RANSVESTIA

very well just to put up with Romy and I in private, and our, eh, different lifestyle." A soft hand pushed over the photos of Romy and Brennan in bathing costumes. "This one should be O.K."

I was flabbergasted by the cool way in which "she" was taking the news that "she'd have her face plastered in every American news- paper, after they had picked them up from us. I was even re-writing in my mind the Romy Pohlman articles in the light of what I now knew about Brennan Lawrence.

"I can guess a little at what you're thinking, Al," Brennan Law- rence's voice was soft again. "But wealth insulated us against criticism. And any publicity, even Jeff Conlon's kind, will help men like us to be accepted for what we are in the future."

Some hope, I thought bitterly.

"Now, that drink, Al," Brennan stood up smoothing the back of his dress. "I'm afraid Romy had me rather panicked against you. You're rather an imposing figure you know. I hadn't any idea what inviting you aboard might lead to."

"Does Romy know all about this?" I indicated the photographs and the letter on the desk.

"Of course," said Lawrence, somewhat surprised. But at least I was beginning to understand why Romy had been so sharp to me. Or I thought so.

But she was just as cool towards me as she'd been before, even after the feminized Brennan, known as "Cindy" to everyone, let them all know that I was off the hook. If Romy had been even the slightest bit friendly, I probably wouldn't have let Cindy talk me into accepting "her" offer of accompanying the party on the trip around the Adriatic which they were planning. I hardly had time to call Paris about Francois, and collect my things, before the boat was under way, and I was dressing for a candlelight dinner on the sundeck in the early evening hours off the Italian coast.

The women were very glamorous in their evening dresses, the most beautiful, of course, being Romy, though the others, including Cindy, were all pretty and attractive. The other two guys and I were in white or blue evening jackets and bow ties, all pretty formal. I saw Cindy