The Masters Project Book Two (Todd and Lizette)

The Masters Project

Book Two (Todd and Lizette)

by Robert Lubrican

zbookstore.com Edition

Copyright 2010 Robert Lubrican

Second Edition 2026

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Table of Contents

Foreword

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Afterword

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FOREWORD

This is the second in a series of narratives about a research project performed by the author for his Master's Program. A number of couples were interviewed in an effort to determine why couples who stayed together for long periods of time had similarities in appearance. Some of the interviews resulted in data that couldn't be included in the eventually-published research paper, by virtue of its erotic content, not to mention some socially aberrant behavior in some cases. Details on the hypothesis and research plan may be found in the first narrative, titled "The Master's Project - Ralph and Tanya". While the narrative you are about to read stands alone as a "story", having the information from the first narrative might make it more understandable.

Um ... sorry ... I get a little carried away sometimes with my academic thinking. What I should have said was "Please read "The Master's Project - Ralph and Tanya" before you read this. What happens in this story will make a lot more sense."

Bob

CHAPTER ONE

Lizette and Todd were another couple who, after being married for sixteen years, and having produced three children together, didn't look that much alike to me, but thought they did themselves. At least they said so in their application.

Todd was a middle management employee of a fairly big metal fabrication contracting company. He was a man who looked "normal" in that he wasn't any taller or shorter than most, with average brown hair, and an average build. He wouldn't have stood out in a crowd for any reason at all. In almost every picture I saw of him, his hair was combed the same, it was the same length, and he had on either a button-down shirt or a nice pullover. Sometimes he wore a tie and sometimes he didn't. He always wore slacks.

Lizette, or "Lizzie" as Todd liked to call her, was a full figured lush woman. Everything about her suggested a dazzling beauty in her youth, that had matured to a point where people didn't believe her if she told them how old she was. When I met them she had copper-colored hair that she freely admitted came from a bottle. Additionally, she favored lipstick in bright colors that always matched the sheen of bright polish on her fingernails. The pictures they produced, starting when they were in college and spanning the years of their marriage, showed an almost manic attempt to alter her appearance. Her hair varied from long dark brown straight tresses in college, to big wavy black curls that wreathed her head like a nest of tiny snakes, to hair so short I suspected she had been treated for cancer. In one photograph of them with their first child she had a pony tail and was blond. In another with the same child, a little older, and a baby in her arms, her hair was still blond, but went to her jaw line and was cut strait around her head like a bowl had been used to set the length. All in all, the impression I got from the pictures was that she was a woman who wasn't happy with the way she looked, even though she was a knockout in every picture, even the one with the almost-crew cut.

Lizzie's clothing was just as flashy as her makeup and hair styles. In one picture taken as they were on vacation in Rome, she wore jeans with holes in the knees and a sequined top that looked almost formal. In another she wore a white jumpsuit that made her flaming red hair and purple lipstick look like they were on a head floating above her body. In another picture she wore a flowing caftan and in yet another she wore a micro mini skirt with go-go knee-length boots that made her look like a hooker with a john.

On the other hand, there were a few consistencies in their facial features, mostly in terms of the jaw line and chin, and their foreheads had the same shape to them. Their sixteen-year-old daughter had her father's features, and her mother's flair for the spectacular, having pierced her body, at least the visible parts, in more than eight places. The two younger boys were as drab looking as their father.

At our first interview there was no need to break the ice. Lizzie treated me like I was an old family friend and Todd offered me a Cuban cigar. It turned out that they entertained a lot. Some of Todd's clients were Government employees who liked to be wined and dined and Lizzie was good at it.

"So, what's this all about?" asked Lizzie as she served me a glass of some amber colored wine that was both sweet and tart at the same time somehow. It was good wine, something I wasn't used to as a poor starving student.

"Well, I have a theory that couples who stay together for a long time look like each other in their old age. I'm trying to figure out whether that is a result of their long lives together, or whether they looked alike all along."

"Why in the world would that even matter?" asked Lizzie. Todd sat on the couch and just existed. I'd already forgotten he was in the room.

"Well, suppose we could figure out what it is that attracts people to each other - people who stay together. Marriage ... for that matter just life itself ... is hard. Keeping a marriage together is a tough go and people need all the help they can get, right?"

She agreed, sitting down by her husband and putting her hand on his knee. I went on explaining.

"Okay, then. So we figure out, let's say, that people with similar features do better in marriages than people who look widely different. That would help people make better choices when choosing a mate. It might reduce the number of divorces, for example."

I was all proud of myself for suggesting that my research might make a huge difference in the divorce rate.

Lizzie laughed out loud. "That's the silliest thing I ever heard. Why, you're trying to make a science out of what attracts people to each other. That's just goofy. Most people are attracted to each other physically."

"That's my point exactly," I said smugly. "But some people are attracted to features other than the face." I looked at Todd. "What was it that attracted you to Lizette the first time you saw her?"

He turned red. It was astonishing to see his bland face turn red for some reason.

Lizzie laughed. "That's not a fair question to ask him," she said. "We met under rather unusual circumstances."

"Oh?" I prompted, getting ready to take notes.

"Yes. I was in a practice booth at school - we met at Northwestern and we were both involved in the music program - and I was supposed to be practicing my saxophone. But I had stopped to take a break. I was reading 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' for another class, so I opened that up and was reading it and I got so horny that I just had to masturbate."

I had known this couple all of five minutes and she was talking about the fact that she masturbated as if I had known it for years. I managed to keep my mouth closed as she went on.

"I was wearing a skirt, so I just hiked it up and stuck my hand in my panties. I was in the middle of an orgasm when he walked into the practice room with his trumpet, thinking the room was empty."

My notes were forgotten. My mouth had gotten away from my brain and I sat there slack-jawed. She rattled off this story like she had told it at parties a thousand times.

Todd smiled a tight, almost unemotional smile. "She had the book hanging in one hand and her head was thrown back, with her legs spread and her hand made it look like there was a squirrel in her panties trying to get out. It was an eye-opening kind of meeting."

I nodded. "I bet it was."

Lizzie laughed at the look on my face. "I told him to close the door, and we've been together ever since."

"You mean you ...? Right there in the practice room?" My voice went up at the end.

She laughed again. "No, not then. He thought I was some sort of crazy woman. It took ten minutes to get him to calm down. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. We didn't do anything sexual together for almost a month."

That seemed odd. I missed the word "together" just then. More on that later.

"So the initial attraction was sexual," I said.

Todd nodded. "But not just sexual. She was the strangest girl I'd ever met. She fascinated me. I thought she was crazy at first, but I guess I got used to her."

It still seemed odd somehow. I turned to Lizzie. "So what was it that attracted you to him? I mean why did you tell him to close the door and stay?"

There was a look of almost consternation on her face. Finally she said "I don't know."

I looked at Todd and he wasn't bothered by that at all. And that seemed odd too.

So, getting interested in this strange situation, I began asking all kinds of questions.

"What did you think of his looks?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't know. He just looked like a boy."

"Okay ... um ... what did you talk about? I mean that first time you met."

"We talked about what I was doing," she said simply.

"You talked about why you were masturbating," I said.

"Exactly. I explained that the book got me horny and that I had to do something about it."

"And he asked you out for a date later?" I suggested.

"No, I told him I wanted to meet with him again. I was excited and I knew I'd be excited again."

"I'm not sure I understand," I said helplessly.

Her hand stroked his knee. "I knew that I wanted him to watch me masturbate again."

I was stunned. "You asked him on a date to watch you masturbate?"

She smiled. "It wasn't quite like that. I just felt compelled to see him again. When I did I wanted to masturbate again. So I asked him if he minded."

I looked at Todd. He shrugged. "I wasn't at all averse to watching her. It kind of made me hot too."

"This is really fascinating," I said, getting into the conversation. Had I not had that relationship with Ralph and Tanya, it would have been a singularly odd conversation for strangers to have. But after Ralph and Tanya my world had been widened a bit, and I wasn't shy about exploring intimate details during the interviews. It didn't occur to me in my wildest fantasies at that point that Lizzie and I might do anything sexual. It was just interesting to probe this secret part of their life.

"Please tell me more," I urged.

Todd took up the narrative of their first date. "I picked her up and took her out for pizza. We hadn't made any plans on what to do other than eat something. We were sitting there in the pizza place and just talking and she told me she was excited. I didn't understand at first, and then she said "You know, like in the practice room." I didn't know what to think. I mean she was so different from any girl I'd been around before. I'd been out on dates, of course, but I'd never done anything with any of the girls. I didn't have any experience with women in that way at all."

He was interrupted by his wife, who was now actively stroking his leg.

"He was so cute. He blushed and stammered. I took him out to the car and I put him in the front seat and I got in the back seat and I took off my pants and rubbed myself to a nice hot orgasm."

I got it at last. "You're an exhibitionist," I pronounced.

She looked startled. "I don't know," she said. "Am I?"

"Well, you just said you got off on him watching you," I reminded her.

"Yes, but ... " she trailed off, looking confused. "Wouldn't that mean I'd like other people to see me too?" she asked.

"Don't you?" I asked back.

"I don't know," she said wonderingly. "Nobody but Todd has ever seen me do anything like that." She looked over at Todd, who sat there like he didn't have a care in the world.

I suddenly felt uncomfortable. The conversation, such as it had been, was amazingly intimate, and I hadn't been in their house for more than half an hour.

"I'm sorry," I said automatically. "I didn't mean to pry or anything."

"You're a researcher aren't you?" asked Lizzie, looking back at me. "Aren't they professional priers?"

"You don't mind talking about things so ... intimate?" I asked.

"I guess I don't," said Lizzie, looking surprised again. "It's really kind of interesting. I've already learned something new about me. I'm an exhibitionist!"

I held up my hand. "Let's not go quite that far," I cautioned. "I'm not qualified to diagnose anything like that.

"It makes perfect sense, now that I think about it," said Lizzie, disregarding my cautionary caveat like I hadn't even said it. "I love to have Todd watch me do things, and I love the way men look at me."

I understood where she was coming from. Maybe that explained her constant shift in appearance. She kept finding ways to get people to notice her … men to notice her.

I turned to Todd. "And you liked to ... watch?"

"If you're asking me if I have voyeuristic tendencies, I don't think so," he said. "I like watching her. I don't think about watching other people or anything like that."

I decided to try another question.

"OK, how about this? What are your best sexual features?" I asked. It had looked good on paper, but I didn't like the way it came out. "What I mean by that is what you think each other's best sexual features are."

"His hands," said Lizzie instantly.

We both stared at her.

She blushed. "The way he uses them ... on my body," she added.

"I never knew that," he said, his voice softer than it had been.

"The way you stroke me ... and touch me ... and your eyes ... the way you look at me," she said, staring into those eyes. She blushed even harder. "I'm ... excited ... right now! Just thinking about that." she said. Her hand slid along his thigh and covered his zipper. "You're excited too!" she gasped. They both looked at me.

"Um ... I guess I could leave or something," I suggested, feeling like the third wheel I suddenly was.

Todd looked back at his wife and they stared into each other's eyes. "Maybe not," he said, not breaking his gaze. Lizzie gasped and her hand gave a convulsive squeeze to what was now clearly an erection in his pants.

"You want him to ... watch?" she gasped.

"I don't know," he said softly. "Maybe." They were still staring at each other. "What do you think?" he asked.

I realized that something was happening between them ... something new and unexpected ... that hidden, or maybe unsuspected desires, were creeping out into the open. I had a sudden insight that what had drawn them together in the first place had never been fully explored. She liked to be watched and he liked to watch. They'd been happily doing that for sixteen years. Suddenly having a third wheel sitting across the room had added a dimension that had never been there before, and they were thinking about that. It was almost like they were tasting a new food and deciding if they liked it or not.

In any case, Lizzie didn't answer him. She looked at me instead. In fact, she looked at my hands, which were in my lap, because I had gotten somewhat stiff just thinking about watching this woman masturbate. Nothing was lost on me in terms of her comment on his hands, and that she was now staring at my hands. Still, it was weird. I had known these people less than an hour, and there was a sexual tension in the air thick enough to cut with a knife.

Don't ask me why, but I thought things were going too fast. I tried to put on the brakes.

"Look, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't enjoy seeing you two ..." I didn't know quite how to finish that, so I didn't. "But maybe we should all take a breath and a minute or two to think about this. I take it this whole concept is new to you both."

I knew I had done the right thing when Lizzie relaxed and slid her hand back down to her husband's knee. He was very erect, but he didn't try to hide it. I kept my hands right where they were.

"Let me ask a few more questions. If you want to come back to this we can ... later," I suggested.

Todd finally looked at me. He nodded, but I think he looked just slightly disappointed.

"Her breasts," he said.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"I think her best feature are her breasts. They're perfect, even though they've changed over the years. I especially like the way she moans and wiggles when I ... suck them."

"Oh," I said. "Of course."

Lizzie laughed. "Don't all men think a woman's breasts are her best asset?"

I tried to cover for the boner in my pants by talking. "Not true at all," I said authoritatively. "Many men concentrate on other features."

Rather than get into a discussion about all of Lizzie's other features, I tried to move on. I was already in a pretty bad way, and if she stood up and turned around to look at her ass I might lose it.

"You two have stayed together for some years now," I said. "Why do you think that's happened?"

There was one of those things where two people speak at precisely the same time, and say precisely the same thing, as if they were twins and had practiced doing it. The only difference was the "her" and "him" when they said "Because I love him/her."

Now that I look back on it, I think this is what happened to these two. They were attracted to each other by something they didn't take the time to define or really think about. That attraction led to being together. That being together led to a decision - not an emotion - of "I love this person." They decided that they loved each other. That decision led to a sharing of lifestyles that, while different, meshed nicely. He wanted to make her happy and she wanted to make him happy, and they succeeded more often than not. So they kept on doing it. Their decision to love each other was the foundation for something that grew into real love and caring over the years. I suspected they had decided to have each of their children, too, and planned it out carefully.

I'm convinced, at least to some degree, that this happens a lot more often than people might think. Rather than love leading to a satisfying relationship, a satisfying relationship actually leads to love, which is the glue in the relationship. Maybe that's why so many people get divorced. They hit the unsatisfying parts of the relationship before there is real love between them, and that begins to force them apart.

Anyway, let me tell you what happened with Lizzie and Todd and maybe that will help you understand what I'm talking about.

We talked for quite a while and I led the conversation away from sex and into other areas of a matrimonial relationship. It became clear to me quite soon that the way this couple functioned was that if one of them wanted or needed something, the other was only too happy to help the other one get it. There had been the need for Todd to be gone for long stretches of time as his career progressed, and Lizzie supported him in that full bore. She spent a lot of time as a full time mother while that happened, and claimed she didn't mind at all, even though her own career was languishing. Another example was when Lizzie went into her first labor she wanted to have the child naturally - no drugs. It was a tough, long labor and the medical staff kept offering her something "just to take the edge off". Todd wanted her to take the drugs, because it was agonizing for him to see her wracked with pain. But she wanted that pain, because to her it was part of the whole package, and so he sat with her and loved her and let her endure it ... helped her endure it with his presence even. They didn't take a lot of time to examine things in their lives. They just decided what they wanted to do, and then helped each other do it. That was partly why they had such a hard time answering questions. I kept asking them things they'd never thought about, and so, couldn't answer.

But the most astonishing thing I heard - not counting the fact that they were thinking of letting me watch him ... watching her ... masturbate - was that it turned out that Todd was her hairdresser. Not only that, he helped her pick out what to wear, including jewelry and undergarments. He was the one responsible for all her radical changes in appearance. She just fed off the results. Well, he did too, because what he did made people notice her, and he got off on people noticing her.

By the time I realized I had stayed too long, we had polished off three bottles of that wonderful amber liquid she kept serving me and I was in no condition to drive home. We had been chatting like old friends for over an hour.

"You can't drive in your condition," said Lizzie. She pronounced the word 'con-di-shun', slurring it. She was pretty tipsy by then too. "Why don't you just sleep on the couch and I'll make you breakfast in the morning." She hiccuped and giggled. "You want to call your wife?"

"Not married," I said, standing up. I think I leaned a little, because her hand came out and pushed on my arm to stand me up straighter.

"Oh, that's nice," she said. She giggled then too. "I don't usually drink more than one glass." She pronounced it 'glash'.

She said she'd be back with pillows and a blanket and her husband pulled her up a set of stairs leading to the upper part of their split level house. I knew by then that their kids had been shuffled off to sleepovers. They hadn't known what the interview would be like, but didn't want to have to deal with kids in the process. So I took off my shirt, figuring that it would be a little less smelly the next morning if I didn't sleep in it.

When Lizzie appeared, pillow and blanket in arms, a little piece of my mind remembered quite suddenly that Todd was often the one who "dressed her." I wondered if he had dressed her this time, because she had changed.

She was wearing what I think is called a peignoir. It was kind of a filmy jacket that isn't designed for warmth, and has matching panties and bra to go under it. When she plopped the pillow and blanket down on the couch beside me, I observed that he hadn't dressed her completely. There was no bra. The jacket was all but transparent, and I had a virtually unobstructed view of two very healthy breasts that, having fed three probably healthy kids, were large and sagged enough to need a bra for comfort, or to keep them from bobbing up and down too badly when she walked. But they were not what I'd call 'saggy breasts'. Her nipples were dark brown and prominent.

I looked at the top of the stairs and Todd was there, watching us. He was dressed only in jockey shorts, and his hand moved at the front of them slowly, almost like he was trying to press his erection into submission. I realized he was watching his nearly naked wife stand in front of a complete stranger. That's as opposed to watching her to make sure she didn't do anything ... intimate. It was crystal clear to my alcohol fogged mind that if I reached out and cupped those fabulous breasts, he wouldn't mind at all. And I wanted to, as she bent over me, those breasts hanging right in front of my eyes, and kissed the top of my head.

"Night night, Bobby," she sighed. "Thanks for being here. Todd is very excited." She winked at me and turned around to saunter towards her husband, whose hand was rubbing a little harder now.

I could live with being made younger by this older woman when she called me "Bobby." But they should fix their bed. It's way too loose. It sounded like a woodpecker the size of King Kong was knocking on their bedroom wall as I tried to get to sleep.

I didn't need the blanket, but the pillow was nice.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

The next morning I was awakened by a hand stroking my chest.

I pried an eye open and there was Lizzie, still in her 'nightgown', which was even more insubstantial with light coming through the windows that faced the street ... and East.

"Good morning," she said softly.

I wasn't really hung over. I just tried never to get up this early.

"Todd has to go to work and he asked me to get you up and out of here," she said. She was leaning over me, those fabulous breasts suspended above my eyes, both of which were now open wide. "He's afraid I might do something with you after he leaves," she explained.

"Would you?" I croaked.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I know I got awfully excited last night when you saw me the way he dressed me up. I'm all excited right now, watching you look at me."

Todd walked in about then. He heard the last part of the conversation.

"Hey!" he said mildly. "No hanky panky unless I get to see it."

I didn't just want to ask if they'd decided to let a stranger crawl on top of Lizzie. "So you decided ...?"

"We decided we'd like to explore things ... with you," breathed Lizzie. She shook her shoulders and her breasts did the most amazing dance before my eyes. "Do you think you'd be at all interested in that? Say later? Tonight?"

I had a lump in my throat, so I just nodded as my eyes wobbled back and forth in their sockets, watching her swaying breasts.

She took pity on me and stood up.

"Excellent!" she pronounced. "Tonight, for dinner. Seven?"

I nodded again and got up myself. My pants gave me away and they both looked at my groin. Todd just smiled.

Lizzie retreated back toward the kitchen, and I walked out with Todd, still trying to get my shirt on correctly.

"You're sure about this?" I had to ask.

He looked at me. "I got crazy when you were looking at her last night. It's the best sex we've had in years. I never thought of myself as a voyeur before. I know I denied it last night, but now I don't know."

We were interrupted by Stephanie, their daughter, who was loping up the walk, coming back from spending the night with one of her friends. Her ears flashed in the early morning sunlight, off of three or four diamonds each that ran in a row down the outside of them. She had on black lipstick, but it wasn't a goth look. She smiled and hugged her father.

"Hi Daddy" she said brightly. "Is this that researcher guy?" She looked me up and down. My boner wasn't gone yet and I bent over unconsciously to try to hide it.

"Yeah, Punkin," said Todd. "How was your sleepover?"

"Dad!" she moaned. "I'm sixteen. We don't have sleepovers any more. But in any case, it was kind of humorous," said the girl. Nobody had introduced us yet, but I didn't think her name was actually 'Punkin.' "We caught Jonie's brother peeking in the window at us."

Todd perked up. "Do I need to call somebody's parents?" he asked, his voice not so bland any more.

"Of course not, Daddy!" she squealed. "We had fun. He's harmless. He doesn't even know we knew he was out there. He's just a boy anyway." Her voice had the same timbre and resonance as her mother's. It was amazing how much alike they seemed.

"So what happened?" asked her father.

She darted a look at me. Todd smiled.

"It's OK, honey. Bob spent the night. He's a new friend." She looked at me with wide eyes.

"He spent the night! That's never happened before," she commented.

"His research is very interesting," said Todd. "Now, you were going to tell me what happened with ... what's his name?"

"Stephen," said the girl. "He's fourteen." She darted another look at me, but went on. "Well, anyway, we thought it was kind of funny, so we teased him a little."

"Teased him?" prodded Todd.

"Yeah, we kind of sort of put on a show ... kind of." She blushed.

"Are any other parents going to call us?" asked Todd.

"No Daddy!" she squealed again. "It was all harmless. We didn't get naked or anything." She darted me another look. "We just gave him a look at some real girly parts, that's all."

Todd looked up at the beautiful morning sky and groaned.

"Come on Daddy, we just teased him a little bit. It was so much fun. I wish I could have been out there and seen what he did when Crystal took off her bra. She's the biggest of all of us. I bet he had a cow!"

"And did you take off your ... bra in front of this boy?" asked her father.

Suddenly she didn't want to talk about all the fun they'd had any more.

"I'm starving Daddy, and you'll be late to work if you don't go. I love you Daddy!" She leaned up and kissed her father on the cheek, resting her hands on his shoulders for an instant, and then darted around him and into the house. I heard her calling for her mother, and then heard shrieks when she found her. Lizzie was obviously still wearing the peignoir, or part of it, and the girl had just put two and two together that their new 'friend' had seen her mother this way.

Todd grinned. "Apparently being an exhibitionist can be passed on genetically," he suggested.

"Just out of curiosity," I started, "do you ... ah ... suggest things for your daughter's appearance?"

He laughed. "Stephanie? No way, no how, and she wouldn't listen to me if I tried."

"I couldn't help but notice that her ... um ... appearance ... is just as um ... interesting ... as your wife's," I said.

He looked surprised, of all things. He turned around to look at her, even though she was already in the house and screaming at her mother for letting "that man" see her practically naked.

"I never thought about it," he said. "But you might be right. Now that I think about it, she kind of always looks a lot like her mother."

Then he shook his head and made his excuses and, with a wry grin, got in his car and took off.

When I got in my car to leave, Stephanie was standing in the open front door, staring at me.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

I returned to Todd and Lizzie's at seven o'clock sharp. The first surprise I got was when Lizzie answered the door wearing patently conservative clothing. And a frown. A youthful face appeared over her left shoulder. That youthful face was wearing a garish shade of lipstick that I'd have called electric blue, if anybody would have asked me what color it was. It matched perfectly the heavy eye shadow under pencil thin eyebrows.

"Is it him Mom?" asked Stephanie.

"We have a little problem Bob," sighed Lizzie.

"You do not have a little problem, mother!" stormed Stephanie. "I'm a woman now. Stop treating me like a child."

"You're sixteen, dear," said Lizzie, hiding a smile by looking at me instead of her daughter. "You're not married, are years away from getting married, and you're way too young for this man's research."

"I don't believe you. If you let him see you like I saw you this morning, I want to know what's going on!" said the girl, her voice strident. "When my mother is acting strange I intend to find out why!"

"Come on in Bob," sighed Lizzie. "I guess." She looked depressed.

Stephanie started the third degree immediately, before Lizzie could even get me seated at the table. I noticed the empty chairs.

"I sent the boys over to a friend's house," explained Lizzie. "But my headstrong daughter refused to cooperate."

"Damn straight" said Stephanie. She blushed as both parents turned dagger eyes on her. "Sorry," she said, apparently for her language.

Stephanie bulled on ahead, demanding to know what kind of research I was doing, and where I went to school. She was a take-charge girl, let me tell you. I explained it to her the same way I had explained it to her parents, but she didn't seem to be listening.

"I don't understand why that would cause you to stay overnight," she said finally. "Or why my mother would prance around naked in front of you."

I hadn't told her about the ... substance ... of what had been discussed the night before.

"Stephanie will you please drop this?" asked Todd. The funny thing was it actually sounded like a question. Like they were equals or something. It was weird.

"Daddy, I want to know what's going on," insisted the stubborn girl.

Lizzie threw down her napkin. "All right!" she almost shouted. "You think you're all grown up? All right I'll tell you what's going on! We'll just see how grown up you are!"

The funny thing about that was that Stephanie reacted in a completely different manner than she had to her father.

"Mom, don't have a cow. I just want to know why ... you know?"

But her attitude was almost subservient, whereas while she was talking to her father she was almost domineering.

I realized that Todd's behavior was affected by the women in his house. All the women in his house. And those women reacted to his personality in almost the same way. Lizzie took charge, in-so-far as she knew would please him, and he submitted, in a way. He did the same thing when his daughter tried to take charge, and it was Lizzie who controlled that too. Two strong women, one of whom emulated the other, in a house with a male who didn't follow the alpha male pattern. And yet, there was obvious love and respect between father and daughter. How many sixteen-year-old girls will hug and kiss their father in front of a stranger?