Dress like Mia when She's Gone Pt. 02

I never realized why Mia was always cold until I stepped out of my house in these high-waisted booty shorts. The lotion on my freshly shaved legs made me shiver, but it was so worth it.

Holding a small purse in one hand, I opened up the drivers' side door with the other, careful not to smudge my still drying nail polish. My heart was racing as I sat in the safety of the seat and shut the door.

This is the longest I had ever been outside of my house dressed like a woman. I checked on my toe nail polish, they were fine, then I adjusted the mirror to check my makeup one last time.

Ok, I thought, before I drive off do I have everything I need?

Like the essentials: ID, credit card, 5 dollars in cash... check.

Now the fun stuff: Lip gloss, nail polish, lotion, hair brush, eyeliner, eye shadow, tweezers, foundation. Check.

I started the engine and saw that I had a quarter tank of gas. That should be enough for a little drive around town.

I put the car in drive and hit the gas. As cheesy as it sounds, I felt like a bird flying for the first time. I blasted a playlist of girly music through the stereo and sang along to all the songs I was memorizing.

I looked at myself in the mirror and was so surprised at how feminine I thought I looked. I have to take a picture of myself the next time I stop.

I pulled up to a busy intersection and just looked straight ahead. I was still too shy to look at other drivers.

I circled the neighborhood, drove through the mall parking lot and then parked for a little bit to take some selfies. I tried to pose in the same way all those babes on Instagram would pose. I found this one picture of this girl with a drinking straw in her mouth; she looked so sexy.

I should get one, I thought.

I know what I'll do. I'll go through a drive through!

No, what the hell am I thinking. I'm getting way too ahead of myself. I'll just drive South, towards San Diego. I'll have to drive far, maybe 45 minutes.

The thought of being 45 minutes away from home was terrifying, especially when dressed like this. It was also exhilarating. Since I wasn't going to try a drive-thru I might as well just keep driving.

-

After entering San Diego County I drove a little further south to get closer to one of the beach towns. I found a sweet spot to park right by the ocean and opened my windows. After adjusting my hair my phone started to ring. I was an unknown number.

I answered it on the bluetooth in my car, "Hello?"

"Hey," the female voice said, on the other end. "It's Mia."

"Mia!" I blurted in excitement. I felt like I had been caught doing something wrong, but she couldn't see me dressed in her clothes. "I miss your voice."

"I miss you too, honey," she said, softly.

"Where are you? Tell about the deployment so far."

Mia went on to tell me how tight the close quarters were. She shared her sleeping area with a few other women, but now she was in the Philippines for a few days. Her plan was to go up north to a resort town for the few days they have off.

I could hear a bunch of guys in the background. It made me jealous. Before she left she had promised that she would only hang with the other females in her unit.

"It's pretty loud back there," I said.

"Yea, the guys are being rowdy," she responded.

"You going up north with any of the other women?"

"Um," she said, then paused. "They didn't want to come."

That feeling of dread hit my stomach. My voice started to shake and hated what she just told me. She claimed the other women didn't want to spend the money and were 'lame'.

"Can you call me when you get up there?"

"Sure," she answered. "You don't have to worry."

"Thanks."

"Oh, I almost forgot," she said. "I might have lost my credit card, or it might have been stolen, so I called to cancel it."

"Oh that sucks, babe."

"Yea, but I'll be ok. The guys here will spot me until I can pay them back," she said.

After a tough goodbye on the phone I realized the card she cancelled might have been the joint credit card we both shared.

My tank was close to empty and my GPS said I was an hour and twenty minutes from home.

Shit, I thought.

I totally forgot how far I was driving.

Maybe it wasn't the joint card she lost. I'll go to a gas station and give it a try.

I was shaking now for all different reasons, I was an idiot for being so foolish. I should have at least brought some guy clothes.

I pulled out of my parking spot and found a gas station in town. There were only a few pumps available but I planned to wait until all the pumps were empty.

I shut the engine off and tried to listen to some tunes to calm me down.

I finally mustered the courage to pull up to the pump.

Ok, I thought. Just do this quick and calm. You look like a woman, you're dressed like a woman, just don't get a hard on. I laughed at that last thought and opened my door.

I stepped out with my purse, just owning the female persona. I need to pass, even from afar, I thought.

I slid my credit card through the slot and punched in my pin.

The card reader read: Processing

It felt like forever.

A pickup truck pulled up on the other side of the pump.

Good thing I had these sunglasses to hide the look of terror on my face. My God.

An ocean breeze ran between my thigh and blew through my thin linen shawl.

I heard two guys step out of the pickup truck and walked by my car toward the convenience shop. I could feel their eyes staring at me.

The card reader then read: Please See Attendant

This cannot be happening, I thought.

I'll just wait for the card reader to go blank again and try to swipe the credit card again.

After what felt like forever, I was finally able to swipe my card. I punched in the pin number and waited.

I heard the two guys start to leave the store. Being shy, I turned my back a little bit toward them to hide my face. That's when I realized I just aimed my ass towards them.

These booty shorts let my ass cheeks hang out a bit. I thought it was sexy as hell when I was looking at my backside in the privacy of my own home.

Now I know what Mia feels like when she dresses like this.

She enjoys feeling sexy, it's why she bought this skimpy outfit that I'm wearing after all. It made me jealous to think that she dressed like this, especially that she gets a kick out of it when guys hit on her.

Maybe I should just own it to. Why should she get to have all the fun in these outfits? She's a married woman anyway. If she wants her ass hanging out then what's wrong with my ass hanging out?

Please See Attendant

"Shit," I said, aloud.

I got back into my car and drove to a nearby parking lot. This trip was a mistake.

I'm stranded and hour and twenty minutes away from home with five dollars in cash, a nearly empty tank of gas, in a wig and makeup.

What am I going to do?

I have to be realistic. Ok, I'm a spouse of a Marine, I can technically drive into a Marine Corps base or recruiting office and ask for help. No way in hell am I going to do that dressed like a women.

I could go to a thrift store, buy a set of used sweat pants and a T-shirt. Then I can seek help from the Marine Corps base nearby.

This idea was genius, except I'd have to go into a thrift store dressed like this.

Fuck it, I thought. I'm desperate and have no choice anymore.

I found a Goodwill close by and drove over. At least no one knows me here, it's not like anyone would even recognize me anyway.

I parked the car and checked my makeup. Then I practiced my female voice to warm it up. I had been getting better at sounding feminine, I was even recording myself on my phone to track my progress. I recorded myself in the car just to make sure I was going to sound passable.

"Hi, how are you?" I said, into the microphone on my phone. "I'm doing well. I love painting my nails. He's so cute. Oh my God, I just can't."

I thought of the girliest things I could say, no matter how pathetic I thought they sounded.

I played back the recording to hear my voice. It still sounded a little too high pitched but I'm certain it would pass.

I open the door, took a really deep breath and thought, here goes nothing.

I walked into the store feeling everyone's stares, even though no one was even looking at me when I glanced around. I felt way overdressed in here. I was put together like a trendy girl, my clothes were in fashion and new, and my makeup was on point.

I tucked my sunglasses into my top between the socks in my stuffed bra and headed for the guy section. Quickly I picked out a T-shirt and some sweat pants and went to the register.

Luckily the line was short and the only people working the register were young Hispanic women.

When it was my turn at the register I walked up holding the purse in the crease of my arm and put on a shy smile.

"Hello," the woman at the register said.

I just did a closed mouth smile.

"I love your shorts," she said. "They're so cute."

I took in a slow breath and said as calmly and feminine as I could, "Thank you."

"Where did you get it?"

"Oh, I got it at Urban Outfitters," I said.

Even though I was so nervous, I thought I pulled it off pretty well. The total came to a little under four dollars. I handed her the five-dollar bill, took the change, smiled and then waved at her in as girly a way as possible.

I got into my car and was thrilled. What a rush! My heart hadn't stopped pounding the entire time.

I checked my phone and noticed that I had missed a call. It was from an unknown number. Damn, must have been Mia. Can't believe I missed the call, and she didn't even leave a message.

Frustrated, I drove off again to another parking lot to change out of this outfit. I just put on the sweatpants over the booty shorts then I took off the wig, the bra and put the T-shirt on. I looked at myself in the mirror and was not happy with what I saw. I rubbed off as much make up as I could but still had eyeliner smudged under my eyes. My nails and toe nails were still colorful as hell, and some of the powder I used had glitter in it so my face was sparkling.

Without nail polish remover, I don't know how I'm going to get this paint off my nails.

The day was getting more and more frustrating every minute.

-

I had two options:

I could dress in used smelly sweat pants from a thrift store with makeup smeared under my eyes and nail polish on my nails. Or I could be more presentable and try to pass as a girl again. I could just wait until it got dark and drive onto the nearby Marine Corps base.

But then they'd ask me for ID and ask for the name of my spouse. I can't let Mia find this out. Ugh, what started as a way to cope with her being gone has become an obsession and a big fiasco.

I don't know how I'm going to get home. Fuck it, I'm putting on this wig again, doing my makeup, and wait till it gets dark.