54. Prevention
"Mom, can I ask you something?"
Christine stood in the doorway to her parents home office where her mother sat on the couch, multiple sheets of paper spread out across the coffee table in front of her.
"Of course you can, Christine. Here, sit down."
Brennan shifted the papers that had been resting on the couch beside her, making room for her eldest daughter to sit. The seventeen year old sat beside her mother, fingers playing with the ring resting on her right hand— a sixteenth birthday present from her parents.
"Christine, what's wrong?"
"How did you know when you were ready to have sex?"
"Looking back I don't think I was entirely ready. I was 22, and embarrassed that I still hadn't engaged in intercourse."
"Why did you wait so long?"
"I wanted to focus on earning a life for myself, where I wasn't the girl who'd been abandoned by her parents and her brother."
"Do you think I'm ready?"
"Only you can know that, Christine, do you think you're ready?"
"I think so. When Michael and I were home alone the other day, he erm—"
"You liked it?"
Christine, thankful that her mother had decided to not voice what had happened out loud, smiled, nodding quickly.
"Michael adores you, Christine, and you love him a lot— we can all see that. The decision is completely up to you, and if you do decide to just remember what we discussed about the prevention of pregnancy and—"
"I know, Mom, thank you."
"If you need them there's a box of condoms under the sink in mine and your father's bathroom, you're welcome to them, we don't use them because—"
"Mom, please stop!"