RANSVESTIA

Cindy nodded. "O.K.," she said. "But you might as well know," she said quietly, "that Romy's going to pieces in Hamburg. You've really done something to that girl's head."

I hope my face didn't show all the shock I felt. The cool way that Romy had seen me out of her room and then off the boat in Naples, had been enough for me. "To that girl?" I just slightly emphasized the last word.

"Yes," said Cindy, a stubborn look on her face. "We didn't know that much about you, Al, but you seemed just right for Romy, even when we were sure you were a man. She was so obviously in love with you."

I ignored the last bit. "What do you mean, 'just right'?" I growled. "Two wrongs are bound to make a right, huh? Just because I'm big and muscular, I have to feel like a man? Is that what you're saying?" Cindy winced. Her painted eyes glanced towards Adelie, who was watching us in alarm. I paced over to the tinted windows. Even the distant lakes were visible at this height above the streets. "A woman, though, wants a man-not something fragile and feminine like she is --but something she can never be. Romy wants a woman, someone like Adelie, a real woman. Romy is, after all, a man."

Cindy's long hands were quite agitated. The perfect, long, pink nails matched the new lipstick "she" wore. "I don't believe that," the voice had dipped to a lower, flatter, more masculine range. "We don't choose people to love just because of what they are. Adelie had always wanted me to give up my dresses, but she loves me anyway." Their hands came together as Adelie moved up to sit beside her husband. "She knows she can't change me, she just accepts me as I am." Cindy's feminized face turned to me. "You and Romy will have to learn to do the same thing."

The stunning blonde wiggled across the stage while the band into a breathy, sax-dominated waltz. Her hips were wide and the black dress hugged them tightly. The slit side showed off her dark stockings, her black garters and the black lace panties. She teetered on her high heels, impossibly high, and then twirled to meet her partner. Her hands ran over her waist and up over her small breasts