Stay As Yourself

"Nah, I think I'll just stay myself for now," you say.

"I understand," she says. "I love you just the way you are." She leans in for a kiss. Upon breaking apart, she undoes the buttons on her halter top. Just as she's almost exposed herself, she stops and says, "Of course, you did change me."

You're still concentrating on her breasts. You can see one corner of a brown, perfectly round aureole, set off from her golden-tinged skin. "More than you know," you say.

She drops her hands. "What does that mean?"

You look up at her face. She seems halfway between "confused" and "angry."

"Other than making my parents rich, how have you changed me?" she asks.

You take one of her hands between yours. "Look, I haven't changed you, personally, at all. It's just -- as far as I can tell, the entire world has been changing, most of the time, even when I think I'm only affecting one person --"

"The entire world," Miranda repeats. "So what have you done?"