She skimmed through the next several entries, laughing to herself. “You poor thing! You could’ve just gone and gotten yourself laid, especially when you went back to college. But you waited for me to turn eighteen.”
It dawned on her that perhaps hehadgotten laid and hadn’t told her.
How would she feel if she discovered in his journal that he’d had a few one-night stands while he was away?
It wasn’t like Mitch to lie or omit something important.
Except that hehadlied to Dean about the hostile hippie in the bookstore.
Megs didn’t have to think hard. If it turned out that Mitch had hooked up with women while he was away for his senior year, she would forgive him. She wouldn’t even mention it to him. He’d promised her that he wouldn’t date or have sex with anyone else, but that would be a tough promise to keep at the age of twenty-one. Besides, she’d been the only woman in his life since her eighteenth birthday, the two of them spending virtually every moment together.Thatwas what mattered.
She chose an entry, smiling to herself. “Thus begins the Education of Ms. Megs Hill.”
Mitch sat next to Megs,who lay on her belly in her tent readingOur Bodies, Ourselvesby lantern light. She had burned through the first several chapters, which touched on healthcare, exercise, drugs and alcohol, mental health, and healthy relationships.
“The health stuff isn’t very interesting. I know I have to brush my teeth. But the relationship stuff—that’s pretty deep. I hadn’t thought of those things. I guess I only had my mother’s fucked-up relationship with my stepfather as a model.”
“What about your real father?”
“He died in a car accident when I was seven.”
“I’m so sorry.” Mitch waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. “What’s the next chapter about?”
“Chapter Eleven is about sexuality.” She turned the page. “Sex with ourselves: Mastur… Mastur…”
“Masturbation.”
She looked up at him, both amused and confused. “How can people have sex with themselves?”
He tapped the open book. “Read.”
She shifted her gaze back to the page, read that section, and then moved on to the next one, which was titledOrgasm, the baffled look on her face telling him she had zero experience. “People touch themselves, and it gives them this orgasm thing.”
He wouldn’t laugh. Hewouldn’t. “Yes. It’s more common to talk about men doing it. Haven’t you ever heard someone use the termjack off?”
She nodded. “That’s what that means?”
“Yes.”
“Do you jack off?”
Mitch coughed. “Sometimes.”
He did it a lot more often since meeting her, but he kept that to himself.
“Have you had sex with someone besides yourself?”
Mitch nodded. “I had a girlfriend my sophomore year of college.”
“Did she jack off, too?”
Mitch tried hard not to laugh. “I never asked, but I bet she did.”
Megs turned the page again and found a labeled anatomical drawing of women’s genitalia and a chapter about the clitoris. Pink crept into her cheeks. “It’s embarrassing to read this with you sitting there.”
Mitch chuckled. “That’s one sign that you’re not yet ready for sex.”
She looked indignant. “What does that mean?”
