" "Are you kidding darling? I look like every other damn woman in a boring business suit! You're the one who's attracting all the attention, with good... reason too! Look at that woman checking you out, she completely hates me for having you!" It's completely true and even I have to resist groping a feel of your sexy ass as you take my arm in yours and head for the glass elevator at the end of the posh, carpeted lobby."You talk too much. But you look good using your mouth and I have ideas for. .. 'But did that matter? Did it matter if the tree didn't listen? Did it matter if the tree couldn't hear?"I miss her." I stopped, then continued, short phrases with long breaks between."Why did she leave?" I thought we fitted together so well." I didn't mind that she needed to be away..." She was so beautiful..." Why could she not tell me where she went?"There was no reply, but there was a sense of being listened to. I told myself it was imagination. I was so comfortable, though, so conscious. God Bless You, Isabella"It seems clear enough," I said. "She's not here. We'll have to get alongwithout her for a while. I can help..."Aunt Victoria paid me no attention. "Where's Isabella?" she keptrepeating, and stared at me as if she didn't recognize me. Something waswrong with her. Drugs? Some kind of fit? Not booze, not at nine in themorning."Isabella? Isabella?" she asked. "Are you Isabella?" No, Aunt Victoria! I'm Lucas. Isabella isn't here. She went to see hermother."My aunt clutched my. She knows that while I am a sweet guy, I have certain rules. When the rules are broken, punishment is swift and sure. She thinks that I don't know that she actually likes the "sentences" I hand out. But I do know. It's hard not to see how her skin flushes and her breathing comes in short rasps when I tell her that she's been "bad" and that I'll "see to her" later.Take yesterday, for example. Sandy knows that the mortgage needs to be paid on the 14th of every month. I make sure that there's.