Jim and Edie Again Ch. 15-16

All of our mouths dropped open and we applauded and cheered.

Jim was babbling. I got a question in, "What about your jobs?"

Matt laughed, "That's what fell into place today. Josh and Amy are computer jocks. Josh can work from anywhere, and will still have his job as he does in D.C., it'll just be remote work and video conferences when needed. Amy got a new job with Retail Software Corporation or RSC -- all was finalized today. Their headquarters are just on the other side of the Interstate. She starts with them on February first."

Carolyn stood, "I am a top-notch graphics artist, and also have a new job, only with a hip firm named 'Creative Rabbit' or CR. They're a growing firm designing and building websites and high-end marketing platforms. I start in three days, and they know I'll need some time off when we actually move here. I'll work remotely until then. The pay is pretty good, too.

Matt spoke again, "As for me, I'm an electrical engineer. My new job is with Florida Power & Light. I also start on February first."

Josh said with a broad grin, "The last part of our adventure that we have to share tonight involves our housing arrangements. It's no secret that Carolyn and I have a thing for each other, and that Matt and Amy feel the same way. We all love each other. We bought two homes that are connected to one another about ... are you ready and thank you Sean ... two-hundred yards in that direction." He pointed into the key we lived on.

Jim sputtered, "The Henderson house with the in-law attachment? It's really two homes that got connected twenty years ago."

Josh grinned, "Exactly. The four of us will live together, with kids and any future babies. We're here to stay. Besides you and Edie need somebody to take care of you in your doddering elderly years."

Jim said loudly suddenly, "THAT won't happen for another fifteen years. Your announcements are staggering and very welcome. I love you all so. This is the best news." He hugged Josh, Matt, and then Amy and Carolyn.

Sometime around two a.m., well after the New Year had arrived, I peeked into one of the guest rooms. Jim, Amy, Penny, and Carolyn were wrapped around each other's nude bodies and asleep. He'd made love with his daughter, daughter-in-law, and my daughter. I smiled at that happy scene and went back to where Josh, David, and Matt were going to try to wear me out one more time. Did I mention that I love to fuck?

Doddering, my ass! I'll show them who can wear who out. I went back to the room with the men. I still had plans.

Jim by me one day and said, "Honey, we have to talk."

I would have just said, "Oh?", if I hadn't just been reading Cosmopolitan magazine where they quoted those words as the ones that no person should ever use with their mate because it signaled an eminent disaster, such as an affair, separation, or divorce. Jim obviously hadn't read the article.

My whole insides clutched and I'm sure I paled. Were we breaking up? Shit. Tears filled my eyes.

Jim got concerned when he saw how my face changed. I was ready to burst out in tears. He asked, "What's wrong?"

"You ... are we breaking up?"

Jim looked baffled. "Where'd you ever get that idea? Not only no, but hell no. I love you. I'm with you for the long haul."

My whole insides did a quick recovery. "Oh, just a magazine article I read that quoted those words."

Jim shook his head in confusion, "No. I have a serious discussion, but it's about me, not you or us." He paused and said, "I think I should get a vasectomy."

He laid it out there on the table, but I was still back dancing that we weren't breaking up and that I'd completely misread the situation. I pondered what he said for a minute and finally said, "Why? That's not a concern at your age, is it?"

"Presumably I'm the father of the baby Jean had -- baby Diane. I am touched that she named her that out of love for me and the memory of my late wife. BUT ... and a big but ... there are three other young women in our family that I'm routinely with in an intimate way, and any one of them could conceive: Penny, Carolyn, and Amy. Then there are others like Eva and Molly, even Alice, that haven't gone through menopause, plus our occasional visitors from our Intimacy Retreat. I don't need or want a string of children with other women. Further, I worry if it happened, not everyone would be as relaxed about it as David, and I'd screw up somebody's marriage and family situation." He shook his head as though he finally got it out of his system.

I shrugged, "So, do it. I can't have kids and wouldn't if I could at this age."

Jim looked surprised. "OK, I will. I don't think we should say anything for a while until I'm tested as no longer a 'threat'."

I warned, "Just be sure it doesn't change your stamina or recovery or anything else."

Two weeks later on a Monday morning, Jim had an office procedure by his doctor and got snipped. He hoped to be fully functioning, although not sterile, by the Saturday party, and that turned out to be the case. He submitted a semen sample three weeks later with my help, and was declared sperm free.

I kidded him and told him if I got pregnant, he'd know I'd been sleeping around. Given that we were each routinely having sex with about six or eight other people a week, that was a silly statement.

Jim just quietly let it be known that he was 'safe'. I think the men relaxed more than the women did.

Also, in his life, Carl and Alice visited us a number of times for business, mostly to talk to Jim about facilitating some of their retreat sessions. Unlike the time when we were attendees at the session and Jim ended up running two sessions, this would be planned in concert with the other modules of the seminar or workshop.

After several long talks about the material and venue, Jim agreed, but only if I could also attend the workshops when he was teaching. I'd expressed interest.

The first workshop was again a Marital Relations Retreat back at the lodge. Jim and I went out on Friday afternoon, connected with Carl and Alice and watched them teach the afternoon sessions. Jim was briefly introduced. His bio was in the book, but instead of emphasizing his NASA experience, it talked about his skills and experience in unique relationships. We had dinner with the class and then went to bed where we made love for almost two hours. Alice and Carl joined us for the second round.

Jim started the next morning. "I assume you're all here because there's something about your relationship that you wish was better?" He waited, and soon all the heads were nodding in agreement with his statement.

Jim then put up two flip charts he'd already prepared. One quoted Henry Ford, 'If you do what you've always done, you get what you always got'. The second said 'The secret of change is to focus not on fighting the old, but on building the new.'

Jim read them and said, "If you leave here and do nothing, you have wasted your money and our time. In the next two hours, I hope to blow up everything you know about relationships. I'm here to tell you that what you think you know is solid ground, is soft quicksand that is sucking you into a place that most of you don't want to be. There are better ways to build a relationship than what you've been doing. I know, I did the same thing for almost forty years with my late wife. We were generally happy, but now I realize we could have been so much more."

Jim worked his way into a new chart he'd put together as he worked through the material with the class. They were spellbound. He challenged them, "Why'd you get married or start the relationship with the person you're with? Are those reasons still valid?" He coaxed the class into some answers: Love, Best Friend, Companionship, Family Pressure, Everyone Else Was Doing It, Someone to Share With, Family, Belonging, Society, Build a Home, Commitment, Financial Stability, Legal, Children, and a few others. He pushed on the issue of Sex.

Jim threw his arms back, "You all found your soulmate, right?" Heads nodded.

"Those are all good reasons, but you're wrong if you think ONE person is going to do all that for you ALL the time. That's why you're here! The realization has finally hit. One or both of you find your tolerance for it is stretched thin. There's got to be more than what there is."

Jim waltzed around the outside of the 'U'-shaped table arrangement. "The notion that there can be only ONE soulmate is pure bullshit. That is ONE option of MANY that can make up a relationship. Here's some news," he paused and then almost yelled, 'YOU CAN LOVE MANY MORE THAN ONE PERSON. I know, because I've done it and I do it on a daily basis." He talked about love as a zero-sum game versus tapping into an unlimited vein of gold.

Jim worked the class from there. He blew up the idea of equality between mates, and that led into talks about possessiveness and exclusivity, again showing that there were OPTIONS. He talked about happiness and the true source. He beat monogamy into the ground as again only one option. He got the class to rattle off a dozen alternatives.

Jim described his happy marriage to Diane, and then contrasted that to the relationship he had with me and our intimate friends. The class would pose a question and that would lead to another term of some kind being added to the unfolding chart. He was emotional, theatrical, and drove his points home with a sledge hammer. The attendees were spellbound by him. He was the master teaching the most important lessons in life to his disciples.

At the end, he put up a chart he'd prepared. It had one word on it. "LOVE."

He set the marker down, and bowed to the class. He softly said, "Break time." Most in the class sat spellbound. Several just said, "Wow!" or the equivalent. As for me, his girlfriend, I too sat in awe of what had just happened over two hours. If I didn't believe in a new relationship model before, I sure did now.

I went up and hugged Jim, and we kissed.

Several men shook his hand, and he got other kisses from the women. Alice was in the melee seeking her kiss, which was very passionate as others watched. She said, "I'm sold," and laughed with him.

Jim folded up his notes and moved to the table the other seminar faculty used at the back of the room. I'd been sitting there, too, so he took the seat next to me. We went out into the lodge living room and got coffee. He was, of course, besieged with questions and handled each with élan. He always tried to help the person get the point and react in a positive way.

Alice followed Jim in the next time slot for the seminar. Personally, I think she'd been inspired by Jim because she was stellar in her delivery. She taught the section on Tantric Relationships and Sex, and even cited her extra-marital relationship with Jim as being one of the most rewarding in her life. The class looked surprised, yet didn't seem to adversely judge her behavior.

When heads turned to him, Jim just smiled and nodded in Alice's direction. They were both obviously in love with each other. Carl leaned over and whispered something in Jim's ear and they both chuckled.

I guess I was in a mood when I woke up that morning. I quickly got down on myself.

I stood in front of the full-length mirror on our bedroom wall. I was naked and I was crying. My youthful beauty had seriously eroded, I guessed on a daily basis since I hadn't seemed to notice earlier when I had used the mirror. I was the proverbial boiling frog.

I had bruises on both legs from who knows what. They didn't seem to be going away as fast as they usually did. Moreover, the texture of the skin, especially on my legs seems to be changing. I used every emollient that I could find to keep my skin pliant and in good shape; they weren't working as I wanted.

My breasts were sagging! Tears flooded down my ruddy cheeks. Ruddy! They weren't ruddy before. My breasts always had a little heft to them, but this ... this was a travesty. I threw my shoulders back. I tried to adjust my posture, but nothing seemed to help. That dropped my focus to what others called a 'pooch' -- my lower belly was also sagging. Oh, no.

I turned my rear to the mirror and looked over my shoulder. "Oh, NO!" I cried aloud. My ass had little bumps of cellulite ... and the back of my thighs. I'm a disaster. I looked at my hands -- Fucking age spots! Liver spots my mother had called them. Where'd they come from? I used hand cream.

Closer to the mirror, I could see the increased wrinkles around my eyes and forehead. My upper lip was developing tiny little lines going up towards my nose. Is my nose larger? My ears? My hair seems more brittle; time for that oily rinse again. Oh, dear, I have hair growing on my chin. I need a fucking shave. I had some tiny hairs growing near my nipples.

I broke into wild sobbing, the tears washing away the view of the terrible woman in the mirror. Jim will push me away. He has all these younger women that love him, and he'll focus there. He even has a new baby by one of them.

Two strong arms from the man I love surrounded me from behind. He forced my head around slightly and kissed me. "You're beautiful."

I sobbed, "No I'm not. I'm a fucking disaster. I'm falling apart."

We looked at each other through the mirror. He said, "No, you're the most beautiful woman in the world. I love every bit of you."

He turned me away from the mirror and cuddled me against his freshly showered nude body. I could feel him get slightly inflated against my mons. He led me to the bed and then we lay down and he cuddled and stroked me. He said all the right things. How'd he know how to do that? I calmed and then I fell asleep in his arms as he kept kissing me.

I woke to some subtle sounds of Jim moving around the kitchen. I sighed and put on my sexy heels and then went out to greet him. I was still feeling a little morose about my aging body.

Jim welcomed me with open arms, "Feeling any better?"

I shrugged.

"I have some good news and bad news for you. Which do you want first?"

I looked at him and said, "Bad then good."

He smiled, "OK. You are going to get old. I talked to God and She said she's been good to you long enough. She has other people to work on, so her attention will be diverted more and more. She'll keep you good health, but, well, the body is going to see some issues from time to time, and some of them are cumulative.

"The good news is that Jim -- me -- and everybody else that loves you will ignore all those changes in your looks and will love you more each day than the day before. No one is going to ditch you because you got another age spot or your breasts sagged another tenth of a millimeter."

I looked at him as he held me in his arms, "Really?"

"Yep, really. I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow." He sighed, "Besides, I'm not exactly the spring chicken I was twenty or thirty years ago. None of us in our age group are. Don't think for a second that you are alone on this journey. You have company all around going through the same thing. You have support and co-conspirators in getting old.

"I can guess that since you were a model of perfection, that the discovery of one or another sign of old age will be harder on you. No one but you will care, but we will all love you and help you cope. You don't need to worry about any of that physical stuff." He kissed me and then made me sit while he fried some eggs.

Grandchildren, or the threat of them, turned out to be the greatest salve to Edie's worries about the aging process ravaging her body.

Penny announced she was pregnant.

Penny was excited. Edie was exuberant. Despite living two miles away, they spent hours on the phone excitedly talking to each other. How Penny was working mystified me. Edie told me that she multitasked; she could do her editing and talk on the phone at the same time.

Carolyn and Amy followed with identical announcements two months behind Penny and each other.

We would have three new grandchildren within a four-month window shortly before the Christmas holidays. Baby Diane would have sisters, brothers, and cousins to play with, when she was less than a year old. The existing grandkids started to undergo the indoctrination to become a big brother and a big sister to a new hoard of baby brothers and sisters.

As the local grandfather-on-scene I didn't react too much. I was glad for the wanted and planned pregnancies, and helped celebrate the events, but I was a generation removed from the actual events, although the expectant mothers insisted on being in my bed on a recurring basis. I came to believe that their hormone shifts had moved them into a state where they needed constant orgasmic euphoria -- at least more than they had.

Atop that state for Carolyn, Amy, and Penny, both Jean and Edie seemed to drink the same Kool-Aid. I became the cock-du-jour, every day, for each of them and even more often for Edie. I thought I'd get chafed, but there was so much natural lubricant there, it didn't happen. If the motto 'Use it or lose it' was operant, I was never going to lose my hard-on.

When I wasn't plying one of them with my sexual juices, I was studying the huge subject of relationships. In a stroke of what I thought of as pure genius, I went back to many of my old notes and materials from executive courses about human resources and leadership that I'd taken while working at NASA. Those had been about corporate and business relationships, but I found that well over ninety percent of the material also related to romantic and couple relationships.

Alice was over at the house one day, and after we'd made love, I showed her some of the material, including some of the linkages I made to negotiation skills and techniques, just as an example. She liked my ideas and encouraged me to extend them.

Alice and I were back in bed, and I'd been eating out the soft haired redhead when Edie came into the bedroom. She smiled at us in her naked state and nudged me away from Alice's pussy so she could eat out our friend. Edie and Alice spent an hour giving each other orgasms with my participation only sporadically.

The sapphic interaction of the two women gave me an idea I shared with Alice as she was leaving. "I had an idea while the two of you were being so engaging in our bed. Did you and Carl ever think of a special relationship course designed around relationships that were lesbian or gay? It seems to me there's a niche there. I bet all your seminar attendees have been heterosexual couples. Maybe there's one for polyamorous groups, too. You know I'd like to be involved in the last one, and so would Edie."

Alice studied me for a minute as she digested my ideas. She kissed me again, and said, "Back to you on all that. Great ideas." She called me in the early evening to tell me that Carl had come alive with the ideas for new courses and was already on his computer seeing if there was any competition in those areas.

I know I was sneaky, but I arranged for the delivery of some new exercise equipment while I knew Jim would be having lunch with the men from our social group.

When Jim got home, I was on my new Stairmaster, trying to work up to sixty beats a minute. I was out of breath, and sure I'd die at any second. This machine was pure torture, and I'd only been on it for five minutes.

"Hi, Honey," he said, leaning against the door frame of the room we used for exercising and yoga -- much less intense than what I was gearing up to do. "I like the new gear."

I gasped, "Hi." The most I could muster was that one exasperated syllable.

He chuckled, "I know what you're trying to do and I applaud your efforts, but it won't stop the inevitable."