turning me on. She turned, her back now flat to the mattress and she smiled up at me. Reaching out with my hand I made as if to stroke her cheek, but all I felt was the cool cotton of the pillow in the empty space next me. There was no one there. There never was anyone there. She was gone. Life was different now, since that day. I still had my job, my profession if not quite the same level of income. After Red and I had returned from our time in Gran Canaria it had taken me