A 26 year old shouldn't be sexually confused, I wrestled with that on the way to work. But your average 26 year old isn't as sexually inexperienced as I am; hasn't reached mid-twenties a virgin; hasn't molested an innocent as I have, and probably hasn't had a same-sex encounter as I nearly have. I deserve to be sexually confused, sorting it all out is a fundamental necessity. And I will, I already have with Murph, that just can't happen, it is inexcusable.
The same sex issue is more of a conundrum. Breaking the inertia would be like breaking the hymen, once done, fear over, always done, or so it felt. But if I enjoy sex with a woman, wouldn't I enjoy the real thing more? I tabled the thought.
Murph gently placed my mail in my tray with the smile not reserved for me but shared by everyone. There is a point at which you overcome your shame and defend the action of who you have become. I have written about it. I wasn't there yet but I was on the brink. One more assault on him and I would be a person I loath.
As he walked away I imagined a court scene. I was on the stand, the prosecutor was barking, "How did it start?"
"With me ... my hand on his back."
"How, show us, he was on the floor on his knees with his trains, how did it start, show us, get down on the floor and show us."
"Objection, your honour!"
"Objection overruled, please do as you're asked."
I got a short draft of the story out of my head and into my computer by 4:30, mainly because Tosh went to her flat to pack.
Karen Ballcour, four desks over, had had one too many and knew it so shunned the subway for a cab (and blew the last few bucks in her wallet) but got home a lot quicker, the sooner to get to bed to sleep it off. But she didn't get the chance: her best friend Adrien Parker was sitting on the carpet leaning back against her apartment door, half asleep. "Where the fuck have you been?" She said, getting to her feet, stiffly.
"A few drinks."
"Precisely what I need."
Karen drank coffee as Adrien tried to feel better, the booze helped, so did the tears. Always the tears. "Why the fuck do you care so much? You're not supposed to go out looking for it, you're supposed to be prepared when it comes to you."
She snorted derisively. "Like that's ever going to happen."
"It'll happen, what's your hurry, seriously, do you even want a steady guy at 26? Why? We don't get married anymore until we're 40 if then, if at all. Chill. Explore yourself, that way you might actually know the woman you're trying to throw at any guy who gives you a second look."
"Says the girl who came home alone ... again."
"I'm OK with it," I said, taking my sweater off then getting to my feet. "I'm off, if you're staying your tooth brush is the yellow one, remember that, the yellow one ... the fucking yellow one."
"OK, OK, screw up just once around here."
I was detoxifying my face when she came in behind me, her reflection in the mirror. Her hands went on my hips.
"No."
"Try it, I've got to get it from somebody."
"No."
She squeezed my ass though my pants
I pushed her hands away and got out of there.
I was nearly asleep when I felt the weight on the bed. It has never got this far. Then she was under the comforter, naked, I could feel her skin press against me as her leg went over my thigh. I was about to protest when her lips pressed on mine and her fingers slid between my legs. The two sensations paralyzed me as did the shock of the attack. A knee was all it would have taken and I thought of it, thought of driving my knee up hard between her legs β grow up, but she is a friend, an old friend, a friend in need ... and the feeling of her fingers in the long ignored place and her tongue in my mouth ...
She felt me succumb, she knew, the attack was over, now it was just exploration, the kisses turning wet and loving, the fingers soft and caressing ... and knowing and then her need was expressing on my nipple and my fingers were in her hair.
I had wondered about this, wondered about it with her, kind of knew it would happen one day and wondered what it would feel like, wondered how I would handle it.
As equals.
I could stop it, instantly. Or I could encourage it. We would talk about it, laugh about it, analyze it β it would be fun, that part of it for sure.
But what is 'it' ... sex between two girls? Gratuitous sex, sex for relief, sex for fun, sex for sex ... it couldn't go anywhere.
My fingers in her hair could stop her, all I needed was to tighten them and pull, that would send the message, tighten them and tug. Instead, I pressed and when I did I could feel her relax, feel her processing my response, feel her know that she now had free-range.
Giving in, succumbing is liberating, I was finding that out β I must remember that: that decision de-complicates, permission is given, morality is suspended to be discussed, debated and analyzed later, sensations enveloped ... with her, because I know her, know why she wants and needs this.
"Could you do that with anyone, if the need arose ... like say with Sally Grophner?" She asked.