Northern Proposals Read Free Page A

and said, "About two more hours. I have picnic style food in the cooler behind you. Hungry?"
    "What was all the salt and sugar for then?"
    "Mostly I wanted a little longer break to stretch. But don't worry, I'll go through all the salty treats I bought and half of yours."
    "Have you just admitted your weakness? I was starting to think you were Super Woman."
    "Oh, I have more weaknesses than that," she said. "Hang on, another turn." It was a right turn. We were heading north again. "Okay, can you reach the food? It's all on top. Finger food."
    "Sure," I said. I raided the cooler. She had sandwiches in one bag, cut up fresh vegetables in the second, and grapes in the third.
    "I hope you're not a vegetarian," she said. "Susan is definitely a carnivore, so I made sandwiches accordingly. Two of the sandwiches are turkey, two are roast beef."
    "Carnivore here," I told her. "What sandwich do you want?"
    "One of either," she said. "And if you can open the bags and put them where I can reach them, that would be great."
    We ate quietly for several minutes. "Sorry," she said. "I kind of wolfed the sandwich."
    "Did you want another?"
    "No , thank you." She glanced at me. "About the morning. We can walk if you don't want to run. Or I can go alone. Across the road from the cabin is a state park. There is a bunch of hiking trails. It's just through the trees and pretty flat, but it's still pretty. I like bringing my camera."
    "I'd like that," I told her. "Mosquitoes?"
    "Probably. I brought spray. I'm the only one who gets to bite you this weekend."
    I laughed. "I don't think you'll be biting me, either."
    "Ah, you have left a window of hope wide open for me. I will bask in the knowledge you didn't flat out say 'no'." Jessica glanced over and looked me up and down pointedly before returning her attention to the road.
    "You wouldn't want to bite me ," I replied. "I taste like straight girl."
    She laughed and glanced over at me. "You're okay. For a straight girl."
    I watched the trees slide past our window . It was a beautiful evening, and traffic was now much lighter, the road narrower, the trees closer to the road, a mix of oak, birch and swatches of pine trees. It was gorgeous, and riding along in Jessica's car left me feeling relaxed.
    "Jessica?"
    "Yes, Jade?"
    "How did you know you were gay?"
    "Is that what you were thinking about for the last fifteen minutes?"
    "No, I was thinking how beautiful the drive is, and how relaxed I am starting to feel, and then suddenly I wanted to talk to you again."
    "So you asked the hardest question you could ask." But she was smiling. "For me, it was a process. I dated guys in high school, and I had fun with some of them, but when I got to college, and they wanted to step up the physical intimacy, I found I just wasn't interested. So I continued to date, but casually." She paused, remembering. "Then, during my junior year over winter break, I was at a New Year's Eve party. And you know how it's traditional to kiss right at midnight?"
    "You kissed a girl?"
    "Yeah."
    "And that's how you knew?"
    "No, but the seed was planted. It was a really nice kiss. She was a little drunk. Not a lot drunk, just a little, enough to have lowered inhibitions, and she decided to really make it a nice kiss, not just the little peck I was expecting. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and she was able to raise my blood pressure by several notches before she let me go."
    "Wow."
    "That's what I said," Jessica said, laughing.
    "Was she gay?"
    " No. She called me the next day, completely embarrassed, and we both got teased about it for a long time afterwards, but I realized I had enjoyed kissing her more than I had ever enjoyed kissing any guys. By senior year I was actively trying to find women to date, although I was pretty stupid about it."
    "Oh?"
    "I didn't do anything stupid, stupid. No bad choices. I was just bad at it. I didn't know how to find them. I could find the militant lesbians, you know, the ones who hate men, but I