Dress Off: Courtney vs. Alison

I'm returning to an old series I wrote several years back and neglected to finish. Now I'm looking forward to continuing the storyline. The following is a reasonably stand-alone story that takes place between Dress Off 2 and Dress Off 3. All comments and private messages are welcome, and thanks in advance for your honest votes.

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Courtney's fingers drummed idly on the small wooden table of the cafe, her coffee sitting untouched and unloved, cooling under the cloudy skies.

Her sole companion was a tall raven-haired woman, who looked like she might be in her forties but very carefully looked after herself. She was currently fighting back an amused smile with only limited success, and was occupying herself with texting someone while stealing the occasional glance at Courtney.

Courtney's face was a patchwork of deep thought and trepidation.

"How long until she gets here?" she said, finally breaking the silence that had settled over the pair for the past five minutes.

Her companion shrugged, and placed her smartphone on the table.

"Oh, a few minutes, probably. In a rush to get this over with?"

Courtney shrugged, trying to act non-committal. This just prompted a laugh from the other woman though.

"Don't worry, Alison is on her way. I suspect she's just as keen to get this over with as you are, even if..." the woman crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, a smile gracing her features, "she might have a different view on how it should finish!"

Courtney snorted. There was only one way to resolve the latest impasse between her and Alison, and it wasn't going to be through any means that Alison would look back on with fondness.

Courtney looked down at her right hand, and briefly stared at the ring that adorned her finger. In many ways, it was a symbol of the conflict that existed between her and Alison. She gave a small smile at the memory of receiving it, and pictured the man who'd given it to her.

Shane. Courtney's current boyfriend and Alison's ex-husband. For a second, a dark mood swept over Courtney as she imagined her boyfriend sleeping with Alison as husband and wife. That then passed however when she remembered how Shane had talked about the many, many reasons he'd left her for Courtney.

As far as Courtney was concerned, the brown-haired bitch fully deserved everything that Elizabeth Harrington's little game could deliver, and probably more.

Courtney looked hesitantly across the table again.

"Umm... Liz?"

Harrington looked up from her latest bout of texting.

"Yes, Courtney?" she said, with a small sigh.

"This... game you've suggested..."

Harrington raised an eyebrow, "Yes?"

"Well, what if... what if Alison wimps out?"

Harrington laughed, but it was neither warm nor friendly, and Courtney was taken aback for a moment. Harrington checked herself, and a friendlier smile then returned to her face.

"Oh don't worry, I'm sure you'll both be motivated to play the game to it's ultimate finale and... well, in fact, you can ask her yourself." Harrington continued, indicating with a nod of her head that Courtney should look over her own shoulder.

A tall brunette in her early thirties was walking towards them both. As Courtney turned to look, the brunette glared but didn't stop, and didn't say a word until she'd arrived at the table. Dressed in a light green floral knee-length skirt, her clothes seemed somewhat at odds to the mild winter day around them, but nevertheless she smoothly creased her clothes and sat down primly.

"Liz," she said, greeting Harrington with a small smile.

"Whore," she continued, far more coldly as she then deigned to acknowledge Courtney's presence.

Courtney clenched her jaw, but refrained from returning the insult. Placing her palms on the table in an outward attempt at calming herself, she just happened to let Alison get a full view of the beautiful ring Alison's ex-husband Shane had given her.

Harrington had to suppress a smirk as she noticed what Courtney was doing, and the way that Alison's face turned to thunder as she too saw the ring.

"Anyway..." Harrington started, before the hostilities between the two women degenerated into outright bitch slapping, "thanks to both of you for coming along today."

Alison looked at Harrington, and forced a pleasant smile on to her face. "Hey, Liz, it's me who should be thanking you! For, well, you know," she said, facing Courtney and pointedly ignoring the ring on prominent display, "giving me the opportunity to put this house-wrecking slut in her place!"

Courtney half-rose from the seat at that latest jibe, but caught herself in time, and lowered back into her chair. Breathing deeply for a couple of moments so as to regain control, she then replied.

"Liz, if I understand it correctly, you have some friends who can help settle a little feud our acquaintance here insists on pursuing."

"Feud?!" Alison shouted, gaining the attention of several nearby patrons. Two old gray-haired women - probably deep into their sixties - put down their own coffees as the conversation near them became more heated. They shared a look, and settled in to enjoy the impromptu show.

"That dirty whore," Alison continued, gesturing at Courtney, "is sleeping with my husband..."

"Ex-husband!" Courtney interjected.

"... and would probably open her legs to anyone who happened to have a wedding ring on!"

Harrington held her hands out to try and placate the two women, and tried to hide her irritation at having been interrupted.

"As I was saying," Harrington said, raising her voice and embedding every word with more than a hint that her two companions should now remain docile and quiet, "thank you for coming along today and, yes, I do have some friends who can help settle this... dispute."

Courtney and Alison glared at each other, but nonetheless fell silent, and stiffly listened.

"It's just a little game that you could play. As with most games, there would be a winner and a loser. The winner wins, well, perhaps it's more about what the loser loses that might entice you both to play." Harrington said, smiling at both of them.

Alison looked again at Courtney, this time more with uncertainty than the outward hostility that had previously been the case.

"Umm, how do we, well, how do we play?"

Harrington spread her arms wide.

"It's a pretty simple game, truth be told. There's a venue of course, which I think you'll both agree should make the perfect setting, and a couple of costumes that my friends will give you to wear. After that, it's just a case of finding some clues."

Courtney fiddled nervously, and then gave Harrington a long hard stare.

"And how, exactly, does this help fix the issues we have?" Courtney said, slowly and carefully.

Harrington leaned back, and took a sip from her drink, letting the two women sweat on her answer for a moment. She could feel the tension rise, and the two others gave every impression that their hearts were now racing.

"That," Harrington finally replied, "comes down to how many clues you solve. The more you solve, the less comfortable your opponent will be in their outfit. Trust me!" Harrington said, with a broad smile, "I think one of you will be a happy and contented winner, which ever one of you it is."

Alison and Courtney eyed each other. Hesitant, uncertain of the true ramifications of what Harrington was suggesting. Equally though, each was determined not to back down in front of the other. Harrington resisted the urge to smirk, as she looked from one woman to the next, and realized that she had them exactly where she wanted. They wouldn't turn down her offer now. To do so, they'd have to agree to mutually back out, and Harrington had far too ably stoked their existing rivalry with a few carefully chosen words for that to be a possibility.

No, she had them, and now the game had them too.

Harrington smoothly pulled two official looking documents out of her bag and placed them precisely in front of the two warring competitors.

"Now, let's get down to the legalities, shall we? Just a few matters of contract to ensure everyone's on the same page."

*****

Courtney stood stock-still in the women's bathrooms on the second floor of the city's Museum. The sun was already setting outside, and in less than an hour the museum would close to it's casual patrons. It would be far from deserted though.

Her nervousness exhibited itself through some nervous jiggling from one foot to the next, as she waited for the earpiece she was wearing to signal that the game had officially started.

A lot was riding on the outcome of tonight. Somewhere out there, Courtney knew that Alison would be similarly dressed, similarly waiting and - hopefully - similarly nervous.

Courtney's boyfriend would be at the museum later, for a big announcement to be made by his boss at a private function. He and Courtney had received their invites a fortnight ago, before this whole business with Harrington had started and right now she wanted to get this game over and done with before he arrived.

She knew that the clothes she was wearing right now might provide some degree of elegant modesty, but she also had fresh in her mind the warning that had come with the clothes. Should Alison beat her to the clues, or should she try to modify or hide her clothes or body, then the penalty would be a clothing malfunction. Courtney didn't need to have that explained to her further. Nor did she want to dwell on exactly what clothing malfunctions might be planned, even if she was secretly looking forward to Alison suffering each and every one of them.

Courtney smiled at the thought of that. The thought percolated in her mind of Alison being humiliated just as Shane arrived for his work function, further driving home the very obvious point that Courtney was the right woman for him and not that stupid brunette bitch. That was all the motivation that Courtney needed.

She clenched her jaw in determination, and readied herself. Surely the call couldn't be too far away now.

Glancing at herself in the mirror on the side wall of the bathroom, she absent-mindedly smoothed out some non-existent creases in the dress she was wearing.

It was actually quite a nice dress, she had to admit. A black dress that ended half way down her thighs, with a plunging neckline and a golden sheen, with a lace-up design over her cleavage and a bodycon silhouette. It was paired with a backless, strapless black bra, clasped in the front and providing some modest support for her C-cup breasts, while under her dress she also wore a black thong with an intricate strap design. Not that, she sternly reminded herself, anyone was going to see that.

An open black leather jacket ending around the belly button covered her shoulders and most of her front, while two rose gold metallic, cross-shaped ear-rings hung down near her hair. She'd already received a few messages from her discrete ear-bud, and she more than suspected that the ear-rings were playing a fairly important role in keeping her in touch with the organizers of their little game.

All in all, Courtney looked quite fetching. It irritated her to think that Alison might look similarly glamorous in her identical outfit, but she then mollified herself by thinking about how less glamourous she'd appear after Courtney solved a few clues.

Three clues. That's what she'd been told. First to solve three clues would win. Courtney looked up at the ceiling, and repeated a few mantras to build up her confidence. Three clues to embarrass Alison and end this stupid feud by putting that evil bitch in her place.

Courtney smiled grimly, and hopped from one foot to the next. She was completely alone in the bathroom, and the silence was become oppressive.

Come on, come on, come on! She thought.

Then, just as her nerves were beginning to get the better of her, the ear piece finally sprang into life.

Courtney let out a long sigh of relief, realizing that she'd actually been holding her breath for the past minute in fist-clenching anticipation.

"Hello Miss Courtney Smith," the voice said matter-of-factly, "As of this moment, the game is live. If you'd be so kind as to step out into the corridor, you'll then receive your first clue."

Breathing in deeply and whispering words of encouragement to herself, Courtney reached forward, turned the door handle, and took her first fateful step back into the museum's corridors.

*****

The museum was still alive with people as Courtney practically danced along. All her nervousness had disappeared in the twenty minutes they'd been playing, as Courtney triumphantly arrived at her intended destination.

"Congratulations Miss Smith," the voice piped up in her earpiece, "that's the second clue in a row that you've managed to find!"

Courtney was elated. She was on a roll, and she was now only one final clue away from sweeping the game without having had to suffer a single wardrobe malfunction. She could only guess at what was running through Alison's mind right now.

Was she huddled in a corner somewhere, while her clothing misbehaves and humiliates her? Had she been running through the museum in a desperate attempt to find some clue, any clue, while Courtney just strolled directly over to the tall Roman spear that had so obviously been the answer to the latest riddle.

Courtney smiled, and beamed at the millennia-old weapon that stood stoically, unaware of it's own roll in winning Courtney her own private war. Looking down at herself, Courtney's outfit was the same model of elegant modesty that it had started out with. She was feeling good about herself, and even though she was attracting more than a few stares from men in the various exhibition halls, it was no more than she'd have expected given she was looking this good.

"I just wish I could see Alison now!" Courtney said, more to herself than anyone else. Somehow the voice in the earpiece had obviously heard her as it quickly replied.

"Well Miss Smith, this is indeed your lucky day. I think you'll find Mrs Steyn is about to round the corner. She was just a shade too late in figuring out the last clue, I'm afraid."

Courtney let a broad grin break out on her face. This was going to be too good.

True to the voice's words, Alison suddenly came haring into the Roman Exhibition Hall, panting and looking slightly worse for wear.

The first thing that Courtney noticed was that Alison's jacket was gone, and the straps that kept her dress together over the cleavage had broken, meaning that her C-cup cleavage was now obvious and visible to anyone who cared to look. While her nipples were safely hidden from sight, Alison did look distinctively uncomfortable with the amount of skin she was showing.

Despite the woman being five years Courtney's senior, even Courtney had to begrudgingly admit that her breasts were still pretty impressive.

"Still a bitch." Courtney muttered under her breath, as if to cancel out any complimentary thoughts she might just have had about her opponent's boobs.

She could see one of the woman's arms twitch, giving every impression of trying to cover herself up out of instinct. However, Courtney could see the agony etched on Alison's face - cover up and suffer a penalty which would probably lead to more clothing malfunctions, or leave her ample chest partly exposed, and come across as the exhibitionist that she mostly certainly wasn't.

Alison spotted Courtney, and Courtney had the pleasure of seeing a look of barely contained rage sweep across her fellow contestant's face.

She seemed to be out to say something as she skidded to a halt in front of Courtney, but then Courtney saw her features freeze. Evidently, the voice in her own earpiece was now relaying some bad news to Alison.

Courtney couldn't help but smile. If Alison was only being told about Courtney finding the clue, that meant she'd get to witness the second clothing malfunction live. With a wink and a blown kiss, Courtney not-so-playfully teased Alison while the woman's face went white as ash.

Alison visibly shook as the voice spoke in her ear, and the handful of patrons that were in the hall with them looked on with growing interest at the strange behavior of this undeniably attractive thirty-something woman.

Then, a gasp escaped from between Alison's lips, and her eyes went as wide as saucepans.

Even Courtney looked surprised, as Alison's latest wardrobe malfunction became plainly obvious to anyone watching.

With a small shriek, Alison could sense her dress beginning to tighten and shorten. What had previously covered down to around half way down her thighs was now edging it's way up. Without thinking of the consequences, Alison grabbed at the hem of her dress in a futile attempt to keep it modest, only to find that by holding it down she was only threatening to tear the dress off her shoulders.

With an impotent stamp of her foot, Alison had to let the dress continue its upward journey, and it only halted when the very bottom of her thong peeked out from under the outfit.

Courtney couldn't help but laugh, and Alison seethed at the indignity of being two nil down to the woman she blamed for her failed marriage.

Her seething was then interrupted by something only Alison seemed to know, and Courtney stopped laughing for a moment to try and figure out what was happening now. Alison let out a little whimper, and then turned her back on Courtney before she could figure out what new embarrassment was now being inflicted on her boyfriend's brunette ex-wife.

It was hard for Courtney to escape the feeling that this was going to be a night she'd never forget, and she permitted herself a moment's gloating.

"Hey Alison," Courtney called out, "one more clue and Shane's going to see you naked again! That's what you wanted, isn't it? Of course, everyone else is going to see you naked too, loser!"

Getting a little carried away, Courtney even took a few steps to follow the clearly embarrassed Alison. More and more people turned to gawk, both at Alison's obvious predicament and at the vitriol being flung at her by Courtney.

"You know, I hoped the world would finally get to see you for who you really were, bitch. Consider this payback for ruining Shane's life!"

Alison didn't turn back to face her tormentor, but simply broke into a run to get out of the hall and far, far away from Courtney.

Courtney felt like she was bursting with confidence from every pore, and had to rein herself in a little.

"Easy Courtney, easy." She whispered to herself. "There's more than enough time to drive home Alison's well-deserved humiliation after the next clue."

"Speaking of which," the voice in the ear-piece finally chimed in, "if you've finished your little conversation with Mrs Steyn, you may be interested in learning exactly what the next clue is."

Courtney stood up tall and confident, and flexed her fingers in anticipation.

"Fire away," she replied, mentally preparing herself for the final spring to the finish, "lets end this now!"

*****

She was clueless. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She had a clue, she just didn't know what it meant.

Her top wasn't helping matters, Courtney reflected with some measure of bitterness.

The previous clue hadn't ended "it" quite as Courtney had hoped. Far from it. After only a few minutes, Courtney had been surprised to hear the voice inform her that Alison had already solved the clue and arrived at it's location.

Courtney had come to a screeching halt. That bitch surely must have just gotten lucky! How else could she have stumbled across it so quickly? Courtney - who she knew was smarter - hadn't even figured out what it meant yet, let alone where it was.

As she'd mulled over what could possibly have gone wrong, Courtney was suddenly made aware of a hum coming from her jacket. As she looked down at it, the first shock coursed through her body. She didn't need a second shock to know what to do. With a yelp, Courtney ripped the jacket off, and threw it to the ground, looking at it accusingly. The electric shock hadn't been overly painful, and had more caught her off-guard, but she also guessed that the first shock was probably just the warning shot.