“How long were you with Viola for?”
“We broke up two years ago,” Stephanie replied, “so a good six and a half years. She was everything to me, and she was in her thirties—almost forty. But when it ended, it turned out that it was a big fantasy charade...”
“What do you mean?” Rose asked, perplexed.
“Turned out that Viola was married to a man named Humphrey,” Stephanie replied. “She and Humphrey had three kids and a house in the suburbs. Humphrey had a good job in the stock market so Viola got bored of the whole soccer mom routine and wanted a little excitement. They tried swinging and it worked for them. Then she found me in a gay bar and I took her home; it was passion, I’ll admit, and I fell in love with her after six months. She’d assumed a new identity with me, and moved fake clothes
