Tightrope

Chapter 18

Previously:

"I'll see you tomorrow. I'll come pick you up, okay?"

"Whatever you have planned, I can't wait." She blew him a kiss and ran out into the hall to meet her friends. She couldn't stop smiling.

***

At the end of a long day of running around the city and sightseeing, Sanem took her friends to one of her favorite restaurants for dinner. It was a nice place, somewhere they could sit and talk without being rushed. Sanem suggested different dishes for them to share, and when the waiter brought their wine, they made a toast to their friendship.

Tracy finally broached the subject they all wanted to talk about. "So, Sani. We haven't been able to talk all day about what we really want to know. Now is the time," she said. She sat back in her chair and took a sip of her wine. "Tell us."

Sanem sighed. She knew it was wishful thinking to hope they'd let it go and forget to bring it up again. "Well...what do you want to know, exactly?" she asked, sipping her wine, too, and raising her eyebrows.

"For starters, are you on birth control?" Laly asked.

Sanem blushed bright red. "Yessss, Laly. I started taking it as a teenager, and just kept taking it out of habit."

Lisa leaned forward. "As a teenager? So, I don't think you've ever really told us about your relationship with Can in detail."

Sanem looked down as she swirled the wine around in her glass. "He was my first...my only."

"Really, Sani?" Laly asked, shocked. "Your only? You haven't been with anyone else since him? Not even Metin?"

She shook her head, still looking down at her wine.

"That's so romantic, Sani!" Louisa squealed. Sanem smiled at her.

"So you waited all this time for him?" Tracy asked.

"Yes. Whenever I thought it might happen with Metin, I'd find a reason to leave. I couldn't. Even kissing him made me feel guilty," Sanem said, looking up at her friends. "You guys remember how hard it was for me to agree to go out with him."

"We remember," Lisa said. It had been a frequent topic of house discussions at the time. "So was yesterday the first time since...?"

"Not exactly," Sanem said, taking another sip of wine.

"It wasn't?" Louisa asked. "When was?"

Laly answered for her. "At the barbecue!"

Sanem's head snapped up. "How did you know?"

Laly laughed. "I could tell," she shrugged. "You had that look of someone who'd just been f--"

"Laly!" Sanem said sharply before she could finish.

"Okay, fine...someone who'd just been satisfied," she said. "Plus, he bit the hell out of your lip."

Sanem winced. "You see way too much, Laly. It's like you have a superpower or something," she said. "But you're right. That was the first time."

Tracy looked at her in shock. "At Metin's house? Where? You weren't even gone that long!"

Sanem answered, "It was long enough." She looked at Tracy with a sheepish smile. "And it happened in the pantry..." she looked up at her friends through her lashes, afraid to make eye contact.

They were all staring at her with their mouths hanging open. "The pantry?" they said in unison.

Lisa laughed. "Sani! You just keep surprising the hell out of me!"