People don’t take trips, trips take people - Antoine 18

Shaking like a leaf and completely distraught, Antoine slowly walked through the entrance of Fifi’s flagship store, looking around nervously expecting to see Lily.

A young Asian woman behind the counter looked up and smiled, “Marianne, just in time, is this her”? She asked.

“Hi Annisa”, Marianne replied, suddenly switching from French to English, “yes, this is Zara, what do you think"?

As the girl behind the counter looked in Antoine's direction, as he smiled nervously and gave her a little wave. He didn’t speak English and had no idea what she had just said, but he had heard his feminine name said aloud, and knew they were talking about him.

“Well, she is definitely tall enough, we can see what she looks like in front of the camera”, Annisa said, eyeing Antoine up and making him feel extremely nervous.

Antoine turned to Marianne, “Marianne, what’s going on here”? he whispered.

Marianne turned to face him and gave him a wicked smile, “Fifi is looking for new ways to expand their business, you probably already know they're in the wedding planning business, right? I was in a meeting the other day, and they were discussing a new package, a sort of all-inclusive deal, where not only would they dress the bride and groom, but all the other guests too”, Marianne announced as Antoine looked at her with a confused look on his face, trying to fit the pieces together and struggling to see how this involved him.

Marianne continued, “Well, they need models for the outfits and of course I instantly thought of you. I showed Annisa some of the pictures have taken on the balcony, and guess what? she has agreed to give you a shot”.

“What”! Antoine exclaimed, a little too loudly, “me a model, no way, you can’t be serious? Does Lily know about this”?

“No, not yet, I only mentioned it yesterday, and it was Lily's day off, but don’t worry, you’re going to be amazing, you have the perfect physique to be a model, you're tall, have legs that go on forever, and not much up top”, she replied as Antoine looked on dumbstruck.

“Is everything ok”? Annisa asked, having watched the altercation.

“Yes, everything is fine, Annisa”, Marianne said turning back towards her, “Zara, was just hoping to see Lily, I told you we all live together, right”?

Annisa nodded, “oh, I see, she’s not here right now, she’s running some errands for Fifi this morning, she won't be back until this afternoon, oh, and speaking of Fifi, she’s upstairs getting things ready for the shoot, why don’t you go and introduce her to our new model”?

“Sure, see later, Annisa”, Marianne said cheerfully, before turning to Antoine and taking his hand, “come, on Zara, there’s someone I want you to meet.

Still unsure of what was happening, Antoine looked over at Annisa nervously as he felt a strong tug on his arm as Marianne dragged him towards a staircase, with so much force, he stumbled on his tall heels, making Annisa giggle.

Reaching the top of the staircase, they entered a large room, full of what Antoine would have described as Junk, but he didn’t have time to survey the area fully, as his eyes were drawn to the pretty blonde girl in the corner wearing a flowing white dress.

Antoine instantly knew who it was, suddenly becoming even more nervous, if that was been possible, as he now stood, wearing a flashy short dress, face to face, with the talk of the town, Fifi Genevieve LaRue, Entrepreneur, fashion icon, and Lily’s boss.

Fifi turned to see who had disturbed her from her task as Antoine gritted his teeth and forced a smile, knowing he needed to be careful what he said as the last thing he wanted to do, was lose Lily her job.

(See image 32)

“Good morning, Fifi”, Marianne said, now speaking in French once again”, this is Zara, she is going to model some of the outfits for us today”.

Feeling extremely self-conscious in the presence of the intimidating, blonde, minor celebrity who was looking him up and down, scanning her eyes over his body, Antoine looked down at the ground, and not for the first time recently, wanted it to open up and swallow him whole.

“Hello, Zara, it's nice to meet you”, Fifi said looking down at his feet, “It's great to have you here, so far I’ve been doing all of the modelling by myself, and I can't tell you how glad I am to have someone take my place for the day, and by the looks of things, you’ll do just fine, we’re even wearing the same shoes”, she said with a smile.

Antoine looked up from the ground and over to Fifi’s arched feet, as a wave of embarrassment crashed over him. She was right, her pair were a sort of beige, nude like colour, whereas his pair were black, but having worn the torturous shoes every day for the last week, he instantly recognised them.

“See, Zara, you’re going to fit in perfectly around here”, Marianne chuckling, before turning back to Fifi, “Zara, loves this brand, she wears them everywhere”.

The smile on Fifi’s face disappeared as she looked down at her own towering shoes, “that makes two of us”, she replied with a hint of sadness in her voice, “but I don’t really have a choice”.

Marianne looked at her oddly but didn’t say a word, not wanting to pry into her new boss’ life, having only met her recently.

“Marianne, we need to finish up here”, Fifi said, changing the subject, “can you take, Zara, through to the next room? I think the makeup artist should be ready”, she added pointing across the room”, after you get her settled in, you can come back and help me in here”.

“Oh, yes, no problem”, Marianne said jumping to attention, “Come on, Zara, time to make you look pretty”.

Two hours later,

A frustrated Antoine stood wearing his third outfit of the day, staring down the lens of a camera, and trying to obey the commands directed towards him. He was dressed in a silky purple top and a tight yellow pencil skirt. On his feet, he wore a pair of pink strappy sandals, which although tall by most people’s standards, compared to the shoes, he had tottered in wearing, these blocky sandals felt like a comfy pair of running shoes.

As heard the camera clicking furiously around him, Antoine held his pose, and couldn’t help but think, how messed up, his life now was. He had lost count of how many times, in the past few weeks, he had been forced to stand embarrassed in front of a camera, wearing some extremely girly outfit, as each new photo added to the already massive collection of images, he prayed no one would ever see. 

To make matters worse, everyone in his life, was now treating him like a girl named Zara, as it seemed, the only person who actually remembered who he really was, was himself, and as the days passed by, with him locked away in his feminine prison, worryingly, even he was starting to forget, what it felt like to be a man.

(See image 33)