That was great. Dinner was great.”“Really? You really mean that?”“Mm-hmm,” I say. “You’re an amazing cook.”She tilts her chin down and...blushes, then she picks up my plate and brings it to the sink. I look at my fingers and note a brown smudge of cake on my thumb. I suck it clean of the grit.“Coffee?” she offers from the kitchen.“No thanks. I’ll have trouble falling asleep.”“That’s true,” she replies. “I wouldn’t want that. Nothing more painful than staying up all night, unable to sleep. Heart. "Auntie then handed me the copy of brides magazine I had been told toread at the salon yesterday. Auntie then said "Melissa darling pleaseshow us the bridesmaids dresses you liked when you read this magazineyesterday."I thought it was best to keep Auntie and especially Mistress Samanthahappy so I flicked through the magazine until I found two dresses thatstood out; one was sort of a bo-peep style with a very full skirt andlittle bonnet. The other was a bright yellow dress with a full skirt. She thinks about body searching Eli again, but this time a little different.She thinks of running her hands gingerly over his bare chest, over the contours of his muscles, down and past his abs to grab him by his heavy belt and pull him into her lips. His hands run through her hair and over her shoulders down to her hands, where she guides them to her ass."I can feel you getting hard again" she smirks quietly, fingers rubbing harder now. She dreams on.Stephanie searches her lips down Eli's neck. If she has the operation,she will no longer worry about discovery. She could stand naked in TimesSquare and no one would ever guess she was anything other than a woman."''God, that's so gross," I said."What's gross?" Standing naked in Time's Square." Amanda, that's just a figure of speech, no one is suggesting that youreally do that. All I'm doing is stating the obvious, can you truthfullytell me that you might want to return to being Mark, ever again?"I lowered my eyes from Gloria's, knowing.