It was a typical Saturday poker night with the boys, something we managed to do about once a month. Between work schedules and wives/girlfriends we didn't really get much of a chance to get together all that often but when we did, it was usually a great night.
We had been playing for a couple of hours when of course the conversation got to our personal lives. I was one of the few single guys there having just got out of a year long relationship with my ex. It was an amicable breakup as it just simply wasn't working but I wasn't exactly in the mood to get back out there quite yet.
"So Dave, it's been a month, you have any irons in the fire yet?" Asked my buddy Steve.
I chuckled "no, not right now. I'm kind of enjoying being single quite honestly. Maybe in a bit I will but for now I'm liking having my freedom."
"Fair enough. When you get back in the game let me know. I'll set up a great profile for you on all the dating apps out there. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. I'm going out with someone new every few days or so."
"Thanks Steve, if I decide to turn into a man whore then I'll give you a call."
The group let out a laugh and our other friend Sean piped up "I'm telling you if I was a girl no way in hell would I date you."
Steve shot back "If you were a girl you'd never leave the house cause you'd be playing with your tits all day."
"He's got you there Sean. I'm telling you though if I was a girl I'd be the biggest slut out there. And still not date any of you." I said.
Steve looked at us "What if you could though. What if you could be a girl, would you do it?"
Sean immediately said "No chance in hell."
I looked up "I wouldn't be a fan of all the hormones etc but it would be nice to not have to worry about asking someone out. Get your drinks bought for you. I wouldn't want to switch for good but it would be an interesting experiment to live life through a woman's eyes."
Steve looked up "I agree. It would be an interesting experiment but I don't think I'd want it to be permanent."
Sean looked over to another friend Rob who was the quiet techie nerd guy of the group "Hey Rob, have you invented the perfect girlfriend robot yet?"
Rob smirked as he was used to our ribbing him. He was an incredibly smart guy who worked in the R&D section of the pharmaceutical company that we both worked for. We had met there when I took over the sales manager job and while he was quiet, he was a super great guy.
"No, sadly not yet. Maybe one day." He replied.
"Well maybe one day buddy. But if you ever do, I'm in line to buy one from you."
A round of "Here,here's" ran around the table as we all agreed.
The night finally came to an end and as usual we all lost our money to Sean.
Rob was my designated driver that night so the two of us got in his car to head home.
"Well that was fun but damn it be nice to win some money once in a while." I said
"I know, that fucker is unbeatable I guess all those trips he makes to Vegas have paid off for him. Shit, we probably pay for half of his trips with the money we lose to him."
I laughed and agreed with him.
We were about ten minutes from my place when Rob asked "Did you mean it?"
"Mean what?"
"That you'd be interested in being a woman for a couple of weeks?"
I laughed "I don't know. I guess it would be interesting but its not like that's a possibility. I do think it would be eye opening for sure to see what life is like through a woman's eyes."
"What if it was a possibility. Would you do it?"
"Why are you asking me this? I guess, maybe."
"Well, this is top secret but we've been working on some really great DNA experiments at the lab and we seem to have stumbled on a way to change a persons sex without having to do radical surgery."
"Seriously, that's crazy."
"I know, it's totally ground breaking. We've so far managed to change sexes in mice and monkeys for 2-3 weeks at a time with no side effects after to the test subjects. We are trying to get clearing for human trials but it's pretty crazy stuff so the government isn't exactly jumping on board with us."
"Wow, that's nuts. Good luck trying to find someone to be the first human trial of that."
"Well, that's where you could come in."
"No way dude. I'm all for the furthering of science but I don't want to be a guinea pig."
"I get it. All I can tell you is that there hasn't been one bad side effect that we can see and there's also the fact that the company will pay you $25k to do it."
"Wow, that's some serious cash."
"It is, think about it. I wouldn't offer it to you if I thought that there would be any issues with it."
"Uhh I guess." Luckily we had finally arrived at my house. I got out of the car, thanked him for the ride and told him I'd think about his offer.
Monday rolled around and just after lunch Rob called me and asked me to come down to the lab.
As I walked through the security doors, Rob greeted me. "Thanks for coming down. I know our conversation the other day was a bit weird but in case you'd thought about it, I thought I'd show you what we were up to down here."
"Umm sure." I replied, not willing to tell him I hadn't really thought about it and what little I did made me think he was crazy.
Rob guided me through a few hallways and finally to another huge security door that had voice, retina and fingerprint security. All of this did not make me feel any better about walking through those doors.
As we did though, we entered a huge room with several scientists working at their labs. The place was like something out of a movie. Everyone in their lab suits and the place was spotless.
Rob continued walking down the room to another set of doors which opened once again to another albeit smaller lab.
Inside were several very large cells with windows and doors on them. Rob guided me towards them to show me the different experiments they had been running.
As he guided me through he explained all of the different facets of the drug as well as how they recorded what, if any, behaviours changed after the drugs were administered.
"Wow, I know I keep saying this but wow. This is out there."
"As you can see Dave, there's a huge market for this but we need to have human trials."
"I totally get it but I don't want to spend 2 weeks in a cell being watched and recorded. And to be honest I'm not sure I even want to do this."
"I get your hesitation and you wouldn't be kept in a cell. You would stay here for 2 days while we observe you to make sure your ok and then we would send you home and simply ask that you record your experiences and check in with us twice daily to make sure everything is fine. Oh and I've been authorized to increase the payment to $40k."
"Damn that is a lot of money."
"We can also customize the serum to get you hair length, Breast size and hair color. We would also buy some clothes for you so that you at least had something to wear home."
"Well you guys have certainly thought of everything except how do I get time off for this. I still have a job to do."
"Don't worry about that. I've secured the next three weeks paid vacation for you. And just tell your friends and family you are going away in business for a while. You do go away a lot so it wouldn't be suspicious."
We started walking back to the exit and all sorts of thoughts were going through my head all at once."
"Rob, it is an interesting concept but I'll have to think about it first."
"Of course. Go home and take some time. We'd like to start as soon as possible but of course only when your ready."
"Thanks buddy. I'll talk to you later."
The next few days were a blur as work was busy and I was trying to figure out what to do. On the one hand I was excited to further science and it would be interesting to live another life for a while but on the other hand this was pretty drastic and all sorts of things could go wrong.
By Friday morning I had made up my mind and went down to see Rob in his office.
Rob looked up at me "Hey Dave, have you come to a decision?"
"Hey Rob, yeah. It might be against my better judgment but sure, let's give it a go."
"That's awesome news. I'm glad to hear it. It will take a day to get everything ready for you but in the meantime we can start with a few things. I'll need to take some blood from you and then just ask you a few medical questions."
"Sure, let's do it."
Rob immediately got his kit and came back to draw some blood. As he did this he asked me the usual medical questions.