Loosening Up Bk. 04 Ch. 06-10

"But ... Jack ... and Mike ..."

"Probably fucked the daylights out of her. Maybe she even got a third round in with somebody else. So, what? Did you keep track of her sexual habits when she was living with your father?"

"No ... but ..."

Joan chuckled, "Let's get a couple of things straight before you confront her. Are you responsible for her?"

"Errr, no."

"Does she need your permission to have sex with other people?"

"No, of course not. That would imply ownership and control, and I have neither in her case – in anybody's case."

"Good. Does she have to report back to you about what she did?"

"No." Dave lay back on his elbows. "I guess I feel protective of her. I don't feel responsible for her and what she chooses to do, but I do feel responsible for what happens to her when it's within my sphere of influence."

Joan teased, "So, you think that Jack and Mike and the other men and possibly women are a bad influence on her? Maybe that they'll hurt her either physically or emotionally? No one here uses whips or chains, floggers or canes."

Dave shook his head, "No, I trust everyone in the Circle."

"Would you feel more comfortable if she went home to Ohio and picked up some guys in the local motel bar for the night of pleasure she sought? She might take on all comers just for fun."

"God, no! That'd be a million times worse."

"Ah, so, this is a bad thing that happened?"

Dave thought. He finally admitted, "No, I guess it's a really good thing for her. I hope she doesn't have expectations about some kind of exclusive relationship with one of the men. That would hurt her. I don't want her hurt."

"I bet she knows exactly what the score is. She's spent four intense days talking in depth to at least half the people in the Circle, plus a few others. She knows the whole situation, our motivations, our behavior, our mores, and everything about us. Further, I bet she could give a highly accurate rendition of your 'This is the Circle' speech that you give to new prospects."

Grace pulled Dave around onto the bed. "Come and snuggle. Relax and let go. Make love to me or Joan or bettr yet both of us. Sleep. Your mother is six monthsyoungerthan I am. Think about that. Put your relationship with her on the same basis that you do with me. I love you. You love me."

Dave allowed Grace to cuddle him to her breast. He gradually faded away into his restless sleep again.

A few hours later, Dave was shuffling around in the kitchen, cooking up a storm and putting various custom orders for breakfast or brunch on the counter.

He watched as Elise, his mother, appeared with Sean holding her hand in a romantic gesture. Heather was with the couple and winked at him and then grinned at Dave. The trio sat together with Elise in the middle of the two that sat as close to her as physics allowed.

Dave went through the small drill that he'd rehearsed with Grace: 'I am seeing a mature woman that is her own person. She can enjoy any kind of a relationship with as many people as she wants and in any way that she wants. She is not my possession, and I need not protect her differently than I do for the other women in my midst. I love Elise, and I will help her grow and evolve as she sees fit to do."

Dave walked over to the threesome that had just sat. "Good morning everybody. What can I get you for brunch?" He tried to sound overly cheery.

Elise looked surprised at the interaction.

Heather said, "Hi, Honey. Could I have some cinnamon French toast with an over-easy egg on top?"

"Absolutely. You want OJ, too?"

She nodded. Sean ordered up a Mexican omelet.

Dave turned to Elise, "And you, beautiful?"

"Thank you. I guess I'll have what Sean's having if you can do two without any trouble." She flashed her son a beautiful smile and ignored the way his eyes dipped to her bare breasts. She was right in keeping with the mode of dress for Saturday brunch on a warm day.

"No trouble at all. Give me a few minutes." Dave headed back to the kitchen.

As Dave got back to the prep area, Aaron came into the kitchen. "Bro, what are we going to do about mother?"

Dave forced a grin. "WE are going to do nothing. I agonized most of the night on this, but had helpful input very early this morning from Grace and Joan. Just think of mom the way you think about Grace, and you'll do just fine."

Aaron's face adopted a pensive look. He finally said, "But I'm not related to Grace."

"And what would be different if you were?"

Aaron thought and slowly said, "Noth ... ing, I ... guess."

"Mom is her own person. She's sane, or as sane as any of us are. She's got an active mind, can think for herself, and she researched the Circle and the things we hold important. So, she made love with Jack, Mike, and Sean, plus some women, and will probably do the rest of the men today."

"Us?" Aaron said in a worried tone.

Dave shrugged. "Elise is a loving animal. I don't know what she'll want to do. Right now, I feel we should wait. I want to be sure she thinks though the implications of an incestuous relationship with us, otherwise ... we'll see."

Aaron mumbled, "You're too cool."

"I'm an engineer. I put the problem in a box and I can keep a lid on it for a while. It has sides that contain things. Am I agitated that she's having sex with some of our friends, yes. Do I want to do anything about it? After thinking about it, and knowing her needs, the answer is no. I hope she feels loved by all of us."

Aaron stood silently thinking about everything.

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"Oh, one of those things you call a Circle omelet."

"OK. Go sit with mom, Heather, and Sean. Just relax."

Aaron went out to the table, and did as Dave had suggested. Minutes later, he arrived, served everyone, and then sat down opposite Elise with his own omelet.

Elise said, "I thought you'd scold me or be irritated with me for trying to break into your Circle."

Dave shook his head. "Do you feel loved?"

"Very."

"Did you enjoy the sex?" he grinned at her.

"You know I did. I even got daring and did a few things with Heather and Holly. Betty and I used to do things together, but that was a long time ago. There were others, too."

"Would you care to explain that last comment?" Dave asked.

Elise looked slightly embarrassed. She looked at the others at the table, and Dave figured that she decided that they wouldn't judge her too harshly. She said, "Your father and I were swingers for about ten or twenty years. We were in a club. That's one of the secrets I held back from telling you and Aaron."

Dave took in that information and nodded. "I'm not surprised, I guess." In fact, he was surprised. He tried to think back to their social life, but little came to mind except having an occasional baby sitter as his parents went out to a party. He also recalled one time he went to his grandparent's home while they had a party at the house.

"Oh," Dave muttered. He was silent for a while. Aaron watched his brother and mirrored his behavior. He asked, "You're comfortable with the reality of group sex?"

"Yes," Elise said with a smile at her son. "I know that my presence kind of squelched things this weekend. I'm sorry about that."

"What are your intentions?"

Elise laughed. "About what? I'm content to just let things play out and see how everybody feels in a few months. Over that time, I want to go home, have a think, and come back a few times for long weekends like this, if you'll have me."

Dave rolled his eyes at the double entendre. "Yes, you are always welcome here."

Sean put his arm around Elise. "Dave, she belongs here."

Dave smiled. "I should hope so."

Elise said, "Several people have told me that either you or Alice have to give me 'The Talk' about belonging to the Circle. I guess it's the whole philosophical underpinning to how you live. I think I have it figured out, but I should hear it from an authority figure like you." He tone was teasing.

Dave said, "It's more than just philosophical; that sounds too theoretical. After breakfast we'll talk."

There was some other banter about the babies, and then Heather's son Matthew and her plans for the day. She had homework but seemed well organized. Heather was in the homestretch, having reached her senior year at the university. There were several questions about her job prospects in the area after her graduation in May.

When the others had drifted away, Dave took his mother's hand and led her between a couple of the homes out to the walkway surrounding the homes on Circle Drive. They started their slow walk clockwise around the homes.

Dave prefaced his remarks, "I never thought I'd be having this discussion with my mother, but after how you described your widowhood, I'm feeling a lot better about this. It's taken me a few hours to get my head around this, and I'm not done yet."

Elise just nodded, and she squeezed his hand.

He said, "OK, here's some philosophy plus how we actually walk the talk. I'm holding nothing back, so frame your questions as we go and I'll try my best to answer them. There are places where the logic about how we live loops back on itself. Just be patient with me and I'll try to cover that.

"First, we believe the universe is fundamentally a friendly and loving place. Yes, there are wars and unpleasant things happening, but overall we think that love wins out. We believe in karma – what goes around comes around. We believe that you can love more than one person at a time, and in fact you can love many people at the same time. In doing that, you don't rob someone else of the love you had been providing them. Instead, that love is multiplied and augmented.

"To fully accept that tenet, we gave up the miasma of monogamy and exclusivity. None of us in the Circle are possessive of our partners. Why? Because other people do love them and they do love other people. They are free to express that love however they want, including sexually. We all have chosen that option.

"We also gave up a few other things for close to the same reason: a couples-only mindset, thus you see me living with four wives. We gave up the 'male-female only' mindset as well, thus you'll see all the Circle women making love with other women. The men, probably because of the stigma on gays in most of society, are not as advanced ... yet.

"As you know many of us also extended that flexibility in relationships and mating to include children or parents or siblings, thus I can love Grace and Rachel or Megan and Ashley or Erin, all just equally with no stigmas arising because of the generational difference. We even do it together to heighten the fun. Further, some have decided that paternity is not an issue regarding the child of their partner. They'll be there in any case.

"We also gave up the concept of jealousy. I'm sure we all feel it if we allow an old mindset to creep in, but we push that away as an odious and harmful mindset that can poison what our lives are like. We substitute for it the concept of 'Compersion' – we feel glad when we see one of our mates making love with somebody else and we hope they have a fabulous experience in the process.

"The Circle tries to be a highly egalitarian place. We avoid having a double-standard regarding sex or anything else. We don't think that people have to interact in a relationship with people near their own age. We do think that sex is an important part of an intimate relationship. We think that intimacy can include sex but not the other way around; the two are not synonymous.

"We believe that each person is responsible for their own happiness. It is no one else's job to make me happy, nor my job to make someone else happy. I strive to be fun, supportive, agreeable, tender, loving, and witty so that people will want to be around me, but I can't force 'happy' on someone. Those things are part of what I do to make myself happy. In a particular situation, one person may look at it and see a disaster; I have the choice about how I interpret it – a disaster or something joyful. The result is my choice.

"We are spiritual but not religious – SBNR, it's called. Many of us believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience, rather than the other way around. Our purpose here in this existence is to grow and evolve, and we do that through the positive interactions we have with others. We are peace-loving, kind, and look to see the divinity in each other because we live in that friendly and supportive loving universe I mentioned a moment ago. The most intense love we have embraces this part of our existence in mind, body, and spirit. We live in the Now, and we are not judgmental. We don't cling to the past, or worry too much about the future.

"Lastly, for the moment, we know that sex between two people changes the relationship between them. We support that, but hope that people will examine the implications of their actions before engaging. We also believe in safe sex. We strive to keep the Circle a sexually safe place. I assume you squeaked in under the wire in some way."

Elise had hung on every word. Upon hearing the last question, she smiled, "No, I had a test done before I left Ohio. I showed Jack. The paper is in my room. I learned that much when I was here at Christmas, so I knew to come prepared."

Dave just nodded. After a silence, he asked, "What do you think about what I just told you?"

"I'm waiting to hear the part I disagree with," Elise said in a level tone. She went on, "I've been piecing all this together by talking to people and asking probing questions. Everyone has been very helpful."

"What should I infer about your interest in this?" Dave asked his mother.

"You should infer that I would like to be a member of the Circle." She looked Dave in the eyes as she spoke so he'd know she was serious.

"And the mother-son relationship with me and Aaron?" Dave posed out of curiosity.

Elise was silent for a while as she thought on that subject. Finally, she said, "I think there are times the mother-son relationship should continue. There are other times – most of the time – that it should be parked outside the gate to your loving community."

"It's incestuous," he warned.

"That's why we need to separate the mother-son part from the loving each other part. They're different. Others may not think so, but it is. I know about Paul, Megan, Erin, and Ashley. I think what they've done is beautiful and they seem to manage it well."

Elise continued, "I know that Grace and Rachel occasionally interact, including that you have a thing for doing the mother and daughter back to back, so to speak. I know you enjoy Alice and Julie, and watching them interact sexually with each other. I think that's hot. I wish I had a sister, but maybe I can borrow somebody here on a longer-term basis.

"I'm not rushing you or Aaron into anything, or your wives. I guess I told you I was with Heather last night. She is a darling and a delightful companion. I love her; in fact, I love all the people I've met here. I think because of my age and relationship with you, some are a little intimidated with me, but I hope that stops as people get to know me AND that they see you don't treat me any differently than you treat them. I want a deep relationship with everybody including you."

Dave thought back to the advice he'd given Donna, Emily, Megan, and Joan, and he reiterated that to Elise. "Then hang out with us as much as you can. Come back and stay longer if you even have to leave. We'll give you a place to perch and you can fly around here from there. Mi casa es su casa, as they say."

Elsie stopped them walking by pulling on Dave's hand. She pulled him into an embrace right there on the sidewalk, her bare breasts pushing into his bare chest and her nipples etching into his tanned skin. He felt the ripple between them and he even hardened during the kiss.

Elise looked up at him and whispered, "Thank you. I love you ... in so many ways."

* * * * *

Sunday evening, Bobbie Wyatt was off duty. Dave invited her to accompany several in the Circle when they went out to dinner at the local TGIFridays restaurant. He laughed at the invitation because the sports-bar cuisine was pretty formula, but Bobbie eagerly accepted. He'd gone out of his way to be sure she didn't think this was a command performance of some kind.

Dave, Alice, Pam, Bobbie, Aaron, Elise, Shelby, and Roy got a large booth and pulled up a couple of chairs to complete their circle. Bobbie excused herself for a few minutes, Dave thought to go to the ladies room, but when she came back she had a couple of business cards in her hand and a page with a few handwritten notes.

"Where'd you go?"

"To see their kitchen operation, of course," Bobbie replied with a grin.

"And?"

"And, they have some new equipment that I want to look into, and they have an interesting arrangement for the salad station I might try in our kitchen. It puts the salad prep out of the main prep area, and that'd be good for us because we need the space."

"I'm impressed."

"I check out almost every kitchen I eat in. I've never eaten here because it's new, but I've been in most of the others around town. There's kind of honor among thieves, if you get my meaning."

"Trading around secrets of the trade?"

"Exactly."

Somewhere in the course of the discussion, Dave heard Alice ask Bobbie how her accommodations were. Bobbie had what was fundamentally a studio apartment in the core, next to a near duplicate that Maddy Granger, the nanny, had.

Bobbie said, "I'm feeling cramped. I wish you had another townhouse available. My little apartment is like four hundred square feet; it's worse than a tiny house, like they show on TV on Home and Garden TV. I'd love something nearer to fifteen or eighteen hundred. I have things in storage that I'll never see if I continue to live like this."

Dave didn't say anything right then, but his head went into problem solving mode. In the short-term, Ken was leaving and Bobbie could assume his unit if the financial end could be resolved. However, he wondered about Maddy, and whether she was also feeling cramped.

Further, there was the possibility that Ken had raised about Doug Quigley and Pete Potter, the two flight instructors and charter pilots from near Asheville, North Carolina, relocating to take over the operations of the FBO or Fixed Base Operator at Sky Ranch Airport. Nothing further had been said or done on that account.

Dave and Jack Anders, the architect for the Circle homes and townhouse complex, had talked about a further project. Maybe this was the time.

He turned to Bobbie, "You know that Ken Toomey is moving away from the Circle. Would you be interested in taking on his townhouse? I think it's around sixteen hundred square feet on two floors."

Bobbie instantly looked interested. "And ... errr ... two people could live there comfortably?"

"I don't see why not? What do you think Alice?"

"I've been in it many times. You could put a whole family in there with no problem. It's got three bedrooms: one large, one medium, and one very small – more of an office. The downstairs is an open plan. There's good closet space and storage for the place, too."

"Could I see it?" Bobbie asked.

"I'll contact Ken and see whether he'd mind if I showed it to you. I'm sure he won't care. His focus is on Atlantic Airlines and getting his career jump started with them."

Dave pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and typed in a quick message to Ken asking for permission to show the place. The Circle, specifically Ty and Dave, kept a set of keys to everyone's home and townhouse and all the other locks just in case. Here was a perfect situation.

Moments later, Dave's phone chimed with a return message. 'Hi. In Salt Lake City about to fly 737 to Fargo, ND. YES, please show Bobbie my digs. I think I left things neat. I'm sure we can work out the $$$. Love to everyone. Ken.'