Chapter 33

Long before there was Lily and Alex, the first woman Lily ever kissed was her best friend Gail. They were juniors in college and driving home from a Budweiser-laced frat party, crunched up in Lily’s two seat yellow and white Metropolitan. Both were quite drunk and a reasonable person would have questioned Lily ability to drive, but it was 1977 and drinking and driving wasn’t too much to get excited about.
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Lily saw the red light at the last moment. She thumped to a stop at the corner of Upton and Cardinal and with an unceremonious lack of grace she and Gail landed just about on top of each other. Before she knew it Gail was kissing her and not just a peck.

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“Whoa”, Lily said, “Gail, I had no idea”. She tossed her head back and laughed.

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“I had no idea either” Gail slurred, chuckling with obvious satisfaction before she kissed Lily again. This time her tongue slid into and linqered in Lily’s mouth, and Lily panicked and pulled away.

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“Hey!” Lily said, enjoying her own chuckle. “We’re at a streetlight. We could get arrested for making out and obstructing traffic.”

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She laughed again, her words spilling one on top of one another. “Not to mention two women kissing each other. Do you get arrested for that?”.
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“No, Lily, you get aROUSE—sed”. At that, they laughed so hard Lily was forced to pull over, where they and the little yellow and white Metropolitan sat, motionless for the next thirty minutes. Lily reached for Gail’s hand and held it another until Gail remembered her new almost boyfriend was waiting for her at the apartment.
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Lily and Gail never kissed again and Gail went on to marry a Harvard graduate who later served as an undersecretary in the Clinton administration.
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Lily, on the other hand, dated men for another year or so before she reluctantly faced the fact that Gail’s kiss was the best of all. Shortly after she graduated from Northeastern, and just before she started grad school, she answered a personal ad in the Boston Phoenix.
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Woman seeks woman, it read. 25 year old attractive humorous professional .seeks tall bright and also humorous first date, preferably over dinner and definitely including dancing at midnight.
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Lily responded with a one page two paragraph letter in her best handwriting. She noted that she was a bit of an introvert, well groomed and fashionable, 5 foot 7inches, an English Lit PhD student partial to both dinner and dancing, and, she added as an afterthought “new to women”, At the advice of her friend Wendy, who had had limited success dating two men through this method, she included a picture of herself and her phone number. Always level headed, she did not include her last name, and instead simply ended with “Sincerely, Lily”
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A woman named Lorraine called three days later, at 9:30 on a Wednesday night. They agreed to meet on Friday at Grendel’s Den in Cambridge for drinks and dinner. Lorraine said she knew a lesbian bar that was clean, packed, and nearby, and she asked Lily how she felt about sex on a first date.

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“Not good” Lily had said.

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“That’s ok” Lorraine said. “Let’s see what happens--if we’re attracted to one another”

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“What happens if we’re not attracted to one another?”, Lily asked.

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“Well then, we’ll still go to the bar but maybe we’ll prowl on our own”.

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When she hung up the phone, Lily was amused. Is this really how it works? she wondered. She couldn’t imagine a guy ever being so blunt so fast. And yet, practically speaking, Lorraine’s approach made some sense. She liked the idea of a back door, and it seemed an easy way for her to foray into her first lesbian bar.

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Lorraine, she thought to herself, If you’re missing teeth or wearing a bowling shirt, I’ll definitely be prowling elsewhere.