Run, Girl (If You Can)

Aaron's suspicions that Lacy was planning to announce their 'engagement' at her birthday party increased when Keeley texted him to lay off because he had a fiancée. He had no idea how the news had reached her ears of all people but it strengthened his resolve to put a stop to it.

Aiden was going to hate it but he modified his plan to include a diamond ring and a fake proposal. It was the only thing that would get that delusional idiot off his back permanently.

How dare they think they could try and control him simply by announcing something in public that would be hard to refute? He would beat them to the punch and see who was laughing then.

He glanced at the clock. It was about 2 PM where Keeley was. What was she doing right now? He wanted to ask but didn't have the right.

With a sigh, he stood and strode away from his desk. Time to head home so he could let the stylist into his apartment. This was going to be such a nightmare.

When Aiden arrived he looked about as enthusiastic as he would if he were going to a funeral.

"If you take a single picture of me like this, I will leak every single bit of information you've ever wanted hidden onto the internet," he threatened as the stylist took him away.

"I won't."

Cameron wouldn't hesitate but Aaron had no desire to hold this over his subordinate's head. He was doing him a favor; why would he give Aiden a hard time about it?

Even if he did want to in order to laugh about it later, the threat of exposing everything wasn't an idle one. The kid could destroy him with a few strokes of his keyboard. It wasn't worth it.

The first thing the stylist did was give his victim a false female figure by using silicon breast, hip, and buttock pads and a waist-training corset. If this was going to be believable, Aiden had to have socially acceptable proportions.

He protested every step of the way. "This is horrible. You're dead to me Aaron. Absolutely dead to me. This is the worst day of my life. How could you do this to your best friend?"

"You aren't my best friend," Aaron pointed out. He was, unfortunately, one of his only friends but the top spot still went to Keeley even though she was currently avoiding him.

"I better be after this! I've done more for you than Cameron ever has!"

"Cameron isn't my best friend either. But if it makes you feel better, you can have the number two spot." There were literally only three people in this world Aaron considered friends. Beating out one of them wasn't that big of a deal. 

Aiden's eyes lit up. "Really? I'm before Cameron? Ha! I knew you loved me!"

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself there," he said flatly. 'Tolerated' was a better word for their relationship.

"Aaron loves me most, Aaron loves me most," he chanted in a singsong voice.

Aaron was about to strangle him but he still needed his help. Obnoxious twerp. He supposed he deserved it for making the poor kid dress up like a girl to save him from the Knightons' schemes.

The dress had to cover up most things to maintain the illusion so Aiden was wearing a long-sleeved dark green dress covered in lace with a flared skirt and thick black tights to hide his leg hair. His loyalty only went so far; he refused to shave his legs.

He wasn't terribly tall for a man, only 5'10", but since Aaron was 6'1" and it wouldn't do for his fake fiancée to be taller than him, he prepared flat black ankle boots for Aiden to wear.

The stylist pasted on fake nails with a French manicure on them before getting started on Aiden's makeup. Transforming a baby faced boy into a beautiful woman was no easy feat.

Aiden's eyebrows had to be shaped first and foremost. He couldn't grow facial hair to save his life so at least that wasn't an issue. Next came foundation and blending to even out his skin tone and make him glow.

The stylist decided to give him a smoky eye look and set to work with eyeliner, eyeshadow, and false eyelashes. He contoured Aiden's face next so he appeared more feminine with the illusion of cheekbones. Deep burgundy lipstick completed the makeup.

They chose to keep Aiden's hair color consistent since it would look best with his skin tone. Redheads were considered rare beauties these days anyway. The long copper wig was twisted into an elegant knot on the back of his head with ringlets framing his face.

He looked blankly into the mirror at the finished product.

"What do you think?" the stylist asked proudly.

"…I look exactly like my sister."

"Really? Show me a picture."

Wordlessly, Aiden pulled out his phone and held it up. Sure enough, he was nearly identical to the pretty redhead standing next to him in the photo.

The stylist was satisfied. "My work here is done. You'll be receiving my bill, Mr. Hale."

"Yes, thank you for your hard work," Aaron said coolly as he led the man out.

Aiden couldn't stop staring at himself in the mirror. "I can't believe I actually look like a girl. This is insane."

"Unfortunately you don't sound like one."

He grinned. "People used to say I sounded like my mom on the phone. I pretended to be her all the time. I think I can pull it off." He changed his pitch instantly to sound more feminine. "What do you think about this? Girly enough?"

Aaron frowned. It sounded like a man imitating a woman's voice. "You really can't do any better than that?"

"No…but I have something that might help. There's a pitch changer I bought forever ago on the dark web that you stick to the inside of your cheek. All I'd have to do is program it to sound like a natural feminine voice."

"Why on earth would you even buy something like that?"

"…I may or may not be a gameplay YouTuber. I always wear a different video game character mask so they can't see my face but I don't want my real voice out there either," he said a bit sheepishly.

He knew Aiden was obsessed with video games but this was news. "Interesting. Let's go to your apartment and get it."

"No way! What if somebody I know sees me?"

Was he an idiot or what?

"Pretend to be your sister and say you gave her a key for emergencies. Simple."

He was appeased instantly and agreed to it. His worries were unfounded; nobody even saw him enter the apartment. He worked on programming the device as Aaron drove them to the party.

Aiden tested it a few times before adjusting the frequency. It worked with less than ten minutes to spare. They were actually going to be able to pull this off!