"Gabrielle?"
Gabby gave me one last look of dread before heading off behind the closed door and leaving me in the waiting room. It was Tuesday, four days after Halloween. Four days after I'd lost my mind and any good sense that came with it and fucked her without protection. After a hasty dash to the pharmacy for Plan B, I'd declared we were seeing to the birth control issue immediately.
So there I was, the only man in the ob/gyn waiting area. If I'd cared, the weird looks we'd received would bother me, because of course a much older man escorting a teenager into the gynecologist was probably unusual. In the eyes of those strangers, I was either a pretty pervy older guy, or a hero dad. I'm sure no one thought for a second that I was both.
While I wouldn't say I'd dragged Gabby in kicking and screaming, she was still pretty timid and hesitant to go. I was trying to be sensitive to that, even though I didn't understand why. It needed to happen regardless of whether or not I was fucking her, Mitch was for sure. I'd tiptoed around the issue with Stella over the weekend to try and encourage openness about it so Gabby and I weren't sneaking around about at least one thing. I also thought my doctor wife would be more comforting and reassuring to our uneasy patient.
"Have you ever talked to Gabby about protection?" I'd asked.
Stella stared blankly at me. "No. I've talked to Gabby about not having sex."
"Stell, c'mon. She's an adult now. She's dating a 23 year old."
She sighed. "I told her ages ago that it was a really big deal and that she shouldn't rush into anything, but instead focus on her future. Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You know who are parents are right?" I was joking, though it was true I'd gotten Stella pregnant when she was 20 and I was 18. I was in a band at the time. Neither of us was on a very clear path to success.
"Exactly. She knows our story and if anything, we are the exception. We're very fortunate to be where we are now and it wasn't easy. I don't want either of the kids thinking there aren't serious consequences."
The look on my face must not have changed much.
"Ugh, I told her she could come to me if she decided to."
And that was why I was seeing to Gabby's birth control. Was she 18? Yes. Should she be fully capable of making the right choices and managing it herself? Also, yes. But apparently we hadn't done our girl any favors by sheltering her and living in denial ourselves.
Gabby emerged about 30 minutes later, I took care of business at the counter, and we walked out into the November air side by side.
"You good?" I asked.
"They're sending a script to the pharmacy and they'll text me when it's ready."
She was all business making her way to my Navigator. Once in, we fastened our seatbelts and I started the engine. A blast of cold swirled around our feet. Gabby was still, hands between her thighs, and looking straight ahead.
"Gabby. Are you good?"
"Sure," she said casually.
I let it go and instead asked, "So when do you start taking it?"
Blood rushed to her cheeks, but she rallied enough to say, "The first day of my next period."
"Which is?"
"Um, about a week."
"Are you not sure?"
She sighed, still not meeting my eyes. "It should be this weekend. As long as the um, other stuff doesn't mess with it." She started talking to the side window. "Dr. Brewer said it could, but it's not likely."
I made no move to put the car in gear or leave our parking space. When Gabby noticed, she finally looked at me. I was already turned her way so I put a hand to her face, sliding my fingers into the silky hair at her temple. For a split second, her expression said that she thought about pulling away, but she didn't. Instead, she lowered her eyes to my throat and pulled her hands out from between her thighs and fiddled with the zipper of her jacket.
"Why are you uncomfortable?" She shrugged. "Are you still ok about what happened on Halloween?" She nodded. "Do we need to slow this down?" She shook her head.
I'd say this was my least favorite part of having a teenage daughter, but it was actually my least favorite part of the female species, in general. The guessing game.
She did pull away then. "Can we stop talking about this? It's embarrassing."
"What?" I shook my head a little, surprised she was that affected. She'd texted me a picture of her tits that morning, but talking about having sex with me was too much?
"It's crazy humiliating to talk about this stuff with you!"
"Me, your Dad? Or me, a guy you're fucking?"
She cringed. "Both."
I guess I was used to Stella, or rather the relationship it took us nearly two decades to establish, and how easy it was to talk about anything at all. But if her mother wasn't very open with her about sex, it would be awkward to jump into conversations about it with her father.
"I need you to talk to me about this stuff. I promise you, this is normal. Guys can handle hearing a girl talk about birth control and periods." She flinched on that last word. "Gabby. I know what vaginas do. I've even seen a human come out of one." I made a show of having the chills and being freaked out. She smiled. Finally.
"We need to work on this."
"On what, exactly?"
"Intimacy. This is intimacy. You are perfectly fine with me telling you all the nasty little things I want to do with you, and I don't know if you've noticed, but you really like my dirty mouth, but you can't do this part. It'll be hard to maintain that with anyone unless you can share all the awkward human stuff too."
She nodded again.
"I told you you'd get honesty from me. I also told you there weren't going to be any barriers between us, and just to say baby, I was not only talking about condoms."
"I guess so, geez," she muttered, deadpan.
"Now, do you want any food before I take you back to school?"
