Lana Pink had only ever wanted one thing for her daughter: a happy, fulfilling life. She did not really have any preference for how it came to be; indeed, worries of academic achievement or financial success were not ones that troubled her. However, there was one in particular that certainly did bother her: the young woman's complete lack of any kind of sex life.
Spying on her only child's day to day life was hardly an activity Lana cared to indulge in. Sarah McRidge, mother of Lana's daughter's boyfriend, however, was not so ethically restrained. It was from her that word of the almost unbelievable state of affairs had arrived. Sarah had, apparently, overheard the friends of her son teasing and taunting him about his and his girlfriend's statuses as a pair of nineteen, and twenty, year old virgins. Given that he and Lana's daughter had been together for almost two years, that Megan had not had a boyfriend before that, and was undeniably shy and introverted, made denying the truth all but impossible.
It was for these reasons that Lana was stood in front of the door of her daughter's boyfriend's apartment, dressed in the sort of blazer and slacks she often wore to work. She had carefully chosen the day to be one where she knew the boyfriend would be in, and her daughter, too busy working.
A shaky hand delivered a weak knock on the wooden door. It opened a moment later, revealing a dark-haired young man dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, and a snugly fitted t-shirt.
"Mrs. Pink," the man greeted in clear surprise. "Megan's not...."
"Not here, I know." Lana clasped her hands in front of her and forced a smile. "I want to speak to you, actually, James."
"Oh...." The young man's brows rose, fell back down, then he grinned. "Come on in."
Lana stepped through the door as James made way for her. It was her visit to the apartment, though she wasn't overly surprised to notice how neat and tidy it was — a hallmark of her daughter's influence if ever there was one. The size and quality of its interior, on the other hand, did cause her no small measure of shock. That the McRidge's were reasonably wealthy, was a fact that had eluded her up to that point. Sitting down on the exceptionally comfortable leather sofa offered to her, that was but one of three in the room, and looking across at the wall-mounted monstrosity of a screen really helped hammer the new piece of information home.
"Can I get you something to drink?" James asked from across the room.
"No need, thank you. I don't intend on taking up too much of your time."
The young man nodded and moved to claim a spot on the other end of the sofa. He sat with an expectant expression on his face, that remained through a silence of several long seconds. "Is something wrong?" he finally asked.
"No," Lana blurted out. "Yes. Not exactly." She sighed loudly. The sensation of butterflies in her stomach was one she could not ignore. It was laughable that she, a woman nearing forty, could be so troubled by a simple conversation with a man nearly half her age. "This is difficult," she admitted.
"Something about me and Megan?"
"Yes," Lana confirmed. "It's... Well... I heard from... someone, that you and my daughter hadn't... well, you know...."
One of James' eyebrows rose up.
Seeing she had no choice but to spell it out, Lana's cheeks grew heated.
"...Had sex," she reluctantly finished, her eyes cast down at the floor.
"Oh...." James' smile seemed to hint at a mixture of embarrassment and amusement. Lana could not blame him. "It's true," he admitted.
"Why?" Lana blurted out, her eyes snapped to the young man. "How?" She looked over him again. "You're good looking, in shape, young.... She is too. Is it for religious reasons?"
"Not religious," James said simply with a shake of his head.
"What then? I didn't want to pry into her life, but I've been losing sleep over this. I can't help it!"
James sighed. "Megan's always told me how close you two are. Upsetting you was the last thing on our minds. Really." He looked across at the wall, sighed again, then turned to face Lana once more. "The truth then. Just, stop me if we reach the point of 'too much information', okay?"
"Of course. Please."
"Right, so, it's not like we don't know how it works or anything crazy like that. Porn exists, you know?"
The question seemed rhetorical, but Lana offered a nod while trying to ignore how red her cheeks still were.
"I guess it's more...." James paused again. "Yeah, that's it. Like one of the first things I ever learnt about sex, was it's often bad for the girl."
"What!?" Lana blurted out.
"The first time, I mean." James ran a hand through his hair and laughed. "Sorry. Uh, so, yeah.... I don't really have any experience. Neither does she. We've been really happy together, and I guess, we didn't want to ruin things. By, uh, well..." James laughed again. "We've been calling it: 'fucking up fucking'."
"I see." Lana nodded a few times. "Yes, that makes sense, of a sort." She smiled. "'Fucking up fucking'? I think I understand." She managed to hold the young man's eyes for only a few seconds before she was looking at the floor again, and wringing her hands in her lap. "You're together, and therefore can't gain experience elsewhere...."
"Exactly."
"... Then, your plan is to... not have sex?"
James laughed loudly. "God, no. We've sort of decided to wait a while. Maybe two years, maybe four. Because, you know, by then, even if it's bad, we'll still be good. Or that's what we're thinking at least."
"Two to four years?" Lana blinked slowly.
"That's the best we could come up with. Could be we've missed something, but, you know, not the easiest subject to bring up with people." James wiggled his eyebrows and smiled.
"Indeed," Lana smiled back, while already paying more attention to pondering the news internally.
The speculated timeline put her daughter at twenty-two or twenty-four for her first time. Lana herself had begun at the age of fifteen and never once looked back. She had to admit her first time had hardly been the best in her life, but it
had
been an important part of her overall learning experience and growth. To be okay with delaying it so many years — delaying learning about herself and her body — seemed close to madness.
Her daughter's happiness was on the line.
"What if I...?" Lana's mouth snapped shut before she could finish. The idea was almost unthinkable. Or was it? Her mouth opened again, closed, then opened.
"Are you okay, Mrs. Pink?"
Lana stared at her reflection in the glassy screen of the television. It may well have been the hardest decision of her life. For her daughter's sake, she could do it. She would do it.
"What if I... helped?" She forced herself to hold the young man's gaze, and ignore the rapid beating of her heart.
"Helped?" James asked dumbly.
"
Helped
