Chapter 9: The Announcement

Kay-Lynn and my mother returned from the dining room after less than 15 minutes and walked into the room arm in arm and both of them smiling broadly.

I stood up from the settee and approached them.

“Drew,” my mother beamed at me, “I have to tell you what a wonderful choice you’ve made for a partner. I know that you’ve agreed with Kay to be together initially on a trial basis, but for as long as you are together, I want to consider Kay to be my daughter and hope in my heart that you remain together, forever.”

I raised my eyebrows and switched my gaze to Kay-Lynn, or is she being adopted by the simplified form of Kay to my family now? She returned my look with a ‘sorry’ silently mouthed, accompanied by a slight shrug of the shoulders.

I know my mother can be a force to be reckoned with but this sense of Kay-Lynn’s ready acceptance into my family, her easy level of friendship with my mother, already bordering on mother-daughter love was unexpected but pleased me greatly, so I smiled back at Kay, if that is now her family name.

“I don’t have any problem with Kay being regarded as your daughter, Mum, in fact I love it,” I said, hugging them both together.

My father got up behind me and, as I released my hug, my father approached Kay with his arms outstretched and Kay happily shared a hug with Dad.

“Welcome to the family, my dear daughter Kay,” Dad said to her, “please call me Dad, as it would please me no end.”

I think Kay was close to tears and speechless but she smiled at my dad and nodded before hugging him back.

“Right, Mum and Dad, please sit down on the settee,” I said, “and come stand by my side will you please, Kay sweetheart?”

Mum sat down and Dad took her hand in his, which surprised me a little as I had expected them to remain apart like when we first entered the room and assumed they would sit more than a little apart and certainly not holding hands. Kay joined me by my side and we held hands.

“I know that over the last 18 or so years I have been a bit of a disappointment as a single child who showed little inclination in bonding with anyone and even less likely to be starting a family of my own,” I said. “And, other than Mum once having a few words with me about desiring grandchildren before she grew too old to enjoy them, she has otherwise seemed to accept that I might always remain single or perhaps even choose a male as a companion should I choose to commit to a long-term relationship with a partner. Kay is well aware of my confusion over my sexuality during my early adult years, I have nothing to hide from her and I hope we will always be honest with each other about our feelings.” Kay squeezed my hand and I squeezed back.

“I lost my virginity to a girl, about 18 years ago now and I did go out with a few girls in my late teens, in fact for a short while I confess I became a bit of a man-whore, but being young, stupid, extremely horny and indiscriminate, I got rather careless and caught an STD for the first and only time and had to see Monty about it.”

“I hope he put you straight about taking precautions, Drew?” my father asked seriously.

“He did and because I knew him so well and also knew that he would keep such matters just between the pair of us, I discussed with him that I always felt that something was missing in my relationships with girls, that some part of me wanted a man instead of a woman as a sexual partner. I confessed that because every friend I knew at the time were decidedly heterosexual, my sexuality wasn’t something I could discuss with anyone until this opportunity arose over a sexual matter. Monty was very good with me, he advised that I should feel free to follow my desires in moderation, because casual sex had its dangers that could be at worse life-threatening and even mild infections could be life-changing. He advised taking precautions and avoiding unprotected sex, especially as I was indulging in sex for pleasure and not procreation, and to have regular half-yearly discrete check ups with his specialist STD nurse. When we ran through my then-current history, the rather rampant kind of sex life I was having and thinking of possibly embarking on same-sex adventures, he ramped up the six-monthly checks to quarterly checks, which I have been having regularly ever since until about a year or so ago.”

“What happened a year ago?” my mother asked.

“Before I answer that, I just wanted to say that I was nervous about approaching gay men at first but that gradually went away and I honestly felt, for about the last decade or so that I truly was a gay man who enjoyed playing that particular field quite promiscuously. I was changing partners so regularly that I rarely had sex more than once with anyone and had never ever even slept after sex with anyone; we just did the nasty deed and parted, often to never see each other again. Kay here,” and we squeezed hands again as I spoke, “is the only person that I have slept with and it has been wonderful waking up with someone who is beautifully messy bed-haired and with stale breath, and that goes for both of us!”

Kay tugged my hand, so I turned to look at her and as she reached up, I leaned down and she kissed me gently on the lips. “Just checking, your morning breath doesn’t repel me ... not much anyway, sweetheart.”

“That’s good to know.” I laughed and turned to my parents. “Anyway, over a year ago it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually got laid for about six months or so and hadn’t really missed it. I felt my casual sex life had lost most of its appeal and noticed that I had actually been tailing off pairing up with anyone ever since the nightclub opened in my building. That had became my new local for two years now and I had stopped going to gay bars. I still felt I had friends with benefits to call on if I ever felt the need but the gaps between having sex had gradually grown wider and then I lost my sex drive completely. Just like that. I got to thinking that the whole sex thing was too much effort for what little pleasure I was getting out of the whole process. I found myself going downstairs to the nightclub, having just one or two whiskies and enjoying a few dances but mostly just watching how loving couples interacted, how angry couples behaved by flirting and upsetting each other, and then I saw the predators, the hunt for prey or potential victims and realised that was what I had once become, I had been one of those uncaring predators. I felt disgusted with myself and readily accepted that I didn’t want to be that person any more.