Loosening Up Bk. 08 Ch. 26-30

The camera then followed Dale as he strolled the patio chatting with others about various topics including the martial arts class. The camera then shifted to follow Tatiana, who at that point was very pregnant, and Steve as they talked about the robotics lab and several breakthroughs, they'd had that week. People's first names appeared briefly in front of them as though they were sports players. Tatiana wore hot pants and a balloon-like top that flared out over her baby bump; she looked sexy and about ready to deliver. The point was made that Tatiana was another of Dave's wives was not lost on the viewing audience.

Eventually, the group assembled on the patio for dinner since the weather seemed ideal. Circle members served the meal and the cameras picked up the favorable comments about the cuisine. Chef Bobbie got a round of applause also with sous chef Ari. The point was made in an aside that the group ate like this every night and that Bobby was one of the few employees of the Circle. The announcer went on to explain about the Circle meal planning, nutrition, and individual health plans.

The video stream was broken into short segments by two- or three-minute commercial interruptions during the one-hour show. The reality TV 'camera' followed some of the other Circle members talking about interesting topics. In one scene Tan was assigning someone a new service job. Towards the end of the video, the video stream again picked up Dave, this time being kissed by Cookie who asked to 'go off' with him after dinner. Their relationships with other people was noted as Dave asked about Alan and Cookie asked about his 'wives', getting a response that indicated a plentitude of 'wives'.

Thus, as dinner ended, a camera followed Dave and Cookie walking to the townhouse that she and Alan lived in. They started to make out and enough foreplay and undressing got shown to ensure the viewing audience knew where the rest of the romantic evening was going. The couple rolled around under a sheet in dim light as they moaned together and told each other of their love, and the video faded out, urging viewers to return for Episode 2 in a week.

Cut to commercial and station break.

Suddenly, the crowd in the core living room came alive with applause and shouts of congratulations to Al and Helen for their production and editing work. Everybody had a thought about the episode, particularly how they could have looked better for the camera. There was a lot of laughter, and Dave got the brunt of many of the comments and teasing.

Erin had gotten an advance screening of Season One, Episode One, and had her press release all ready to go. She fired off her article, the press release, and a letter to the editor of the local paper. She wanted a proactive step about how 'great' the series was to try to shut down any negative remarks about lifestyle, out of wedlock sex, and so on. Anybody else submitting would miss the window for the next day's edition. Erin knew how to play the newspaper game.

Erin captured some of the national reviews and also recorded excerpts from the comments some of the national TV morning shows made about The Circle Show the morning after. Overall, people liked the characters, found the ebb and flow of the show interesting, and were curious about where things would go next. On one morning show a discussion ensued about polyamory and what that means and the many ways it got practiced. Overall, the show got a rating of four out of five, and most of the commentators gave it high ratings for novelty and jarring people's idea of the status quo.

The second show aired a week later. In this show seven members of the Circle had brief excerpts from longer interviews with them as they addressed certain aspects of the Circle. Dave was the first as he commented on the point that people can love more than one person, and in that love include every aspect of the relationship in terms of mind, body, and spirit.

The foundation for the Circle 101 class got presented by Cricket. She talked about the need for 'pledges' to the Circle to get a complete picture of things so could opt in or out of being full members as they saw fit. She told how the class had first developed and then how it had evolved over time.

The video then segued into a Circle 101 class as about sixteen pledges and a few members sat around and talked about the principle about loving more than one person. The subject of sex with multiple people came up and was handled gracefully by Alice during the class.

Alice then appeared in interview format talking about what it was like to make love with multiple men. This is where she sprung on the audience that she was 'married' to more than one man, but also loved many others. Julie sat with her and also got drawn into the interview and the same subject.

Between the interviews with Dave, Alice, and Julie, plus the class discussion, the blatant sexual sharing and diversity of the Circle became public. While everyone thought that the subject had been handled discreetly, they agreed that they may as well have taken out a front-page ad in the most popular magazines to announce the fact that they all had sex with each other.

This episode during the interviews when the names of Circle members appeared, they were also accompanied by a few words about their title. Dave was noted as 'Dave -- CEO high tech battery company', Alice as 'Alice -- CFO high tech company', Julie as 'Julie -- EVP Philanthropic Foundation', and then there were 'Dale -- CEO security company, 'Joan -- Pharmacologist', Shelby -- U.S. Sales Manager pharma company', 'Devlin -- Security Consultant', 'Roberta -- Chef', 'Tim -- Doctor', 'Tatiana -- Asst Prof. Computer Science'. The list went on as others appeared. There was laughter at how Dev was portrayed. People guessed pretty accurately that he was still CIA as well as a contract agent that could take on difficult tasks in strange countries.

Each person that got interviewed in the video appeared well-dressed, crisp, articulate, and well educated. The interviewer even got a few stories about each person from them. Joan mentioned that her husband had tried to induce her to suicide and had gone to prison for the effort. Julie talked about how her parents had gotten some goons to try to kidnap her nephew and niece, and the scene had resulting in one man shot and subsequently their father being arrested by the FBI along with police taking in three others. Dave talked about how they'd just sent another member of the guilty group to jail for trying to injure the family. Details were often omitted.

During the interviews the intricate and entwined relationships started to show. Shelby mentioned being Dave's sister-in-law, but also loving him. Tatiana explained that she was one of Dave's 'wives', clarifying for the audience that this was not a 'legal' term but a term of commitment and love.

Cut to commercial and station break.

As before the hundred plus people in the core living room applauded and broke into spontaneous conversation about the just viewed episode. Dave chuckled to himself and wondered just what would happen next. He had become traceable -- there was only one high tech battery company, and he was the head of a public company. Some of the others could be easily traced as well if some viewer had a mind to do so.

Dave made sure that Nikky and Jenny drew the same conclusion he did about being identified. He felt that the next day or so at work there'd be people reaching out with some kind of message for him -- fan mail, so to speak. He expected a great deal of negative thinking to be expressed given how the general public thought about sex and relationships.

* * * * *

The next morning the EneRG receptionist found herself inundated with flowers. There were flowers for Dave and flowers for Alice from the viewers of The Circle TV Show. Each had a card saying how great they were on the new TV show, how refreshing it was to have some new viewpoints about life, relationships, and sex. In Alice's case there were a number of men and women who wondered if she was able to date and also marry them. Several had discovered true love.

Once the switchboard opened the hateful calls started. Jenny stated her surprise about how the Bible was quoted time and again as the authoritative document for how the Circle was violating God's instructions. Of course, there were many calls praising the Circle, Dave, and the viewpoints expressed for being daring, fun to contemplate, and even desirable. Everyone was instructed to cut any calls related to the show short.

Jenny was kept busy on the phone so much that Nikky had to handle the overflow, and then Deb came down and helped in the office. The calls continued into the next day and then the switchboard was off for the weekend with only a recorded message about office hours.

Friday evening Helen was dancing around with glee when Dave got to the bar to do his evening service duty. "The calls and mail are the best news EVER!" She did a happy dance in a circle. "People are paying attention to us. We're controversial. More and more people are watching us. We're making money."

Dave commented, "Not everyone likes us."

Helen dismissed that thought, "Oh, that's all right. You're loved by about two-thirds of the people that have contacted you. That's much better than Al and I expected. I also have a bag of mail for you that our Atlanta office shipped down. Our bosses are overjoyed, too. Al and I get gold stars from the big boss, we were told."

Dave said, "Mail?"

Helen pointed at three very full and very large U.S. Postal Service mail sacks stacked against a pillar about twenty feet away. "You can read at your leisure. We recommend that you enlist the help of many others. If you find any threats immediately set those aside and put them in a sealed baggy. They've had the post office aerosol scans for anthrax and bad stuff like that. I also recommend you don't contact anybody without talking to Al or me. We can help you understand a bit about fan mail and how to treat it. It's all right to ghost about ninety-nine-point-nine percent of it."

Al added in, "As far as the show goes, we're of the mind that the worst thing that could have happened would be for no one to get excited about the show and all of you -- either way. There's no such thing as bad publicity. At least we're getting on the map. We're selling air time, commercials, products, and everyone is making money. The cable exec called me yesterday because they're also getting mail. He loves us."

Dave pointed at the sacks of mail, "I don't expect that will be the last, will it?"

"Oh, no," Al said. "You'll get bags like that for about six weeks and then things will die off until next season. It'll all start up again."

Dev said, "I alerted the gate guard about the show being aired. He has his protocol regarding visitors and will tighten up the requirement for turning people away. We also need a better process for handling packages. There are enough nuts out there that any package from somebody we don't know could be a threat.

"As a temporary measure the gate guard is stopping all inbound packages. Whenever he has some there from one of the delivery services, I go down and help screen them. We just started this morning, so since it's only two days after Episode 2 there's not much yet. I'll speak at dinner about my concern."

Dave nodded. "Thanks for your concern and your quick action. I don't think of the dark side of life as often as I should."

Saturday, after various errands, classes, mentoring, working with the children, eating and paying bills, a group assembled on the patio but in the shade ready to tackle one of the bags of mail. The first sort was by addressee on the envelope. Each person had mail, with Dave and Alice getting the most, but second to mail addressed generically to The Circle.

Dave, Aaron, Dev, and Jake started to go through Dave's mail armed with an arsenal of sharp knives to use as letter openers. His pile got further sorted after that by 'negative' or 'positive' comment. Alice, Julie, Joan, and Shelby were doing a similar sort of Alice's mail, and another group comprised of Jenny, Erin, Jessica, and Ginny repeated with the generic Circle mail.

After an hour, most of the envelopes had been opened. There were more negative comments than positive, but some writers gave excuses for their apparent misguided behavior and suggestions to use to help stop doing it. Of course, the religious content was high, especially in the negative letters.

None of the negative letters called for a response. They were gathered together, bound with twine, and set aside for recycling.

The positive content letters fell into a few categories and the group opening them reflected on the themes. Dave received a number of letters proposing marriage and the writer's ability to keep him happy, especially sexually, the rest of his life. One or two went into some pretty explicit detail -- a few had photographs. Well over half of the positive letters asked in some way to be admitted to The Circle so that they, too, could be part of the great experience that was being shown on TV each week. Those that were from nearby Dave set aside to examine more closely, and those that were from the Atlanta area he piled up to show to Bret and the Atlanta Group to see whether they had any interest in the people. He didn't want to write anybody off.

Many letters congratulated the Circle for breaking away from the mold that society tried to force on everybody. One writer stated, 'If you want to live a life you've never lived, you have to do things you've never done'. Some of those letters and others made suggestions for both the Circle and the TV show -- basically, things they wanted to see happen. One or two said they wanted more explicit sex, even if the show had to move to a later time slot on the cable channel or even move to one of the soft porn channels.

Lastly, Cricket's book had been mentioned in the second TV show during the Circle 101 class that got shown. There were myriad requests about the book and how they could purchase a copy.

Cricket had done a heavy edit to the book over the summer, and it was now with the publisher she'd used forRoad Trip andCrystal Clear. She did a special 'commercial' for the book off to the side of the regular TV series, and starting with Season One, Episode Three the world came to know about the large book. The publisher put an initial price on the book of $39.95 with the expectation that would depress demand for all but the most ardent fans.

The first week 20,000 copies of the book were sold through the one TV ad that was shown. The call center handling the call-ins for the book was swamped and put on extra staff. Cricket got about two-thirds of the cost of each book. She was jumping around with glee, because she'd just nailed down about a half-a-million dollars.

Chapter 30 -- Anthropology

Barbara's pert naked body lay atop Dave's supine form. They were still connected. She kissed him, "I love kissing you after you've been eating pussy, especially mine. I can taste all the different flavors. This is like running naked through a rainbow of taste sensations."

Dave smiled at her and kissed back. "It's even better from this side. Has anybody told you that you make love divinely?"

Barbara gave him a devilish look, "Want another one -- a French one?"

He chuckled, "Sure. Who are you thinking of?"

"My dissertation advisor, Marie Thereaux. As Alice would say, she's your kind of person."

"And what kind is that?"

"On the short side, booby, pretty, brunette, and completely fuckable."

Dave teased, "And she will show up here any minute, strip off her clothes, throw herself onto this bed, and spread her legs and beg for me to fulfill her sexual fantasies? I doubt it." He chuckled.

"Seriously, she does want to come and visit the Circle and meet you especially. Since I'm doing my dissertation on the Circle, and she's supposed to pass judgment on the content and quality of the work, she wants to see the real McCoy. She's approved of my research approach -- the interviews and the frameworks I'm using. She even allowed me to poach some of Ginny Fuller's cultural assessment material that she did for you and the Circle, with appropriate attribution, of course."

Dave gave a little upward thrust into Barb's luscious body. "Sure, bring her around. Let me know ahead of time, and you know that Friday and Saturday evenings are either the best of times or the worst of times to have someone like her visit with us."

Barb snickered, "I've been trying to think about that. I've decided to just ask her whether she'd like to see the love and lust playing out first hand, or whether what she's seen on the reality TV is adequate. I think her answer to that will determine how fast you'll have Dr. Thereaux in your bed with your big proboscis in her tight little cunt like it is in mine right now."

"I bet you say that to all the guys," he teased.

"I have been known to be in other compromising situations with some of the Circle men. As part of my tribal research, I do have to participate in all of the mating rituals that the tribe conducts. I still want to become a member of the tribe."

"What will you do with your doctorate degree if you stay in this town? I haven't seen many jobs posted for Ph.D. anthropologists around here."

"I have options. For one, after getting the degree I turn out to be a champion genealogist. The same skills regarding research apply, just different data sources. For another, I am hoping that the university will post one of the department positions just as I graduate so I can work here doing teaching and getting research grants. Of course, I might have to travel some of the time to collect data and such. Lastly, there's remote work, but I might have to show-up and teach or whatever somewhere else. I have friends that are pilots." She gave a lecherous grin and pumped her hips so that his meaty tube slid around inside her again.

"I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get what you want. I always thought you had to go deal with the tribe, as you call them -- whatever your research group is."

"There are more and more options. I can do political stuff -- polls and surveys. I can get into homelessness, family economics, the arts and how they're treated and absorbed by people just in this city -- maybe. People want to know all sorts of things about populations and subcultures. I'm the person to help them find that. Even the police use anthropologists for forensic work. You can ask Marie when she visits. She's very smart and has done some of these things."

"You're sexy."

"And you're horny." She giggled.

"What a great combination." Dave pushed deeper into Barbara's velvet warmth so he was completely inside her despite his slightly flaccid condition. He made some slow moves in and out of her and she willingly cooperated.

"Oh, my God, I can feel you getting hard inside my vagina. So cool. Oh, yes, I want to do this again ... and again ... and again. I love you."

"I love you, Barb." The kisses intensified and the lovemaking started anew.

* * * * *

Friday afternoon the weather was perfect for Dave's motorcycle ride home, that is except for several thousand other vehicles with a similar destination. He puttered up Christian Grey Drive and gave a wave to the gatehouse guard who'd seen him coming and raised the gate. Dave knew that if there were anything newsworthy for the guard that he would have been flagged down to be told about it.

Dave's passenger coming home had been Jenny. She was dolled up even though part of the effect was lost after she put on her helmet. At least her long-braided hair hung out the back indicating that she was a seasoned rider and knew not to allow her hair to fly free and become a tangled mess. Dave wonder whether he got 'stud points' from the drivers he rode next to on the commute with such a younger hot babe on his bike.