I came from a broken home, my parents died when I was two so I don't really remember, when I was ten I was told that I had a little sister somewhere, but where no-one knew. My childhood wasn't so bad I suppose, I was adopted fairly quickly and though I always knew there was something different about my family I still loved my adoptive parents, even after I was told that I had been adopted. As I grew older I often wondered what had become of my sister, only the orphanage knew why we had been split up and they weren't talking, by the time I was adopted my sister was already gone so I had never even known her, not even her name.
Over the years I kept feeling that a part of me was missing, there was little I could do though until I could afford to hire someone to search for my missing sister and that had to wait until I had left school and was earning a good salary. I was nineteen when my adoptive parents died, ironically they died in a car crash the same as my real parents, as their sole heir I inherited their house, not much, but it was a roof over my head, and a little money from their life insurance, again not much, but it was enough to start the long delayed search for my sister.
After two years of searches I was ready to give up the project, the only thing I definitely knew after all that time was that she had been taken abroad to either New Zealand or Australia, precisely which was something that had not yet been learnt. Still I kept on paying out in the hope that one day she and I could at last meet, until that time I had my life to lead and life had suddenly become interesting in the shape of a new secretary at the company where I worked. Something had drawn me to the woman from the moment I had set eyes on her, it didn't take long to find out that she was called Leona or that she was still single, my own eyes told me how beautiful she was yet I never saw her accept one invitation given to her by the other 'lads' in the office. Leona had been with the firm four months and must have given the brush-off to almost every man in the place before I finally plucked up the courage to talk to her.
"Uh good morning." I greeted her as she passed by my desk one morning.
"Ah," she grinned, "he speaks at last."
She had a slight accent that I couldn't place yet it made her voice sound sort of seductive, I gave her a sickly smile while trying to decide whether her response had been sarcastic or just plain surprise.
"Your the shy type aren't you?" Leona said as I sat musing.
"Well, not really." I replied slowly, "It's just that..."
I couldn't figure out any way of saying that I thought I was in love with her without it sounding stupid, but I had to say something.
"...I thought" I continued, "I'd let you get settled in before bothering you."
"You're about the only one that did let me get settled." she laughed, "I suppose now you'll be asking for a date."
"If you like." I replied crossing my mental fingers.
"Well that's a new approach." she laughed, "'If I like', well I do like, just to satisfy my own curiosity if nothing else."
I was so flabbergasted that I almost forgot to sort out the time and place for our date, but she drew my mind to this small point before she went off about her work, we decided to go out straight from work that very day. Now I had never been what could be called a ladies man, I'd had my moments, few and far between though they may have been, but I seemed to lack the 'hunting' instinct and I envied the successes of other men in this area, but now I found myself the one being envied. Five minutes after I had made the date with Leona it was all around the office, every man she had turned down was asking how I had managed it, a few made certain suggestions as to what I should do with her once I had her alone, one or two gave me sullen looks for my succeeding where they, with all their smooth chat, had failed. By the end of the working day I felt tense and nervous, though I'm not sure why, Leona was certainly a beautiful woman and there was something about her that had attracted me from the start, so much so I was falling for her long before I had spoken to her that first time, yet if I told her that she would probably laugh in my face.
The day came to an end and, as agreed, I waited for Leona in the reception area, half an hour passed with no sign of her and I began to think that she wasn't coming when the elevator tinged and the doors opened to reveal Leona. I must admit that I gaped at the sight of her, when I had seen her that morning she had been dressed in a very proper trouser suit, she stepped out of the lift wearing a dress that clung to her curvaceous body like a second skin and I was lost for words as she came over to me.
"I wasn't too long was I Alan?" she asked with a smile that melted my heart.
There was a faint hint of perfume on the air, which did my equilibrium no good at all as I stood there staring at her open mouthed and wide eyed. Obviously she had gone home and fetched the dress, equally as obviously she had changed before coming down to meet me, but my brain had turned to mush at the sight of her and wasn't capable of working out how she had performed the transformation.
