It all started with a Hen Night

1. The Invite

There was a buzz in the office. The girls were planning a Hen Night for Yvonne, who was about to be married.

I worked for a small shipping company that only employed around forty staff. There was the export department, where I worked, the import department and accounts. We didn't even have an HR department. Managers hired staff as and when needed, which wasn't very often, and wages were a small part of what the accounts department did.

The company were conservative in attitude, although there was no formal dress policy. Men were expected to wear a shirt, tie, trousers and jacket or suit. Women, skirt and blouse or dress and stockings or tights. Jeans were frowned upon.

Robert, one of the lads from imports, said, "Hey in these days of sexual equality, how about inviting the boys?"

I thought he was joking.

Pamela, my assistant, piped up, "Anybody is invited as long as they adhere to the feminine dress code, which is skirts or dresses, makeup, stockings and heels."

"Count me in," said Robert.

"Me too," said David.

"I'll think about it," said Liam

I'd often secretly wanted to go out dressed as a woman, so thought this a fun and harmless way of experimenting.

"Yes me as well, I'll come," I said.

I thought we were just kicking back at the perceived formal dress code.

We tried to persuade some of the other lads but none were keen to try. Not for them, they weren't going out dressed as girls.

"It's OK if you four want to," they said.

We carried on with the rest of the day. Occasionally there'd be groups of girls huddled together chatting. The four of us who said we'd dress up were questioned, did we have dresses, makeup etc, if not were we buying or borrowing?

I was keeping my outfit secret, apart from anything else I hadn't yet decided how I would dress. I thought about visiting a fancy dress shop and looking for a French maid or nurse's outfit and some fishnet stockings.

The girls were up to something, all week they'd been whispering in corners. The four of us couldn't work out what it was.

Liam pulled out. His girlfriend wasn't happy, not about him dressing up, she just didn't want him going out with a bunch of girls on a Hen Night.

Pamela told me she was bringing her girlfriend, Christine, to the do, even though she didn't work for our company.

I'd met Christine, she worked in the building and construction industry. I think she was some sort of inspector, visiting various sites. There were a couple of big projects near our office, so she occasionally came to have lunch with Pamela. I didn't quite know what to make of her, while Pam was most definitely feminine, I found Chris difficult to quantify. I'd only ever seen her in her work clothes, baggy overalls, yellow hi-vis vest, hard hat and big work boots. The way she spoke, although sounding feminine, it was obvious she had spent too much time on building sites.

The Hen Night was on Saturday, the girls wouldn't tell us where we going, just saying "be ready by eight o'clock and a car will pick you up."