When anyone asks how I lost my virginity, I tell them I had a one-night stand with a stranger, which spares me the trouble of having to maintain a more complex lie. I can’t tell family, friends or my girlfriend the truth – and the truth is that I didn’t lose my virginity to a stranger, but to my step-sister, and it wasn’t simply a one-night stand, but a prolonged series of stolen opportunities.
My parents divorced when I was quite young, and my mother remarried another divorced parent a few years later. He had a daughter of my age, who we’ll call Shauna; she lived with her mother a fair distance away, and visited our house every couple of months. I had an excellent relationship with both my stepfather and step-sister – he was and remains an incredible role model for me, and whenever Shauna came to visit, we connected as well as best friends would after a long time apart.