His stepfather gave a nod. "How did it go with her last night?"
Charlie shrugged. "Same it usually goes, I guess. "
"Oh?"
"I mean, I appreciate you trying to set me up with girls, but it just isn't working out yet, I'm afraid."
"Well, I can get someone else in for you tonight, if you'd like." said his stepfather. This had become a routine offer.
"What, and have it go like it's been going? Anyway, I'm leaving for Europe tonight, remember? Hopefully, the girls in Austria will at least be real, not like the ones you usually get."
"Alright, Charlie, calm down a little. I could have picked another starving woman off the streets to be my wife, you know. Hell, I could have married some woman with boobs bigger than her brain, and I wouldn't have cared that much. Your mother certainly appreciates me. You think your grandpa would have lived much longer if I hadn't brought you all in?"
Charlie said nothing for a while. Finally, he spoke up. "You know how you once told me the man who got everything he ever wanted lived happily ever after? Well, I'm starting to doubt that."
His stepfather left without saying anything and Charlie ate in silence. After he had finished, he walked back to his room to get what he needed for his own vacation. It was always a funny feeling walking through there. When he had first moved to the big house, there seemed like there was so much magic inside. These days, though, he felt like the magic had all gone.