Chapter 15

By the time we reached the camp gate, Manfred and Jenny were making out again. Gina had helped me slip my shirt over my head and was snuggled next to me, her soft breast pressed against my bare skin. After nearly running the car off the road, we decided it was probably best for me to put my shorts back on.

Susan unlocked the gate and then pulled through. I followed, put the car in Park, and got out to relock the chain. Before I got back in the car, I discreetly slipped off my shorts and underwear. Gina smiled as I slid behind the wheel. She tucked herself next to me, and began gently playing with my dick.

“I missed this,” she said quietly.

Behind us, Manfred and Jenny were too wrapped up in each other to overhear.

“Me too,” I said.

I really didn’t know what to think about what had happened during the drive home. On a purely physical level, I’d certainly enjoyed myself. On an emotional level, I’d also enjoyed myself. But I also wondered if things were moving too fast.

After all, Gina had had a week to work through her feelings, and only the utter shock of the previous night had forced her to change her behavior or risk losing me. The previous night was still a raw wound for me, one that had barely begun to heal. Just thinking about her childish attitude made me a little angry.

But now she seemed to be genuinely repentant. I felt certain that I’d be able to tell if she were just pretending. What purpose could she have if she were pretending? None that I could see. Why rebuild trust with someone you’re not interested in? No reason. So I assumed her apology had been genuine and she honestly wanted to work things out.

That left me in a minor quandary, although it wasn’t an emotional one. Even the night before, when I’d still been fuming, I knew I loved her. But I didn’t want to appear to give in too quickly. I guess I didn’t want to send the signal that she could ride roughshod over me, regardless of the consequences, and I’d unconditionally forgive her.

I certainly didn’t want her to go overboard trying to make up for her behavior, but I also didn’t want her to think she could treat me the way she had and then simply fix everything by crying and saying she was sorry. An apology went a long way, but I guess I wanted to know that she wouldn’t do the same thing again. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to tell if she would or wouldn’t.

With a sigh of resignation, I carefully pulled the station wagon behind our cabin. Fortunately, we’d been driving with the windows open and it didn’t reek of sex. Besides, my parents were nowhere to be seen (we didn’t know what time we would return, so they weren’t waiting for us). I decided to leave the windows cracked, just in case.

As soon as I put the car in Park and turned off the engine, I slumped against the seat. During the drive home, I hadn’t realized how tired I was. I hadn’t slept well the night before, I’d gotten up early, then I’d worked hard all day. It wasn’t yet ten o’clock, but I was beat.

I pushed thoughts of how tired I was out of my mind and thought about Gina. I didn’t know what to do, and in a way, I didn’t know what I wanted. I wanted her, physically and emotionally, that much was certain. But I wanted the old Gina. Neither of us could go back in time, so we’d just have to see how things worked out.

“I can’t wait to take a shower,” Jenny said, interrupting my introspection.

Gina and I nodded in agreement.

“Hey,” Manfred said. “I’ve got a great idea.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Why don’t we all take a shower down at the clubhouse?”

“Yeah!” Jenny said enthusiastically. “That’d be cool!”

Was she on happy pills?! The girl was terminally upbeat. I shook my head in amazement as she and Manfred jumped out of the car and started walking toward the clubhouse.

“You want to?” Gina asked me quietly.

I sighed deeply. “No. Yes. I dunno.”

“I know what you mean.” She sounded like she was as tired as I was.

“I guess we probably should,” I said. “Just to be polite.”

“Yeah, I guess so. I’ll run up and get a towel from our cabin.”

I shook my head. “Let’s just use some of ours,” I said. “And I’ll get some soap and shampoo.”

I opened the car door and got out. Gina simply slid by the steering wheel and got out behind me. Then we grabbed towels and shower stuff from our cabin. Just as we headed down the hill to the clubhouse, we ran into my parents. They were walking down from the Coulters’ cabin.

“Everything go okay, son?” my dad asked.

I nodded wearily. “The car keys are on the dresser.”

“Did you kids have fun?” Mom asked.

Gina and I both nodded at once.

“You look tired,” Mom said.

“Yeah.”

“We’re going to go take a shower,” Gina said helpfully.

“Okay,” Mom said. “We’ll see you when you get back.”

I nodded. Gina looped her arm through mine and then we wearily continued down the hill.

When we got to the clubhouse, Manfred and Jenny were already in the communal shower. No one was near enough to see what was going on, so they were fooling around. Gina and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We pulled off our shoes and socks and joined them in the tiled area.

I moved to let Gina get under the stream first, but she tugged me in with her. Feeling her body that close made me tingle, despite my tiredness. Her eyes sparkled with excitement as well. After we both got wet, I washed quickly and then pulled her toward me.

While Manfred and Jenny played grab-ass under the shower stream, I gently lathered Gina’s hair and massaged the shampoo into her scalp. She groaned in pleasure and leaned against me. Her water-slick ass brushed against my limp penis, and she ground against me. In spite of my fatigue, I reacted predictably. I didn’t reach full erection, but anyone looking at me could have easily seen I was excited.

Manfred and Jenny stepped out of the shower area and grabbed their towels. I pushed Gina toward the spigot and rinsed her hair with the same care I’d washed it with. She looked over her shoulder and thanked me with a tired smile.

When we finished, I shut off the water while Gina reached for our towels. I dried off quickly and turned to wait for her. But while she was still towel-drying her hair, exhaustion finally got the best of me.

“Hey,” I said softly. “I’m gonna go sit on one of the couches for a minute or two.”

She nodded.

“Just for a minute, okay?”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll be right over.”

I shuffled toward the couches and slumped onto one. I had a hard time holding my head up, so I folded my towel and put it on the armrest. With a sigh, I stretched out on the couch and rested my head on my damp, makeshift pillow.

I opened my eyes and tried to figure out where I was. Someone was shaking my shoulder. My vision was bleary, so I blinked my eyes to clear them. When I looked up, Mom smiled down at me. I was on the top bunk, what was she doing above me? Hold on a second, I thought, I’m not on my bunk. So where am I?

“Wake up, sweet pea,” she said. “It’s time to go to bed.”

I nodded and tried to get up, but something was holding my left arm down.

“Come on up to the cabin soon,” Mom said.

I nodded, still disoriented.

She smiled fondly and walked away.

Where was I? My eyes were finally clear enough to see, but the lights were dim. I looked around and slowly gathered my bearings.

I was in the clubhouse, lying on a couch. Why couldn’t I get up?

Gina.

I was on my side and she was spooned in front of me, her head on my left arm (which had gone to sleep). My right hand rested comfortably on her stomach and she was sighing softly as she breathed. Her ass was nestled against my dick, so I blissfully let my sleep-fuddled brain imagine what it would be like to have sex with her in this position.

Reluctantly, very reluctantly, I dragged my thoughts back to more practical matters and lifted my left wrist. Prickling sensations surged through my forearm and hand as the blood returned to them. I squinted and checked the time, eleven forty-five. Uh-oh. I’d better get moving if I wanted to be home by midnight.

Instead of waking Gina immediately, I lifted my head and looked around. The back of the couch blocked most of my view, but I listened intently. When I didn’t see or hear anyone else, I laid my head back down.

With no one around to see, I ran my hand over Gina’s hip and then down her thigh. Her skin was soft, smooth, and warm. I pulled my hand back and let it rest on the point of her hip, simply luxuriating in the feeling of her body against me.

I grudgingly lifted my hand from her hip and gently shook her shoulder.

“Gina,” I whispered. “Wake up.”

She mumbled and shifted against me.

I shook her again, a little harder.

“Huh?”

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” I whispered.

“I’m ‘wake,” she said softly, slowly.

I moved my hand back down to her hip as she yawned.

“Wha’ time izzit?” she mumbled.

“Almost midnight.”

“Gotta get home.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“I’m so comfy here, though,” she said with a sigh.

“Me too.”

I ran my fingers up her stomach to her rib cage. She lifted her arm to accommodate me, and I gently cupped her right breast. Because of their size, they sagged a little to the side, but not much. When I gently caressed her nipple, she put her hand over mine and snuggled back against me. Neither of us wanted to get up yet, so we merely lay there for a few minutes, the consequences of being late forgotten.

“You looked so comfy,” she said. “And I was so tired.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“I hope you don’t mind that I joined you,” she said, a hint of anxiety creeping into her voice.

“No. I kinda like it.”

She sighed contentedly. “I could get used to this,” she said softly.

We dozed for a while, in that warm, wonderful limbo between asleep and awake. Her breathing grew slow and steady, but I could tell she wasn’t going back to sleep. I don’t know how I knew, but I felt her gathering her courage and preparing to speak.

“I really am sorry about how I behaved,” she said quietly.

“I’ll survive.”

She shook her head. “That’s not the point. Kara told me what I was doing. Mom told me, too. I didn’t want to listen to either of them.” She paused for a moment. “I hope you can forgive me.”

I nodded and kissed the back of her head, inhaling the scent of her clean, fresh hair. “I can,” I said. “I have.”

Suddenly, she rolled over to face me. Her body molded to mine, her breasts pressed against my chest.

“I’m sorry too,” I said. “I’m sorry about Amy.”

She nodded. “I understand. Now.”

“Good.” I kissed her nose.

She lifted her face and our lips connected. We shared a long, deep kiss, our tongues gently twined together. When she pulled back, she looked at me seriously.

“Paul?”

“Mmm hmm?”

“Um ... do you ... um ... I mean ... are you still...”

“Yes?” I prompted patiently.

“Do you still love me?” she asked timidly.

Ah, I thought to myself, the $64,000 question.

She waited, and I could feel the tension building within her.

“Yes,” I said firmly.

She swallowed hard and smiled in relief. Then she pressed herself against my chest. “I was so afraid you didn’t love me anymore,” she said after a moment.

“I still love you. I never stopped. But you don’t always make it easy for me,” I said.

“I love you, too. And I’ll try to make it easier.” She laughed tearfully and then looked at me with a serious expression. “Um ... I don’t wanna sound too easy, but didn’t you promise to ... um ... take care of me?”

I arched an eyebrow at her. My memory was still a little fuzzy, and I had no idea what she was talking about.

“You know,” she whispered insistently. She pressed her hips against me and gyrated them.

I grinned as I Got It.

“I’m glad Susan taught you how to go down on a girl,” she said. “You’re really, really good. God, I get so wet just thinking—”

I shook my head. “Susan didn’t teach me that.”

She looked surprised.

“Stacy did.”

“She did?”

I nodded.

“She likes girls?” she asked incredulously.

I nodded again.

Her eyes widened as her nostrils flared. “Kara,” she said heatedly, “is a rat.”

“Huh?”

“She didn’t tell me Stacy liked girls too.”

“What?”

“Kara and Stacy,” she said distractedly. “Saturday night. She didn’t tell me.”

“Saturday night? What happened Saturday night?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but the creak of the clubhouse door interrupted her.

“Paul?”

It was my father. I smiled apologetically and struggled to sit up. “Over here, Dad.” When I lifted my head above the back of the couch to look at him, he tapped his watch. I pulled my arm out from under Gina and looked at my own watch. I grimaced and looked over the back of the couch. “I’m coming, Dad. Right now. Sorry.”

He nodded wordlessly and stepped through the door, into the night.

“What time is it?” Gina asked.

“Twelve thirty.”

“Uh-oh.”

“My sentiments exactly.”

The nagging questions about Kara and Stacy suddenly deserted me. Gina and I stood quickly and then I grabbed her hand as we raced out of the clubhouse. We caught up with my dad as he walked back up the hill.

“I’m sorry, Dad.”

“I know, son. You’ve had a long day.”

I nodded.

“But that’s no excuse.”

“No, sir.”

“Go on,” he said. “Take Gina home and then come back to our cabin. We’ll talk in the morning.”

He didn’t sound angry, which I took as a good sign. Then again, he never sounded angry when he punished me, either...

Tentative conversations and troublesome, unanswered questions aside, I slept like a baby. The next morning, I got up and did my regular workout. After my shower, I waited for Mom and Erin to head down to the clubhouse. I knew Dad would want to talk to me, and there was no sense in shirking my responsibility. When he finished his shower, I was waiting for him.

“I’m sorry about last night, Dad. It won’t happen again.”

“What should you have done?” he asked.

“Um ... Come home before midnight?”

He nodded. “And?”

“Um...”

“What were you doing that made you late?”

“Just talking,” I said quickly.

“Uh-huh. And you couldn’t talk on our porch, or at Gina’s cabin?”

I looked at him blankly.

“Son, if you were talking, and you needed more time, you should’ve come up to the cabin and told us.”

I stared mutely.

“We want you home by midnight because we want you safe, and we want to know where you are. If you come and check in, we’ll let you have more time,” he said. “This isn’t prison, and you’re not a child.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“You need to be responsible. Not only for your own sake, but for Gina’s too. Did you know that her father came looking for her last night? He came here first, obviously. How do you think it made me feel when I had to tell Chris I didn’t know why his daughter wasn’t home yet?”

“Um ... not good?”

He nodded. “Not good is right, son. If you’d told us what you were doing, and told her parents, I’m sure you could have talked as long as you needed to.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You need to think, son. If you want to be treated like an adult, you need to act like one.”

I nodded.

“That means you need to be responsible. And when Gina’s with you, you’re responsible for her too.”

“Yes, sir. It won’t happen again, Dad. I’ll be more responsible.”

“I know you will, Paul.” He smiled at me, and I smiled in return. “Now,” he said, “what do you think your punishment should be?”

For a fleeting moment, I’d thought I was going to get off with only a lecture. And I hated it when he made me choose my own punishment! I thought for a few seconds, trying to come up with a suitably harsh sentence. “I have to be home by ten, for a week?”

“Do you think that’s fair?”

No, I thought sullenly. It was super harsh. I’d only been half an hour late. But I suspected that if I’d suggested something that wasn’t severe enough, he’d make my punishment even worse than an early curfew for a week. “Yes, sir,” I said. “I think it’s fair.”

“Okay then,” he said. “Let me talk it over with your mom.”

With that, he put his arm around my shoulder and we walked down to breakfast.

“Did you get in trouble?” I asked Gina after breakfast.

She nodded.

“I’ve got a ten o’clock curfew for a week,” I said gloomily.

“Wow, that’s harsh.”

“Tell me about it.” I always came up with something too severe! I’d begun to suspect it was the reason my parents made me choose my punishment. They couldn’t be that devilishly clever, could they? They could, and I knew it.

“I had to—”

“Sit there and think about what you’d done?” I asked, half-facetiously.

“Yeah! How’d you know?”

I grinned. “Kara told me a little about your mom.”

“Oh. Okay. Cool.”

“That’s not such a bad punishment,” I said.

“Well, I also have to do the dishes for two days.”

“That’s not so bad either,” I said.

She shook her head. “I normally have to do them after at least one meal. Leah, Kara, and I rotate which meal we have to do.”

I nodded.

She laughed sharply. “So Kara and Leah are encouraging me to stay out as late as I want,” she said. “They don’t seem to mind when my punishment means less work for them.”

“Ha! Yeah.”

I hung around after lunch and waited for Gina to finish the dishes. She saw me waiting and rushed to dry everything.

“Hey,” she said cheerfully. She practically skipped around the end of the kitchen counter.

Watching her breasts bounce as she moved had me momentarily mesmerized. I shook my head to restore my train of thought.

She was obviously aware of what she’d done and its effects, and she grinned shamelessly.

“You wanna go for a walk?” I asked, finally looking her in the eye.

“Sure. Where to?”

“I dunno.” I shrugged. “Just somewhere we can talk. Let’s take our towels. We can sit on ‘em if we wanna stop.”

She nodded. “Lemme tell my mom we’re going.”

“Okay. I’d better tell mine too.”

Instead of walking toward the lake, we headed in the other direction, away from camp. At the road to Mr. Kestrel’s house, we turned and started down it. It wasn’t an oft-traveled path, so we’d have some privacy. As we walked, I could sense Gina’s growing anxiety.

“Listen,” I said as we walked. “There’s some stuff we need to talk about.”

She nodded nervously.

“Some of it’s heavy, some of it’s not. It’s all just stuff, though.” I turned to look at her, to gauge her reaction. “Okay?”

She took a deep breath and smiled as she nodded. It was clearly a front, but at least it was a brave front.

“I’ve got a lot of questions, but we need to work some things out first.”

“Is it something I did yesterday, or last night? If it was, just tell me and I won’t do it again,” she said in a rush.

I shook my head and tried to allay her fears. “No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just some stuff I’ve been thinking about a lot.”

She stopped walking and turned to me. “Is it Stacy? If you want to be with her instead of me, I’ll understand.”

I shook my head.

“Is it ‘cause we haven’t had sex?” she asked tearfully. She grabbed my hand and started to pull me toward the woods. “If it is, we can do it now if you want.”

I resisted her tugging and instead pulled her close. “It’s nothing like that. You know that,” I gently admonished her. “If it were just about sex, I never would’ve told you about Susan, Stacy, or,” I steeled my nerves, “Amy.” When she didn’t react much, I continued. “I would’ve just had sex with you, and you never would’ve known.”

Gina swallowed hard and looked at me with scared, liquid brown eyes.

“But you know I couldn’t do that to you,” I said earnestly.

She bit the inside of her lip and nodded.

I put my arms around her waist and looked into her eyes. “I want to have sex with you. I want to make love to you. But I also want to have a relationship with you. I want more than just sex. Does that make sense?”

She nodded hesitantly.

“But that also means there are some things we need to talk about.”

She nodded again.

“Like Susan. And Stacy. And ... Amy.” I turned us both toward Mr. Kestrel’s house and reached for her hand.

She clutched mine as if I were going to pull her from a burning building.

“Relax,” I said gently.

She did, somewhat.

Over the course of the morning, I’d thought through this conversation a little bit, basic ideas and things, but for the most part, I was winging it. What’s the line from the song? “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.”

We walked for a few more minutes and eventually arrived at Mr. Kestrel’s house. The curtains were still up, and if I hadn’t known the house was empty, I would have thought someone still lived there.

We walked around to the back patio and spread our towels in the shade under a large tree. We sat down—me cross-legged and Gina with her legs demurely tucked under her—and I looked at her seriously.

“If we don’t talk about this stuff,” I said slowly, “it’ll always be between us. Okay?”

“Okay. I guess.”

“Trust me, if we don’t, it will.” I grinned ruefully. “I’ve already ruined one relationship because I wasn’t honest. I thought I’d ruined two, but...”

She smiled wanly.

I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts. Start with the past, I thought, then work toward the present. “Amy,” I said solemnly.

Her jaw tensed at the other girl’s name, but to her credit, Gina tried to remain calm.

“I loved her. I still do love her, in a way. You never fall out of love.”

She nodded.

“But it’s over between us. When I’m with you, I don’t think of her. I don’t usually think of her the rest of the time, either. Okay?”

Gina nodded.

I took her hands in my own and looked into her eyes. “I’m serious about that. Okay? Amy is in the past.”

“Okay.”

She looked like she was working up the nerve to speak, so I remained silent.

“I guess the problem I had with it was that it was behind my back.” She suddenly looked at me cautiously.

I nodded.

“But it wasn’t really,” she said. “Kara said we didn’t have a well-defined relationship, but I didn’t truly know what she meant. Until now, that is.” She looked up and smiled apologetically. “I guess I just didn’t want to think about it.”

I grinned and shook my head.

“But when I left, last summer, we didn’t say ‘we won’t have sex with anyone else.’”

“No, we didn’t. That doesn’t make it right, though.”

She shook her head.

I could tell she was trying to come up with the right words, so I kept my mouth shut.

“I don’t feel bad about what I did with my sisters. Or with Lisa.” She looked at me intently. “Does that make sense?”

I nodded. “I don’t feel bad about what I did with Amy.”

Her reaction to hearing Amy’s name was less than before, but still noticeable.

“The problem was the emotions,” I said. “It was how I felt about Amy.”

Gina nodded.

“Let me ask you something, though.”

“Okay.”

“How come you weren’t all that upset about Stacy? Or Susan?”

She shrugged. “I know it’s not the same with them, that you don’t love them.”

“Oh, but I do.”

She reluctantly nodded.

“I love them both, very much. But you’re right, it’s not the same with either of them. I’m in love with you. It’s different.”

“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “Mom and I had a big talk about that a while ago.”

Ah, I thought. Some of the pieces were falling into place. I should have expected as much.

Note to self: Some other parents aren’t clueless either.

“So, you’re not jealous?” I asked, half unconvinced. I don’t know how, but I thought I already knew the answer. When she blushed, I shifted nervously, suddenly unsure of my certitude.

“I was jealous,” she said, studying her hands. “But Kara hit the nail on the head about why.” She laughed ironically.

I frantically thought back through the fateful confrontation with Kara.

“I wasn’t jealous that you were having sex with them. I was upset that you weren’t having sex with me.” She blushed again and then suddenly looked up. “Does that make sense?”

I nodded, a little stunned.

“Kara says you’ll make a really good lover,” she said out of the blue. Then she quickly dropped her gaze to her hands. “I don’t know much about that, yet.” She lifted her face and smiled shyly. “I just know how I feel whenever I’m with you.”

I smiled.

“But I want to ... um ... I want to know about the other, too,” she said.

“We will,” I said assuredly. “When the time’s right.”

“It’s not right now?”

She sounded so plaintive I almost laughed. “No. Not yet.”

“What do you want me to do?” she asked, her expression full of anxiety. “I’ll do anything you want.”

“It’s not that,” I said. Then I tapped myself on the forehead. “It’s here.”

“Do you still want to?”

I nodded vigorously. “But not yet. Not until the time’s right.”

“When d’you think it’ll be right?”

I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. “Soon.”

“How soon?”

“Look,” I said, half in frustration, half in genuine amusement. “If you want, I’ll throw you down right here and ravish you.”

“Oh, goody.” She clapped her hands gleefully, but it was clear she knew I was only joking.

“Seriously,” I said, trying to regain a little composure.

“Seriously.” She subtly thrust her chest forward and gave me a sultry look.

I almost caved. “You know what I mean,” I said soberly, shoring up my failing resolve.

“Yeah.”

I needed to get the conversation back on track, because I didn’t know how long my resistance would last if she really tried to get me to have sex with her. A guy can only take so much temptation, and as beautiful and enthusiastic as Gina was, she was perilously close to pushing me over the edge.

She smiled shyly and bit the inside of her lip.

“What did you mean last night,” I asked, “when you said Kara was a rat?”

She blushed, but remained mute.

“What were she and Stacy doing on Saturday night?” I asked. I thought about it for a second, working through the possibilities. And then it hit me. The Fourth of July! Before she left, Kara had given Stacy a heated kiss. Now that I knew Kara liked girls too (as if I hadn’t known on the Fourth), it all made sense. Before Gina could answer, I said, “They were having sex, weren’t they?”

She nodded, her expression slightly disgusted. “And they didn’t invite me,” she said petulantly. She was entirely serious.

I burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“You,” I said, gasping for air.

“I am not.”

“Are too.”

She pouted, but I could tell that her feelings weren’t really hurt.

“Seriously,” I said, once I’d stopped laughing. “Why’re you upset?”

“I wanted to have fun too.”

“With Stacy?” I hoped I didn’t sound as incredulous as I felt.

She shrugged. “I guess. I mean, she is really cute.”

I nodded. As I did, I carefully watched Gina for a jealous reaction. When I didn’t see any, I furrowed my brow in confusion. “You really aren’t jealous, are you?”

“Of you and Stacy?”

I nodded.

“Maybe a little. But I think I understand.” She wrinkled her brow in concentration and then nodded decisively. “I mean, it works for my mom and dad. I asked my mom about their relationship a while ago.” She gazed at me earnestly. “I was really worried about them getting a divorce. But she explained how it works.”

Even though I had no idea what she was talking about, I nodded like I did.

“But I guess you know all this,” she continued. “Your parents are the same way.”

Huh? My parents were what way? Again, I nodded like I understood what she was talking about. In reality, my mind was frantically trying to figure out what she meant.

“Besides,” she continued, “Kara said Stacy’s really nice.”

“Yeah,” I said distractedly.

“I didn’t know how nice,” Gina added, sotto voce. Then she looked at me steadily. “So I trust you. And Kara says I can trust Stacy too. I mean, after all, when I had my weeklong lapse of sanity,” she smiled thinly, “Stacy was still trying to help you get me back.”

I nodded.

“So yeah, maybe I’m a little jealous of Stacy, but I understand. I think.”

“Oh.” I paused for a moment. “But what about Susan?”

“Of course I understand about her, silly,” she said. “Sheesh, sometimes you’re a goof.”

I was a little embarrassed, and once again, I nodded like I understood what she was talking about. Unfortunately, I had no clue. Why would she “of course” understand about Susan? In a matter of minutes, I had a thousand questions running through my mind. But I didn’t want to look like an idiot by asking them. Gina thought I knew the answers, and I guess I was afraid to demonstrate my ignorance.