I can tell my mom likes you. Dad will be a bit tougher, but I think he sees how respectful and polite you are. Asking Ed along was a great idea. Dad m...ght have been reluctant otherwise.”“I’ll bring Stephanie as well. I suspect Ed will like that.”“Your sister? She’s super cute, isn’t she?”“So they say. She’s my sister so I’m not really able to judge. Besides, somebody who calls me a dumb boy can’t be all that cute!”“She’s wrong. You are not a dumb boy. And I’ll tell her that.”“Thanks. Are you. Maybe what happened was acceptable behavior.Like an epiphany, Charles decided that maybe he was a sissy all along andit just took someone to get it out of him. Maybe it was fate that wasplaying a hand here and that getting a job with Venus and meeting Ms.Hilliard was something that was meant to be.*******After washing himself and reapplying his make-up he put on his maid'soutfit. Charles decided to find and wear another maxi-pad. He felt hewas now vulnerable to episodes of. Bob would have explained that emotional closeness, and the closeness of sharing sex, are not the same thing, though they draw on each other. Emotional closeness... the human connection between two souls... is infinitely more precious than mere sexual satisfaction. That, perhaps, is why the couples spent more time talking softly, making and remaking plans, making promises, and trying to order the future, before it got there. They wanted to keep the dream alive, and all those preparations, even. I’m from another time, so I can’t say that it’s within me to approve. I mean that, literally. Lorenzo was 15 years older than I when we met, just after the end of the war. Keep in mind I’m referring to the American Civil War. I was 15, which was considered of courting age then. So I was 60 years old when Jack figured out the serum, in 1910. Physically, he’s right, I’m still less than 70. But in my bones, in my mind, I feel every one of the 438 years that I’ve been alive.”She snorted. “Alive..