Bottom line? Yes.

Bernie was waiting for him in the living room, nude but for her glasses. Gary sat down across from her, nude as well, following Joyce's house rules. Gary's sister Lil was out in the pool with Joyce.

Bernie looked expectantly at Gary. "Got my note?" she asked, her eyes dipping shyly.

"Yeah," Gary said.

"What'cha got to say?" she asked.

Gary swallowed and took a deep breath. "Bottom line? Yes. Yes, you can be there. Any time I have sex with someone else. Yes. I want you, I want you to be happy, and I want you to be happy with me."

Bernie sighed and nodded. "Was that the first time? When I saw you with your dad?"

Gary flashed back to the image, lying on his back as his dad Hank rode his cock. "Almost. We touched each other the night before. That was after, well it was after my dad walked in on me that afternoon. I was having sex with my friend Peter."

"Peter, too?"

"Yeah," Gary said. "Pete asked if we could get together before the cruise, cause it had been a while." He took a breath. "Um, I was up into him. With a condom. Dad opened the door right when Pete and I were getting off together."

Bernie glanced up and to the side, imagining the scene. She couldn't hold back a little grin, thinking of Gary with his dick inside his best friend, getting that "I'm coming!!" face she usually saw inches from her nose. The giggle she was holding back stayed inside, finally.

Bernie composed herself and asked another question. "Have you been sexual with anyone else since we've been together?"

"Um, yeah. Once. When we were first dating. My old friend Meg was heading off to college. We were each other's first time. I stayed late at her going-away party, and we got together once for old times' sake. Goodbye, kind of, you know."

Bernie sighed and nodded. "Uh-huh. Okay, then. That everyone?"

"Well, your mom and I masturbated together. This afternoon."

Bernie laughed. "Of course," she said. "I knew that when I walked in. That's okay."

Gary swallowed. At least Lil didn't know.

Bernie continued, "Yeah, while we were getting undressed, Lil asked me why you were sitting all scrunched up like that. I told her you probably didn't want to show off that you'd been masturbating with my mom. She said, 'I knew it!'"

Gary tried to hold a calm expression. At least the WORLD didn't know he was jacking off with Joyce Bernstein, even if his girlfriend had spilled it to his sister.

Bernie laughed at the look on Gary's face. "Gary, Lil knows my mom is Ms. Masturbation. She even had me get Mom to autograph her old copy of 'Free To Masturbate' she still had from school. Lil said she was going to ask Mom for some tips, cause she didn't understand some of the stuff from Chapter 7."

Gary felt his face grow warm. He'd spent a lot of time studying Chapter 7, Advanced Female Masturbation Techniques. And studying it again, after Bernie had told him which anonymous model was actually Joyce Bernstein herself.

"Oh. Okay, then," Gary said. If he couldn't have a shred of privacy, Gary decided he'd try for grace. He took a breath. "So your mom told me that you get together with your cousin Ben." Bernie nodded. Gary took another breath. "That's okay too." Nude in front of Bernie, he couldn't hide his penis twitching and starting to swell again. Women had some advantages in this kind of conversation. "Just let me know what you do."

"Thanks," Bernie said. "Ben and I have kind of helped each other try out sexual things, things we were curious about or just hadn't tried. So he wouldn't have a disaster with a girlfriend. And so I could convince myself that maybe it would be okay to do it with guys again." She took a breath. "So I was ready for you." She smiled.

"Thank him for me," Gary said. He still felt light-headed. Joyce and Bernie had been hitting him with the hammers of honesty for hours. But it was at least three smiles to the frown. And they wanted him to stick around. And he did.

Bernie smiled. "I will. He was so happy for me when I told him about you."

Gary laughed. "Y'know, Pete said the same thing when I got together with you. 'Finally, Gary, you got a girl who won't jack you around.'"

Bernie laughed out loud. "He said that?"

"Well, yeah, he told me I should dump Sharon, um, a couple months in. So he was pretty happy for me when I told him about you."

Gary and Bernie smiled at each other.

Gary cleared his throat. "So, you know, like, we're on a new foot with sexual honesty and stuff. What do you think the best way to start things out might be?"