The Perfect House

Chapter 11: Macy and Adele

Florian battled on. His prediction about Mrs Stein proved correct; she was very friendly. At the end of their first week in residence, she gave Florina a bunch of flowers: "I'm sure they will help brighten up the place for you, dear."

They did.

During their second week, it was a chocolate fudge cake: "I sometimes get the cooking bug, Florina, and end up making more than I need. I'm sure you and the boys could make good use of this."

It was very popular, especially with Bobba.

And another bunch of flowers during their third week.

Florian was becoming more efficient and faster with his changes. His confidence was growing and he was generally more relaxed about the whole business.

He was in the library doing some reading at a long table. There were a lot more people about now; it was the last Friday before lectures started on the coming Monday. Then two girls suddenly sat down at the table with me.

"Hiya love, are you doing first-year med like we are?"

"Er, yeah."

"You're Flora, aren't you? We heard some bloke say your name."

"Er, well, in fact . . ."

But the girl didn't wait for Florian to correct her. "I'm Macy and this is Adele. We live together, we're a couple of lezzies, and we wondered if you were inclined that way?"

"What? No . . . I'm . . ."

"Ah, pity."

"Leave her alone, Macy. Come on, we'd better get going."

"Okay, see you around, Flora. Nice to have met you."

Florian sat there gaping after the two retreating figures. It had been like a whirlwind, and they obviously thought that he was a girl named Flora. What the fuck!

Harold had said hello to him a few minutes before and had addressed him as 'Flor'. Macy and Adele must have overheard and had taken it to stand for 'Flora'. Were they stupid or something?

Florian jumped up and headed across to the toilets.

He looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was pulled off his face and tied back at the nape of his neck. You could see his earrings, but they were simply small gold hoops, common enough for both girls and boys. He was wearing a long t-shirt that came down to the top of his thighs. It was fairly plain, with only a few meaningless swirls of colour. His jeans were just blue jeans.

He sighed, admitting, "I suppose that this sort of androgynous appearance that I'm presenting, is rather ambiguous, but still, Macy and Adele were bloody presumptuous."

He'd straighten them out the next time he saw them.