Thank you. And good morning.”
In answer, he set the mug down, put his arm around my waist, and pulled me into his lap. “Morning,” he said. “We’ll share the coffee, how’s that. I like your pretty dressing gown.”
I told the girls, “We need to get you some of these,” then explained to Gray, “You don’t wear dressing gowns at Mount Zion. You wake up and get dressed, and you get undressed just before you go to bed. Lounging in your dressing gown is slothful, and sloth is one of the seven deadly sins. Normally, the girls would have been up for at least an hour and a half by now. Earlier, if they were on Cooking rotation.”
Frankie said, “Uh, Daisy? You’re sitting in Gray’s lap.”
“And you’re showing again,” Oriana pointed out.
I looked down. It was true. I said, “Whoops,” and adjusted the dressing gown.
Honor said, “Breakfast, I think,” and got up to fix it.
I said, “I can do it.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said. “You’re too comfortable there.”
I couldn’t tell what she thought. I could worry about that, except that I didn’t seem able to.
Frankie said, “You didn’t come home until morning.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I didn’t.”
“Honor said Gray didn’t, either,” she said.
“Also true,” Gray said.
“Where did you sleep?” Frankie asked.
“In a hotel room,” I said. Gray was getting more than he’d bargained for here, I was sure.
Oriana asked, “Did you have sex?”
I said, “Yes.”
She asked, “Was it nice? Or not?”
“It was very nice,” I said. “It was more than that.” I should shut this down, but here we were, modeling a respectful, mutually pleasurable sexual relationship for them, right? So maybe …
I wasn’t sure, because Honor wasn’t saying anything at all. She was just coming over with another coffee and setting it in front of me.
“It didn’t hurt?” Frankie asked. “Really?”
I said, “No. It felt amazing. It felt awesome. All the things you read about—or that you haven’t, but you will—that was how it felt. Women are made for pleasure the same way men are, I found out. And it’s never felt one bit that way before, so that was Gray. It’s different if a man is patient, and if he’s kind. Also if he knows what he’s doing.”
Gray said, “Is this a Mount Zion thing? The frankness? I’m just asking.”
“More or less,” I said. “The other girls will ask about it, at the … I guess you’d call it the wedding reception.”
“Oh,” he said. “Is the groom generally present at the time?”
“No.” That was Frankie. “He’s talking to his mates. Telling them as well. What, don’t they do that, Outside?”
“No,” Gray said. “Not once you’re grown, at least. And not when you’re a teenager, either, unless you’re a certain kind of kid.”
“Women do talk,” I said. “Outside. Really, though? Men don’t?” This was more comfortable, anyway. More abstract. I could deal with “abstract.”
“No,” Gray said. “Talking about what you did with a girl is a di—” He stopped, and went on. “A jerk move.”
“Why would it be OK for women to talk and not for men?” Oriana asked. “I thought you said men and women were the same, Outside.”
“I may have been a bit wrong about that,” Gray said. “Or call it incomplete, because it’s complicated.” He sat back, his hand on my hip, drinking his coffee, and whatever he’d said, this line of chat didn’t seem to be bothering him all that much.
But then, if you made love like that, you probably weren’t too worried about what women would say.
Gray went on, “I reckon it’s the way they talk. Women share because they want to tell somebody how they feel, or at least that’s how it seems to me. They want advice, maybe, if it wasn’t good, if they’re worried they didn’t do something right. Or just to share, if it was good. What d’you think, Mum?”
“I think I raised a good son,” she said.
“Whereas men can share,” Gray went on, “more for competition. If it wasn’t good, if he didn’t perform the way he wanted to, if he’s worried about it? He’s not telling anybody about that other than his doctor. Maybe. But usually, the kind of man who talks isn’t interested in sharing his feelings. He’s interested in sharing what he got a woman to do. He’s sharing that to humiliate her, at least in his mind. She’s going to go out with him next time, not realizing he’s been laughing about her with all his mates, and that he’ll laugh after this time,