The Rise of Rachel Price T-Girl Pt. 01

This is a slow, complex t-girl/transvestite/transgender drama. This chapter is a fair amount of scene setting but the plot begins to develop. Please leave comments.

Synopsis

Rachel Price is an uncomplicated young girl from the projects. During a training exercise, she's pulled before the hotel Billionaire Douglas Levant who becomes transfixed by her. Except Rachel is really a boy called Denver Jones. The training exercise is to pass a straight boy off as a woman for the evening.

Once stuck in Levant's reach, Rachel has to negotiate a rising passion that has no limits. Douglas Levant is a man used to getting anyone he desires. Getting anything he wants. Has he finally met someone whom his money and power cannot get him? Will he stop, or will his fanatical obsession finally be his downfall? Only Rachel has the potential to grant his desire, but only by deciding who she really is.

Chel.

Chapter 1. Charlie and the Games Exchange

For every transformation, there must be exactly three things: a beginning, a leaver and an end. Denver's beginning was when he noticed the woman he would learn to call Charlie.

Denver first noticed Charlie while looking around at the boys in the mall's game shop. Why she came here, of all of the malls in San Francisco, was a mystery. Denver had been staring at second-hand copies of 'Call of Duty when he looked up to see Charlie, who was starkly out of place. It was about as unlikely as discovering the cast of Tom Clancy's 'Ghost Recon' in a nail bar. She hadn't been there when he arrived. From the way she was dressed, she might have been part of a group of businessmen he had noticed chatting like a group of Meerkats near the mall's escalator.

Whomever she was, she had lifted the rock and exposed the unloved, the abandoned, the lost boys. She was the lone woman in a shop of about nine young men and was exceptional because the only women who usually came in were tired, pot-bellied mothers with their razor-shorn boys. Their kids would nervously look up and point at the boxes hoping their moms would overlook the suggested age ranges. For Denver, seeing her was the equivalent of coming home and finding Taylor Swift in the living room. He tried his usual tactic of going about his business as if nothing had happened.

Charlie was incompatible with the shop, and the whole mall seemed too down-market for her. She wore a smart, expensive pure wool business suit over her lean frame. Sharp, thin, angular facial features were nestled under long auburn hair, which fluttered as she flicked her gaze from boy to boy. Charlie had narrow, purposeful lips the colour of ox blood set close to a natural pout. In Denver's estimation, she wore enough make-up to suggest she spent much of her day judged by her appearance. The suit and her manner suggested she was smart and made more than Denver's mother did in a lifetime.

Denver thought there was something in Charlie's gaze, the way she checked out the boys like she was in a shop choosing shoes or luggage. It was the same measured consideration the boys, such wrecked and lost souls, gave to the game cases. Denver couldn't understand what she was doing there. He immediately cast his eyes down as she looked around, hoping she hadn't seen him staring at her. He took his glasses off and wiped them on his hoodie to prove the point.

Denver kept his head down and went to a working demo. He might approach her, if he could think of something cool to say. His attention was drawn to the demo game of a new 'Mirror's Edge.' He was playing as Faith Connors running over rooftops in the third person, when he noticed someone casting a shadow on the box next to him. It hung there for a moment, pensive, almost undecided.

"Do you mind? Can I ask you a question?" A woman's voice came over his shoulders, a woman he would come to know as Charlie. She was tall, but it might have been the heels she wore. She looked about twenty-five, seven years older than Denver. Her business suit wasn't to Denver's liking. Formal, straight, a reassuring blue, it looked expensive in complete contrast to Denver, who was wearing his jeans and favourite hoodie. His dark lank hair needed a wash and attention, and stray hairs were attempting to escape from his chin. He regretted wearing his favourite trainers with the hole and not washing this morning.

Charlie stood like she had a slight sense of entitlement. Denver realised he hadn't replied to her question.

"Err... err... yeah," he said. He desperately wanted to say something cooler. Every thought stumbled over others, tripping on each of them in a rush to reach his mouth. He had been far too shy to approach girls at school. He was neither tall nor good-looking, rich or technically gifted for San Francisco. The girls in his school traveled in packs and always looked so judgemental. There was a lot to judge about Denver.

Denver knew every boy in the room was secretly looking at her and him. She was young and beautiful, with long hair hanging down to her shoulders. What wasn't there to envy?

"I'm looking for a game for my cousin," she began, "he's about your age. Sorry. How old are you?"

"Nineteen," Denver lied.

"Okay, he's a year younger, but I'm thinking of buying him this game. What is it?" Charlie looked at the case's cover she was holding. "Tomb Raider."

"Yeah, that's it. Tomb Raider. It's got a girl as the, you know, protagonist. I wondered if a boy would play a game like a girl?" While she talked, she stared at Denver. Her gaze was so intense he could hardly return it.

Denver nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, I have no problem with that. I've played as girls in lots of games. Look, I'm playing as Faith Connors now."

Charlie tilted her head sympathetically. "Really?

"Yeah, sure," Denver went on, "there are a lot of games where I play a female character." Denver could feel his palms sweating. Charlie was above Denver's eye level, still staring at him. He wanted the conversation to end soon and to go on forever.

Charlie put her hand out. "You okay? You look a little... well, warm. Do you want to go somewhere and sit down?"

Denver couldn't believe his luck. "I'm okay," he said stupidly.

Charlie smiled. "I could do with more insight into my cousin. I thought we could hit the Starbucks over there." She nodded to the store on the opposite side of the mall atrium.

"Yeah. Yeah," Denver said. "Yeah. Sure."

"Oh, by the way, I'm Charlie," she said, holding out her hand.

"Yeah, I'm Denver," he said, touching it.

******

Five minutes later, Denver sat next to Charlie on a tall chair at a bar in the nearby Starbucks. The strong aroma of coffee permeated the air. She had ordered a complex and expensive coffee Denver couldn't begin to describe. She had insisted on buying him something, so he chose a black filter. He thought this would be what Charlie's boyfriend would drink; strong, hard, non-fussy coffee.

Denver looked around for a camera considering the situation felt too good, too much like a setup. He removed his glasses; his mother said he looked better with them off. Charlie's scent reminded him of something like vanilla. Sitting so close to her, Denver saw she wore simple silver jewellery; her ear had three rings, and her eyes hovered under long lashes and prominent dark eyebrows.

"I'm an Associate Director in charge of customer experience. I work at The Thornbury Hotel. It's half a block from here."

Denver nodded and smiled. "Yeah, the hotel. The big hotel. I've seen that. That must be good." Denver sipped his coffee and instantly regretted ordering it.

Charlie smiled. "Look, I wanted to know. What would be a big gift for someone like yourself? What could I get you to say thank you? I mean, what would you most like in the world?"

Denver thought for a second. It was a completely alien question. "Like, how much are you trying to spend?" Denver asked. Normally, someone like her would never talk to someone like him unless it was a businesswoman doing market research in the mall.

Charlie smiled, "Like, money is no object."

This was trickier than Denver thought. He glanced over, observing her breasts under the thin shirt. Denver tried to blank out the image of kissing her from his mind.

"A Playstation," he said. "One of the new ones, you know?"

"Really?" Charlie asked and typed it into her phone.

Denver noticed she had one of those costly Apple watches. He wondered if she went jogging.

Charlie paused to laugh, leaving a huge smile on her lips. "Sorry. So, what do you do?"

Denver panicked. He couldn't say he was waiting to go to university, fearful she would ask him which one. The answer would be lame. "I left high school, and I'm on a gap year before university," Denver lied, taking another sip of the foul black coffee.

The bright glow of Charlie's smile dropped. "You're visiting the bay from somewhere?" She asked.

Denver smiled again. "No. No, I'm working as a busboy, but I'm trying to become a poet. I want to see how far I can get before I return to school." Denver was pleased with himself because this was the best lie he had ever told on the spot, except he did like rap music and tried to write lyrics. He knew chicks loved poets.

In reality, Denver was trying to get enough money to major in computers or something similar at university. His family had struggled after his dad left when he was seven, and although Denver's grandpa had come to stay, he had a medical condition they could hardly afford to look after.

"Oh, Cool!" Charlie said, "Would I have read any of your work?"

Denver's heart was beating fast enough to crack his ribcage and this stress, along with the coffee, was too much. This was going far better than he had expected.

"No. No. Err... I'm still breaking into the industry." Denver said. "There's quite an underground poetry scene in San Francisco."

"What kind of poetry do you write?" Charlie asked.

"You know... anything... Rap. I'm working to find my voice," Denver said. He was beginning to relax; the last lie sounded good. The truth was he would go home and spend all evening playing on computers in his bedroom, but he did keep a small notebook when lyrics came to him.

Charlie sipped her coffee. "Do me, then." She said, putting her hand on his knee.

Denver nearly spat out his coffee. "What?"

"How would you describe me?" she questioned.

"We've only just met..." Denver leant back. "Eyes to be... lost in on a dark, windy night. Lips, like you have been sucking on rubies. No, that sounds terrible," Denver said.

"No. I like it." Charlie said, smiling, touching his knee again.

"I don't normally make stuff up on the spot," Denver said, feeling desperate. "You work at a hotel. What do you do there?"

Charlie looked up. "I manage it. I'm on this Associate Training thing. There are seven of us, and we're all competing for one job with the big man himself."

"WOW!" Denver said despite having no idea what she was talking about. He struggled with his growing erection and the feeling that someone would rush in, announcing this was a trick.

"Kind of like 'The Apprentice?'"

"Just like that but for real. We have to do evaluation tests--one in each regional hotel to supposedly challenge our entrepreneurial skills. The only difference is NO cameras, and we all have a genuine Master's degree in business, which I earned at the Sloan School at MIT. I work for Douglas Levant; you heard of him?" Charlie asked, breaking into Denver's paranoia.

Denver nodded and pretended he knew. "Yeah! Sure!" There must have been something in Denver's brown eyes indicating his confusion.

"He's like one of the biggest property tycoons in San Francisco and New York. He's like super rich, but he's quite the... how can I say this... bastard." Charlie said.

"Bastard?" Denver repeated.

"Absolutely," Charlie said, sipping her coffee. "He sets the Training Associates' tasks. We have to compete at stupid things to prove we can run one of his hotels. You won't believe what he makes us do. He tells us he's trying to teach us business 'better than any Harvard degree.' So far, it's mostly stupid scavenger hunts and stuff. The current one is bothering me... you're not drinking your coffee. Should I send it back?"

"No, no, it's fine," Denver said. He wasn't interested in talking; he wondered if he should try to kiss her.

Charlie continued, "I have this problem. He set us this task, and I've been losing sleep over it and feel 'lost at sea.' It's hard being a woman competing against men, and not sure Mr. Levant wants to give control of his empire to a woman. I'm struggling to keep up with the others, and if I don't win this one, I'm out of the game. I've been working hard all my life, but it's frustrating when you're asked to do something you have no idea how to do right. Anyway, I'm nearly sunk. It's quite a relief to speak to someone about this!"

Denver concentrated on her high cheekbones and delicate skin that shouldn't be marred with worry. "What is it he's asking you to do?" Denver asked. "Is it illegal?"

"No." Charlie's shoulders slumped as if she was on the edge of tears. "I might as well be honest. I have to find a straight guy, get him to cross-dress and go to dinner with Mr. Levant. It's like the 'Miss America' contest in drag."

Denver said, "That doesn't sound too bad!"

"Yeah, but he brought us down here to get started," Charlie said. "He points at people and urges, "try him." If we don't find someone, we must figure out another way. Do you know how to find someone straight in San Francisco? What would you Google to get that?"

Denver was freaking out. Charlie might start crying at any second, and he was anxious to stop it before she began. "If you like, I will do it. See? There's nothing to be worried about," he smiled, reassuring her.

Charlie immediately brightened up. "You would? Are you sure you would do this for me?" She said, placing her hand on Denver's knee again, causing his cheeks to flush. "That's fantastic!" Charlie said, not waiting for an answer. "I'm so happy!" The smile returned to her face.

She got down from the bar and pulled Denver forward. She kissed him on the lips, no less! Denver had never imagined what his first real kiss would be like, but never thought it would be in a Starbucks in the mall opposite the games shop; not with such a fabulously hot woman like Charlie.

Within seconds Charlie had her expensive iPhone out to enter Denver's number. He would be almost embarrassed if he had to show his crappy phone with its cracked screen.

"I can't tell you how wonderful this is. If you do this, I'll give you $500 and that Playstation. Good, right? We all win!" She said and pulled Denver closer. Charlie could feel Denver's erection straining to break out of his pants and grabbed Denver's ass. "Keep that for me, will you?" Her eyes were bright as she added, "I've got to go; I'm late. It's been wonderful meeting you, and I'll be in contact. We can do some kind of rehearsal at the hotel next week, right?" With a peck on the cheek, Charlie left.

Denver sat back and noted she had left much of her expensive coffee behind. He frowned at his black coffee and reached for hers.