Chapter 37: Is this the setup!?

“Hey, Logan, how come I never… Who are you and why are you here?” I hear Claire talk to me over my shoulder.

So here’s the situation.

I just made it back into the hotel and decided to go to my room just to get changed, and had decided to not go to Dominic’s room as he was probably quite upset.

I got back to the room to find large bags in front of the door, which were indeed full of dimes. Two hundred thousand dimes. It weighed quite a bit, taking it to the bank to deposit is going to be a pain, as they are all loose, so I will have to roll them myself, anyways, that’s another story entirely.

Just as I was about to get changed out of my female clothes and wash off the makeup that was forcibly put on me, Claire had walked in to the room.

Claire pulls out her phone to start calling what I presume to be a body guard.

“Wait…” As I start to talk in a girl’s voice my phone starts to ring.

“I’m only going to ask this once.” Claire narrows her eyes menacingly, “What is going on?”

I smile and start to laugh slowly and awkwardly as I deny the call on my phone. I slowly set the phone onto the table and walk slowly towards the clothes I had prepared on the bed.

“Ha, you found me Claire… ha, ha, it was a good joke… right?” I look at Claire with a smile on my face, but she changed her look to one of pity.

“Logan… I didn’t know you had ‘this’ type of fetish.”

“Wait! I don’t, seriously listen to me!”

“No… it’s okay Logan… I’ll love you no matter what type of weird things you are in to.”

“Claire, no! Don’t do this to me! Dominic! Dominic challenged me! You know how much I like money earned by myself… right?”

“Logan… you are in line to be the head of a multi trillion dollar company, why are you going around accepting chump change? What happened to the card?”

“I don’t like to use it! You know that!” After I say this, Claire just sighs.

“I love you Logan, but you are such an idiot at the worst times.” She sighs while shaking her head.

“No argument there.” I slowly start to remove the clothes while sighing, “Hey Claire, since the jig is up, can you please help me remove the makeup from my face? Of course, after removing the mask. Under the mask is some sort of thing to stop friction, or so I was told.”

“Of course I can help you Logan, also, I am curious about what happened to you on your day dressed as a girl, and a cute one at that.”

“For some reason, that compliment coming from my wife doesn’t make me happy.” I laugh slightly as Claire helps me get back to normal.

……

…

“So… you have a fan group?” Claire is sitting normally on the bed, trying her hardest not to laugh.

“It’s not like I wanted one! How was I supposed to know that would happen!?” I bury my head into a bunch of pillows and start to cry softly. Claire pats my head.

“If you really hated it this much, why did you agree?”

“The rewards Claire!”

“Chump change?” Claire laughs

I bury my face into the pillows a bit further, crying not so softly. I feel Claire move beside me and hug me, and after a short amount of time she moves and starts patting my head.

“Logan, you need to know that I will always love you. Something as small as you going around as a different gender will mean nothing to me. I love you, and there is nothing that will change that… on second thought, I take that back, you are stupid enough to accept that as a challenge. Anyhow, I love you Logan.”

“I love you too Claire.” I slowly raise my face from the pillow and Claire sees that I wasn’t actually crying. Claire starts to hug me and laugh. From behind my head, Claire starts to talk.

“So, what kind of shenanigans did you get up to? Woo some women as women, men perhaps?”

“Nothing of the sort. I just dug myself a deep hole like usual, but this time I managed to drag someone with me.” I look at my watch to confirm the time.

“Oh? That’s not like you. Who’re you dragging down?”

“It’s a surprise, the main character in my plan will show up soon… hopefully.”

Claire and I kiss once before laying down on the bed and relaxing. I stare at the ceiling just smiling. It has been such a long day.

“Hey Logan, is it just me or has it felt like it’s been a really long time since we last talked to each other?”

“Yeah, it’s probably nothing to worry about though.” I smile at Claire who had looked towards me with a worried expression.

*Knock Knock*

There was a loud knock at the door and Claire almost jumps to the roof.

“Ah, just on time. Well, let’s see if it is who I think it is.” I stretch and quickly walk to the door. I open it to see a very unimpressed lady standing with her arms crossed.

“Logan. Nice to meet you.” The lady slightly bowed her head despite looking angry.

“I presume you are… Ashley, I think that’s what Charlotte told me your name was. Sorry if that sounded rude.” I smile as I motion for her to come in the room.

“Logan…” Claire walks over to me and whispers in my ear, “Is there something I should know before this goes too far?”

“Well, just know that she isn’t interested in me. Play along with this, I think you’re always in for some fun. Right?” I smile as I pat her shoulder, then wander over to where Ashley had just sat down.

Ashley sat on a chair in the corner of the room and Claire had sat beside me on the edge of the nearby bed.

“So Logan. Where’s Charlotte?” Ashley gave me a calm, but chilling stare

“She had some business to take care of. However, she never told me what it was, but I did not pry into it as it was most likely none of my business knowing.” I replied quickly.

“Fair enough. Anyhow, why is she in your room?” Ashley points to Claire.

“I am here because I was assigned this room. I am, as you should know, married to Logan.” Claire angrily looks into Ashley’s eyes.

The room descends into an awkward silence. After a short while, I cough to end the silence.

“So, Charlotte told me that you wanted my help with something. She seemed like she wanted to tell me what was going on, but when I asked her, she said it was better if you, Ashley, told me instead.” I smile gently as I say this.

“Well…” Ashley blushes slightly, “There’s this guy I kinda… no, I really like him… anyhow, I need your help getting with him… if that’s possible… is it?”

“Who might this person be?” I continue to smile while asking Ashley the question.

“D… Dom… Dominic Rousseau!” Ashley stutters, but immediately shouts it.

Hm. This will make things quite interesting. She openly admitted to me she liked Dominic without much of a fight, or any fight really.

If this is the case, she may openly admit more to me.

“So, Ashley, have you told him that you like him yet? If so, how did you go about doing so?” I nod slowly while asking her.

“Well.” Ashley sighs and lays back in the chair, “Three years ago I was traveling towards the theatre all by myself! I was down on my luck, my parents were fighting once again and had given me money and told me to leave for a while!”

“That doesn’t sound like a typical love story.” Claire whispers in my ear. I nod slowly without getting Ashley’s attention so she would continue.

“Then, as I was looking down, Dominic approached me! He said exactly these words, ‘Could you please move, you’re blocking the men’s bathroom. I really have to go.’ At those words, his manly voice made my heart flutter!”

Wait a second… Just him telling her to move was enough for her to fall in love?

“Of course, him being the man I would marry in the future, I followed him in to size him up.”

“Okay, don’t you think that’s too far?” I couldn’t handle the absurdities coming from her mouth so I stopped her from continuing.

“No? I think it’s natural to follow the man you like. He even gives me loving glances all the time.” Ashley tilts her head in confusion.

“Well…” I have no retort so I stay silent. However, part of me thinks it is not love.

“I think that those aren’t loving glances he are giving you.” Claire says what was on my mind.

“Why? My parents look at each other like that all the time and they are still together to this day. What would you two know about love? You two were practically forced to marry. Everyone saw the look you gave him before the kiss.”

“Well… um…” Claire stutters, not able to argue with the point Ashley had just made.

“Ah, I remember that look.” I sigh to myself, but then take a deep breath. “You know Ashley, when I first saw Claire I thought to myself, ‘What situations has she gone through to make her like that?’ I thought she was stuck up and obnoxious at first.”

Claire scowls at me and I raise my arms in surrender.

“But… I got to know her very intimately during the few days before the wedding. The more time I spent with her, the more I realized she was none of those two things. Sure, she is stubborn at times, but who doesn’t have a few things like that? I love Claire, I have loved her basically from the moment we met. Well, the moment we met, I thought I would die my heart was beating so fast! Can you believe I threw an entire bottle of water at her!?” I start to laugh and close my eyes.

“That was some really cold water you know. I was really mad at the time. Some odd looking guy had just thrown water at me. My clothes were soaked, if my dorm wasn’t close I would’ve had to go commando as you even soaked my underwear! Oh well.” Claire shrugs her shoulders while smiling.

“That’s some dumb rom-com like meeting you two had.” Ashley stares at us with dead eyes.

“You following Dominic into the men’s bathroom is no better!” I stop laughing, but just smile at Ashley.

“Fine, fine. Just help me get with him, and stop dragging me into your guys’ love talks.” Ashley smiles weakly.

“Ah, we were doing that. Okay. I have a plan, but you are going to need to do everything I say, right down to the pause in my sentence. Got it?” I stand up and walk towards my bag in the corner of the room.

“Yes sir!” Ashley stands up and salutes.

“Now maggot, get in shape! Back straight, chin high, shoulders relaxed, chest out!” I shout orders at Ashley like a military commander.

“Yes sir!”

Ah, this is going to be so much fun! I slowly look to Claire and see if she is going to take part in this. Claire raises her arms like an ‘X’ to say that she doesn’t want any part of this. Fine by me. I’ll just move this in a direction she’ll have no choice but to help with.

“Ashley!”

“Yes sir!”

“How are your grades?” I calmly ask her.

“Very high, sir!” Ashley answers with high tension, as she is confused at the random changes of tone.

“Good! I will change you into a woman that Dominic will have no choice but to acknowledge! Claire!”

“Um… yes?” Claire looks at me confused.

“Take Ashley, and get a few things. Business clothes, pens, paper, and a roll of duct tape.”

“Why the duct tape?”

“Just in case things go wrong. Duct tape fixes everything.”

“Fair enough.” Claire shrugs her shoulders.

“Now go! Go forth! Collect the items and return here! We will; discuss the true plan when you have returned!” I shout and raise my arms.

““Yes sir!”” Claire and Ashley both shout with enthusiasm, even though Claire is just playing along, I think Ashley is legitimately pumped for this plan.

The girls leave the room and leave me standing in the middle of the room. I pull out my phone and start to plan.

Ah, poor Dominic. This will not be a battle that you will win. I don’t know what you did to me, but this is war!

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Hello everyone!

I posted a chapter! It hasn't even been a week since I posted the update! ( *checks the date* ... well, not a complete week, it is earlier in the day!)

Anyhow. I'd like to thank all of you for your continued support. I love to see how many of you are still looking at this story despite its long disappearance.

So, I have decided that the end of Volume 1 is approaching. Chapter 40 will be the end of Volume 1, then we will start Volume 2.

I am doing this for a couple reasons. The first of which is that after a few more things, the vacation arc will be over and the students will be going back to school. The second reason... well, my laptop is old and dying. The word file is taking longer and longer to save, and has some weird lag occasionally.

I never thought that I'd ever hit this many pages. My raw file, which is not double spaced, and at size 11 font, is currently at 220 pages and 87500 words.

Thank you everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the rant!

Have a great day/night!