Emma and I were the only ones home in the morning. I heard her in the shower, and both Mom's and Lia's cars were gone.
I laid on the couch in the family room, watching ESPN, curled up in my blanket.
She came into the room and sat on a chair beside me at around 9:00am. I glanced at her. She wasn't chilling out comfortably; she sat forward on the chair, knees together, and her arms were wrapped around her waist in a kind of self-hug.
After a few minutes, she said, "Pause it? I want to talk."
I grabbed the remote and hit the button. The room fell silent.
We looked at each other, and she seemed depressed, maybe even ashamed.
"What's wrong, Em?"
"I wanted to tell you something, and I hate it."
I wasn't sure what to say, so I waited.
She sighed. "I started going out with Kevin again, a few days ago, after...you know, the whole Aunt Blair thing."
"Yeah," I muttered.
"I'm sorry."
I rolled my body to better face her. "Em, you don't owe me an apology. You haven't—I don't know—promised me anything. Free to be with whoever you want. Same as me."
"I know," she said, nodding. "I know. I just...it was before you told us what really happened with her, and I was mad at you."
"Don't like him or something?"
"No, he's okay."
"Nice to you? Respects you?"
She nodded.
"Happy for you, Em. Not mad."
"Thank you," she said, "but..."
"What?"
"If I had only known sooner..."
"Known what, Em? What's going on?"
"I...I let him have sex with me. I'm not a virgin anymore."
I stared at her for a moment. "You okay? Everything okay?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Good," I responded, still unclear as to what was bothering her. "So...?"
"So, I wanted it to be with you!" she snapped. "Don't you see? If I had known sooner..."
"Oh."
"And I went out with him again last night, and he wanted to, and I...I felt like I had to let him."
I froze. "Didn't force you, did he?" I demanded.
"No!"
I relaxed.
She continued, "No, I just felt like I had to, and it was okay, but I hate myself for doing it."
I let out a small chuckle.
"It isn't funny!" Emma cried.
"No. No. I'm sorry, Em," I began, "Just reminds me of Aunt Blair. Didn't plan on it or want to, but it happened, and now I regret it, you know?"
"Oh," she said. "Yeah."
We both glanced at the paused image on the tv screen.
She broke the silence. "I wanted to tell you because, if you wanted to be with me again, I wanted you to know why...why I can't."
I didn't respond.
"I don't want to cheat on Kevin."
I nodded.
"Did you want to? Be with me again?"
"Yeah," I said. "I love being with you."
She sighed. We stared at the screen again until she said, "So, Lia told me you had sex yesterday."
"Yeah. Sort of."
"She told me about the condoms," Emma said. A beat passed, and she started laughing.
I glanced at her and smiled.
"I can't believe she didn't know about sizes!" Emma guffawed.
I said, "I only remembered when I saw it on the box."
"You didn't know, either?"
I shook my head.
She laughed again.
It was nice to see her happy.
She said, "I don't even need them; I'm on the pill." Then, she fell silent for a time. At the end of it, she asked, "Did you like it? Fucking her?"
I nodded. "Wish it lasted longer."
"Did you like...," she paused, and continued in almost a whisper, "...fucking her in the ass?"
I nodded.
We stared at each other, and her eyes fell away first.
"Em, did you like licking Lia?" I asked.
She glanced at me, took a breath, and said, "I'm no lesbian. I just...I guess I liked that she liked it. That make any sense?"
"Sexy to make someone else feel sexy?"
"Yeah," she agreed.
I glanced at the clock. She saw me and looked, too.
I hauled the blanket from underneath myself and slid forward to the end of the couch to get up.
She said, "Time for you to fill a cup?"
I nodded. "Second to last one." I stood and walked toward the stairs. "See ya, Em."
"Hey, do you think...forget it."
"What?" I asked.
She shook her head, and I walked up the stairs. At the top, I heard her call to me.
I stopped.
She was peering around the corner. "Can I see it again? One last time. Maybe just hold it for a second?"
I said, "You mean my..." I pointed toward my groin.
She nodded.
"Guess so. Sure."
***
Hooking my thumbs in the elastic waistband of my sweatpants, I paused.
She saw that I waited on her and nodded. "Go ahead."
I pulled my pants and boxers down, then kicked them off. I had already removed my shirt. I tugged off each sock and tossed them on the floor.
Emma looked at my penis. Glancing up at me, she said, "Are you going to make it hard?"
"Said you wanted to hold it. Might help."
She put her hands on her hips. "I'm not going to give you a hand job. I've got a boyfriend, and I'm not going to cheat on him."
"This isn't cheating?"
"No, it's looking."
"And when you hold it?"
"Touching, but not sexual touching. Touching to just see it and feel it one last time," she explained.
I raised an eyebrow.
She sighed. "Look, just lay down."
I walked over and slid in bed, rolling onto my back.
She came over and sat beside me.
When she reached for it, I said, "I get to see yours one last time, too."
Her hand stopped mid-reach, and she looked up at me, thinking. "Deal," she said, and then she lightly took hold of the shaft. "Starting to get hard?"