Daily Prompt: Having My Male Cinderella Moment.

Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.

Calling to me from behind an enormous glass window, the light tan suede snakeskin cowboy boots stood out from all the other shoes on display. With its price tag hidden, I knew I wanted them no matter the cost.

“$600.00,” the sales lady quoted as she eyed me with the unmistakable look that said I could not afford them.

I asked for them in my size to try on, and as I slipped them onto my feet, the pointed toes just squeezed my toes together enough to get to know each other better; I knew they were mine.

I stood on those Cuban heels and looked at myself in the mirror, barely eighteen and beginning to come into my own. I had just started my first job and had suddenly transformed from the geeky, glasses-adorned, long curly mop-haired kid to having my hair styled and getting contacts that morning.

“They look good,” the sales lady said, realizing my eyes betrayed my desire for these shoes.

I left the store with the overpriced boots and went to the stores nearby to buy an outfit to match the shoes. A black pair of pants that fit me perfectly, and a black shirt with an owl printed on the front left panel. It was something I would never buy usually, but they worked perfectly with the shoes.

That night, I went to my first Christmas party at work, a huge event held at a ballroom. I remember walking in and seeing everyone’s faces at my sight. The Cuban heels made me two inches taller, and my clothes accentuated the muscles I always kept hidden under loose-fitting clothes.

People from the building that never knew I existed were coming up to me as if we were long-time friends and wanting to talk to me. Women openly flirted, as well as some men.

From that day, I went from the straggly new kid no one saw to the new man everyone wanted to know. The following Monday at work, everyone was saying hello, even management.

I wore those boots often for another six years, never showing their age until they disappeared. I have no idea where they went, but like a cat that moves on to a new home when its job is done, I think those boots somehow found a new owner to transform their life the way they changed mine on that December day when they called to me.

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