Chapter 8
My work began to deteriorate, and after a month and three weeks of what the Blooming Lotus Centre had promised, I found myself in the corner office of my manager.
Mats eyed me with cool professionalism, hands interlocked in front of him, elbows on his desk, and two fingers pressed to pursed lips, the thrum and cool breeze of an air conditioning unit the only sound aside from the muffled sounds of my workmates in the room beyond.
‘What’s happening, Adrian?’ he asked, finally shattering the silence, the width of his shoulders seeming to block the light from the window behind as he leant further forward.
What could I say? Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening.
I was having holes in my memory, and they had only become more frequent and longer lasting as time had gone on.
I would sometimes catch myself idly rubbing my chest, a chest that jiggled slightly as I walked, through my shirt, or taking a piss and referring in my mind to my manhood as a clitty without any idea why.
Most disturbingly, I felt no dissonance with doing these things, as if it were just another day and expected of me.
I remembered not three days ago, Cathy video called me out of the blue. She was as beautiful as always.
‘I am so proud of you,’ she said softly, her mussed hair framing her smiling face, ‘and… I want you to know that I forgive you for your insipid habits.’
‘It was only one time,’ I said like an irritable child, ‘please come home – we can work this out.’
Her face flickered to one of sadness, my heart leaping in my chest.
‘No, Adrian. It still hurts me, you really cut quite deep.’
Silence reigned for a moment, then she sighed.
‘Just keep up with the programme, and I might come back by the end of the year.’
A whole year?! I was speechless, about to say something when she glanced back over her shoulder, looked back at me, looking close to tears. ‘One year,’ she said, the screen of my phone going black.
‘Adrian?’ urged Mats, clearly in no mood to have me daydreaming in his office.
‘Right, yes. Erm… I’m not sure what to tell you, Mats. I’ve been trying my hardest, and I’m not sure if there’s something wrong with my brain or what.’
His face softened and he gave a small nod, turning his chair to face his monitor and typing quickly. ‘I’m going to put you on unpaid leave,’ he said, ‘it’s not something we usually do, but you’re a good worker. It would be a shame to lose you, and even worse if something is actually wrong.’
Out of nowhere I felt the need to thank him greatly, my eyes beginning to well up with tears, blinking to hold back from crying. My face felt as if it was flushed. What the hell was happening?
‘Oh. One last thing.’
A small slip of paper was in his hand before I could lift myself from my seat, a flicker of his tongue wetting his lips, those ice-like eyes fixing me in place.
‘I hear that you’re opening.’
‘What?’
My stomach felt suddenly queasy, my head a little light.
‘Yes, apparently you’re opening. Softening. You’re blooming.’
‘I-I’m blooming.’
Mats had risen from his chair, walked around his desk like the rooster in the hen-house, and slipped his large hands over my shoulders.
The pressure was slight but constant, leaving me unable to lift myself out of the chair, even when I felt him lean down, his broad chest against my back, and whisper into my ear.
‘Your body knows what it needs,’ he almost hissed, my body tingling in response while my mind went fuzzy, like so much static, ‘you are opening… you are softening… you are blooming.’ Each repetition made me relax, feelings of being lathered in cream and wrapped in a warm blanket infiltrating my mind, the phantasmal scent of Lotus Awakening Oil making my nose crease as he massaged my shoulders and I let out an accidental sigh.
‘Good,’ he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
‘At first I wondered what was going on, and so I got in touch with your fiancée.’ His fingers dug a little into my skin, his palms pressing harder.
‘She told me everything and it all made sense – those mounds on your chest, the way your hips and thighs fill out your trousers, how… round your ass looks.’
In one smooth motion he grabbed the arms of my chair and swivelled it around to face him, one hand grabbing my chin and turning my face this way and that, assessing me thoroughly.
I should have been shocked, appalled even, at his behaviour but all I could do was sit there in a half-conscious state – as if I were watching it all from far away – something inside of me delighted that someone else knew.
That he was looking at me in the way he was. Secretly eager for something more.
‘Such a pretty thing, with your leaking little clitty.’
My face must have changed expression, Mats giving a deep chuckle that rumbled in his chest. ‘That’s right, it’s been pretty obvious for a while.
’ He inclined his head and I followed his gaze, looking groggily down at where my semi-erect cock – the almost perpetual state of it now – stained the front of my work trousers far more than I had thought.
‘It’s fine, we can make this work,’ he said gently, running the back of his hand over my nearly completely smooth cheek, what hair there was there now sparse, downy and more-or-less invisible against my velvet smooth skin. Not that I’d had much to begin with.
‘W-we can?’ I drawled in reply, shuddering at his touch, sparks set off inside me when my puffy, sensitive nipples rubbed against my shirt.
‘Oh yes. I’ve been informed that these changes are going to progress quite nicely.’
A thumb moved around my lips, making my breath quicken, becoming more shallow, his eyes looking straight into my own.
‘Open your mouth,’ he ordered. ‘Breathe in deeply and let your masculine edges melt away.’
I took a deep breath and opened my mouth, two fingers slipping past my teeth, brushing against my puckered lips, my arsehole pulsing as he worked them back and forth.
‘Good girl,’ he said, and I could see that I wasn’t the only one affected by the situation, his own face flushed and the outline of his excited cock running down his inner thigh.
No wonder they called him horse cock, the thing was even bigger than it had been limp.
Was I causing that reaction? The thought made me giddy.
I don’t know what snapped him back to his senses, but he brought himself back under control, pulling his fingers out and cleaning them with a handkerchief, fixing his tie and going to sit hurriedly back down behind his desk.
‘Usually we only allow up to a month’s unpaid leave, but I can probably wrangle it for a bit longer. After all, you need time to become more beautiful, to bloom fully.’
His words reached my ears, but I didn’t truly hear them, the taste of his fingers still in my mouth as I did my best to focus.
‘Go home, Adrian. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again very soon.’
Very soon, of course.
My legs wobbled slightly beneath me when I got up, swaying like a drunk to the door, taking only what I needed from my desk and heading towards my car.
I had regained myself enough to see Evelyn watching me from a corner, catching my eye just before I left, holding up her hand and making a circle, then piercing it with a finger and a wink in my direction.