“You mean those things I was doing to you in your room didn’t just feel illegal, they actually were?”
“I said for the men. As usual, the women are forgotten. Even when it comes to sodomy.”
“That’s good for us, I guess. You really liked that sodomy.”
Genevieve lightly smacked Aya’s arm with a gasp. “You’re the threat with a strap-on!” she cried. “I knew as soon as you started wearing one, we’d be in big trouble.”
“You mean you. You were the one who would be in trouble. I checked you the day I met you that you liked it like that.”
“From the first day we met? Really?”
“Okay, maybe the first night we had sex.”
Genevieve shook her head with a laugh on her lips. “From talking about my parents to you with a sex toy. Really, now?”
“That’s how these conversations go now, Genny. We’re in too deep.”
“It feels that way, huh?”
They reached a silent impasse. Yes. Aya had to concur. They really were in deep. That was why Genevieve came to meet the parents. It was serious.
“Genny.” Aya took her girlfriend’s hand. “I like you a lot.”
Genevieve’s expectant visage softened. “I really like you a lot, too.”
Their hands squeezed together. “I want to see where this goes,” Aya continued. “Even if I can’t promise you the moon and stars right now, I want to keep seeing you. You make me feel things I thought were…”
Genevieve cocked her head. “You thought were what?”
I can’t believe I’m so embarrassed. That’s how Aya knew her feelings were real. She didn’t want to botch this – she didn’t want to say the wrong thing or make Genevieve feel something less than perfect. “Only in dramas and love songs.”
A happy sigh barely covered Genevieve’s mouth, threatening to twitch into a big, girlish grin. “That’s one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me.”
“No way.”
“Believe it or not, yeah.”
Aya didn’t loosen her grip on Genevieve because she didn’t intend the touch, but because she was overwhelmed with what she wanted to say in a language she had to intentionally learn throughout her life. “I’ve been in relationships before. Some of them lasted a while. I was happy with most of them. They ended because we wanted different things. We were better off as friends. One of us had too much baggage at the time. But…”
“Yes?”
“I always thought I knew what it was like to be in love. Especially those first few times, you know. When you’re young and it tears you up inside, whether it’s an American girl in college or someone who looks like you in the bar.”
Genevieve nodded.
Tell her, already. Aya was so close. She knew Genevieve waited to hear it.
“I love you, Genny.”
“It’s different with you.”
“How so?” Genevieve softly asked.
“I don’t know. I’m still trying to put that into words. In any language.”
Genevieve lifted her hand and touched her girlfriend’s cheek. “Sometimes it’s hard to understand when it happens so quickly and easily. You question it every step of the way. Love’s not supposed to be easy, yet here it is, wrapping you in a big, warm embrace that feels as familiar as the day you were born.”
She lowered her hand. Aya still couldn’t breathe.