Chapter 3

Nate took a deep breath and tried to center himself before he had the most difficult conversation of his life. How could he possibly tell his daughter he had had sex with her best friend? How could he explain that? He knew he couldn't. All he could do was admit what he had done, and get prepared to die, because if Nate's daughter Alexa didn't kill him, his wife Janice would.​

"Honey, here's what happened..."

Before Nate could continue, a big smile came across Alexa's face and she threw her arms around his neck.

"Dad, thank you so much! You're the best!"​

Nate thought he must be dreaming, or drunk maybe. He couldn't imagine why his daughter would be thanking him for screwing her friend.

"Uh ... sure, Honey. Of course. So, what did Lizzie have to say, anyway?"

Alexa had released her father from her massive embrace.

"She said she came here to talk to me ​yesterday, and I wasn't home. Then she wanted to talk to Mom, but she wasn't home either. Lizzie said that you let her come in, and you sat down and talked to her, and listened to her talk all about that jerk Vince, and that she was so upset and you really, really helped her."

"Well, Honey, you know ... Lizzie is your good friend and all. And she's like one of the family. You know how much Mom and I care about her."

"I know, Dad. But for you to let her come in when we weren't even here, and talk to her and listen to her! That was just so, so sweet! You're awesome, Dad. Thank you!"

Alexa grabbed Nate for another hug, and this time she included a kiss on his neck. For a full 5 minutes after his daughter had left the room, Nate was pinching himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He was so sure that he would be found out, and drummed out of the family. And not only did it appear he would not be branded a scoundrel, he seemed to have attained hero status with his daughter!

After getting unpacked from her weekend, Alexa came back and sat down next to Nate.

"So, how was your basketball camp?" Nate asked.

"Oh, it was awesome!" Alexa said. "The coaches were so cool. A lot of them were college players and they spent a ton of time with us, doing drills and exercises and talking about big games they were in."

"Wow, that's ​great. How many girls were at the camp?"

"A bunch. Maybe 200."

"Cool. And was the staff ... the coaches ... were they pretty much all girls?"

"Oh, no way! Probably more than half were guys."

Nate noted two things. First, that the camp wasn't all girls as he had expected. Secondly, Alexa sounded pretty enthusiastic about the fact that guys were present. Nate's curiosity about his daughter's sexuality immediately popped up again.​

"Really?" Nate said. "Somehow I didn't realize that it would be co-ed."

"Oh yeah! Totally. Well, the staff anyway. It was great."

"Did they work you day and night? I know those things can be pretty grueling."

"It was a lot of work. But they gave us free time too. The first night they had like a hang-out time with a DJ, and last night we were on our own, so a bunch of us went into town and fooled around."

Nate didn't especially like the sound of 'a bunch of us' or 'fooled around.'

"Is that right? Oh, a bunch of the girls?"

"No, maybe half and half. Dad, I'm 19, you know! I'm in college now? Remember? I hang out with girls and guys!"

"I know, I know, Alexa. I know that you're home for the summer and you got used to living on your own your first year away at school. I'm just being a dad."

"I know. And I love you for it, Daddy!"

Nate loved hearing her call him that. But it was time for her to move on to her next activity, so she kissed Nate again and was out the door. Before Nate had much time to ponder what 'fooled around' might have meant, Janice was home.

"Hi Honey," Nate said, greeting his wife at the door and carrying in her bag.

"Hi," Janice replied as she gave Nate a kiss on the cheek.

"How's everything with your mom?"

"Oh, fine."

"Did you have a nice visit?"

"Yes, it was great. Anything interesting happen here while I was gone?"

"No, not really," Nate said. "You know, with you and Alexa both away, things were pretty quiet."

"Oh yeah?" Janice replied. "I heard you had a visitor."

"You ... you did? How did you hear that?"

"Alexa called me on my cell while we were both driving. She said she had heard from Lizzie, who said she came over looking for either Alexa or me, and when we weren't here, she came in and talked to you."

Nate looked for any sign of disapproval on his wife's face, but saw none.

"Oh, right, right!" Nate said. "Yeah, I forgot to mention that. Well, you know, she just needed someone to talk to about guys. It was no big deal."

"It was very nice of you to make time for her."

"Well, Lizzie's like one of the family."

​Nate was glad that Janice didn't seem suspicious of anything, but he also did not want to discuss Lizzie anymore if at all possible. Besides, he had another matter he wanted to talk to Janice about.​

"So, did you know that the basketball camp Alexa went to wasn't an all girl camp?"

"​Of course," Janice said. "Well, the attendees were all girls, right? But some of the coaches were guys. Didn't you know that?"

"No, I didn't."

"Honey, I think you did. But anyway, what about it?"

"I just didn't know that she was going to be away on a weekend with a bunch of male athletes."

"Nate, Alexa's 19. She's in college and she plays basketball."

"On an all girls team."

"So? You think all the coaches at school are women? They're not. You know that. Besides, the school isn't all girls. What's the difference if there were guys at this basketball camp?"

"I don't know, Janice. I just assumed it was all girls."

"But Nate, why does it matter?"

"It's just that ... Well, when Lizzie was here, she was talking about some boyfriend of hers."

"Was it Vince?"

"How did you know that, Jan?"

"I pay attention, Nate. The girls talk about him all the time. He's dated most of Alexa's friends at one time or another. They say he's a jerk, but they also think he's hot stuff. I've met him. He didn't seem like a bad guy. But, what does that have to do with Alexa and guys at camp?"

"Lizzie was saying ... um ... well, Lizzie when Lizzie was here she was talking about Vince and..."

Nate started kicking himself for bringing this up with Janice in the first place.

"Lizzie was talking about what, Nate?"

"O.K. Lizzie was talking about Vince, and ... sex."

"Really? She was?"

"Yes."

"What about sex?"

"She said that ... She and Vince ... Look, Jan, it made me uncomfortable, O.K.? She needed someone to talk to, and by then I couldn't send her away. But ... I'd rather not talk about it. I wanted to talk to you about Alexa."

"O.K. I wanna come back to Lizzie. But what about Alexa?"

"Jan, it's just that, hearing Lizzie talk the way she did, about guys, I couldn't help wondering if, you know ... If Alexa is ... If Alexa is..."

"Doing it?" Jan offered.

"Uh, yeah," Nate replied. "I was gonna say 'sexually active, ' but ... yeah, that's it."

​"Honey, she's 19."

"Yes, Janice. I know how old our daughter is. Besides, you've already reminded me of her age, as did she. So what if she's 19? What does that have to do with anything?"

"When did you first have sex, Nate? Weren't you like 16?"

"Yeah, so?"

"I don't know if you remember me telling you, but I was 14 when I lost my virginity."

Nate made a mental observation that 14 was the same age Lizzie said she had lost hers.​

"What's your point, Jan?"

"My point is that Alexa is 19. If she's not sexually active, she will be very soon, which is totally normal!"

"Then you don't know that she's having sex?"

"Nate, seriously ... No, I don't know for sure. We've talked about sex some, but I've never asked her the question."

"You've talked to Alexa about sex?"

"Yes, of course. More than a few times. And she knows she can talk to me about anything. But she has never directly said that she's having sex. But like I said, she's ... Well, you know how old she is. But it wouldn't be any great shock if she was."

"Yeah, but..." Nate began.

"But what?" Janice asked.

"I understand what you're saying. But from what Lizzie said ... well..."

"Just tell me, Nate. From what Lizzie said ... what?"

"It sounded like Lizzie has had, well ... a lot of sex. A lot"

Janice paused and considered her response. She was aware of her own curiosity to hear more about Lizzie, and what a lot of sex meant. But she chose to stay with the topic of their daughter for the time being.

"What are you worried about, Honey? Our daughter is a bright, capable, and pretty confident young woman. Not to mention being a very attractive one. She's in college. If she's having sex, so what? Although I don't know for sure, I would venture to say that she's had some sexual contact by now, whether or not she's still a virgin. But even if she has started having sex, what would be wrong with that? Even if she's having a lot of sex, whatever that means. I'm sure she would take the right precautions."

"I don't know," Nate said with a sigh. "I guess it's as simple as the fact that, I never thought about our daughter doing that kind of thing. Obviously I know she's a young woman and all that. It was just never even close to reality until I heard Lizzie talking about her own sex life."

Hearing talk about Lizzie's sex life reminded Janice that she wanted to hear more. But before she could ask anything else, Alexa returned home, greeted her mother, whom she hadn't seen for several days, and asked if they could all go out for dinner.

When they returned home, Alexa informed her parents that she was off to do something with her friends. Nate and Janice commented on how they had hoped their daughter would stay home, since she had been away for the weekend. Alexa barely heard this, as she was already out the door.

"Well, at least we had dinner with her," Janice said.

"Yep," Nate agreed. "I'm not complaining. We have to take what we can get with her these days."

It wasn't long before they were both ready to head up to bed. Janice was tired from her long drive home. Nate said he was tired as well, but his wife had no idea of what had happened in the previous 24 hours to make him so. Once they were in bed, Janice remembered their conversation from earlier. She wanted to go to sleep, as did Nate, but her curiosity wouldn't allow it just yet.