Stephanie sat smiling at Mrs. Newsome as she praised how well she was doing so far saying she still has high hopes for her. It brought to mind that she’d said nearly the same thing to Steven when she hired him 18 months ago. He was fresh out of college with excellent grades and limited work experience due to a couple of summer internships. During his first year with her firm, he was a model employee or so it would seem. Then it all fell apart when he made far too many advances toward a pretty young woman who worked in the office. It tums out that she’s the niece of Mrs. Newsome but no one working there knew of it.
When he was called into her office and told of the harassment complaint he could see his years of study and his future career going down the drain. She said, Cathy’s my niece Steven but I’m going to make you an offer I’m sure I can get her to agree to if you’ll accept it? Think of it as our own sensitivity training. You will have to make a two-year commitment, after that we’ll see what the future holds. He almost didn’t accept the offer thinking he’d take his chances but having a one-year gap would look strange if he didn’t use her firm as a reference. So he took the deal and became Stephanie who was hired to replace Steven. Mrs. Newsome paid for his makeover and even paid for his initial wardrobe. It’s only been about six months since Stephanie started but Steven is pretty sure that the odds of him being a male again are very slim. In act, he’s going to ask if the company’s medical insurance will cover her hormone replacement therapy. It seems having the expectations removed of how he should act as a male has left her much happier.
