A man swaps bodies with his friend’s busty assistant to enjoy her incredible body in A Better Bethany, available on Smashwords, Amazon, or Bodyswapstories.
Don nudged open the gate down the side of Alex’s house. The murmurings of the other guests milling around the backyard barbecue became audible as he walked down the brick-lined path. Don had a cold pack of six pack of Budweiser in one hand and a bag of potato chips in the other, his meagre offering to the party. When he rounded the corner of the house he saw a handful of guests milling about Alex’s tree-lined backyard.
Some people stood in small groups beneath the shadow of a small elm tree. Others sat around the table beneath the shade umbrella. Over on a clump of lawn in the corner behind the barbecue a chubby toddler was wobbling around chasing a ball while his mom looked on. Don had met some of Alex’s friends before but most of the people there were strangers to him.
On a long table by the house were arranged platters of chips and vegetables, and stacks of plates and cups. Alex stood in front of the grill tending to the food and talking to a tall, broad-shouldered man. The scent of the charred burgers made Don’s stomach rumble. He hadn’t had much appetite for breakfast after another fight with his wife so he was ravenous. Alex saw Don looking lost and waved him over.
“Glad you could make it,” Alex said, thumping him on the shoulder.
Alex’s flabby gut was hidden behind a white apron with the words ‘Kiss the Chef’ written on it. His salmon-pink shorts showed off his pale, bulbous knees.
“Thanks. Where should I put this?” Don held up the beer.
“Cooler’s over there next to the table,” Alex nodded his head, then gestured to the man next to him. “Have you met Clay? Clay, this is Don. Don, Clay.”
Don juggled the beer and chips into one arm so he could shake Clay’s hand. The man had a solid grip. When he grinned Don saw his bright white teeth. He looked like a marine, his blonde hair cut short and his muscles packed into a tight fitting grey Polo.
“Nice to meet you,” Clay said.
“You too,” Don replied.
Don set his beer down in the cooler and placed his chips on the table with the rest of the food. He snapped a cold can off the six pack ring and joined Alex and Clay by the grill. They were talking football, and Don mostly stood there sipping from his beer with a pleasant smile on his face, occasionally chiming in about the prospects of the Cowboys this year.
Clay had the build of an All-American quarterback. Just standing next to him was enough to make Don feel inadequate. He nervously ran his hand through his thinning hair as if to smooth it over the rapidly growing bald patch. Alex had gotten round in middle age and Don had become scrawny. His elbows and knees seemed to stick out at odd angles making him look like a walking scarecrow, completely unlike the blonde god that was Clay.
Don took another sip of his beer and looked around the backyard while Alex and Clay continued talking. A peel of light laughter rang out from a group of women clustered around a glass-topped patio table. Don glanced over and paused to stare at the laughing woman and paused, immediately smitten with her.
It was more than her coffee-brown hair that spilled down each side of her face in waves and the way her eyes twinkled with delight. It was more than her lusciously curvy figure, with the pinchable ass and gropable breasts. It was the way she carried herself, with an easy joy and a sort of self-satisfaction that made Don jealous. The discomfort and awkwardness of his own body that had settled on him during adolescence had never really left. For a second Don thought that the bright smile she turned in his direction was for him. If he could see that face every day it would make him happy.
The woman split off from the group and made her way towards Don. A silver letter ‘B’ hung from a chain around her neck, nestled just over her bouncing breasts, and Don found his eyes glancing down to her cleavage and then away before she could catch him. Was she coming over here to talk to him? Their eyes had just met. Could he get it together enough to ask her out?
And then Clay turned and welcomed the woman into his embrace. The smile hadn’t been for Don after all.
The woman brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and kissed Clay on the cheek. “Hey, babe. Food going okay? How many men does it take to grill a burger?” She laughed, looking around at the three guys.
“Bethany,” Alex said, “Have you met Don?”
She turned her gorgeous mocha eyes to him and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Don took her hand, nearly trembling as he touched her warm fingers. Unlike her husband, she was soft and comforting. The handshake was all too brief, leaving Don wishing for more.
“You guys boring each other with football talk?” She asked.
“It’s not boring if you’re into it,” Clay replied congenially.
“It’s boring me and I couldn’t even hear it,” she laughed.
“Some of the women are getting hungry and they nominated me to check on food,” Bethany admitted
“Please,” Alex gestured to the table. “Help yourself. Burgers will be ready in a minute.”
Betnany waved the other women over and then Clay slipped his arm around her and they wandered off to get food. Alex stepped towards Don and whispered conspiratorially, “Bethany is the one I was talking about. One of my admin assistants.”
Don watched her as she set various foods on a paper plate. He tried to act casual, like he wasn’t staring at her trying to memorize her face. “I see what you’re saying.”
“She could be yours.”
“I don’t know,” Don mused.
“Whole new start. Completely different from what you’ve got now. Plus, she’s trying to be some sort of social media influencer so there’s tons of info on her. Here.”
Alex pulled out his phone and opened up Instagram. He flipped to Bethany’s profile and held the phone up as he scrolled through. It was like Bethany was trying to live her whole life online. There she was at a party with her girlfriends. There she was on the beach. There she was on a date night with her husband. Her life seemed so perfect and Don felt a pang of jealousy.
Still, she wasn’t quite what he had in mind when he suggested the switch to Alex. “I was thinking someone younger. College maybe.”
“Pssh,” Alex waved the suggestion away. “And have to do all those classes over again? No way. She’s got a great life. Wonderful husband. Ready to get pregnant if you want.”
“Hmmm,” Don pondered the suggestion. “I’ll think about it.”
Alex continued to extol the virtues of Bethany’s life throughout the rest of the barbecue. Don suspected Alex had an ulterior motive for getting him to choose Bethany. But still, the more he observed her the more the possibility of swapping bodies with her excited him.
For several weeks after first discovering the spell in an old book at the flea market, Don had carefully considered whose life he would take over. That he would leave his own life was a foregone conclusion. He’d already had one divorce and was well on his way to a second. Never had kids of his own. Was just barely scraping by after retiring from early from the veterinary hospital. His body was ageing and breaking down faster every year.
Don hadn’t believed the body swap spell was real at first. He’d tried one of the lesser spells in the book first. Lots of spells required esoteric ingredients but a few were accessible. After gathering the ingredients, he recited the words and was amazed to watch the porcelain doll he’d borrowed from his wife’s massive collection stand up by itself and walk around the room. De-animating it was slightly more difficult. It took a week to gather the ingredients. In that time he’d kept the damn doll stowed in the trunk of his car where it banged around day and night, mindlessly walking back and forth.
For the body swap spell, Don figured he would have to paralyze both himself and the person he wished to swap with so they didn’t resist either before or after the spell was cast. Which meant he needed someone to help him. That’s where Alex came in. Don had confided in Alex and convinced him of the truth of the spells through a demonstration. Alex was intrigued, and even more eager to help when Don revealed he wanted to become someone the complete opposite of himself. And a woman.
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