Arden, Vera, and Savish were all in Savish’s backroom as Arden finished his preparations to join Savish’s crew. Staz was also sitting in the corner watching everything unfold. It felt very cathartic for him.

  “I am feeling so much regret right now,” Arden said.

  “Why?” Vera asked innocently, still in her dress.

  Arden gestured to himself.

  “I recognize that I called myself the pretty one, but that wasn't an invitation to get me to crossdress again.”

  Arden was wearing a cocktail dress, just like Vera, Savish, and every other waitress currently on the clock.

  “Again?” Savish asked. “This isn't your first time?”

  “He crossdressed yesterday,” Vera explained. “He looked so cute!”

  “You're not helping,” Arden said. “Why would you make me wear a dress?”

  Savish feigned confusion and spoke up.

  “But I thought you said that you wanted this?”

  “I said that I wanted a job! Something Like washing dishes! Why would I want to dress like this!?”

  Just then, Cayde entered the room and immediately burst out laughing upon seeing Arden. He doubled over and continued laughing as he pointed a finger at Arden through a veil of tears. Arden was less focused on the humiliation and more focused on Cayde’s attire.

  “How come he gets to wear men's clothes!? He gets to wear black slacks and I'm stuck with a dress!?”

  Savish nodded her head and answered matter-of-factly.

  “Cayde isn’t working for me. He’s just my husband. A guest who I occasionally sleep with. Plus, he wouldn’t be able to work a dress.”

  “And I can!?” Arden raged.

  “Yes,” the other three answered in unison.

  “Damn you!”

  Vera spoke up.

  “Your hair is long and messy, giving you the cute introverted look. And while you aren’t curvy, you're thin enough to just look petite and toned, like your legs. They are toned, but not overly muscular. Your neutral voice helps as well. In short, you look hot. You’ll make a killing in tips.”

  “I don’t want tips! That’s the last thing I want! I’m not into that!”

  Arden looked at Staz with pleading eyes.

  “Please back me up here.”

  Staz looked at everyone and stood up to Arden’s immense relief, only for it to turn into fear and panic when Staz spoke.

  “I think we can go a little bit further. Right now, he can still be mistaken for a man. Let’s fix that. Mrs Savish, do you have makeup?”

  “The hell?!” Arden asked.

  Savish shook her head sadly.

  “Unfortunately, because I’m a Starborn, I never felt the need to use makeup on top of everything else. It's overkill.”

  “But you still look delightful!” Cayde added. “You too, Sav.”

  Arden held his hands to his eyes. He wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Funnily enough, it wasn’t the fact that he was crossdressing that bothered him. It was how easily he believed Vera’s words about his figure.

  “Am I really that much of a twink?” he asked with a hollow voice.

  “Eh,” Vera replied. “When you were a mundane, you were just a thin guy. Now because you look prettier, it comes across as more feminine.”

  Arden groaned in annoyance.

  “Damn. I have to do this, don’t I?”

  “You don’t have to do anything,” Savish said. “If you don’t want the job, you can go back to dressing like a guy.”

  “And there’s no other job here that means I don’t have to emasculate myself?”

  “No. I pride my establishment here on two things. One, the quality of the food. And two, how pretty all of my workers are. Everyone here is an attractive woman. Even the ones in the back are all given weak Satellites that allow them to look incredibly appealing, even in their work clothes. It's one of the reasons why this place is so popular.”

  “How did you afford to outfit your employees with Satellites?”

  “I didn’t pay for it. They did with their tips. Willingly.”

  Arden looked back to the door, struggle evident on his face.

  “They get that much in tips?”

  “Yes. And they get paid a substantial hourly wage on top of that.”

  There was a pregnant pause in the conversation as Arden thought about the money. It was incredibly tempting. But would he be willing to sell his masculinity to make a quick buck?

  “Goddamnit! Fine! I’ll do it!”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He would.

  “Perfect!” Savish clapped her hands together. “Cayde, please get everyone together for a staff meeting in five minutes.” She eyed her pair of new employees. “We need to make introductions and get the new hires quickly trained.”

  “Got it, Sav.”

  Cayde opened the door and left, and for a moment, Arden saw the glimpses of salvation on the other side of the doors. It looked like pants. But he made his decisions and had to live with it. And live with it for a very long time, thanks to his Starborn nature.

  “I feel like I’ve made a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life,” he said.

  Vera patted his shoulder with a slightly reddened face.

  “Don’t worry about it. Sya doesn’t know about it yet.”

  “Oh god.”

  Savish looked to Staz.

  “Once service begins, you and I are going to have a talk. We’ve put it off long enough. What’s with the stupid grin?”

  Staz looked at the embarrassed Arden dressed in drag getting teased by his girlfriend, a wide smile plastered across his normally stoic face.

  “I’m just so happy.”

  Savish led Arden and Vera out of the back room, while Arden gave Staz the middle finger. Each of them had a different expression on their face. One of them looked pleased. One of them thought the whole affair was funny. One of them wore a scowl that gradually twisted into an indifferent expression. Arden needed to hide his fear and annoyance from the other waitstaff.

  As they walked through the empty restaurant, Arden could see the sun beginning to set through the windows lining the front of the building. There was already a small line of well-dressed people forming on the outside of the locked doors. All of their eyes were drawn to the three of them, causing Arden to cringe.

  “I’m screwed.”

  “That comes later, actually,” Vera teased, loving his flustered reaction. “Won’t say when though.”

  ***

  “Is everyone here?” Cayde asked the staff in the kitchen.

  He looked over everyone and nodded to himself. Everyone who was working tonight was here.

  “What’s the meeting for, Cayde?” asked one of the cooks, a chocolate-tone woman with short hair.

  “Sav will be here shortly to explain everything, Tesh, but it's nothing that big. We have a pair of new waitresses working here for the night. They won’t be staying permanently, but don’t treat them like outcasts. Even if for only a night, they are part of the team. So, just treat them normally.”

  The door behind Cayde opened and Savish entered the room. They shared a glance and Cayde moved to the back of the room behind the staff as he chuckled to himself in a way that worried them. An expectant smile settled on his face as Savish began the meeting.

  “As Cayde said, we have some new faces joining us tonight. They are new to this industry, so try not to get on them too much. I’m sure you all remember how you began.”

  “Who are they?” Tesh asked.

  “People who needed the money and were willing to help out around here. They're good people. I can vouch for that.”

  Vera and Arden entered the room. Arden looked around and felt a nervous pang in his heart. Being thrust into the center of attention was not something he enjoyed, but he would have to get used to it for tonight.

  Vera stood and smiled confidently in a way that would almost come off as inherently alluring, while Arden constantly shifted his balance out of nervousness. They appeared as quite the dynamic duo.

  Cayde’s smile widened, finding constant amusement in Arden's obvious discomfort.

  “I’m so glad we brought them in,” he whispered to himself.

  Savish put her hand on Vera’s shoulder, then Arden’s.

  “This is Vera, and this is Arden. They’re both new to the area, but are willing to help us. I’ll let you get acquainted with each other and train them quickly before service begins.”

  Savish left, and Arden and Vera were immediately swarmed by their new coworkers. Just as Savish said, they were all drop dead gorgeous, to the point that Arden thought they were all Starborn.

  ‘Is there something in the water?’

  Most of them were more interested in the confident Vera than the demure Arden, something he was perfectly fine with and had no problems with whatsoever, but a few of them came to him.

  “Hi! I’m Kelkis,” said a brown skinned woman, similar to Savish. She was noticeably shorter than her coworkers. Unlike the rest of the staff, she looked like she would be described more as cute than hot.

  “I’m Arden,” he said shyly, praying that they didn’t recognize any lingering y-chromosomes.

  A taller woman with pale skin and black hair, like Sya, Arden realized, shook his hand. The glasses she wore were the defining feature, and gave her the appearance of a librarian.

  “No need to be so nervous. We’re all friends here. I’m Lyzia. Nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you too. Sorry if I come across as nervous. I'm just not used to wearing stuff like this. I feel like I’m being put on display.”

  Lyzia laughed.

  “You’ll get used to it. I felt the same way when I first started here as well. Now I feel like the outfit is a part of me.”

  “If I had your body, Arden, you’d best believe I’d be out there breaking hearts.”

  ‘You just broke mine.’

  Arden fake laughed and thanked Kelkis for the compliment, and Cayde couldn’t help but snicker from the back, unbeknownst to everyone but Arden and Vera.

  ‘I really want to punch a mundane right now,’ he thought, glancing at Cayde.

  “So, why are you here only for tonight?” Kelkis asked.

  “Nothing special. Vera and I just needed some money to get a few nights of sleep around here. We’re refugees from the cascade, and trying to find my sister. We figured a night of work was better than going without shelter.”

  “It took some convincing,” Vera said, suddenly talking to Arden’s new pals. “But I managed to get her to join me here. I didn’t want to do it alone.”

  Arden tried not to show any annoyance upon being called ‘her.’

  “Now I’m thinking I might have miscalculated. With Arden all dolled up now, I think she might get more tips than me.”

  Everyone started laughing, even Arden, though he had a dangerous glint in his eye. He made his decision.

  ‘If I’m going to pretend to be a girl, then I’m going to be the best girl. Just you watch, Vera.’

  Determined to make more money than his girlfriend, Arden focused intently on the tutelage that he was receiving from other members of the staff. From where the menus were, to how to fire off orders to the cooks, to when to take breaks and for how long. Lyzia even gave him some tips on how to earn more money.

  “It’s all about how you present yourself. What are you going to hide, and what are you going to show? If you can figure out what the guest wants, they’ll be putty in your hands,” she added with a smile.

  “I’ve got plenty of experience in keeping things hidden,” Arden said with a smirk.

  “Well, whatever you do, don’t hide your legs. These dresses are made to show them off, and you’ve got great ones.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Arden could see Vera trying to hold back laughter next to him. He noticed trace amounts of stellar essence inside her as she tried to hold back her laughter. If she wasn’t standing right next to him, he wouldn’t be able to feel the energy’s presence.

  ‘Is she using her Stellar Essence to prevent her from laughing?’

  From the front of the restaurant, they all heard Savish’s voice.

  “Places everyone! War,” she paused for dramatic effect. “Is upon us!”

  And the front doors, the gates of war, were opened.