Loosening Up Bk. 04 Ch. 26-31

"Oh. And the weaponry?"

"I often carry a sidearm off premises. I have all the permits, but in the Circle I never carry. The gun is in parts and completely separated from the ammunition. Both are locked up."

"What kind of weapon?"

Dale said, "I have several actually. Mostly, I carry a Glock 30. It's a .45 caliber handgun."

"I guess I feel safer with you having both of those capabilities. They are DEFENSIVE, right?"

Dale laughed, "Oh, yes. I'm a pussy cat otherwise."

Amanda teased, "Oh, I thought you were a pussy hound. You always seem ready to get into mine."

Dale rolled his eyes. "The truth sometimes hurts."

Chapter 27 – Reflections and Friendly Arrangements

The Cessna 182 seemed to slide almost frictionless through the grey cloud. Every direction the pilots looked there was only a light gray. There was no sense of speed or motion, because all the visual cues that would suggest that were gone. There was only grey and tiny droplets of water bouncing around on some of the windows. Even the sense of being in a cloud was missing. The fog over the coast was thick extending from a couple of hundred feet above the Gulf Coast up to about two thousand feet above the water and sea coast terrain.

Pete said, "Tell me where you are?"

Dave rattled off, "I'm over the Gulf about opposite the city, at a thousand feet, headed north. I expect to be turned onto the localizer for runway 14 in about three minutes. I expect two turns: the first from my northerly heading to a northeast heading, and then a second turn to make the intercept. I should be about two miles outside the outer marker at that point. The gear will go down with the rest of the GUMPS check then." Dave glanced down at his map to confirm his location.

"Very good. You have this thing nailed. I think you're ready for your exam. I couldn't do better at this than you are."

"Thanks, but don't blow smoke up my ass."

"No, I mean it. You are smooth. Every instrument gets seen in your scan. You hold heading, altitude, speed, and attitude perfectly, even when I cover up some of the instruments."

"It's easy in this kind of air."

"You needed some real IFR. I'm glad the fog materialized as predicted last night. When I got my instrument rating, I'd never flown in actual instrument conditions, and I mean zero-zero shit, like this stuff. I'd done a couple of rain storms, but that was all."

The radio crackled, "November 4-8 Golf, turn right to 0-7-0. We'll have another turn for you in about three miles onto the localizer." Dave responded properly to the instruction.

Dave made a perfect procedure turn and rolled out right on the heading. A few minutes later he was turned to a heading of 120 degrees, intercepted the localizer, and then the glide slope and started his descent through the gray soup. The GUMPS check got done, too: gas flow, undercarriage-gear down, mixture, propeller pitch set, and service or radio contact, as appropriate.

Pete said, "This stuff will burn off in an hour. We'll park and get a cup of coffee. My treat."

Dave broke out of the fog bank about 300 feet above the ground, and landed normally. They taxied to the FBO and took their time parking and then going over to the main airport terminal at SRQ for a cup of coffee.

After they were seated, Pete asked, "How do you do it?"

Dave looked surprised, "Do what?"

"Keep up with all the women. I don't mean the sex, although that'd be nice to know, too. I mean emotionally and psychologically."

Dave thought a minute, "I'm not entirely sure I'm understanding the question, but let me try this. Emotionally, I love all the women so I can just be natural and genuinely express my affection for each of them. I'm not always great at remembering what each one is up to and so sometimes I need a refresher. My wives know of my little problem and so sometimes they'll help me through a conversation by leading questions to whomever."

"Were you always omni-female? I mean do you likeevery woman you meet?"

"I do like every woman I meet," Dave grinned. "I didn't always. For ten years I liked only Alice. I was scared to be in the presence of any other woman, regardless of age or social position. I was intimidated, didn't know what to say, felt like an oaf, and afraid they might want to do something risqué.

"As Alice and I loosened up, Pam came into our life. I was unusually open when that happened, but I was friends with Dori, Wendy, and Kat, too. Anyway, Pam did want to do sexual things, and so we did – the other women, too, and I discovered it was pretty nice being with someone other than my spouse."

"Did Alice know about Pam. I don't think I heard how that all started."

"Oh, yes. She encouraged me while she watched me work up courage to see her with another man. She flirted with a couple of other men, like Owen, and finally Dev was her first extra-marital sex. I was there fucking Dori and watched her. I'll never forget. She was right there when we did the dirty; with the others, too.

"Anyway, my fear or embarrassment in dealing with women gradually vanished as I got more experience with them. For a little while longer I think I felt uncomfortable around older women, but then Grace, Emily, and Donna beat that out of me as they came along and showed me how nice mature sex can be. Now, my biggest problem is remembering everything about each one of them. And, just for the record, I like the guys, too, but more as buddies than sex objects."

Pete smiled, "You must have a computer for a brain and you put everything in the right file. There are about thirty women and sixteen other guys to keep track of, plus now ten kids with more on the way. You'll need an encyclopedia to keep track. Seems like we're always having a birthday celebration or toast."

"I am an engineer. We're trained to think logically about everything, so I do keep some stuff on my laptop and iPad. A calendar app helps a lot, especially for birthdays and special anniversaries. Alice is better at remembering everything than I am without the electronic aids. Pam and my other wives are, too. I think I let business intervene too much in my life."

Pete said, "The old work-life balance issue. Karma, I guess."

Dave nodded. "I'm better than I was."

"I know from hearing the story that Dori gave you and Alice little challenges to help you loosen up, and that those worked and got you to where you are today, but what I never hear was what your emotions were while you going through that process."

Dave chuckled, "My head was in a state of dissembled chaos. I was so keyed up I could only sleep about four hours a day for months, maybe even our entire first year after we started our loosening up process. Part of it was the sex. No. A lot of it was the sex. That kind of symbolized the complete renovation of the way we thought about the world.

"We agreed to keep each other, keep the house, and to keep our jobs. Other than that we threw literally everything else about our lives in the air to see what came down and in what pattern. Every principle or value we were raised to abide and our wedding vows got rewritten in some way. While all that was going on, we started to have sex with other people. Sex, for us, was a big deal, and it still is. I often correct people and say we 'make love' instead of fuck or have sex, but at some level it was all the same.

"Moreover, we couldn't get enough of it. We'd been VERY regimented and almost chaste in our sex lives. Once or twice a week, at best, was the rule, but our church was beating into us that sex was ultimately a bad thing.

"Well, we quickly learned that we LOVED sex. We went from zero to sixty miles per hour in our sex lives in 3.2 seconds, so to speak. One week we were barely doing the deed, and the next we were doing it at least once a day, and looking for time to do more. It was a renaissance for us; like coming out of the dark ages.

"At the same time, we were both in turmoil. Alice handled it better than I did, to tell the truth. I was afraid in some ways – scared shitless: afraid that I'd lose her; afraid that I'd never find a solid place to stand again; afraid that I end up alone in life. I was really in crisis. In hindsight, I should have gone into counseling, but that also scared me because I was afraid I'd be forced back into the way I had been, and I didn't want that either.

"I guess that gives you a sample of what I was feeling at the time. I learned since then that you can't keep up that level of angst for too long. Things start to settle down. You almost force them to. You pick a few simple things and nail them down at first, and say to yourself, 'I won't let this change any more. This is no longer fluid or in motion or in play.'"

Pete asked, "Like what?"

Dave thought, "We had been religious – Bible church twice a week and all. We kept talking about going back. One day, I just said 'We're not going back there ever again. That would be a huge step in the wrong direction.' Alice agreed with my decision for herself. We ended up challenging all we'd learned about Christianity, God, and the humankind; we rewrote what we fundamentally believed.

"Another example came up when Dori had our group all swap 'wives' or partners for a week. Alice disappeared with Owen, and I was sure I'd lost her to him. I had more angst and bile in my veins than blood that week, even though Christie and Heather had replaced Alice and Pam in my life. I finally decided in a hard decision that I could lose Alice; that if she thought she'd be happier with Owen, I'd help facilitate that for her because I loved her and wanted her to find her own nirvana. I'd learned I loved Heather especially during that week, and I decided I wanted her close in my life. I started to nail down decisions and the way I felt about certain situations."

"But Alice stayed with you."

"She did, by a hair's breadth, I think. When she came back and realized what I'd been through, she nailed me down in her mind. We did that for each other, and we've never waivered since. Owen is probably her favorite lover, but he's never going to have her attention and love the way I do. I work to keep it that way, because one of the other things I learned on my journey is to not take others for granted, especially the people I love.

Pete said, "But isn't that everyone in the Circle?"

"Yes, and a few others."

"What do you do to stop from taking someone for granted?"

"It's harder than it sounds. When we get familiar with someone and we really know them, we think we know how they think. I'm constantly stopping myself and saying, 'Wait, that statement about them might NOT be something they agree with any longer. I defer to that person, even Alice and my other wives. I just might not know what they'd do in some situation or what they'd say.

"In another way, I try not to discount some accomplishment they make, even making it to the end of a normal week at work. What seems inconsequential to me might be a major milestone for them. I also don't assume I won't ever lose something that someone offers me, such as love or friendship. I constantly reinforce my love for others – vocally and frequently. I don't assume that will always be there for me to draw on unless I fertilize the garden, so to speak."

"You're very thoughtful," Pete said.

"I try to be. It's also part of my spirituality. For me, the way I express and expand MY spirituality is how I interact with others. I've thought a lot about karma, and what the term means and how I want that force to impact my life."

Pete said, "Isn't karma like the expression, 'What goes around, comes around.'"

"Exactly, at least in it's simplest form. So, if I don't want bad shit to come back around, I better not be giving out too much of it myself. It's the Golden Rule in different words in some ways."

"Don't you ever get mad at people or peeved with someone in the Circle?"

"Sure, but I try to practice what I've come to call 'constructive anger' or 'constructive irritation'. I'm not perfect at it, by far, but what I try to do is make myself stop and analyze why I'm feeling that way, see what value that I hold got insulted and whether that's really worth carrying my grudge about. I may make a conscious decision to Let Go, or decide to talk to the person and express my frustration or whatever I'm feeling. Fortunately, those situations are rare. Often, I can just drop the issue without remorse. I evaluate the outcome based on the greatest value for each of the parties, minimum damage, the situation, and so on."

"Coffee refill time," Pete said as he stood. He took Dave's cup and headed off to the Mr. Coffee pot on a sideboard in the executive lounge. As he did that Dave pulled his phone out and checked the weather, noting that the ceiling was rapidly rising and that visibility was increasing to more than a mile at the surface. He thought, one more cup of coffee ought to do it. Things will be good for a visual approach to the Circle Airport by then.

An hour later, the Cessna 182 made a flawless landing at Circle Airport as the day brightened into a beautiful summer day.

* * * * *

Just after lunch on Saturday, several visitors showed up on the patio at the Circle. Nathan, Bjorn, and Tan strolled between a couple of the houses, and moments later, Lisa Taggart appeared wearing a monokini and a see-through top. Grace Anders was with her. Neither one of them had weekend duty unless they got called into service. Dave noted that Elise was also in residence; she was talking with Dale and occasionally laughing at whatever he was saying. Her response made Dave feel good inside that she was feeling happy.

Most of the newbies congregated around Dave, since he was nearest to where they came onto the patio.

Dave asked of Tan, "Where are you three staying?"

"Oh, the Stecklers offered us their home this weekend. They had a friend getting married over in Fort Pierce, so we're staying in their second home in the townhouse. We accepted. That reminds me, we want to get them something to thank them for their hospitality. Do you have any idea what they might need?"

Dave shook his head.

Grace said, "Go through their kitchen and see what appliances they DON'T have. You'll find your answer there. Since their townhouse is kind of a weekend place so they can be with us, I bet there are some small convenience appliances they've foregone that might make their life easier."

"Great idea," Tan replied. Bjorn and Nathan nodded in agreement.

Lisa asked, "Is that normal? I mean to leave house gifts like that for someone in the Circle."

Grace said, "Kind of. It depends on the situation. In this case, I think Tan called it correctly. A house gift to say thanks for the free condo for a weekend."

Dave posed, "Speaking of gifts, I have a question about gifts for graduating college girls."

Grace laughed, "Yes, we have one of those. Jack and I have been worrying the same thing for Rachel."

Dave said, "I've got Heather for a serious gift, but I also wanted to get something for Rachel, Clarisse, and Ashley."

Bjorn asked, "What condition is Heather's car in?"

"Needs replacement. She's driving the same car she showed up at my place in about four years ago, and it was old and decrepit then. I've been thinking along those lines, but I didn't want to skunk the other grads who aren't in my family."

Grace said, "We were thinking of a new car for Rachel, too."

Dave said, "I'll talk to Mike and Megan and see what their planning for their fiancée and daughter, respectively."

Nathan said, "Assuming the four women are all going to start new jobs soon, I think they might want to start to revamp their wardrobes from campus clothes to workplace clothes."

Lisa joined in, "Unless one of them is going to need is scrubs – the ultra-attractive pants suit that doctors and nurses around the country have adopted as stylish statements about their work."

Grace chuckled, "OR, they go to work for Mike and don't need ANY clothes; their hot bodies become their stylish statements about their work." Grace waved as she walked away. She'd mentioned earlier needing to run some errands.

Dave was laughing. "OK. OK. Good suggestions."

Bjorn asked, "What does Mike do?"

Dave thought, 'Oh, boy. Time for a significant revelation.' "Mike has a small company that makes adult videos – Circle X Productions."

Bjorn restated Dave's words as realization hit, "You mean porn?"

Dave nodded. "Yep. Award winning quality, too. His company and several of the actresses in his feature films are on the ballot for awards this year. He's even nominated. We're very proud of him."

"Oscars?"

"Well, it is a trophy about the same size. The awards are given by Adult Video News or AVN, because they oversee the whole industry segment and write about it, kind of the way Billboard does for the rest of the movie entertainment industry. I gather that it's quite an honor."

"Who are the nominees for the awards? The way you said all that, I felt that you knew them."

Dave sighed, "Well, Emily, Kat, and my wife, Alice, are the three women. They've all done multiple films for him over the past couple of years. Kat also does much of the editing of the footage filmed. Mike is a nominee, and then Circle X Productions is up for a company award."

Tan said with some disbelief in her tone, "And they're all mothers?"

Dave chuckled. "MILFs of the finest quality. Alice works under the name Alice Angel, and gets sufficiently disguised to frustrate those that know her from discovering her identity. Emily and Kat didn't care about being discovered. One of Em's friends outed her to her country club bridge group. Now, they all want to do one, too. I think everyone in the Circle has done at least one."

"Are they hard to do?"

Dave chuckled, "I've been in a few. All you need is a willingness to fuck on camera and display honest emotions, as Mike calls it. The rest is relatively easy. Mike and Kat do the hard part in the editing."

Tan sat back as though pushed. Her demeanor was a mix of disbelief, surprise, and angst.

Dave picked up his iPad and went to the browser. He called up the Circle-X website and passed the tablet to Tan. "Here. Take a look. Mike is featuring Alice Angel this week."

Bjorn, Lisa, and Nathan crowded in behind Tan's chair looking over her shoulder. Dave sat opposite the four watching their faces. At that point, every person displayed curiosity. They all leaned forward simultaneously as Tan apparently started one of Alice's videos. Eyebrows went up. No one said a word except for the audio portion of the video playing through the tinny speakers on the tablet.

Eight eyes about bugged out of the four heads as Alice and the men in the video started to have sex. Dave noticed that each person's breathing had changed, invoking more panting and shorter breaths. Lips started to get licked a lot indicating increased horniness, especially when a groan of penetration came from the video.

Dave volunteered. "We have the DVD. I can put it up on the large screen TV in the core." He laughed. Not one person looked at him or noted his remark. Their eyes were glued to the video clip.

Eventually, Tan said, "Should I stop it?"

Nathan backed away, "Yeah. The best part is over."

Lisa looked at Dave. "I hope you have some time for me, like RIGHT NOW! I'm so wet I'm dripping between my legs."

Everyone laughed.

Tan said, "I was having the same thought."

Bjorn said, "Hey, what about us."

Tan whispered to Lisa, who nodded. She then said, "Lisa will go and make better friends with Nathan and Bjorn. I'm going to get really friendly with Dave for an hour ... and then we'll swap around somehow."

Dave said, "Do I get any say in this?"

Both women said, "NO!"

Tan took hold of Dave's hand and pulled him up. She kissed him quite passionately. As they kiss ended, he noted that Bjorn had his tongue way into Lisa's mouth as they made out.