Chapter 14: Unanimous Vote

Steph’s sudden reaction to my having mentioned Bree’s name brought me up short. Oops, I’d forgotten that Steph had no idea we’d already expanded our group on the east coast. She also had no idea about my activities on the west coast. I was having trouble keeping the two sides of the country separate.

I explained Bree; “She’s a younger and beautiful Ph.D. geneticist who we met a couple of months ago, and with whom we have a loving relationship. She stays with us most of the time in Dillon, although she has a Cambridge apartment – and if it looks like a winter storm is brewing I’m going to end up living with her near here, and probably with Dirk too, since his company is in Watertown.” As I’d talked, I’d called up a sedate snapshot of Bree I took at Christmas on my iPhone. “Here’s her picture.”

“Wow. I think I tapped into the mother lode of beauty, love, and sex here. She’s very pretty. I can’t wait to meet her. You’re all so pretty and handsome.” Steph paused and asked, “Do you suppose I could meet her before we try anything? I mean, I’m new to this, and I’d feel strange showing up to screw around with someone that I’d never met. I want to meet Dirk too; I’ve only seen him across the room. Maybe I’ll feel different in the future, but right now...”

I interrupted, “Steph, of course. I’ll see if the two of us and Bree can have lunch this week. Her work is down at in Kendall Square, only two subway stops away. Dirk’s business is up in Watertown, so, as I think of it, we might do better to meet him after work. They might also appreciate meeting Joe too. Let’s meet for a casual dinner somewhere convenient.”

We picked an ideal time for the two of us. While Steph was in my office, I texted Dirk and Bree to see if they could do dinner on Wednesday. Both replied almost immediately that they could. As I did that, Steph locked in the day and time with Joe.

Wednesday evening the five of us converged on a popular restaurant north of Boston named Hogan’s after the golf legend. We’d done introductions as we happened to meet outside the place, so by the time we got a booth everyone had at least briefly met everyone else. I seated the table, putting Steph between Dirk and Bree, and opposite Joe and me.

I started, “Look, without going into details, we know why we’re here. I have a little test for later. Let me explain.” I pulled six small envelopes from my purse. “Each of these five envelopes contains two pieces of paper, one red and one green. They’re all identical. At the end of our meal, I’m going to pass around an empty envelope and you put one color or the other in it – red for ‘not ready yet’ or green for ‘it’s a go.’ If we get any reds, we’ll do some more socializing besides this dinner before getting to what Dirk has historically called the Main Event. You keep the envelope and whatever color you have left in it, so we don’t know who put the ‘red’ vote in. Is that OK with everyone?”

Steph nodded, “I like that because we don’t have to explain ourselves if we just feel uncomfortable for any reason.”

Bree and Dirk agreed for the same reason.

We took a break to order our drinks and dinners.

Joe said, “Let me add something to your slips of paper scheme. I’m glad too that we’ll have a somewhat secret go/no-go vote, but if I’m uncomfortable for any reason, I won’t mind talking about it with you all. I’m pretty vocal and upfront with what’s going on inside my head. Steph’s been working on me since we got married to talk about my feelings and not hide them.”

I said, “Good. To get the ball rolling I have a question to get us talking about what I’ll call ‘related’ subjects. The question is, ‘What is it about another person that turns you on?’”

My question was somewhat loaded. Steph had called Dirk dreamy and confessed that she liked Russ a lot. She’d kind of come onto me too. I wanted to know her thinking, especially since she told me that she took the longest to come around to the idea of swinging with another couple or three.