I Won't Take Off My Dress!

[Alana]

I put down my wine. I went over and hopped up on a table and crossed my legs, posing invitingly.

"Joey, you haven't said a word about my new dress! And I bought it just for you! Don't you like it?"

He came closer.

[Alana]

"Your dress is beautiful. You're beautiful."

He put his hand on my leg and started to stroke it. I smiled at him breathlessly.

"You like this, don't you?"

"Yes."

"But you won't do anything I like."

With his powerful right arm he reached behind my back and pulled me off the table. He held me.

"Why don't we have another dancing lesson?" I said. "I'm sure I can do better this time. I've been practicing."

"If you like."

"Let's go back where we were before."

We went back to my bedroom. I didn't bother to change my dress this time, though I knew it wouldn't be as much fun for me in a short skirt. He took out his iPhone. He picked a different tune this time, a swing tune. He grabbed me, and before I knew it he was twirling and dipping me all around the room. I didn't trip this time.

When we were done, he bowed and I curtseyed.

"Lovely pink pants," he said.

"What?" I held my skirt down in embarrassment. "You can't see my pants in this dress, can you?"

[Alana]

"When I was twirling you I saw them in the mirror. Very nice."

"Don't be rude."

He grabbed me again.

"Take off your dress," he said.

"I won't take off my dress."

"Then I'll take it off for you." He reached behind me and started to unzip my dress.

"Stop it!" I said. I backed away from him. "I think you'd better go. You won't behave." I reached behind to zip myself up.

"I'm getting tired of the way you tease me."

"Oh, just because I put on a sexy dress you think you can do anything you want with me? Just go. Just leave."

He left, and I didn't see him to the door.

I threw myself on the bed. I loved how my nylon-clad legs felt against the sheets. Lying there, I indulged in a little fantasy.

"No, Joey!" I said. "Don't lie next to me! No, don't kiss me! No!"

[Alana]

Maybe it really was time to end all this nonsense. I kept telling myself I wasn't gay, so why was I having these fantasies? At least they only involved kissing. So far.

Friday I was having lunch downtown and saw a purple and black dress in the window at Harrods that I had to have. It had the shortest skirt I'd ever seen. Too bad, I thought, that things were probably over between me and Joey. But that didn't stop me from buying the dress.

I went home and heard Joey in the bedroom with Nick, playing Xbox. I didn't feel like putting on my brand new short dress for him, so I just slipped into my purple dress, the one I was wearing when Nick arrived. I also didn't feel like going in there to flirt with Joey any more. I threw myself down on the couch and relaxed. Joey came in.

"Hello, Crissy," he said. "I thought I heard you."

"Hello."

"You look beautiful. Why not let me take you out for dinner? Let Nick fend for himself."

"I can't. I can't go out like this."

"Why not? No one will know."

"Everyone will know."

"Crissy, if you don't want to kiss me that's fine, but don't torment me by posing there on the couch, looking so beautiful and luscious."

"Posing? Who's posing? I don't know what you're talking about."

[Alana]

"Crissy, Nick told me his mum's taking him back tomorrow. So there's no more reason for me to come here, except to see you. Do you want me to keep coming here?"

"Sure, I'd love to have you come here."

"Then kiss me." He fell to his knees before the couch. "Kiss me."

I reached out and cupped his face with my hand.

"I can't Joey. I can't kiss you, and I can't go out with you, and I can't give you all the things a real girl can give you. This was just a bad idea from the very first. I got caught up in it, and I shouldn't have. But you made me feel so beautiful."

"You are beautiful."

"Thank you, and I'll always remember that. Thank you for making me feel beautiful and feminine and sexy. But we're not a couple, and we never were. I know things are confusing when you’re a teenager and you haven’t had sex, yet.�

“Oh, come on! You can’t possibly think I’m a virgin! Look at me!�

“Sorry.�

“This is your last chance with me, Crissy. If I go out that door I’m not coming back.�

He stood up. He put his hand on my leg and tried to slide it up my skirt again. I stopped him.

"OK. I guess that's it, then. I’m going.�

He left. He didn't even look back.

Saturday morning I put on my purple and black dress, and I don't mind saying I looked fantastic in it. My ex-wife came to get Nick. She wore a pantsuit. She saw me in the dress and just gave me a withering glance. She said she had to help Nick pack.

"Wait a minute. Nick threw some of his pants into the hamper. I never got around to washing them."

I went into the toilet. She stood there and looked at me kneeling before the hamper, picking out his smalls. She didn't help me.

"Don't you feel ridiculous in that dress with the skimpy little skirt?"

"You don't like my dress?"

[Alana]

"Why do you go around all tarted up like that? Wouldn't you be more comfortable in trousers?"

"I won't take off my dress."

"Well, at least you have the good sense to stay hidden at home. No one wants to see your legs. I just hope you and your dresses will be very happy together. They've cost you your wife, and now they've cost you custody of your son."

"We'll see. You don't get to decide that. I told you about this before we got married, you know. I'm sorry you don't like my dress. Or maybe you like it a little too much. Is that it? Do I look a little too good?"

She made an exasperated sound and left.

Nick never said a word to me. On the way out the door, my ex-wife said, "I never should've married you. I thought you'd grow out of it."

And they were gone. Alone at last.

That afternoon there was a knock at the door. Looking through the peephole, I saw that it was the Erskines. Karl and Beryl. Joey's parents. Joey was not with them.

That would usually be my cue to run upstairs and hide. But I had a feeling they knew already. So I let them in.

They both looked me up and down with disgust.

"So it's true," said Karl.

"Obviously," I said.

[Alana]

He handed me a printout on a piece of paper. It was a colour photo of me in my pretty purple floral dress. I recognized it as the photo Joey had taken. I thought I looked pretty good, except that I had one bra strap showing. I hate it when that happens.

Karl said, "I caught my son doing something unspeakable looking at this photo."

"You mean wanking? That's what boys do. I suppose you never did it when you were his age."

"Not to a photo of a man in a dress."

"Why don't we all sit down?"

They sat. Beryl was so upset she seemed incapable of speech. I sat facing Karl, and crossed my legs in my short skirt.