She shot me a dirty look. “It’s a practical arrangement only.”
I ignored that comment and asked a question of my own. “Don’t men and women have sex in the Motherlands?”
She shrugged. “I suppose some do. I have friends who are coupled. Theresa and Dan have been together for years, but I never see them touch each other, and most people live in community buildings where we share meals but have our own rooms. I live with Kya.”
I scrunched my face. “You live with a woman?”
“Yeah.”
“Is she your lover?”
“No!” Her answer came quickly and then she gave me a curious smile. “Kya is my best friend. Why? Do you have sex with any of your friends?”
I shook my head. “No – I mean, sure we experimented when we were teens, but I can honestly say that I fantasize about women only – I’ve just never been with a real woman,” I elaborated.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down. What do you mean you experimented when you were teens?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Nothing.”
“Is that normal?” she asked like she was onto something profound. “For teenage boys to experiment sexually? Do men experiment too?”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “I don’t know what other men do, and I’m not in the mood to entertain you with my teenage memories.”
“Just tell me if you…” She trailed off, unable to ask the obvious question.
“No,” I said.
“No, you didn’t, or no, you don’t want to answer the question,” she asked.
“Christina, just let it go.” I sighed.
“No, I’m trying to understand the culture among Nmen, and you just gave me a very interesting piece of information.”
“What? That teenage boys are constantly horny and experimenting? That’s hardly groundbreaking research right there. It’s been like that since the beginning of mankind. I don’t think we were any different than generations before us.”
“But what did you do?”
I looked away. “The usual.”
“And what would that be?”
“You really want to know?” I puffed up my pillow again and liked that I was in the same bed as her and not on the sofa.
“Yes, I’m very curious,” she whispered.
“We masturbated together, compared sizes, some of the guys jerked each other off; others did more, but I wasn’t one of them.”
Her face was completely flushed and she was watching me so intensely that it felt intimate between us.
“So you never?” she asked.
I waited for her to speak the words but again, she couldn’t.
“Did I fuck another guy?”
Her breathing stopped for a moment.
“Does it matter?” I asked.
