Chapter 6

Later, once we were dressed and downstairs Naomi put a fresh pot of coffee on.

“Helen’s gone home to do some laundry, she said she’d be back around 5 if that’s OK.”

“I think Helen likes you,” I said.

“No way, she said I’m not her type.”

“She said that so you wouldn’t feel awkward around her, you’re exactly her type, tall, blonde, curvy and beautiful. As a clue, she never comes round on the weekends, have you ever seen her when you’ve stopped over on a Sunday?”

“Oh, right, so she’s coming back to see me, not you?”

“Exactly.”

“Oh wow, that makes me feel all funny. I didn’t expect to be the sort of girl other girls fancy. What should I do mum?”

“About what?”

“Well, am I allowed to like another girl.”

“Do you like Helen?”

“Oh yes! I like her a lot, she’s funny, and she’s pretty, and she’s ... well, she’s just so much like a female Tom, and I love Tom, I really do, so how can I also love Helen? I can’t, can I?”

“Well, there’s no law against it, although you can’t marry two people, there’s nothing stopping anyone having a relationship with more than one person. Look at it this way, what did you and Tom do Friday night?”

“We made love, mad, crazy, mind bending love.”

“What did Tom do last night?”

“He made love to you, I hope it was as good as I experienced.”

“And what will Tom be doing tonight when I’m back at home?”

“Well, I thought he’d be sleeping with me again, but now Helen’s coming round and it’s confusing me.”

“So, Tom is allowed to sleep with two different people, but somehow you think you’re not allowed to. Have they covered relationships in school, I hope so, otherwise Tom’s going to have to explain it all to you while you’re on your walk.”

“Hang on!” I said, “why’s it my job?”

“I’ve got a busy day of paperwork, see you later in the week, I’ll probably be back on Wednesday.”

And with that Kelly walked off laughing to herself.

Shit.

I guess it’s time for the daddy / daughter talk.

“Err, well...” I floundered.

“It’s OK Tom, I know about bi-sexuality and polyamorous relationships, I just want to know if it’s ok. If it’s err, acceptable, I guess I was trying to ask if mum was OK with it, and if you’re OK with it.”

I held Naomi’s hands and looked in her eyes, they were wonderful clear blue eyes, Naomi’s face was open, there was not an ounce of cynicism in her, a beautiful child in so many ways.

“Naomi, the thing about love is that it can’t be controlled, our emotions do whatever they want. The British can be a bit uptight, the press will suddenly decide that a particular type of behaviour is wrong. In the 1980’s there was a huge media and political backlash against homosexuality, probably as a result of the HIV / AIDS crisis, although everyone is at risk of contracting HIV. Nowadays, apart from certain areas of the press who will always rail against anyone they perceive as different, society is much more tolerant. A lot of celebrities are coming out as bi and pan-sexual, and that’s leading the public debate.”

“But what about you and mum! What do you and mum think?”

“Well, whilst I can’t speak for Kelly, as far as I’m concerned it’s absolutely fine. If you want a relationship with Helen then you go ahead, if you want to be exclusive with Helen I’ll be sad, but that’s life. Relationships can be messy even when only two people are involved, add a third and everything becomes exponentially more complicated, jealousy can easily get in the way, so you need to carefully manage a polyamourous relationship, constantly monitoring emotions to make sure person A is still happy with person B sleeping with person C, and person C is happy with person A occasionally staying over with person D.”

“Shit dad, what should I do?”

“You should do whatever your heart tells you, and if you mess up, then you make sure you learn lessons from the fallout, and try not to make the same mistakes again. If you reach middle age without suffering a broken heart a few times then you’ll be unique, because the occasional broken heart is a side effect of life, nobody is perfect, you’ll fall in love with someone, then you find out that person is very different once you’re sharing a house, the majority of times people are exactly who you think they are, and you love them dearly until something terrible happens, and they’re snatched from you. Again, that’s life, you’ll go through hell, a rollercoaster of emotions, but hopefully you come out the other side with your sanity intact.”

“Ahh, that happened to you and mum.”

“Yes, and we handled the situation in different ways, Kelly threw herself into work, I went off the rails a little, had several affairs...”