Far Eastern Adventure

He was transferred to the Far East with no real choice in the matter. His boss never took no for an answer and rarely gave him the opportunity to try. She had been acting strangely for the last few weeks, eyeing him oddly as if trying to unravel some hidden mystery within him. This strange perusal upset him more than it might have somebody else because he lead a secret life that he dared not share. Still he felt reasonably sure that his private passion was still secure and undisturbed. His concern for security was extreme, and he took every precaution against discovery. But still there lurked a nagging doubt deep within him that one day his secret life would catch up with him and leave him exposed to the ridicule of his colleagues.

After all how could they understand why a successful
professional would want to dress and act the way he did. He
didn’t really understand it himself, but knew that it was a
delicious compulsion and one which he could not resist. After a
long day at the office he would return to his bachelor’s
apartment and draw a steaming hot bath. While the water was
running he would strip off his drab office attire and admire his
lithe form in the full length mirror. Each evening as he did the
exercises designed to keep himself trim, he concentrated on
maintaining his figure, perhaps to an extreme. He sometimes
wondered if this preoccupation would be his downfall, but he knew
that this was just something that he had to do. Each evening as
he lowered himself into the steaming hot tub and let the perfumed
bubbles soften and refresh his skin, it was as if the outer world
retreated, and he was somehow freed to become a whole person.

His nightly routine had become almost a ritual. After ten
minutes of lying prone in the over-sized tub, he would sit up and
begin shaving. He still took such pleasure in watching the
stubble on his body disappear, leaving clean white limbs and a
smooth chest. He often remembered how as a young boy in the