“Anyway, how are you liking your fi
rst date with a woman?”
“Can I be honest?”
Chloë’s face fell and Morgan couldn’t help but laugh. She reached across the table and rested her hand on Chloë’s arm.
“Relax,” she told Chloë. “I wasn’t about to tell you I’m having a lousy time.”
Chloë let out a breath.
“Whew! Thank god!”
“No. What I was about to tell you is that I am having an amazing time and the funny thing is, I haven’t been sitting here thinking about the fact that I’m on a date with a woman.”
“Gee, thanks!” Chloë blurted, playfully tossing a sugar packet at Morgan.
“Not what I meant,” Morgan assured her. “Trust me, I’m very much aware of the fact that you are all woman.”
And had been aware of it since she opened the door of her house a couple of hours ago to find Chloë on her front porch.
That dress! That amazing dress! And…well, just Chloë! Such a beautiful woman!
And my date!
“What I meant,” Morgan continued, “was that my enjoyment of tonight stems not from the fact that I’m on a date with a woman but…” Morgan swallowed “…that I’m on a date with you.”
Chloë beamed a megawatt smile and Morgan breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t been sure how that statement would be taken by her date but apparently it had been taken well, even though, now that Morgan thought about it, it sounded like a cheesy line from some romcom starring Natalie Portman.
But cheesy or not, it was true.
She was enjoying tonight because she was with Chloë.
“So…have you figured out why all of a sudden you’re interested in women?” Chloë asked. And Morgan could tell that even though Chloë tried to ask the question breezily, she truly wanted to know the answer.
The problem was, Morgan still wasn’t sure what the answer was herself.
Before their date, Naomi had emailed Morgan links to some articles and studies online about women who had developed an attraction to other women later in life. Morgan had read them all, fascinated. Apparently, this was a thing and Morgan had had no idea. But even though it was heartening to realize that she wasn’t alone in waking up one day and—boom!—being crazy-attracted to a woman, the material she read didn’t help her determine if she had always been a lesbian but just didn’t know it or if she was simply only attracted to this one particular woman, Chloë.
Morgan spent a few minutes explaining this to Chloë, stopping briefly only when their server delivered their desserts. She also mentioned Naomi’s friend Patty, the formerly hetero woman who was now a card-carrying lesbian.
“I’m not saying that’s what is happening to me, mind,” Morgan warned.
“Dude, I totally get it.”
“For right now, though, here is what I can tell you.” Morgan took a breath. “I like being with you. I like being with you like this, on a date, just the two of us. I like looking forward to hearing from you each day. And guess what else?”
“What?”
“I also like kissing you.”
Morgan stared at Chloë, who stared back at her, both women letting the moment linger between them.
It was Morgan who broke the spell first.
Taking another bite of her cheesecake, she said, “Anyway, does this mean I’m a lesbian? I don’t know. I figure we go on thirty, thirty-five more dates and then I’ll have good idea.” She bit the inside of her cheek to stop from smiling.
“Thirty-five?” Chloë asked. “I’ll be your age by the time we’re done!”