A man on the cusp of despair meets his guardian angel, who transforms him into a woman to show him what his life would have been like if he’d been born that way in It’s a Wond-her-ful Life, available on Body Swap Stories, Smashwords, Amazon, or wherever ebooks are sold.
George’s life is a train wreck. He’s got a crush on his best friend. He’s lost his savings to a scam. And his marriage is on the rocks.
When he makes a fool of himself at a party, his wife has had enough and kicks him out of the house. About to give in to despair, he’s saved by the appearance of his guardian angel. She shows him what his life would have been like had he been born the opposite sex by transforming him into a woman and sending him out to discover this altered timeline.
This sweet Christmas tale contains spicy scenes and a HEA ending.
George Carey remained standing in front of lane 1of the Bedford Falls indoor community pool as he watched his young charges swim laps. Every now and then he would call out to one or the other to get their head down or slice through the water rather than thrash about. He lowered his voice slightly as it echoed off the walls and boomed back at him. Putting a little bass in his voice gave him an extra gravitas that contradicted the fact that he was just teaching a bunch of ten-year-olds how to swim in a community pool.
The weather outside was frightful, with the snow building up on the glass walls. But the humid, chlorinated air inside was so delightful. George had been swimming since he was three and whenever he was in between jobs, as he was now, he returned to teach at the community pool. The pool was where he’d spent most of his life. He’d even qualified for swimming at the Olympics as a teen. Strangely, his current boss at the community pool didn’t seem to think that fact was worth any extra pay.
George slipped his phone out of his pocket to check for any messages from his financial advisor. Nothing yet. No news was good news, hopefully. George was planning to cash out a couple of stocks so he could take his wife, Kristin, to see the Grand Canyon.
Funny that a year ago George didn’t even know his financial advisor, Louise. She had messaged him out of the blue, thinking George was someone else. She was interesting and funny and so willing to share and after a few months revealed that she actually had some inside information and could double George’s investment. All legit, she assured him, before sending him the info.
The companies seemed to check out. Their info matched up. George was sold and invested a few thousand dollars. A few weeks later he got his first dividend of six hundred dollars and took his wife out to a fancy restaurant before investing the rest of his life savings with the mysterious firm. Louise asked him to keep it a secret from everyone and he obliged. With Christmas nearing, he’d asked Louise for some of his earnings so he could buy some presents and was currently waiting on a response. There had been some hiccups and he’d had to scrounge up an extra couple hundred dollars—the last of the money he kept stashed in a jar in his closet—to pay for some sort of currency conversion mishap but it should all be going through now. There was a tiny nagging doubt in his brain when she requested the money, but he was in so deep now the only way out was through.
The kids swam back up to him and hung on to the pool wall. He gave them a few last minute tips and then sent them home. One of them, Harry, hung around until the others had disappeared.
“Something up, Harry?” George asked, sensing something on the kid’s mind.
“Yeah. I…um…I won’t be back next year.”
“Oh? I’m sorry to hear that. What’s going on?”
“I…um…” the kid stammered. His eyes were beginning to water.
George squatted down carefully, ignoring the old pain in his knee as it flared up again. “What’s wrong, Harry?”
“Mom says we can’t afford the lessons anymore,” Harry sniffed.
George nodded. “It’s okay. You know what? Next semester we’re running a special promotion so it will be free for you,” he lied.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
George tousled the kid’s hair and let him run off. He’d pay for Harry’s lessons out of his own pocket. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d covered for one of his pupils. Swimming was too important to let something like money be an obstacle. Besides, George was about to have a big windfall.
George checked his phone again. No messages. Louise was usually pretty quick on these things and the little nagging doubt at the back of George’s mind grew a little louder. He’d vaguely heard of scams like these but Louise had sent him some money before. Surely, that meant she was legit.
George limped out to the lobby to wait for his wife, Kristin, to come pick him up. She arrived a few minutes later, rattling up in their beat-up Civic and he shrugged his jacket around himself to make the short jaunt to the car. He slid into the warm interior and gave her a perfunctory kiss on the cheek.
“God, this weather is going to be terrible for our party,” Kristin said in greeting as she pulled off.
“Well, at least it’s an indoor party,” George said, attempting levity. “Unless you want me to pull out the barbecue?”
She blew air through her nose. “Nah, I don’t think so. I’ve spent too much time in the kitchen for that.”
There had been a time when she would have joked back, but things were heavier between them now. Made even heavier by the fact that George had promised her he wouldn’t speak to Louise again. At the time Kristin had caught him transferring money out of their savings, he’d only invested a few thousand dollars with Louise. It wasn’t his first fight with Kristin. Not even their loudest. She just didn’t get that the money would come back doubled, at least.
“You’re getting out early for the party, right?” Kristin said.
George nodded. “Yep, I told my boss no afternoon lessons tomorrow. I know how important this is to you.”
Kristin had been planning this for a few weeks. Some of her college girlfriends were going to be in town, which gave her an excuse to get all their friends together. George wasn’t really a big fan of parties. Ironically, given that he wished he could still compete in swim competitions, he didn’t like people watching him in social settings. But he agreed to suffer through it for his wife’s sake. She was a social butterfly.
“Thank you,” she said, keeping her eyes on the road.
She had a nice profile. A delicate nose. Firm chin. Sharp cheekbones.
George’s phone buzzed with a message and he dug it out of his pocket, hoping for good news from Louise. It was a message from Becky and his heart leaped even though all it said was: Tried to call Kristin. What am I supposed to wear to this thing?
“Becky wants to know what she should wear to the party,” George told Kristin.
“Tell her to wear her dress.”
“Her one dress?”
“That’s the one.” Kristin’s lips finally quirked up in a slight smile.
Becky was the sporty type and much more comfortable in a shirt and shorts even though she looked fabulous in a dress. She was fit and athletic, with a striking figure. She usually eschewed parties. The few she’d gone to she’d hung out on the edge of the room with George while they joked about the other attendees for most of the time.
Read the rest on Body Swap Stories, Smashwords, Amazon, or wherever ebooks are sold.