Jean hurriedly put the golden pen away in a drawer on her desk with a lock on it figuring it would be safe there. She decided to get acquainted with her secretary first, it was the least she could do as her new boss. With a confident yet feminine gait she walked into Jodie's own smaller office. As luck would have it, the younger woman had just returned from an errand and was rubbing her sore feet. "Ms. Adelson, I hadn't seen you come in," a startled Jodie said. Jean noticed that even with her heels off the secretary was taller by about 1, maybe 2 inches. The brandnew woman was a bit surprised, but didn't feel the slightest bit bothered by this fact and smiled bemusedly. "Please, call me Jean. And don't worry about taking your shoes off, I know those things can be hell on your feet." Internally she was just amazed by her own response since, technically, the short heels she were wearing right now were the tallest she had ever worn. As David she had heard women complain about high heels, and now she was using this previously irrelevant info to strike conversation.
They chatted for a while, sharing tales from the workfloor, opinions about co-workers, and even some womanly topics Jean bluffed her way through expertly. The two hadn't known eachother well, barely ever crossing paths before now but were amicable at the end of their talk. Jean laughed softly as she closed her office's door behind her, amused that Jodie only seemed to remember her as the woman she was now. Then it struck her. She had bonded with her secretary not only as her new boss but as a fellow woman. Wow, she thought, If this keeps up we could become friends. The way she carried herself as a woman gave her an unexpected joy, something she had missed in her life as David. She chalked it up to the pen's magic and perhaps her own need for some change in life.
A knock on the door. It was Jodie informing her that Jenny was here to see her. Jean cringed a little when she remembered the joke her co-worker had pulled on her, but then her mind went back to the pen, safely locked away in her desk's drawer. She put on a friendly smile. "Sure, let her in."