A Whole New Wardrobe Problem

Antony hurried down the hallway to check on his wife and make sure that “the white thing” was sitting in the right place and fastened the right way. Ever since the Great Shift, learning how to wear women's clothes had become an everyday ordeal for the couple. Fortunately, they had at least ended up in each other's bodies, which meant they could learn together.

“Antony, please tell me the back clasp isn't crooked,” came a familiar voice from behind the half-open bedroom door.

The voice was his wife's, but the expression on her face belonged to him. She peered through the gap with a mixture of frustration and amusement, holding the strap of a white lace bra as though it were a piece of complicated machinery.

Antony stepped closer, still getting used to the unfamiliar balance of his new body and the silky feel of the pink satin robe he was wearing. He glanced at the bra, then carefully adjusted the strap.

“Almost perfect, sweetheart,” he said, trying not to sound too pleased with himself. “You just need to pull it a little farther to the left.”

He straightened the waistband of his matching satin shorts and studied their reflection in the mirror.

“Who would have thought that our biggest post-Shift crisis would be figuring out the engineering behind lingerie?”

His wife burst into laughter. It was the deep, familiar laugh Antony had heard from himself for years, now coming from a face that still occasionally startled him when he caught it in the mirror. The contrast was bizarre, but it was quickly becoming the soundtrack of their new life.

They had already struggled with unfamiliar buttons, awkward fastenings, and clothes that seemed to require three hands and a private instruction manual. Even getting dressed for breakfast could turn into a joint problem-solving session.

At least they were getting better. Antony had learned that a little patience went a long way, while his wife was discovering that some things he had once taken for granted required considerably more practice than expected.

The world outside their bedroom might have been turned upside down, but inside, they were slowly finding their balance.

And if learning to put on a bra correctly was one of the first lessons of their new life, they would face it together, one crooked strap at a time.