Morgan frowned.
“Why would you call U-Haul in the first place?” she asked.
“Oh, Morgan, Morgan, Morgan…you have so much to learn!” Naomi patted Morgan’s leg. “In the meantime, just tell me what happened after the second kiss!”
“I made her pancakes.”
Naomi blinked.
“Pancakes?”
“Yeah, that lesbian tradition of the kisser making the kissee pancakes?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Morgan laughed.
“Just kidding. Something Chloë was pulling my leg about. But after she said it, pancakes actually sounded really good and so I made some.”
“Ooh, making her breakfast already,” Naomi teased. “That’s incredibly fast, even for a lesbian.”
Morgan stared at Naomi. That word. Lesbian. It was the first time Morgan had ever heard it used directly as a reference to herself. It changed the word somehow. Suddenly, it was no longer just another word to be used—like all other words—only when needed to describe something specific, in this case, a woman who is sexually attracted to other women. Now, it was becoming personal.
“What’s on your mind?” Naomi queried.
“Just trying to wrap my mind around being called a lesbian,” Morgan confessed.
Naomi chuckled.
“Sweetie, relax! I was joking. Besides, you can’t properly be called a lesbian yet. There’s a whole written exam you have to pass. However…” Naomi trailed off.
“However, what?” Morgan prodded.
Naomi bit her lip, thinking. Finally, she said, “Did you ever do that homework assignment I gave you? Looking up your situation on Google?”
It took Morgan a moment but then she remembered. Something about how her feeling attracted to women at this stage in her life wasn’t all that unusual.
“No, sorry; it slipped my mind,” she confessed.
“Such a bad student! No worries, I’ll do it myself and send you links to some articles I found online a while back for my friend Patty.”
The name rang a bell in Morgan’s mind.
“Patty?” she asked. “Didn’t you just introduce me to a Patty that night at the coffeeshop?”
Naomi nodded.
“What does she have to do with this?” Morgan queried.
“Well…she’s our age but she only started dating women less than two years ago.”
“So, she’s bi?”
“No,” Naomi answered. “According to her, she passed the written exam and is now a certified lesbian. But also, according to her, for most of her life she was attracted to and happily dated men. She was even married. They have a daughter!”
Oh!
“I’m not suggesting your situation and Patty’s are the same,” Naomi added hurriedly. “But it might help you understand a bit about what you’re going through and maybe help you process it more easily.”