicure, then?"

"Damn right! And... the rest."

"Then, how come Anne isn't here? I bet she told you how busy she was. Like I should have. Like I did!"

Lily winced. "Anne? Fuck that bitch. Hundred bucks says she doesn't get on the plane tomorrow anyways." Stephanie tried to repress a smile, failed, and scolded herself. Anne was certainly a tense girl, and hard to like. But so long as she would be with them on tomorrow's adventure, she couldn't agree with Lily for excluding her.

"Yes, I help you?" They were at the front desk in the salon now, and one of the technicians hovered over to them.

"Yes," Lily declared. "Masterson and Croft, we have an appointment."

"Ah, mmm. Yes, two person for Essentials Express. We are waiting for you."

"Express... does that mean it won't take too long?" Stephanie enquired. The woman was very short with her English, so she tried to keep it simple. She was going to be well outside of her comfort zone in this place, so she wanted to make it clear from the start that she wanted this done as quick as possible.

"Mmmm, about two hour? Is manicure, pedicure, leg wax, brazilian-"

Lily cleared her throat, and then began saying something in Mandarin. The technician replied in kind, and then the two were conversing rapidly, and Stephanie felt stupid. Especially since she could read body language well enough to understand that she was the main subject of their private conversation. Lily gestured at her a couple of times, and just when Stephanie wondered if they were in an argument, the technician smiled broadly in her direction. And then, as quickly as it had begun, they were finished.

"Come through please," the woman encouraged them both. "I understand you very busy today. We do our best, ok?" They followed her around the corner, and into a medium sized room where a couple more technicians were busy preparing things, with several leather recliners that made Stephanie imagine they had just signed up for a medieval interrogation.

"Believe it or not, this won't be the first time I've had my legs waxed," she said to Lily. Actually, it would be her second. The only other time had been for her high school prom, when she was 18. The way she remembered it, the pain had been a bit overrated, though she had harboured no desire to go back to a place like this. "But I haven't used brazilian wax before. Wouldn't they all be made of the same thing?"

Lily giggled, and patted her on the shoulder. "Sure hun, I'm sure they're all... 'made of the same thing'."

*Deee-deep, be-deep, ba-dee-ba-deep! Deee-deep, be-deep, ba-dee-ba-deep!*

Stephanie opened her eyes a slither, and turned off her obnoxious phone alarm as fast as she could manage with fingers that weren't quite working yet. It was Saturday morning, and she had things to do. Her flight wasn't until lunch time, but she always made sure to get up early when something important was happening.

She threw on some clothes as a first order of business. She made a point not to look at her pubic area as she pushed down her pajama bottoms, and pulled on a fresh pair of knickers. She still couldn't believe she had let them do that. She hated having to take her clothes off for anyone, and she could count on one hand the times she had needed to do so since she was old enough to care. Certainly she had never before bared all for the sake of something so unnecessary.

And yet, between Lily's teasing, and the technician's eagerness to get her work done quickly, she had somehow conceded to it. Memory of her embarrassment - which was about twice as bad as the actual pain (and that was saying something) - threatened to drive her back into bed. But she remained strong, for now.