" Well ... let me see," she said, going to her computer. She typed a few commands, stared at the screen for a moment, and then put an apologetic look ...n her face. "I do have a cancellation on a mini-suite for tonight but ... well ... it's kind of pricey." How pricey?" Ken asked."It's $453 for the night," she said, almost whispering the amount."Wow," Meghan said with a whistle. They had been planning on spending no more than sixty dollars for their room.Ken made an impulsive decision. "What the. This past year was extra special in his life. By the time they were drinking a second glass of wine, he said, ‘Joan, you may not know it, but I’ve been deeply in love with you for a long time. If you weren’t committed to marry Eric, I would ask you right now to be my wife. I couldn’t help falling in love with you.’ She turned to face him on the couch and shared a sexy tongue searching kiss, the first they ever had. She responded, ‘Phil I love both you and Eric, I really do. You have been part. Mom hugged us tightly."I do too, sweet girl. I do too."An hour and a half later we were driving into Monaco in a gentle drizzle. Mom sat in the front seat with Mari on her lap. I didn't want either of my new lovers to have to sit in back. I was going to need a car with a bench seat, I told myself. We drove around town, pointing out the sights for Mom who oohed and ahhed, craning her neck this way and that. Truly a gorgeous little municipality. We parked as close as possible and ran through the. The hints were stark and they had been nearly invisible from orbit, doubly so with only a so-so telescopic lens primarily meant to get a rough idea of what the continents looked like. What were those hints? Trees. Hundreds upon hundreds of trees. Their shattered trunks thrust up from the silty, brownish sand. Except it wasn’t sand. A lot of it looked a lot more like ancient tanbark – you know, that awful shit that people replace sand with on a playground if they’re literally Satan and hate.