Incoherantly, of course.

“No, no, I didn’t! I mean, not exactly. I, well, I…” I sputtered incoherently at the same time that Jessica yelped reflexively, “I would never let him touch me!” We both stopped and looked at each other. It was hard to explain this to someone else when we didn’t understand it ourselves.

Jessica took a deep breath, gathering herself, and gave both of her sisters a serious look. “Despite what you two might think about me, I am not some slut who will let boys do whatever they want out of some hedonistic love of physical pleasure. I believe in intimacy within the context of a loving relationship.” This sounded absolutely nothing like the typical playful Jessica when she was talking to Marisa or me, but her desperate attempt at dignity just brought home to me how intensely she wanted Traci to think well of her.

A bemused smile flitted across Traci’s face. “Dear, if I wanted to hear our father’s opinions about sex I’d ask him, you don’t need to quote him for me. Physical pleasure is quite a nice thing, really, and I hope you can learn to appreciate it. Now come on, I brought some Chinese food, let’s eat! We can finish painting after dinner. Fully clothed, I believe.” She added that last parting shot with a wink at Marisa, who giggled. It was becoming more and more clear to me that I needed to get on Traci’s good side, fast. With the way the twins felt about her, I could easily wind up the outsider this summer.

As we headed into the kitchen to eat, I whispered in Jessica’s ear, “I’m really sorry about earlier. About trying to touch you, I mean. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.”

“That’s ok,” she whispered back, “things just got out of control. In another second I would have told you to stop, anyway.” I was less sure about that, given the electricity in the room. But it was definitely ok with me that she thought so.