"I'll call you after I talk to Grandma ... See ya, babe!"I smiled. "See you in a bit, angel." I wanted, almost blurted, "I love you..." but how stupid... could I be, three weeks into knowing her. But then I remembered already crossing THAT line. I drove home, silently thinking. At the house, I met the cat at the door, gave him a perfunctory scratching behind his ears, then stripped, showered, shaved, and the phone rang. Nina."Hello, little girl." Hello, old man," she giggled. "Can you come get me. .." I nudged her door open with my foot, carried her in, and deposited her on her bed."Mrs McGinty, huh?" Mrs McGinty, the cafeteria lady, was about sixty years old, weighed about three hundred pounds, and thankfully wore long skirts so that I'd never seen her legs."I woke up so horny, and since you said your dad was going to be gone all day..." You just thought you'd ride your bike over here and have your way with me?" Actually, I walked. I was afraid if I rode my bike, I might only have. "But I won't always be a whore Robert. This is just a means to an end.After my gender reassignment I'll get a new identity, move far awayfrom London and get a decent job." Charlotte leaned against thewardrobe."But this! This is so demeaning. I have to listen to the lads talkabout what goes on in this filthy rat-hole and it disgusts me." Hebrought the bottle to his lips and took a slug.Charlotte put out her hand and Robert passed her the bottle. She took asip and smiled at him."Let me tell you. .. She kept me at arms length, made it clear we could be good friends but never like boyfriend and girlfriend. So ... I guess I needed a girlfriend, someone I could be intimate with and make love to. That wasn't her." And did you find a girlfriend?" Molly didn't sound jealous, just curious.I chuckled. "More a series of women freshly wounded by recent relationships ending, sort of sharing each other's losses I guess. Rebounds." Not a good place to start." Nope." And you never realized Fanny.