She was on cloud nine in her purple and black ski-jacket. Zupena’s new-used car was one sharp looking monster. It had a 350 V-8 Turbo engine under a...large front hood. I loved the aqua rear-wheel well cover panels that gave this beast a super sleek look.“Zupi! This is a beyond cool ride!” Lisa shouted as she ran over to give the tall bouncing beauty a hug and kiss.“I just about peed in my pants when I got to her house. Zupena nearly crushed me as she babbled in an English, Latvian mix about her. ’What’s the sickest thing in the world? Grandma kisses you and its tongues.’I had been staying at Grandpa’s place, off and on, for a while since graduating in Environmental Studies. Grandma had died many years many years back, and apart from his housekeeper, her husband and the estate manager, I was the only person he saw on a regular basis.Grandpa was very caustic about my degree, and about environmentalists, some of them were giving him a hard time about one or two of his commercial. “So what kind of engineering do you do?”“Um ... I ... um ... well ... I do dig ... digital imaging. Scanners and graphics and stuff.” He had given entire presentations on this topic elsewhere, but with this little girl it was all he could do to blurt out a sentence. She grinned at him, almost as if to reassure.“So you’re like, into photography and stuff like that?”“Y-yes. I do a lot of that work ... I have a portfolio, in fact.”“You do? I’d love to see it sometime! I love. I pulled my long hair up intoa simple knot and grabbed my evening bag, pausing at the mirror Ichecked out the outfit and smiled sure I was ready.Dressed just so, I would search for my lovers in bars downtown, near theriver, gays and lesbians were of no notice. I'd come to this process byaccident years ago while visiting a friend at a Cambridge college. Sarahwas a tall brunette beauty I'd met late in high school. I hadn'trealized that she was gay and that she was attracted to me. As my.