Time was now getting on and Susan looked at her watch and said she needed to leave, she was going to ask the staff to call her a taxi but I offered to... drop her off since her home was not far from where I was living, less than a mile away. In the car Susan was relaxed and chatted about bridge tournaments and other things and the fun that was associated with them especially when the tournaments were in different cities. When we arrived at her house she said she wanted to give me few books on. You must have charmed the pants off her, right?" He grinned again, blushing brightly. "Excuse my off-hand remark, Megan. I don't think anymore before opening my mouth. A consequence of growing old, I guess," he said, sighing.Ron was in his late 70's. He was rail thin, stoop shouldered, balding gracefully with a hawk-like nose and barely perceptible lips. Grizzled fuzz covered his cheeks and his hands were gnarly with the beginnings of rheumatoid arthritis. He must have been a good-looking man. ...Though as I scrub my face clean of last night's make-up in thebathroom mirror, I realise that there'll never be a 100% 'real'Stephanie as love as 'Steve' exists- and, even more frighteningly, thereverse is true as well. It's been six days since I was last Steve, andevery day I spend hanging out with my new friends, every day I spendsinging, or attending parties causes Steve to slip further and furtheraway from me. Of course, I could allow him to slip away- becomeStephanie 24/7. I could even. I'd been idly musing (after ensuring that she could hear my mumbling) that perhaps poison wouldn't be TOO painful, if I had to do it that way. Silly girl. She may have three degrees, but she's barely 40. I've spent more than twice her lifetime learning how to manipulate those around me.Never mind; Georgina won't be here until after lunch, anyway. And I've got my job to do.I run the home's gossipvine. The other old biddies have to ask the staff how Samantha is doing, or why we haven't seen.