A Whisper

21: Inherent Bias

"Least favorite chore as a kid?" I was stretched out on Eric's couch, dressed in a nightgown I didn't realize I'd left behind. He was rubbing my feet after the walk back from Napoli's. He ended up ordering me penne alla vodka. For him I picked spinach lasagna.

"Milking the cows," he answered. "I was good at it, but it made me nervous. Plus, I felt like they felt violated."

"It's interesting that you grew up to enjoy playing with nipples so much," I giggled. "Freud would probably have a field day with you."

"Believe me, I know," he laughed. "Maybe that's why I'm so good at it? I spent plenty of time molesting the poor cows."

"That's... it's a little creepy when you frame it that way, Eric."

He laughed a little harder. "I'll be more careful with my phrasing."

"Good idea. That's the kind of pervert you don't want to be."

"I promise I don't have perverted thoughts about cows or any other animal," he assured me.

"That's very good to know. I was starting to get nervous," I teased.

"You don't need to be nervous about me being an inappropriate pervert." He reached up to pluck my nipple before he went back to rubbing my feet.

"Oh I think I do a little bit, but not when you're around cows."

"Definitely not around cows. Okay, I do have some inappropriate perv moments," he chuckled. "How old were you when you lost your virginity?"

"Nineteen. I was a freshman at college and the guy I lost it to lasted approximately two minutes and then threw up all over the backseat of the car we were in."

"Were you drunk?"

"No," I laughed.

"Why did you throw up?" he chuckled.

"I didn't. He did."

"Was he drunk? You're far from throw up worthy," he chuckled. "You've seen what you do to me."

"I don't know why he threw up. We weren't drinking. It was the last time we slept together, though." It definitely wasn't the best first time.

"I was fourteen the first time I had sex," Eric told me. "It lasted about fifteen minutes but that's because she'd been giving me blowjobs everyday after school for two weeks before. I was the king of the school for that. She told her friends about it and they spread it around the school."

"Were you still in junior high or a freshman in high school?"

"Freshman. My birthday present was the sex," he told me.

"That's quite a present. Was she your age?"

"Yeah, we'd been in school together since kindergarten," he said.

"Wow. That's so young."

"We were 'in love'," he sighed. "We started going out the year before. We kissed a lot and right after freshman year started things moved passed kissing."

"I couldn't have done it sophomore year of high school. The boys were stupid immature."

"A lot of us were," he chuckled. "Growing up on the farm made me a little more responsible than most boys my age."

"You're lucky. That definitely didn't apply in Louisiana, but then they only teach abstinence in my hometown. Shocking how many teenage parents there are." Not really. The ignorance and denial was beyond frustrating to me. Instead of being realistic and teaching their kids about sex and birth control, a lot of kids became parents before they were ready.