Before They Were Stars - Scarlet Red

Shaking my head and laughing, I retrieved a bottle of Heineken for each of us, found an opener and took them out to join Charlotte. I opened one of the bottles for her and set it on the coffee table in front of her. Her mouth was full of potato chips as she washed them down with a long pull on the bottle. I took a seat on a chair to the right of her and opened the other beer.

Through tendrils of incense smoke rising from two burners on the coffee table, I watched Charlotte as she eventually satisfied her appetite enough to take a pause in her snack consumption and finally speak.

"You must think I'm a pig or something," she said.

I laughed and pointed to the extremely small remnants of three smoked joints, "Been there, done that."

"You want to smoke some weed with me?" she asked.

"Not if you want to have this talk with me that you keep mentioning," I said.

"Oh yeah, right," she said, taking another drink of her beer.

"Are you ready to explain what you need?" I asked.

Charlotte fiddled with her wheat blonde hair for several seconds before pushing it behind her ears on both sides. She slid her legs underneath her, squaring her back and preparing for what she wanted to say.

"I'm confused," she started.

"You mentioned that," I said. "What are you confused about, exactly?"

"Sex," She said, barely above a whisper. She was studying her hands as they laid in her lap.

"Isn't sex something that you should be discussing with your parents instead of some guy that you barely know?"

"My mom can't help me," Charlotte said. "She would just tell me to do whatever felt right for me at the time."

"That's not totally bad advice," I told her, "but it can sometimes be hard for a young person to understand their feelings for what they really are. Love and lust can easily get confused for one another."

"I knew you would understand," Charlotte said with a hint of pride in her voice.

"You knew that I would understand what?" I asked.

"I think I like girls," Charlotte said, once more studying her hands intently.

"Are you concerned about whether or not you are a lesbian?" I asked.

Charlotte just nodded.

"I'm not sure that I am the best person to advise you..." I began.

Charlotte looked into my eyes and said, "If I asked for advice from a woman who is straight, she won't understand my confusion. If I asked for advice from a straight guy, his advice will be biassed towards his own preferences. The same if I ask for advice from a lesbian woman; she'll be biased in her own way. By asking for your advice, you wouldn't have a bias. Plus, you would understand being different."

"Wait a second," I said. "Do you still think that I am gay?"

"Of course," she said. "I explained all that to you yesterday when we met."

"Charlotte, I am not gay. I wear a Speedo when swimming because I used to swim competitively and that is what we wear. It cuts down on the resistance in the water."

She got a puzzled expression on her face and said, "You also didn't want to take my picture."

I shook my head in disbelief. This girl really was a 'babe in the woods' sometimes. I said, "I won't disrespect your beauty by taking a bad picture of you. If it's that important to you, I have a real camera in my room that I will use to take a quality picture of you some time."

"If you think I'm beautiful, why haven't you made a move on me? I had to practically beg you just to talk to me tonight."

I smiled and tried to explain, "It's a matter of respect, Charlotte. I do think you are very beautiful, but that's no reason for me to assume that you would welcome any advances made by me. A person should respect another person's right to set limits. I don't know what your limits might be, so I respect you enough not to test them. Then there's the fact that I am twice your age, barely know you and have a great deal more experience in life than you do. I wouldn't want to take advantage of you, even if it was unintentional."

Charlotte sat silently, looking at me with what looked like a new interest. I decided to move the conversation along.

"Have you experienced relationships with both boys and girls?" I asked.

She nodded but remained silent.

"Would you feel comfortable describing these experiences to me so I can try to understand your confusion?"

Once more, her hands became her focus as she said, "I've only been with two boys and two girls. The sex with the girls satisfied me more, I guess. I think that's what has me confused. Sometimes, when I see a good-looking guy, my body reacts as it does with a girl, but the reaction with a girl never happens until we're actually doing stuff. My body doesn't react the same way just by looking at a girl as it does when I look at a boy. Does that make sense?"

"It does," I said. "You have never experienced an orgasm while having sex with a boy, but you have with a girl. Is that right?"

She nodded.

"Charlotte, that's probably not that uncommon for someone your age," I explained. "Hell, I was a teenage boy once, with all the selfish desires and lack of patience that went along with it. The guys you were with probably spent little time on foreplay and were done with you as soon as they had cum. Am I close?"

"You're spot-on," she said.

"While the girls were very focused on bringing you pleasure and passion, right?"

"I guess so," she said.

"I'm no expert, Charlotte, but it sounds to me that you don't have a true sexual orientation dilemma. You said it yourself, boys cause a reaction that girls don't, but so far, girls have satisfied you more than boys. I think you just need to get more experience under your belt, probably with both. Let me ask you this, thinking back on the girls that you have been with, rate what you would consider their sexual experience has been on a scale of one to five."

Charlotte thought for a few seconds before answering, "The first girl was my age, but she certainly knew what she was doing when she basically seduced me. I would say that she would rate at three and a half. The second girl was more my choice, but she wasn't a stranger to girl-on-girl action. I would rate her a strong four."

"Good," I said. "Now do the same with the boys. Rate their experience on a scale of one to five."

There was no hesitation when she said, "Both of them would barely rate a two, and I rate them that high because they knew that 'tab A goes into slot B', but that was about the limit of their knowledge, in my opinion. Neither even knew how to kiss very well."

"Any conclusions?" I asked.

She was nodding vigorously when she answered, "I need to try having sex with a guy who knows what he's doing, but more than that, I need to find a guy who will be patient with me and teach me what I don't know. That's what both of the girls did for me and is probably why I enjoyed those experiences so much more."

"Excellent," I said. "It looks like my work here is done. Just be patient, Charlotte, and don't rush things. You have your entire life ahead of you. Do what feels right like your mom said, but be confident of your feelings before going too far down any road. They're your feelings, and they count. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I think so," she said. "Can we talk some more tomorrow? I think I'll have some more questions after I sleep on what you've said."

"I think we can probably find time to meet up again. Do you have to work tomorrow?"

"Just the lunch gig," she said. "I'll be off by two."

"I think I'll be tied up a bit longer than that," I said. "Let me throw an idea out to you so you can tell me what you think, and Charlotte, this isn't a move that I'm making on you..."

"What?" she asked.

"If you want to hang out at the pool tomorrow after your shift, bring your bathing suit to work with you. I'll find you at lunch and give you a spare key to my room. You can relax, sunbathe, take a nap or whatever else you want to do until I'm free. Then I'll order a pizza to be delivered to my room. I would take you out to dinner, but our conversation might not be appropriate for a public place."

Charlotte stood and approached me in the chair. She pushed the leg that I had crossed over the other off, and then sat on my lap, put her arms around me and snuggled her head against my neck. I could smell her scent, which I assumed was just her shampoo. I couldn't sit forward to set the beer bottle down, so I put my free arm around her and hugged her.

"I knew that you would be good for me, Greg, even if you're not gay," Charlotte laughed into my neck.

The feeling of her lips moving against my skin was incidental contact, but my body didn't perceive it that way. I was immediately in an uncomfortable predicament with my growing erection crushed under the weight of her body. I had recognized earlier that Charlotte wasn't wearing a bra under her tank-top, but the significance of that then, versus now was also becoming obvious to me as I felt her young, hard nipples pressing against my body.

Charlotte didn't seem to be inclined to get off my lap anytime soon, but contently remained snuggled against me, just relishing in the human contact. I patiently held her while trying to think of any subjects that would distract me from the multiple sensory influences of her nubile young body being so close to mine.

I was mostly successful. My erection never fully deflated, but the discomfort became tolerable. I sensed her steady breathing an instant before I felt her drooling on my neck and heard her first snore. I had finished my beer while she was snuggled against me, so I dropped the empty bottle onto the carpet and slid that now free arm under her legs. I rose with Charlotte still sleeping in my arms and studied the apartment.

I already knew where the kitchen was, so that direction was eliminated. There was a short hallway on the opposite wall, so assuming that led to the bedrooms, I headed that way. The first door I came to led into what appeared to be the master bedroom since the arrangement of the furniture, accessories and clothes around the room looked pretty settled. The next door was a bathroom, but the one after that was the spare bedroom that I was seeking.

Upon entering the room, I saw the pieces of Charlotte's work uniform on a hangar on a hook. Satisfied that I had found her temporary residence, I gently placed her onto the bed and folded the covers over her. When her head settled into the pillow, she moaned slightly.

As I was leaving her room, I could have sworn that I heard her say, "Good night, Daddy."

On the short walk back to the resort and my room, I contemplated just how easy it would have been, and probably still would be for me to take advantage of Charlotte. I knew that most guys would seize the opportunity to leverage her lack of experience and questions of her sexual orientation to get her into the sack, and at one time, I probably would have too. Now though, I felt protective of her.

Charlotte deserved to have a mentor that she could trust and who would live up to that trust. I wanted her to have enough confidence not to settle for less.

The following morning was busy at the symposium, so as a result, the lunch break arrived before I knew it. The smile that beamed at me from across the banquet room melted my heart. Charlotte was working the drinks station today, so I got into the queue of participants waiting to select their drinks. I smiled at Charlotte's obvious impatience at the people in the line before me, but she maintained her friendly and professional persona until I reached her.

I held up a spare card key for my room as I accepted a cup of iced tea, "Do you remember my suggestion from last night?"

"Of course," she giggled. She took the card key out of my hand and asked, "What's the room number?"

"Room 19-92," I said.

"That will be easy to remember," she said, "since I was born in 1992."

Her comment reminded me once more of just how young Charlotte was. I think she saw my expression change, because she quickly added, "Don't worry, I've been told that I have an 'old soul'."

I wasn't sure what that had to do with the price of tea in China, but the drink line was backing up behind me, so I just said, "I should be done by three-thirty, so if you're still at the pool, I'll be there shortly after that."

"I think I'll wait for you," Charlotte said. "The pool will be a meat market with me as the cut of choice unless you're there with me."

"I understand," I said. "I'll be back in the room as soon as I can. Enjoy yourself in the meantime."

I moved out of the line and started working the room, chatting with new and current clients. There were two presentations after lunch that I had reserved spots to attend, but the presenter for the second one had been called away on some emergency and the person filling in for them was not my favorite speaker. I found my afternoon at the symposium shortened by more than an hour.

There were several symposium participants milling around the resort lobby; waiting for rides to play golf, go fishing, or one of the other extra-curricular events offered by the organizers of the symposium. I spent a little over thirty minutes in the lobby chatting with people before giving up and returning to my room.

When I entered my room, Charlotte ran up to me and took both of my hands into hers. She had a panicked expression on her face as she kept apologizing for something.

"Charlotte, slow down," I implored. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, Greg I am so sorry. I didn't know that they charged for it until it was too late and I must have pushed the wrong button on the remote to cancel it. I am so sorry. I'll pay you back, I promise."

I pulled her against me for a reassuring hug before turning her and directing her back into the room. As soon as I saw the television, I knew why she was so concerned about what my reaction would be, and I laughed. One of the soft-core porno movies offered on the resort's pay-per-view system was playing with the sound muted.

I put my arm around Charlotte's shoulders as we stood facing the television, "This might actually be beneficial for your education," I told her.

"How?" she asked.

"Come on," I said. "Sit with me on the couch and we'll watch it together. We'll keep the sound off so we can talk while we watch it together."

I saw that Charlotte had a bottle of water sitting on the end table at one side of the couch, so I led her to that spot and urged her to take a seat. I moved to the other end to sit and had barely settled before she had scooted over to sit right beside me with our bodies touching. I picked up the remote and hit the "pause" button.

I turned to her and said, "Let's start by you telling me what interested you in this particular program. Was it the title, the description of it, random choice or something else?"

"Oh, God", Charlotte moaned while looking at her feet. "Do I have to tell you?"

I placed a finger under her chin and urged her to raise her eyes to meet mine, "Charlotte, my first rule is that you, young lady, never have to do anything that you don't want to do. You call the shots. I'll do my best to advise and assist you, but you're an adult now. My second rule is that there are always consequences to the choices we make. I will try to help you make choices that lead to only positive consequences for you, but you need to take responsibility for the consequences of your choices, whether good or bad. Are you okay with those rules?"

"Maybe," she said, her eyes never leaving mine. "You have made me realize that I need someone in my life. I don't want to use the term 'father figure', but I have never had a male role model in my life. Greg, would you agree to be the Sage that I need in my life? I think I could learn things from you. About life and what I want to do with mine."

I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled Charlotte tighter against my side, "It's interesting that you use the term 'Sage'. The term 'mentor' is the one I was beating around in my head last night after I left you."

"You were thinking that I needed a mentor?" she asked.

I nodded and said, "Yes, but I didn't see myself in that role for you."

"Why not?"

"The most obvious reason is that we hardly know each other," I said. "When I was thinking about you needing a mentor, I had already identified the most basic qualifications; it has to be someone who you trust, and a person that deserves that trust. While I would never do anything to make you doubt your trust in me, I am not naïve enough to believe that you would have that kind of trust in me after such a short time."

"You're wrong," Charlotte said as she turned to face me. "I do trust you. Completely. Maybe I'm naïve to do so, but you have already demonstrated more integrity and kindness towards me than any man I have ever known. You will protect me, teach me, support me, encourage me, and when necessary, I believe that you would punish me. You already have made me feel cherished, whether you know it or not."

I thought about what Charlotte had just said, and realized that she was right. After only two days, I did cherish her.

"Then there's the fact that I live in California when I'm there, and you live in Colorado," I explained. "Our relationship would be entirely long-distance. You deserve better than that."

"Did you notice that I didn't include 'comfort me' in my list of things I think you would do for me? That would entail physical contact that wouldn't always be possible. I can live with that. Greg, I know that we would be apart most of the time, but I still believe that you are the right one for me. I need you, not anyone else."

She crawled into my lap and continued, "I'll prove that I trust you. You asked what made me choose the movie over there on the TV, and I'll tell you. It was because the guy in it reminded me of you. I wanted to watch and imagine that it was you showing all the passion for the woman, but more than that, I wanted to imagine that I was the woman, even if she looks nothing like me."

I was speechless.

Charlotte crawled out of my lap and stood, "There are supposed to be thunderstorms in the area around five, so if you want to spend any time in the pool, we should head out there now. We can come back to the movie later if you want. I know that I want to."

I stood. Charlotte's height placed her forehead even with my lips, so I leaned over and kissed her there.

"You brought your swimsuit?" I asked.

She picked up her purse and said, "It's in here. Where do you want me to change?"

"Let me grab mine and I'll take it into the bathroom," I said. "You can change out here and holler when you're ready for me to come out."

Charlotte had a mischievous look in her eyes as she simply nodded at my suggestion. I sat on the edge of the bed to remove my shoes and socks before retrieving my swimsuit and walking into the bathroom to change. I made quick work of getting my clothes off and the Speedo on, so I decided to brush my teeth while waiting for Charlotte to inform me that she had finished changing in the room.

"Ready when you are," I heard her say through the door. I picked up my clothes to carry back into the room and opened the bathroom door.

"Nice bikini," I said. "What's it made out of, cellophane?"

Charlotte giggled as she spun around to give me an unobstructed view of her naked body.

"I really was going to put on my bikini," she said, "but then I heard the thunder and looked outside. The thunderstorms have arrived earlier than expected. The pool will be closed until they pass, so I had another idea for how we can spend the time."

I was holding my clothes in front of me, which became a necessity as soon as I had walked out of the bathroom and spotted Charlotte in all her glory.

"And how is that?" I asked.

"I would like for you to teach me how to do that," Charlotte said, pointing to the television.