All characters in this story are at least eighteen years old.
When her mother left, I was left with the task of raising Jamie myself. It's easier for me to say "left" than it is to say she died. I wasn't prepared to be a father when she was born, but as they say, there's no manual on how to be a good parent. I learned as I went along, picking up the tricks of the trade as time passed. When her mother died, the feelings of inexperience and uncertainty flooded me once again. The only solace I had was Jamie's aunt who checked in on me from time to time.
Jamie was a beautiful young woman. She was a spitting image of her mother, yet she retained a healthy mixture of features from both of us. She had her dark, straight hair and my green eyes. Her Aunt Sharen always said Jamie had the nose of her grandfather and the build of her grandmother. I don't know where she got her high cheek bones from, though, but in all, I don't think anyone could contest that she was certainly attractive in almost every way.
Her mother departed us five years ago when Jamie was thirteen, and now at eighteen, I thought I had the single dad thing figured out. Life has a way of throwing curve balls at you when you least expect them. Jamie approached me one day with one of those curve balls.
"Dad, do you have a moment?" she asked.
"Of course. Give me a minute to finish this document and I'm all yours," I said, giving her a quick smile, and began typing again.
I closed the laptop once I was finished and swung around in my chair, facing Jamie as she sat on the love seat behind me.
"What can I do for ya, kiddo?"
She studied me briefly while fidgeting with her jewelry and asked, "Dad, this is about sex. I know we had 'the talk,' but it wasn't really enough, ya know?"
I thought back to said talk and recalled me providing her with the typical birds and bees routine as any parent would.
"No, I can't say that I actually know. What's on your mind?" I said, a little confused.
"I think I might like girls," she stated bluntly.
Shit.
I was mature enough as a father and she was all grown up so I thought I was prepared for anything she would throw at me in that arena. I was not prepared, it seemed.
"Do you mean you like only girls, or do you like girls as well as boys?" I asked, attempting to see if I was going to be of any use to her at all.
"I don't know, I haven't had sex yet, so it's hard for me to accurately answer that," she said, with a small crinkle of confusion on her forehead.
I internally let out a sigh of relief at her admission, but that information made it quite a bit more difficult for me to help her.
"Okay, well, I don't know how much help I can be here, but I know someone who might have a little experience that can maybe answer your questions."
I immediately thought of Sharen. Jamie grew up oblivious to the sexual life her mother and I had and even more so, that of her aunt. Her mother and Sharen were very close and shared a lot between them. I was one of them at first. When her mother met me, she and her sister were sharing an apartment close to me. She was very honest with me from the start, saying I was the target of a shared fantasy of theirs.
They weren't having sex with each other as far as I was aware at the time, but they wanted to find a guy who would be willing to please them both. I was told up front that they were sisters but that they had no sexual contact with each other. I later found this to be subjective, but I was living every man's dream. We carried on like that until Sharen found a boyfriend and I fell for her sister. I was still very close to Sharen but didn't carry on like that again until after my wife died.
It started with the initial visits to make sure we were okay. She would come over often and stay for long periods of time. During those visits, we got kind of reacquainted. Then, it was almost like a courtship for friends with benefits. We felt each other out about possibly resuming our previous physical relationship and after a couple years, we finally started where we left off. That trailed off about six months after it started, though.
"You're talking about Aunt Sharen, aren't you?" she asked, a little disappointed it seemed.
"I actually am, yes. She is the older woman in your life, and I feel she could best help you in this regard. I certainly don't want you looking up information on the internet or asking an inexperienced friend," I informed her.
"I guess that's true. Do you know if she has... experience?" she interrogated me.
I certainly wasn't going to tell her about our past.
"I don't know," I lied, "but she is a woman and I think she might have the right perspective for you. Would you like me to ask if she'll talk to you about this? I don't see her saying no," I added.
"Please and thank you, Dad. I've just had feelings lately I don't really understand, and I wanted to ask questions," she told me.
"I understand and I appreciate you coming to me. You know I'll answer any question have as long as I know the answer," I reminded her.
She hugged me and asked me to let her know what she says. I told her I would and picked up my phone as Jamie walked out of the room. As I was texting Sharen, Jamie stopped at the door and spun around, grasping at the door frame.
"Dad, would it be okay if Kat stayed over tonight?"
"Sure, honey, you know she's always welcome to come over here," I told her.
Katerina was Jamie's best friend since grade school and the only one she ever routinely had stay over. Jamie wasn't overly popular, but I recall thinking she would be more into bigger sleepovers as a young teenager.
She smiled at me and left the room as I resumed texting.
Me: Hi, Sharen, do you have a moment?
Sharen: You know I do!
Me: Jamie hit me up with a situation I'm not prepared to deal with myself.
I saw that she was typing but it would stop. This happened several times before she responded.
Sharen: Did she say she thinks she's gay?
Me: LOL! Close, but no. She said she think she might like girls. She hasn't had sex yet so she can't speak from experience about whether she's bi or straight lesbian.
Sharen: You'd like me to talk to her, I gather?
Me: I would owe you big time.
Sharen: Yeah? What would you owe me? ;)
Me: Why do I feel like I know where this is going?
Sharen: Because you know where this is going. Look, you know I'm single now and we should be getting together a little more often.
Me: You've always been straight forward with your thoughts...
Sharen: Yes, and it's a lot better than beating around the bush. We're not getting any younger, you know.
