Carl was sitting alone in his apartment on Valentine's Day. While he had a very devoted girlfriend, Felicia, she was currently on a business trip abroad, and not due back until February 15th, which ended up being a good thing, because Carl had just come down with a nasty case of laryngitis from cheering on his favorite sport's team at the local pub the night before. Thankfully it's not the contagious type, but it did leave Carl with some throat pain, and made him unable to speak above more than a quiet hoarse whisper, and even then, he had been urged by friends and internet advice to not even attempt that unless absolutely necessary to ensure it passed as soon as possible. So even if Felicia had been around to spend the day with, they wouldn't be able to properly celebrate anyway.

Having taken the day off of work, Carl was tidying up the apartment in his pajamas, and decorating for Felicia's return, so that they could do their makeup Valentine's Day the following day. He was just about to wrap her gift, which was as much for him as it was for her, a red bra and panty set, to go with Felicia's favorite red cocktail dress. He wasn't expecting visitors, which is why it was so surprising to hear the doorbell ring.

Grabbing a pen and paper, Carl headed for the door and opened it, only to be pushed backwards into the apartment by two women and a man, each pushing a small cart into the apartment.

"Sorry we're late, we got lost trying to find the building. Apartment 3C, right?" one of the women, wearing vintage eyeglasses asked, before noticing Carl's appearance. "Are you the only one living here?"

Carl nodded, but his eyes darted to her two assistants, who were quickly taking their carts apart and setting things up in the middle of his living room.

"All right, then. I'm Shirley, and this is Alejandro and Julia," the woman with glasses pointed out the other two. "And we've got you on our list for the Sweetheart Valentine's Day Makeover!"

Carl started to furiously write on the pad, trying to concisely tell them that they have the wrong address, but Shirley quickly grabbed it out of his hands and tossed it onto the counter, before Alejandro and Julia eased Carl down into a salon chair that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, before going back to setting up.

"Your lover signed you up for the full works, so just look over this contract and tell me if everything looks right, okay dear?" Shirley held out a stack of papers to Carl.

Carl scanned the paper, not spotting either his nor Felicia's name on it, and looked up at Shirley.

"Something wrong?" Shirley asked.

Carl pointed to his throat and opened his mouth, hoarsely trying to whisper "Laryngitis, can't talk".

"My stars! You have laryngitis! Don't you worry, Alejandro, go see if there's any painkillers in the medicine cabinet." Shirley ordered.

Carl started to speak, but Shirley put a finger to his lips.

"Don't speak! You could lose your voice forever!" Shirley sternly ordered.

Carl tried to stand to grab his pad, but Alejandro returned and handed Carl a pill with a glass of water. Feeling a slight discomfort, Carl took the pill and swallowed it down.

"Right, Julia, set up the basin and I'll grab the nail kit..." Shirley stated as Carl once again stood up. "It's all right, we know you're a little nervous, with this being a surprise, but don't worry, Carly, we know what we're doing."

Carl tried to walk forward, but suddenly felt woozy, sitting back in the chair.

"Who's Carly? What was that pill I took? Was I roofied?" Carl thought as his eyelids started to drift closed. "No, must fight the..."

"Carly? Carly, dear?" Shirley asked as she shook Carl's arm, but he remained motionless apart from breathing.

"She's probably napping. She seemed tense, probably nervous about the makeover, so I found a Tylenol PM for her." Alejandro remarked.

Shirley shrugged and started to fill the basin with water.

"Let's get to work." Shirley smiled.

While Carl napped, Shirley and her team worked tirelessly. Carl's hair, which he kept long because Felicia liked the length, was lowered into the basin and shampooed with warm water and a fruity, flowery shampoo, while his face was covered with a depilatory cream to handle his stubble.

"Isn't this all a bit weird? I know that gender is fluid, but I was expecting a girl, not a guy." Julia said.

"We're not here to judge, just to make people look gorgeous." Shirley admonished.

Speaking of depilatory, Julia and Alejandro had removed Carl's pajama pants and unbuttoned his flannel, leaving Carl sleeping in just his skivvies, while depilatory cream was spread over his chest, armpits, stomach, groin and legs.

"I know this was a surprise, but you'd think she'd have shaved for tonight." Alejandro remarked.

After enough time had passed, the cream was wiped off, and so was all of Carl's arm hair. While Shirley shampooed Carl's hair, Julia and Alejandro worked on Carl's nails, shaping and buffing them, before matching them to a set of acrylic nails that were glued over Carl's own, being painted a bright shade of red. Additionally, his toenails were also shaped and buffed, before being painted the very same red color.

"This is definitely her shade." Julia said.

Shirley worked with a curling iron on Carl's hair, while his face was attacked by several cosmetics by Julia and Alejandro.

"Jules, he said that her outfit was in the bedroom, go get it ready so we can get her into it when she wakes up." Shirley said.

"Got it, boss." Julia rushed towards the bedroom and started looking around, spotting the box with lingerie, and upon further search, seeing Felicia's red dress peeking out of the closet, right above a set of matching open-toed heels. "Perfect."

Julia gathered everything as Alejandro worked on Carl's face, cleaning up his eyebrows.

Meanwhile, Carl was enjoying himself. Sitting in bed with Felicia next to him, romantic music playing, and Felicia was feeding him strawberries. Though it was rather strange how she kept rubbing them on his lips repeatedly before letting him eat them. And eyes... and cheeks. Felicia put her arms around him and kissed him.

"Happy Valentine's Day, babe." Felicia said.

"Happy Valentine's Day." Carl said.

"Wake up, dear." Felicia said.

"Huh?" Carl asked.

"Wake up..." a voice, not Felicia's, said.

Carl suddenly woke up, finding himself no longer in Felicia's arms, but in the salon chair. His memories started to come back, though he was still slightly woozy from the pill.

"Wha..." Carl muttered.

"It's okay, dear. We've got you." Shirley said as she helped Carl stand up.

Carl was helpless as he felt his underpants being pulled down and some quick, uncomfortable work being done near his groin, before a pair of soft, red panties were slid up his legs.

"This is wrong..." Carl slurred.

"Don't worry, we do work with people of all genders and identities, so we're no stranger to this." Julia smiled as she helped strap the push-up bra around Carl's chest. "Such a great bra."

Carl tried to protest again, but suddenly became aware of strange weight on his head and face. He started moving towards the bedroom to find a mirror, needing to be escorted by Shirley and Alejandro.

"Alley, oop!" Julia said as she helped lift Carl's legs and pulled the cocktail dress up to his waist, letting the skirt fall over his hairless knees, which he became aware of when he felt the breeze on them.

"Wait..." Carl looked down. This wasn't his body. "This is Felicia's dress..."

"Almost..." Alejandro pulled the zipper of the dress up to the top, slightly choking Carl and causing him to stumble back onto the bed.

Carl's vision was suddenly blocked by curly hair falling into his face. He didn't have curly hair... or did he?

"One last touch." Shirley chirped as she helped Julia squeeze Carl's feet into Felicia's heels. It was a tight squeeze, but they managed it all right.

"And let's see the final product!" Julia helped Carl up, as he stared at his hands and their new extended (and polished) nails.

"This can't be happening..." Carl muttered.

"And voila!" Shirley exclaimed. "Your boyfriend should be home any minute, and I'm sure he's going to want to ravish you!"

What Carl saw in the mirror was... well, it certainly wasn't what he'd expected to see. He'd been transformed from a normal guy into a sexy woman! He never felt he looked at all feminine, but his legs in the dress, the hair, his made-up face, he looked more like the sister he never had than himself! He stepped closer to the mirror and touched it, his nails clinking on the glass as he tried to touch his own reflection. His brown hair was shiny and curly in the same way that he'd find sexy on Felicia, the alluring eyes with kiss-me lips, even the dress was slightly filled out with his pecs. He looked the part, but the question was... why, and who did this to him?

"Boyfriend?" Carl asked. "I think you guys made a..."

Carl was cut off by the ringing of a phone, Shirley's phone. She picked it up.

"Hello?" she asked. What do you mean? We're here, we just finished, it was an undertaking, but she's finished!"

Julia and Alejandro looked at Shirley with concern, while Carl was too busy sputtering to even know what to say, or yell, laryngitis be damned.

"But the note said 3C... 8C... I apologize, sir. We'll be up there as soon as we can." Shirley said. "We are so sorry. That's never happened before."

"What happened?" Alejandro asked.

"Wrong apartment. We were supposed to be five floors up." Shirley said. "We've gotta go, the boyfriend is pissed!"

Before Carl could even react, they rushed out of the bedroom and started to gather their things. By the time Carl made it back to the living room, stumbling in the unfamiliar heels, they were already gone, all evidence of their work vanished with them, except for Carl.

"I... What..." Carl sighed and tested trying to pull off one of the nails. No such luck.

And it was about to get worse. Carl heard the sound of a key in the lock of the front door, and before he could dart off or hide, the door opened, and Felicia came in, wheeling her suitcase.

"Carl! I'm home! I caught an earlier flight so we could spend Valentine's Day together and..." Felicia slowly looked up and caught sight of the feminized Carl teetering in his, or rather Felicia's heels with a deer-in-the-headlights expression.

Between jet lag, the craziness of getting through the airport and general exhaustion, Felicia had no idea how to respond to the sight before her.

"What the hell is going on? Felicia asked, hands on her hips.

"Happy Valentine's Day?" Carl shrugged. "It's a long story."

"It looks like it probably is. Better start telling it then... Carly." Felicia laughed.

The End?