The House Group Leader's Wife Pt. 02

Chapter 5

In the end Jennifer and her new black dick never got to have their way with Marcia that day. For, soon after Vesna had finished with Marcia it was time for the women to get on with the various duties and chores that their everyday life demanded of them. In Marcia's case, as we have seen, one of her duties was to report back to Connor on Jennifer's meeting with her prospective babysitter. But despite every attempt by her husband to get her to spill the beans about any non-work related activity that might have happened at Jennifer's place, Marcia kept shtum. This she did for a number of reasons, not least because of a growing antipathy which she felt Connor entertained for Dean.

At first she thought this was because of Connor's personal feelings about anal sex between men. It was just something he couldn't get his head round. As he had put it to her on more than one occasion, it made him feel "nauseous." His support for gay rights never wavered; that was a separate issue, a philosophical issue and a matter for discussion and debate. His own personal feelings were another matter, he always said. The fact he didn't like oysters didn't mean that all other people didn't like them; neither did it mean that anyone who wished to, didn't have the right to eat oysters. Marcia thought this was an odd analogy but left it at that.

But the more time passed, the more Marcia doubted the cause of her husband's barely concealed animus towards Dean. She thought she could see two other reasons why he felt the way he did. One was his ambitions with regard to Jennifer. Marcia knew how much Connor lusted after the blonde former beauty queen by a simple but fail-safe means: he never talked about her. If Connor had set his mind on anything (be it a promotion or a car or - in this case - a woman) he would never talk about it. The second reason was essentially the other side of the same coin: as Connor lusted after Jennifer, so did Dean lust after Marcia. And, as Marcia understood only too well, there always lurked in the back of Connor's mind the idea that Marcia might be up for a bit action with Dean, should the opportunity arise.

It is against this rather delicate backdrop that we must welcome the arrival of a young couple from Claremont, California, into Connor and Marcia's house group. Todd was in his early thirties and worked as a civil engineer, while Harper was a year or two younger and worked as a massage therapist and yoga teacher. It was actually a chance meeting between Jennifer and Harper that had led to the couple ultimately joining Connor's house group. Jennifer's regular yoga teacher, Sudhir, had needed to return to India urgently as a result of a death in the family, and it was Harper (who had only recently signed up as a part-timer on the health club's books) who was asked to deputise for him at the last minute.

The two of them got along very well and Harper decided to take Jennifer up on her idea of trying their church one Sunday. One Sunday became two, then three, and before the couple had been in the area for three months, they had joined the church, and soon after that they became the first new members of the church's newest house group.

The interview process for the two prospective members had, it has to be said, been accelerated when it came to Connor and Marcia's attention that there was interest in snapping them up from not one, but two other house groups. In the end, a clever bit of thinking by Connor (who registered the couple using the address of the building site that Todd was working on rather than their home address, which, technically, was just outside his house group's catchment area) ensured that their application was passed. In the interests of full disclosure, it also helped that the person in the central church administrative office who was responsible for endorsing the membership application was Charlene O'Leary, who was the elder's wife and, perhaps more importantly from the perspective of the application, a woman who enjoyed a special relationship with Connor.

The interview with Todd and Harper had taken place at Connor and Marcia's place. It proved to be a bit of an eye-opener on both sides, as Todd and Harper (native Southern Californians both) had assumed that the conservatism of a mid-west small town church would prove a stumbling block. When they learned of the church's policy of diversity and inclusivity, not to mention, unconditional love, they were surprised. At their very first Sunday at the church, Pastor Donaldson had preached an old-fashioned "fire and brimstone" type of sermon, inveighing against the evils of the modern age. However, Marcia and Connor were able to assure the couple that the Pastor was referring to corporate fraud and online bullying - two of his biggest bugbears.

In return, Connor and Marcia listened with interest as the Dietrichs told them about the mixed model religion they followed: a combination of Zen Buddhism, Jainism and Christianity. When they asked their house group leader if this might present a problem, Connor responded that an acceptance of other belief systems was an underlying principle of the church. When he asked Marcia to say a few words, she had to ask him to repeat what he had said, as she was still wondering what on earth "Janism" might be. Had there been a famous evangelist called Jane, or perhaps one of the lesser figures in the New Testament went by that name. She knew there were quite a few odd characters sprinkled through the Acts of the Apostles; on top of which, of course, you had all those letters of St Paul written to people you could never remember.

Once Connor had put his question to her again, she answered with assurance.

"Our church doesn't favour any one group. We follow the great commandment that we should love our neighbour as we love ourselves. So long as people show no prejudice, we have a welcome for them. It doesn't matter if they follow Christ or Buddha or Jane."

This seemed to satisfy the Dietrichs, even though they weren't familiar with the last named of the three religious titans. On their way home, they discussed who this figure might be, finally coming to the conclusion that she was an Old Testament prophetess with whom they were unfamiliar, the cousin of Ruth or Esther perhaps.

After the Dietrichs had left, Connor and Marcia talked about their newest members. While Todd seemed like your regular engineer (a safe pair of hands, whether in California or flyover country), Harper was more what you expected of a west coast native. They reckoned she was probably vegetarian or even vegan, and Connor wondered whether she smoked pot.

"You're 30 years behind the times," Marcia teased him. "These tantric types won't let harmful substances within a mile of their bodies."

Connor remained unconvinced, even if his ideas of women chilling out in LA owed as much to popular culture (especially the films of Robert Altman, of which he was a great fan) as they did to modern-day trends.

What they both agreed on, without admitting it, was that Harper was eminently fuckable. Connor was already thinking about how he might be able to arrange a massage without his wife knowing, while Marcia was thinking the exact same thing. The only difference between them was that Marcia was thinking about a traditional massage table, while Connor was imagining the session starting and finishing on his bed.

Within a few weeks of Connor assuming his post as house group leader, he and Marcia began to receive requests for a party to be held to celebrate the event and give all members of the group a chance to meet each other. The pressure to hold some sort of event intensified after the formation of a WhatsApp group, with calls for a barbecue being particularly popular, especially among the foreign student contingent, which made up around a quarter of the group.

After discussing the idea with their friends Alicia and Daryl and Jennifer and Dean, Connor and Marcia decided to go ahead with the idea, choosing the first Saturday in September, before the local colleges commenced their semesters in earnest. Among the foreign students, half were just embarking on their studies, while the other three were starting either the second or third years of postgraduate courses.

Connor's major worry as the big day approached was not, as might be expected, the weather, but whether he'd be able to get someone to man the grill for him. He knew Daryl would be out of the question (he wouldn't be seen dead within a hundred miles of something that smoked and spat fat) and he wasn't much more sanguine about Dean, who would be too interested in the talent on offer - Harper, for starters. His solution to the problem was to approach Bill, who was a very dependable type of fellow and not the most socially adept. Connor thought he might look at the opportunity to flip burgers and grill steaks not as a chore but as a way to reduce the amount of conversing he would have to do with people he didn't know very well and people he had never met before.

When Connor put it to him over the phone that he would appreciate it if Bill could relieve him of grilling duties after half an hour or so, Bill went one better, suggesting to Connor that he come over half an hour before the party began, so he could get things started, part cook items that would benefit from such a treatment, and so on, and so on. Connor did ask what Mary, Bill's wife, might find to do while he was thus occupied, but he said, that was fine, she had already talked to him about going over a bit early to help Marcia with any last-minute work that needed doing.

"What a dream couple to have in the group!" thought Connor, as he finished the call.

He told Marcia about Bill and Mary's offers to help and she immediately delegated internally some of the more onerous chores, such as the filling of the ice boxes, and the last-minute chopping of the avocados and cherry tomatoes, which Marcia had a bit of a fixation about when preparing salads. Mary was such a dab hand in the kitchen, she would probably add a bit of zest and sparkle to Marcia's creations, which was absolutely fine by the hostess!

Chapter 6

In the end, more than 20 people signed up for the barbecue, and, amazingly, everyone turned up. Connor made a point of pointing out all the hard work Bill was doing, as he greeted the guests, two of whom, foreign students just embarking on two-year master's programs, he had yet to meet. They arrived together and were both Oriental looking, so Connor assumed that they were old friends who had travelled together. They certainly didn't look like sisters, maybe cousins, but you could never be sure with Asians. As it turned out they had only met a few days before at one of the orientation events, where they hit it off so well that they were now looking for accommodation together.

Sally (a most unexotic name, Connor thought) was from Singapore and spoke perfect English. Better than many Americans, as he joked with her. She looked as if she could be a flight attendant for the national airline (clad, in his imagination, in one of those figure-hugging two piece outfits that resembled a cheongsam) but in fact she was enrolled on an EMBA. She didn't look old enough to have had the five years' managerial experience which most courses required, but then Asian women always looked younger than they really were to someone who didn't live among them.

Her friend, Meiling, was from China and was studying mechanical engineering. She was a real looker too. More bubbly than her friend, she spoke English well, but with a pronounced Shanghainese accent. Not that Connor would have been able to pick that up; Meiling told him when he got the wrong end of the stick about something she was telling him.

Playing the welcoming American host to perfection, Connor apologized for his rudeness, but Meiling immediately told him she knew her English wasn't very good. Indeed, one of the reasons she had joined the church was to practice her English skills and polish her pronunciation. Connor had to dismiss a graphic vision of Meiling demonstrating some of her other skills while polishing the dome on his dick.

Across the living room, Marcia, who was talking to some of the other new arrivals, kept her composure and the permanent smile she had brought out for the occasion, even as she cringed at her husband's attempts to chat up the nubile young women. She had to admit, though, that they were hot. She knew that there would be plenty of competition to get to know them better, but she also knew that, with her dual roles as deaconess and house group leader's wife, she would have a head start if she played her cards right. Above all, she thought, she needed to show little overt interest in them, besides enquiring as to their welfare and providing tips for meeting any practical needs that might have. By playing it cool, she reckoned she would be able to gain their confidence and after that, who could tell? Asians, like Americans, loved winners after all.

A group of guests had already made their way into the back yard. As Marcia had predicted, Dean, whom Jennifer was shadowing everywhere he went, was already attempting to work his not inconsiderable charms on Harper and Todd (but mainly Harper). Picking up on her work as a masseuse, he was asking her about her approach to the "art", as he called it. Happy to meet a man who took her profession seriously, and asked questions, then listened attentively while she answered them, Harper was well into a spiel about the complementary way yoga and massage therapy synced up to promote holistic well-being.

Jennifer took the opportunity to ask Todd about his work and soon two parallel conversations were in full swing, with the participants changing places so they weren't talking across one another. On his own, Jennifer found the Californian a different prospect than when he was with his partner or wife. (She still wasn't sure which it was.) While he tended to defer to her when they were together, when he was one-on-one he was more forthcoming and displayed an impish sense of humour. Jennifer had to confess, though, that the idea of getting a massage from the flaky Harper was one that she found very enticing. During their yoga session at her house, Jennifer had felt excited when her instructor had placed her hand on her hip to indicate that she should shift her position, but regrettably this was the only time that she had touched her.

Daryl and Alicia were a little late, as they had told their hosts they would be, since Daryl had needed to meet one of his high-net-worth clients on Saturday afternoon - a courtesy he would never extend to 95 percent of his customers. Daryl, being famished after a long session dealing with some complex tax issues, fixed his wife up with a drink and then, with her blessing, made his way to the barbecue so he could choose the meat he wanted cooked. He made a point of never eating anything that was being passed round on a plate or even things that were placed on the side of the grill to keep warm. "You never know where they've been!" was his response when people would tease him about this habit.

Daryl had a soft spot for Bill, so enjoyed a bit of a chinwag with him while waiting for his T-bone steak and his lamb chop to cook. He liked the former medium-rare and the latter well done, and watched Bill like a hawk to ensure that the pieces were done to his liking. And they were, even if Daryl wasn't impressed by the quality of the beef.

"They're still buying it from the supermarket," he muttered under his breath as he tasted a morsel in Bill's presence.

Having assured Bill that there was nothing wrong with his grilling skills, and complaining that "You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear", Daryl wandered off to get some of the avocado, cherry tomato and cucumber salad he had spotted earlier. He had overheard someone saying that it was garnished with an olive oil, lemon and cumin dressing, which was one of his favorites. "They can keep their balsamic vinegar in the cupboard, as far as I'm concerned!" he chuntered, as he moved away from the table to find his wife.

The party was now in full swing, with fairy lights illuminating the yard and music playing from the sound system which Connor had rigged up that morning. Dean was extolling the benefits of having a pool in the yard to Connor, which Connor thought was rather odd since he had never seen or heard of Dean entering the pool during the entire course of the summer which was just coming to an end. Connor was intrigued to note that Dean was hardly drinking alcohol (he'd had a beer when he arrived, but since then, as far as Connor could tell) he'd been on soft drinks, specifically the cool blue raspberry isotonic drink which was his latest favorite.

The reason for his abstemiousness wasn't very difficult to discern: what with Alicia, Marcia, Harper and the two new Asian babes being in attendance, he was in what could easily pass for Dean's Heaven. Although Connor appeared to have Dean's full concentration, he could tell that the IT entrepreneur was missing no opportunity to scan those around him to check out the movements of his self-appointed harem. He gave up all pretence of listening to Connor when his eyes alit on Daryl holding court with the two foreign students.

"The randy old goat!" cried Dean, even though he knew it was highly implausible that the tax lawyer had suddenly changed his sexual orientation.

"Whatever he's telling them, they seem to be lapping it up," said Connor, enjoying seeing Dean undergo such cruel suffering.

"They probably don't understand a thing he's saying, you know; just going along with him to gratify the old fool."

Connor confessed to not being quite so sure, and excused himself when he saw that Harper was free, Todd having gone inside the house, presumably to refresh their drinks.

"How do you find living here after all the sunshine of Southern California? Do you think you'll be able to survive the rigors of a mid-west winter?"

"I believe you can be happy anywhere and unhappy anywhere," replied Harper, taking the discourse on a more serious path than the one Connor had in mind.

"Each of us needs to control the things we can control, and that means the things inside us. The weather, the government, colleagues at work, the guy driving the car that cuts you up on the highway, these are all outside of our control. If we are centered on our own wellbeing, then we can face blizzards, difficult bosses, job losses and loud neighbors. So, Todd and I will jump on the wave and surf it as we have always done."

Connor decided a change of topic was urgently needed. After acknowledging the undoubted wisdom of what Harper was saying, he thought he could safely turn the conversation to her work. After all, she seemed to take it very seriously.

"Both my careers," Harper started to intone, as if a button had been switched, "engage my in-depth knowledge of the body's anatomy and physiology. You see, there's a kind of mutual dance between yoga and massage therapy."

Connor said nothing but nodded for the latter-day hippie to continue.

"Both practices rely on being acutely aware of body mechanics, and this complementary overlap deepens what the massage therapist and yoga instructor can accomplish."

"That's really cool," said Connor, trying to channel his own hippie side, which was, if truth be told, all but non-existent.

"Maybe you would like to try my Vedic massage, which uses chakras to awaken the Kundalini energy in your body and align your energetic stream?"

This sounded like too good an opportunity to turn down. The main thing was to arrange the thing without Martha knowing.

"That sounds interesting," said Connor, endeavouring to sound as underwhelmed as possible. "Why don't you WhatsApp me and we can take it from there?"