Despite enjoying the job, Riley was still naturally very self-conscious about what he was. No matter how effeminate he looked and acted, he was still physically a man.

Because of this, he felt very uncomfortable using the staff changing room. He’d get round it by making sure he left later than everyone else or took his lunchbreak at a different time. He still occasionally sneaked off to use the Gents toilet when he could.

The manageress understood; after all, no matter how he was getting used to the situation, Riley was still a man. It only made her care about him more; she could see that Riley was going out of his way to be respectful to the others.

Tilly, however, did not…

She thought Riley was avoiding her. After all she’d done for ‘her’, she was getting really hurt and upset about the way she thought she was being treated.

It all came to a head with an ‘incident’ after lunch that day. Riley had been helping a guest with something; he felt that the questions that she was asking would be better answered by someone more familiar with the area. He called Tilly over…

“Oh, so you need me now, do you?”, Tilly said, hurt. “After deliberately ignoring me all day…!”

Tilly exploded.

Unfortunately, she did it right in front of the Manageress, who was walking through on one of her inspections…

“McAdams! My office! Now!”

Tilly went bright red, sobbed, then raced off.

The Manageress apologised for the incident. After ensuring the guest was alright, and finding someone else to help her, she walked briskly off to her office, to confront Tilly.

“What the hell was that all about? And in public, no less. I expected more of you, McAdams! Give me a good reason why I don’t fire you right now!”

“She’s blanking me, ignoring me, then she expects me to jump to it! After all I did for her…! I thought we were sharing something…!”

The manageress just stared at Tilly, her mouth open.

“You mean Riley, don’t you?”, she said, beginning to understand.

Now sobbing, Tilly nodded.

“It’s ok, I understand now.”, the manageress said, reaching out to Tilly. “The trouble is you don’t…”

She reached for her intercom.

“Drake, can you come into my office, please?”

“Be right there, ma’am”, came Riley’s voice.

“Drake, I think we have a problem, here”, the manageress said as soon as Riley walked in.

“Yes, ma’am? Is it something I’ve done?”

“Indirectly, yes, but it’s not your fault. Due to your… condition, you’ve been avoiding the others in the changing room. McAdams here seems to have taken it personally…!”

“Oh… I can assure you, Tilly, that wasn’t my intent. I’m just very self-conscious…”

“McAdams, you yourself said she was ‘emotional’ when she got her figure back. Habits from coping with something like that don’t just go away overnight. Riley is obviously a very sensitive and caring ‘person’…”

Tilly just dissolved in a heap.

“Oh god! I’m sorry I overreacted, Riley! I didn’t realise…”

Riley couldn’t help it. He went over and hugged Tilly.

She snuggled up against him.

That was when she felt the gentle but definite bump in his slacks.

Her eyes went wide…

“No wonder you were flat chested…”, she said, her mouth dropping open…

“Ah. I see you’ve guessed”, said the manageress.

“You knew!?”, Tilly cried.

“Of course I did. I hired him. It wasn’t my fault he’s the best receptionist we’ve ever had.”

Riley blinked in surprise at that.

“The clients love you, so do the staff. Some literally…”, the last was said with a meaningful look at Tilly.

By now, Tilly was really happy, curled up against her new boyfriend, gazing up into his eyes. She was gone completely. She’d thought she was going crazy, fancying a girl that much. Now she knew why…

At the same time, Tilly suddenly realised she didn’t mind having Riley as a girlfriend, too…

“I won’t say anything, ma’am! I promise!”, she said. “Please, don’t fire me! I need this job.”

“Well, that’s up to Riley”, the manageress said, with a small smile. “After all, it’s him you disrespected, in public.”

Tilly looked up at Riley and gulped.

She needn’t have worried…

Now that he realised how uncomfortable he had been making the others feel, Riley used the changing room. He’d inadvertently made things worse by avoiding them, albeit for good reasons. He just found ways to make sure that no-one caught on that he was a guy.

He shaved regularly at home, all over, and started buying some women’s products to make sure he smelled right for the job.

Things settled down at work and went back to being relatively normal after the ‘incident’. Well, almost normal, apart from the inordinate amount of interest that Tilly was now taking in him, which he didn’t mind at all.

He also realised that there was a bit of a problem developing. He was getting way too comfortable being a woman…