The night went really well; once again, however, Eleanor managed to break things off before they got very serious, blaming a supposed meeting in the morning that she wanted to be fresh for.

Back at the office, before heading back to the flat, she should have changed back into Adrian…

Something stopped her.

“I don’t want to be that loser anymore”, she said, quietly…

Eleanor left the office and went back to Adrian’s flat. Some of his neighbours saw her going in…

Over the next few days, she became a regular sight at the flat, and the office.

Eleanor was turning into an obsession…

One of Adrian’s clients turned up, to discuss an ongoing project. He was rather annoyed.

“I’ve been trying to get in touch with Adrian for days!”, he said. “Where is he?”

“Family emergency”, said Eleanor, thinking quickly. “He has, however, briefed me on all the ongoing projects before he left. Can I help you at all? I’m Eleanor Hartley.”

Not convinced, the man said “The project is very intricate. We’ve been working on it for months.”

“Not a problem”, said Eleanor. “Try me.”

The client explained the problem he was having. Eleanor then suggested a point of view that he might not have considered, as well as two alternatives.

“Why didn’t I think of that!”, he said. “Thank you, Eleanor. You’ve been a lifesaver. Can I have your email address, in case I have any other questions?”

“Of course”, said Eleanor, with a chuckle, handing over a business card. “I’m old school; I prefer paper to computers any day.”

The client, very grateful, left. Eleanor smiled. Having Adrian’s knowledge as well as hers was proving to be really useful…

Eleanor tried again to change back to Adrian; again, she stopped. The thought of becoming a waste of space like him again was terrifying her.

In the end, she decided to make it impossible for her to change back…

She spent the rest of the day researching transitioning on the Internet.

The cost wasn’t a problem; all she had to do was prove it was what she wanted, by living as Eleanor full time. As Adrian no longer had any close family, that wasn’t going to be a problem, she thought.

She posted an announcement online; for various reasons, effective immediately, Adrian was ‘taking a step back’ from the business and handing over leadership to Eleanor Hartley. She would be handling all queries from now on. She also contacted his landlords and any other legal matters and got the appropriate name changes done. Now there was no need for Adrian to be around at all.

To her surprise, she got emails back from two people, Jake Stevens and Geoff. Both said they weren’t surprised; Adrian had been ‘distant’ for weeks and they felt the business couldn’t be in better hands. Jake also asked her if they could meet up later…

Eleanor next ordered the necessary hormone treatments for the transition. It was a big commitment, she knew that, but she was terrified of going back to being Adrian. Back home at ‘her’ flat, she flew around the bedroom, throwing any and all of Adrian’s clothing into black bags to go to the tip. She wanted nothing to do with him left. However, she didn’t realise she was being watched…

One of the neighbours, Sandra, had felt attracted to Adrian for a while, and was concerned about him. She’d thought she’d got competition when she had seen this other woman coming and going; now she was getting worried. She had spotted Adrian’s clothing hanging out of the black bags as the woman got rid of them. One of them had his expensive coat in it, which he had only just bought. No way would he throw it out or leave it behind to be dumped…!

Finally, she’d had enough. She confronted Eleanor one afternoon in the hallway outside the flat.

“Excuse me, have you seen Adrian? He doesn’t seem to have been around for weeks…?”

“Family emergency”, said Eleanor, using the lie that she had already used. “I’m just clearing out for him.”

“Oh no you’re not”, said Sandra. “One, he hasn’t got any immediate family and, two, he’s only just bought that coat you’re throwing out. I should know; I sold it to him at my shop. What’s going on?”

“I don’t see that it’s any of your business”, said Eleanor, curtly, getting annoyed for once. “It’s a personal problem that he’s dealing with; he’s handed things over to me in the meantime.”

Sandra stepped back, hurt; as she did, she saw a familiar scar on Eleanor’s hand.

“Adrian…?”