5
And after dinner, Lowri and I sat down in a private space to talk.
“My uncle Alex says that you need an assistant? What for?”
“Lowri, I work for your uncles as you know, and I have a partner, cousin, and sister who also model, but we are all in the University right now. And with classes starting, I had come over to England alone. In a few days, my sister, who looks almost identical to me, is coming over for some work,
but as soon as she is done, well, it is back to the University in the States for her.”
“The problem is, I am alone in a country that I do not know, doing a job that is extremely stressful that I am unfamiliar with, and Byron and Alex are the only two I really know in England, and they really can’t be there for me. Your uncles think that you and I would be a good match.”
“Well, but you are a model and all…”
“And so?”
“I am not.”
“Lowri, I am also a University student. I love to ride, which I understand that you also do. I do a lot of photography, and I do charitable work with a sorority I belong to. I actually live when I am home in a sorority house.”
“I heard that you are a bit different…”
“Different from whom?”
“A lot of women.”
“I suppose you could say that.”
“Look, Lowri, are you like homophobic or transphobic?”
“Hell no, but I don’t like surprises; I prefer to know what I am getting involved with.”
“Excuse me?”
“OK, Shannon, I do not care if you are a natal male or a natal female, but I do care that I know who and what you are before I make a fucking ass out of myself. And to be honest, love, right now, I am confused. I think that you are a male model, one who models only women’s wear. And that is OK,
but are you cisgender? Are you transgender? Or am I totally wrong, and I am offending you by even suggesting that you might be a transgender individual? And for the life of me, I cannot figure it out.”
“Look, I know that you signed on for the gig in the Middle East, and I know that gig almost always means trans-something. But you do not give off any sign of being a trans-anything. However, my uncle Alex says that part of this job is to help you become a better woman. I mean, what the hell?
You are far, far, far more feminine than I could ever hope to be. You exude femininity from the top of your head to the bottom of your body. And let’s talk about feet,
there is no way in hell that you have not been wearing four or five-inch heels for the last ten years and still be able to walk as you do with the heels you are wearing tonight.”
“So, to be blunt, I do not know who you are, what you are, or why the hell you need me. Yet here I am applying for a bloody job with you. And to be totally honest, I don’t think either of us knows what the job is, or how long it lasts, or any other details.”
“OK, you win this round, Lowri. We need Byron in here.”
And with that, Lowri pulled her cell and made a call, and I could hear, “Uncle, it's me, get your ass in here and straighten the two of us out like right now, because we are confused as all hell at what we are trying to do.”
A few minutes later, Byron found us. He had to search. Lowri forgot to tell him that we were in the Billiards Room, but he did find us and joined us.
“OK kids, what is the issue this time?”
Lowri took over, and I could see a lot of who this kid was from the way she treated her uncle, and I liked what I saw.
“OK, Uncle Byron, convince me that Shannon here is male.”
“Now, that is hard to do, Lowri. Shannon has a birth certificate from Northern Ireland and is a citizen of Great Britain, and that birth certificate says she was born female.”
I was wondering what he was pulling here, but stayed quiet.
“OK, so she is a she and not a he.”
“I never said that, Lowri. I said that there is a birth certificate that says Shannon was born female.”
“But I did not say that there was a second birth certificate that says Shannon was born male in the United States. I really don’t know which state or what city. But I believe that said birth certificate exists also.”
“But is Shannon male or female?”
“If it sits like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it is a chicken or a duck?”
“Shannon models as a female, has a birth certificate as a female, is known as a female, and lives as a female. She is registered at her University as a female and lives in a sorority house, where she is a member, which only allows females to live in it.”
“But is she a female?”
“Shannon has a signed contract with KK that says that if she gets pregnant while the three-year contract is in force, then KK can cancel the contract at their discretion.”
It was at this time that Byron could no longer keep a straight face.
“OK, Shannon is Shannon, and Shannon can be whomever or whatever Shannon needs to be on a specific day. I think that Shannon considers herself a cisgendered heterosexual male who is in an engagement with a heterosexual woman. Still, there seems to be one hell of a lot of evidence to the contrary.”
“But Shannon also needs a friend, you need a job and want one in the fashion world, I can’t hire you, or your parents will go bloody nuts, and that means I have to deal with my boyfriend, your real uncle, but I can hire you through Shannon as a companion for Shannon.”
“But it is not up to me if Shannon is a boy or a girl.”
And now I had lost it; it was obvious that Byron loved this kid and was having fun setting her up, and what? Me complain? The man who just found me roughly three million in work for two weeks' labor? How was I to complain that he was setting his niece up at my expense?
“Lowri, do you like Shannon?”
“Lowri, what I am asking is, do you like the model named Shannon?”
“I have two questions, first, do I have to travel to Pennsylvania, and if I do, where do I stay? That is the first question. The second question is, Shannon, do you really have access to horses?”
“Yes, Lowri, you would be traveling with me as my assistant and companion, even when my sister or cousin is with us. As to where you are going to stay, we have an apartment in New York that we will live in when we are in New York, and when we are in Pennsylvania,
you can either stay at the sorority house, there are extra rooms, and it would be a relaxed time. We are building a remote studio there, and you would be working at that studio, I suppose, or you can stay with my parents, about an hour’s drive from the school I attend. Yes,
my mother raises Arabians and Forest Horses and keeps a riding stable of brood mares and a few geldings that are constantly needing exercise, and we have a couple of hundred acres filled with riding trails.”
“OK, back to my question, Shannon, are you a boy or a girl. I don’t care which one you choose, but at least tell me which one you think that you are. I need to know.”
“Lowri, I would tell you, if I knew.”
“But Lowri, I am not sure anymore.”
And that was the truth, and the first time I admitted it to myself.
And with that admission, I broke down in tears.
That was all that Lowri needed to see. She came over to where I was sitting, knelt in front of me, gathered me in her arms, and said, “OK, I no longer care. I think I understand now. If you want me, I want the job.’”
I cried for a bit, and then Byron said, “Lowri, the job is yours.” And with that, Byron stood up and left the room to the two of us, closing the door on his way out.
“OK, I have two questions: when I show up for work tomorrow, how am I supposed to dress, and second, am I allowed to bring a book?”
I had to answer; I just had to answer this one.
“OK, personally, I would prefer that you show up dressed, my dressers would dress you, and then send you to makeup and hair, and I am not sure that you are ready for that. But the studio? Well, it is in an old commercial warehouse space, and showing up nude, well, I think you would be cold,
they keep the studio cold for a reason, and that is because I have to be under extremely hot lights, so yes, wear clothes, unless you really want the dressers choosing your underwear. And as for a book? That, love, is up to you.
You have just taken on a job that is 99% utter boredom and 1% utter chaos, and they intermix so fast that you never know which is which.”
“Shannon, then that means a jumper over a blouse, and knee-high heeled boots would be fine?”
“Lowri, that would be excellent, and I doubt that the dressers would complain, but do bring a jacket or a heavier cardigan in case you get chilled sitting there. Seriously, most of the time I am overwhelmed, your job is basically to observe the overwhelming of this version of Shannon,
and control the damage without interrupting the process. Understand that what we will be doing is very intense; there will be screaming, there will be frustration. There will be anger. But it is all because a huge group of professionals is busting their ass doing the impossible.”
“What is the impossible, Shannon?”
“Well, convincing the world that I am really not a cisgender heterosexual male, but an aristocratic sex bomb about to blow their minds and convince them to dress in the clothes that I am wearing. And Lowri, I am a clothes horse, nothing more, that is my entire job description, OK?
I do what I am told, when I am told, to the best of my ability, and make so much money doing it. But I want to have fun also, and that is your real job, make it fun for me, OK?”