The digger was delivered the next morning as planned. Dora was on hand to watch Tom drive it down the narrow drive towards the house.
She was dressed much the same as the previous day, except that the dress had been replaced by a check-patterned mini-kilt and a white blouse that hid very little of her assets, especially since she had not bothered to put a bra on.
It appeared to Tom that the black wig, pale makeup, black eyes and red lips were here to stay. The sight of her made it hard not to drive the digger into the ditch that ran alongside the track.
That evening, Tom said during dinner,
“Dora, I take it that the wig and the rest of your new look is here to stay, then?”
“Why? Don’t you like it? I think that it hides the old me very well.”
“It hides your old self perfectly, but you would stand out like a sore thumb with most women these days. Very few take the trouble to wear as much makeup as you do. Since COVID, everyone is dressing down. Many places that enforced a dress code on men have relaxed it or abolished it entirely.”
Dora looked a bit hurt.
“Don’t get me wrong, Dora, I love the look, but… it is very distracting for me. I nearly crashed the digger while driving it up the lane this morning. Could you tone it down at least a little bit?”
“Is my skirt too short?”
“Dora… You have legs to die for, so no, but the whole look is just distracting when I’m working.”
“Doh! That’s the idea. There is one thing that I miss about my old life, and that was dressing up to go on stage and in front of the press. Is it so bad that I want to dress up for the one person in my life that I care about?”
“Me? I’m just the hired help.”
“Tom, you are way beyond that. You have been here for me to talk to as an equal.”
“That might be true. If so, why do you want to ruin it?”
“I’m not intending to ruin what we have. I want you as an equal partner in my life.”
Tom went to bed that night, knowing that Dora wasn’t finished with him. Her words were troubling because he’d fallen for her despite his determination not to do that very thing.
Nothing much happened for over a week. With Tom working out on the estate, he failed to notice the delivery vans coming and going. It all came to a head on the day of his 30th birthday.
“Happy birthday, Tom,” said Dora.
She’d gone to town with her choice of dress for the day. A black silk dress, very revealing in the cleavage, with a long, full skirt with slits up to the crotch level to reveal that she was wearing black stockings.
Her lips were black, as were her eyes. Black contacts hid her vivid blue lenses. Everything was black. In short, she was the femme fatale and stunning.
“Wow, Dora. That is some look.”
“It is all for you. Do you want your present?”
Tom had been dreading this. Normally, he was a hard person to buy for, but he’d suspected that Dora would go above and beyond his expectations.
“That box is all for you,” said Dora, pointing at the sort of box that a new PC would come in. This one was like that but larger.
Slowly and with a good amount of fear, Tom opened it. His heart loved what he saw, but his brain took over.
He lifted out a deep red version of the same dress. He could tell that it was his size. Underneath was everything else he’d need to become Lisa, the girl of his dreams.
“This is too much. Far too much.”
Dora wiped the smile from her face and became serious.
“Since your destruction of my work, I have looked at it, and you were right. I’m not a pop diva any longer, and I should be confident enough to do my own thing and develop my unique style. It is not too different from the sort of thing that Ed Sheeran puts out, but different enough to be my own, so that is what I will do. That ‘Tubular Bells’ album you played me hit a nerve. I read up on how it was made, and it impressed me. I’m going to do a longer piece where I play all the instruments myself. It will be all mine, that’s why I’m going to call it ‘On my own, all my own’ or something equally cringy as that. I have the main melody already roughed out. Like a concerto, it will return to that melody after each song. Writing three or four-minute pop songs was always easy. This is much more challenging, so thanks.”
Tom said nothing, so Dora continued.
“So, I decided to glam you up for once. Today is a day for us women to glam up and have a good time.”
Tom sat looking into the box as if it were full of red-hot pokers.
“They won’t bite, you know. It is only clothes and stuff, not a nest of horned vipers!”
Her last words prompted a reaction from Tom.
“It is not that.”
“You are scared, aren’t you? Scared that you might look half decent?”
Tom didn’t react, so Dora assumed that she was right.
“You look good,” said Dora, almost two and a half hours later.
Tom had done little more than grunt the whole time Dora had been working her magic on him.
“I can’t see now, can I?”
Dora laughed. She had put a towel over the mirror to make the surprise even better.
“Close your eyes for a few seconds, and I’ll let you see for yourself.”
Tom closed his eyes, and Dora removed the towel.
“Now look at how beautiful you are.”
Tom was shocked by what Dora had done to him. His mouth dropped open, and he tried to say something, but his brain wasn’t playing ball.
Dora reached over, closed his mouth, and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. A bit of her very black lipstick mangled with the deep ruby red of his, but the effect was dramatic.
“Is that me?”
“Yes, Tanya, it is you.”
“Tanya?”
“You are my creation, so isn’t it right that I get to name you? I don’t think that you ever answered me when I asked about your female name, so… Don’t you like Tanya?”
Tanya smiled.
“It is fine. No, more than fine. Tanya, it is then.”
“And the look?”
“Stunning. I would never have believed it possible.”
“I had a good teacher, Sonya was, as I said, my makeup artist, who was also trans and a drag queen. She knew how to make me up for going on stage and for real life. Stage makeup stays on the stage; she’d say, and add, apart from Pride Events. I ended up with two sets of makeup. One for daily use and one for performing.”
“Do you miss that part of performing?” asked Tanya.
“I miss having super long lashes. My real ones are a bit poor. You have longer ones than I do. I noticed that the first time that I met you, and to be honest, I felt a bit jealous.”
Dora dragged Tanya to her feet. On her feet were a pair of black ‘Mary Jaynes’ with a three-inch heel.
“Have you worn heels before?”
Tanya shook her head.
“Then, my dear, you will have to practice. Every day from now on, but first, we are going for a walk.”
“A walk? Where?”
Dora saw the look of concern in Tanya's eyes.
“Just around the garden.”
Tanya relaxed and let Dora take her hand. She led Tanya down the narrow stairs and out into the garden. Both were surprised at how dark it had gotten, but the solar-powered lights that Tom had installed along the paths did their job.
For the next half hour, Dora chatted to Tanya as if they were two best friends, female friends. To begin with, that unnerved Tanya, but she soon relaxed and got into the stride of the conversation. It was different to any conversation that they'd had before. To Tanya, it was as if a barrier had been knocked down, like the Berlin Wall.
“Thank you, Dora,” said Tanya when they returned to the kitchen.
“Do you want to do this again?”
“Do I have a choice?”
Dora laughed.
“Wasn’t it fun… just two girls talking.”
“Yes, but it takes so long to make me look half decent.”
“Only half decent? Properly decent, more like. Rome wasn’t built in a day. My songs… well, very few of them were written and recorded in a day. Perfection takes time, and I can teach you the art of makeup.”
Tanya sighed as Dora poured a glass of champagne.
“To Dora and Tanya and their fight against the world.”
That day proved to be a bit of a watershed in their relationship. Tom became Tanya every evening, although her makeup was mostly limited to a bit of lippy and some mascara, except at weekends. Dora didn't mind. Having another woman to talk to was priceless to her. Tanya was a very different person from Tom. He was always reserved and circumspect, whereas Tanya told it as she saw it. Dora had, in her past life, had far too many people who would not tell her the truth, so having someone tell her that she was wrong was a nice change.
Their working relationship rose to another level. Dora would dress seductively all the time just to get a reaction from Tom. Gradually, Tanya came to the fore and told her to dial it back a bit. Somewhat reluctantly, she agreed, but only during the week.
Tom heard the sounds coming from Dora’s studio and knew that she was working on a longer piece, but with shorter sections of a different but connected sound. Despite a bit of pressure, she wasn’t ready to give him a preview. Things went up a notch when a delivery van arrived with a drum kit and a harp. Tom had to help unload the harp as the one delivery person was not strong enough to move it safely.
He soon heard beautiful sounds coming from Dora’s studio. Those sounds included playing part of ‘Summertime Blues’ on the harp. As for the drum kit, at first, it seemed to be beyond even Dora’s talent to master, but slowly, she managed to play something recognisable on them.
Spring turned into Summer, and all the heavy work on the property, at least for a few months, was done. A pond had been dug, and a good part of the soggy bottom meadow had drains installed that would fill the pond. After some late spring rains, they discovered a lot of life in the pond. Tom was able to identify at least ten different species of water-dwelling creatures. That went up to nineteen after Dora purchased a microscope for him to use. Part of his job was to document the flora and fauna that were found on Dora’s small estate. That year, more than sixty species of grasses were recorded.
A local apiarist became interested in putting some hives on the property when he saw the wildflowers that Tom had sown in late winter. These were a mix of annual seeds and perennial plants. He hoped that the annuals would self-seed, but the core were the perennials, especially the cowslips. It was all coming along nicely, as was Tanya’s wardrobe. They'd even been to Birmingham together just for some clothes shopping.
With the 20-hectare field of hay cut and sold to a local farmer, there was a brief period at the cottage where there was not a lot for either of them to do. Dora took this opportunity to work on Tom/Tanya.
“Tom, with the lull in the work around here, wouldn’t this be a good time for Tanya to be around all the time, even when we go shopping?”
Tom had been dreading this. Dora had telegraphed her intentions for well over a week.
“Going shopping? I might look ok, but the moment I open my mouth, then what? My beard is also a problem. I have to shave twice a day already when I’m Tanya.”
Dora grinned.
“Perhaps it is time to get rid of it once and for all?”
“What do you mean?” asked Tom.
“Laser removal. I had some done on some top lip fuzz after my first album topped the charts. One interviewer commented on it, so it had to go.”
“That was down in London. We aren’t exactly in a metropolis around here, are we?”
“There are bound to be places not far away. I’m sure that a simple search would tell us where a clinic is.”
Tom didn’t answer, so Dora tried a slightly different tack.
“Even if Tanya stays hidden, not having to shave every day would be good, wouldn’t it?”
“If you put it like that, then yes, but I’m doing this as Tom, not Tanya, ok!”
Dora grinned.
“But first, we should go out together as two girlfriends. It is about time, isn’t it?”
Tom knew that this day had to come.
Dora saw his reticence, so she said,
“I’ll be at your side. Two girls together.”
“What about the men who won’t take no for an answer?”
Dora smiled and took hold of Tom’s hand.
“To start with, we do this.”
She kissed him.
Tom sat looking into space for a while. Then he said,
“What about us?”
Before Dora could answer, he added,
“Are we a thing, or is all this Tanya stuff a game to you?”
Dora was a bit surprised by Tom’s directness.
“This… Us is not a game. I like you, but it is Tanya that I fancy.”
“Are you saying that you are a lesbian?”
Dora didn’t answer but nodded.
“I am, but so far, I’m in the closet. That’s why I never willingly went out on dates with the endless stream of men that the record label put in front of me. I’d go out with them for one date, and that would be it. Even after a dozen or so one-night stands, they didn’t stop. After a bit, I enjoyed the fact that the media attention was not solely on me and what I was wearing. Do you know that there are at least three sites that have documented everything I wore since my first hit record? The furore that erupted the one time that I wore the same outfit twice, even though the times were eighteen months apart, was horrible to endure. “
Tom didn’t respond.
“Before my last tour started, I sold most of the stage outfits, with the proceeds going to charity. I was slagged off for that generosity. I gave my only press conference on the subject. I told those who were slagging me off to get a life, and their harsh comments were affecting the cancer charity that I donated all the proceeds to. Even then, they didn’t shut up. That was about the final straw. That’s another part of why I quit the game. Everything I did was fair game for the social-media gangsters.”
“Don’t you think that they won’t explode when they find out about us? They will… won’t they?”
“To hell with them. I’m not a public figure any longer.”
Tom sighed.
“You will be back front and centre once one of two things happens. The first is that we get exposed as a couple, and they dig into my background, and all hell will break loose or second, that great music that you are making goes viral.”
Dora smiled.
“I can see that you have been giving this a lot of thought.”
“I have. So?”
“Do you think that you could learn to love someone like me who wants to be with the other you all the time?”
Tom was a bit taken aback by her directness.
“Are you serious?”
She nodded.
“I am. Deadly serious. You have never tried it on with me. You have no idea how good that feels.”
“You are my boss. It is not right. I would hope that you know me well enough now to know that I have ethics. Making passes at my boss is… just wrong.”
Dora chuckled.
“And I tried to tempt you with some of my outfits, didn’t I?”
“Tempt me, yes, but all I could think of was how I’d look in them.”
Before Dora could answer, he said,
“Don’t ask; the answer was not nice.”
Dora chuckled.
“Aren’t we acting like a couple already?”
“I suppose so.”
“You don’t sound convinced?”
“It all goes back to you and fame. I can’t help but fear that when your music gets played, the bright lights will lure you into the game again.”
Dora nodded.
“Then marry me! Then we’d officially be a couple of lesbians. My old fan base would probably not like my new, new stuff. I’ve moved on from that old stuff. Most of it was fluff anyway. It was written in order just to generate sales and online streaming. Yes, my name is on the songs, but they were never really mine. The label and my management pretty much told me what would sell, and I wrote to their command. Since I’ve been here, I’ve written what I wanted to write, and thanks to you, I’ve been able to tie a lot of the songs together.”
“Are you proposing to me?”
Dora beamed.
“Yes, I am. I love having you here, and the thought of losing you scares me shitless.”
“But, do you love me? We have not even dated, talked about our desires for the future and all that stuff, have we?”
“No, we haven’t. Isn’t it a good time to start? Why don’t we go out on a date as two women and start from there…?”
“But… what about those men who won’t take no for an answer?” asked Tom, only to realise that he was repeating himself.
Dora smiled at him before saying,
“Then we go shopping for two identical rings and make it clear that we are a couple. If that fails, then I have the pepper spray.”
She reached over and took Tom’s hand. His face was one of uncertainty.
“It will be fine. You will be fine.”
He wasn’t entirely convinced but nodded his agreement.
Tom agreed to start laser removal treatment for his beard. Dora went with him on his first visit to the clinic. That helped his nerves. In the clinic car park after the treatment, he said,
“Sorry for being such a child.”
Dora didn’t answer but kissed him on his cheek and gripped his hand tightly.
Dora continued to work on and refine her music. By the beginning of August, she pronounced,
“I’ve finished it.”
Tom didn’t need to ask what ‘it’ was.
“Can I have a listen? From the sounds that I have heard, it seems pretty good, but those were only snippets.”
Dora grinned.
“I thought that you’d never ask?”
“I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to interfere with the creative process. Do you remember how monosyllabic I was when I began to design the new estate? You let me do my thing and waited patiently for me to finish. I was just replaying the compliment.”
Dora laughed.
“We are a good team, aren’t we?”
“We shall have to see about that. What if the music people don’t like your work?”
Dora tapped her nose.
“I have a plan ‘B’.”
Tom deliberately didn’t respond. He just wanted to listen to her work.
He sat back and closed his eyes as Dora started the recording. He was soon nodding along with the underlying melody. Each song within the piece was built on top of the one before it. He knew before it was even halfway through that the music people would hate it. The whole thing was about them and their manipulation of artists in their endless search for profits and to hell with the welfare of their artists.
At the end, he opened his eyes and smiled at Dora.
“You didn’t hold back, did you?”
“I have you to thank for that. One of those old albums that you made me listen to got me thinking. Did you like it?”
“I loved it. It is full of female angst and anger at the men in suits who dominate the popular music industry. Which album made you rethink what you were doing?”
“The Wall. I watched the animated video of it, and much of its meaning hit me hard. I’d been manipulated much like the ‘Pink’ character. I was that troubled rock star after the first few songs. The success of it gave me the confidence to tear up almost everything I’d worked on since coming here and start again.”
Tom smiled.
“I loved your deconstruction of the A&R men who were there to make sure that you got the right sort of column inches and social media posts the next day.”
Dora grinned.
“That was one of the first songs that I wrote thanks to ‘Pink’.”
“So? What’s next?”
“I’m going to call my old manager and let him listen to it.”
“All 43 minutes, worth?”
“Yes. I hope he sees himself in it.”
“Then it will be Plan B?”
“Yeah. I’m going to appear as Hazel in a Video that I’ll post on YouTube.”
“Won’t you run into problems with them assuming that you don’t have the rights to the songs? Even a few bars might be enough for the music biz to want to sue you for plagiarism or copyright violations.”
“I’m not going to make any money from the album. If need be, Hazel will fight them in the courts.”
Tom shook his head.
“And you will lose. The likes of Google will make sure of that, and in doing so, expose your life here. There is another way.”
“What is that?”
“You create your very own website. Call it ‘Hazeluncut’ or something. Post the long video on there. Then the fascist managers at YouTube and Google can’t touch you for copyright. Post links that only contain short bits of original work on YouTube and let the world find it.”
“And you just thought of all this?”
Tom shook his head.
“No. I did start to think about how you would get the work out to the wider public. If you want to give it away, then do it in a way that you control, not YouTube. After all, that’s what you have talked about for hours on end since I came here.”
Dora came and sat on Tom’s lap.
After a soft kiss, she said,
“That’s why I love you so much.”
Then she kissed him again. This time, it was longer and harder.
[to be continued]