Page 76 of Menage a Passions
After that? Caitlyn belonged to the pageant. She wasn’t allowed to think of anything else.
So much of the judging was already done in the preliminary rounds, from applications, written essays, and professional photographs and videos. Caitlyn had done those leading up to Iowa, and Izzy had helped her finish up the rest – including a tasteful video in front of the lake, where Caitlyn posed andpontificated what about her home state she loved most.I really should get extra credit.Women from California and Hawaii had plenty more to connect to the judges with than Iowa, even if Caitlyndidfind her home state quite charming in its own ways.
Saturday, though…
Every pageant worked differently, and this one followed the beat of its own drum. The judges during the final on Sunday night were not the same ones during the preliminary, a change that Caitlyn already wasn’t used to. From the moment she left dinner on Friday night, she and Izzy were in a late-night conference room, holding the preliminary interview with four other contestants. It was Caitlyn’s first time meeting any of them.Idaho, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Georgia.They ran the gamut of ethnicities, age, and child-rearing status, with Caitlyn being the only childless one among them.
Izzy told her where to go and who to talk to. Which was good, because from the moment Caitlyn left her room early Saturday morning, she was wearing bathing suits and performing memorized sonnets for the judges. She prayed for a good hair day and got it when instead the representative from Nevada lost her wig when she walked before the industrial-sized fan behind the stage. Mrs. Delaware was likewise having the worst day of her life when her stylist cut off too much hair and she was forced to sport her first ever pixie cut on a national stage.
“Can you believe they have us doingeverythingthe day before the finale?” A tanned woman with bouncy brown curls and a penchant for glittery eyeshadow spoke as she and Caitlyn lined up at the lunch buffet, where they were allowed thirty minutes between preliminary events to eat. “I don’t know about you, but this is my fifteenth ever pageant and I’m more used to it being about aweekin the lead-up.”
“Twenty-sixth for me.”
The woman almost dropped the piece of turkey from her mouth. “No kidding!” She reached over to shake Caitlyn’s hand. “Mrs. Tandy Ohio, they call me.” She waved her hand in front of her face to show she was joking. “Tandy Grover, Mrs. Ohio.”
“Caitlyn Adams, Mrs. Iowa.”
“Iowa! Hey, we’re neighbors! Go Hawkeyes, right?”
Caitlyn knew this game. “Go Buckeyes.”
“Thatta girl. Come sit with us over here.” Tandy motioned to a table filled with three other members. “Come on. I know you’re like us and don’t have any other friends.”
Caitlyn followed. She might as well.
“Ladies! We’ve got Mrs. Iowa here!” Tandy introduced Caitlyn to a round of polite applause. “Iowa, this is Georgia, Arkansas, and Washington. We had Michigan here for a hot minute but she was saying something about the cheese not agreeing with her.”
“I offered her my Lactaid,” Arkansas said. “Rookie mistake.”
“Didn’t we meet last night?” Georgia asked. “At the late-night interview. Nuh-uh.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Never been asked about my thoughts on public education at eleven at night. I shoulda been in bed.”
Caitlyn sat with them, careful to mind her posture as she dampened her hands with a wet towel and used a plastic fork to eat. “I still don’t remember what I said about microplastics,” she said. “My mind was elsewhere.” Like her partner’s pussy, which she swore she still felt on her fingertips. Or that might have been the underwear in Caitlyn’s pocket she took with her to dinner… and the interview.Definitely not a rookie mistake.Just a regular one.
“Which group are you in?” Arkansas asked Caitlyn. “We’re all in Group 1, so we already got the evening gown and poise sections out of the way.”
“Group 3. Athletics and talent are out of the way for me.”
“That’s why she’s sitting up straight,” Tandy said. “She’s still gotta do the poise.”
The contestants were separated into five groups of ten, each group rotating through the preliminary rounds that would determine the top ten at the televised event. And with every round being judged by different people, most of whom Caitlyn had never met before…
She had no idea what to expect. As usual, she spent more time prepping for a pageant than actually participating in it.
“Forgive me if I’m wrong,” Mrs. Washington said while they ate, “but I thought Mrs. Iowa was disqualified. Are you the replacement?”
“I heardallof Iowa was disqualified,” Arkansas muttered.
Caitlyn gave the most diplomatic answer that she had prepared. “I decided to come out of retirement at the behest of the pageant. Well, it happened through my coach, Isabel Ferandez. They asked her who she recommended to be Mrs. Iowa on such short notice, and well…”
“Oh, that’s a relief,” two women said almost simultaneously.
“Oh?”
Tandy from Ohio gave the others such a dour look that Caitlyn immediately took her to be the leader of this ragtag team of states. “Now, don’t speculate. It sounds like Caitlyn is doing this as a favor.” She flashed Caitlyn one of those pageant-loaded smiles.Complete with shiny, white veneers.“And to have some of the old fun again, huh? What did you miss the most? Oh, it must be the eveningwear portion. That is always the best part.”
Caitlyn minded that none of her crumbs escaped her paper plate. She couldn’t help but notice that the other contestants hadn’t eaten much.Makes me hungrier.The buffet had all the makings of a well-balanced, light-carb meal, but Caitlyn would load up if she put in the effort.
“Meeting other contestants, of course.”