Serena settled back into the cushions and waited to see if Tim would bite. So far the evening had been one of truth-telling, but would he confront the issue that she had just raised, or change the subject?

“The thing is, Serena, you are right. Sex without a condom does feel much better, but not for the obvious reasons.”

Oh he was going to bite! Marvelous!

“What do you mean, huh?”

“It’s simple. If you care about someone enough to get tested and wait while they get tested and then trust each other enough to be monogamous and also that there is some form of contraception being used, then you can have sex without a condom, right?”

She nodded, not wanting to admit that she had simply rolled the dice and ignored all of these perfectly sensible precautions in the past.

“Well there is nothing between you, so the connection is complete, and you can come inside her, which has an incredible emotional and physical pay-off; it’s about the chance of procreating in the end.”

She smiled. She was right about him.