Chapter 5: Intensity

“What did you get from the years you were in those relationships?” Kim asked.

I started, “They went on for almost five years. I’ve thought about it a lot usually with a wish to repeat it all. I admit that going into it, Mindy and I were very naïve and had lived in a cocoon that was our comfort zone almost all the time.

“I’m an engineer by training and relationships had been a mystery to me before we started to talk about them and redesign our life around a new set of values and philosophies. John and Loren moved me out of my comfort zone and opened my eyes to the infinite possibilities that love and sharing can bring. As in any shift from one’s zone, it was tortuous some days.

“I’m more aware of the responsibilities I bring to a relationship than I was before. Love is not always selfish; I used to think it was,. We’d talked about creating and being responsible for our own happiness before John and Loren came on the scene. In practice, though, what I learned about besides how to do that is love and empathy. You don’t need to solve a loved one’s problems by changing radically but you do need to sympathize. There a fine line in there.”

Kim said, “You are a mind-blowing individual. I haven’t thought so much about relationships or how they might form around me since I was asked to go steady in the ninth grade.”

“I tell you all this,” I said, “with a little fear that you’ll get up and walk away, that I am still very unconventional in my thinking, way out of the box. You should know that I live IN the box just about all the time, but I’ve been outside enough to know what’s out there and what the possibilities are.” I shot her a sheepish grin.

Kim leaned in and kissed me. “No, you haven’t lost me, in fact, quite the opposite. You are so deep in some areas I’ve barely even thought about. I know my half-sister June would love to talk to you about this sometime; she really into this stuff. I think your philosophy is very close to how she is living her life, and perhaps right on target.

“God, I could talk to you about this for hours and hours and never be satisfied. The discussion about our business today was the same; I hated for it to end. You gave me a zillion ideas. As far as I’m concerned we need to build in more and more intimate time when we can talk without interruption, without a conference hanging around.”

“Good idea,” I said. “Today is Thursday. The conference ends tomorrow with the lunch. What are your plans for the rest of Friday and the weekend?”

Kim said, “I was going to fly up to Camp Forge, Pennsylvania, to see my half-sister but she’ll understand if I cancel. It’s not a family event or anything. She’ll be curious as all get out and I can deal with that later. What do you want to do?”

“I want you to fly up to Amelia Island with me. It’s a short flight and my home’s there as I told you. Come and we can play for the weekend. I haven’t even been in the house in a month; I’ve been living out of the condo I have in DC since I have two active clients near there. That was where I flew in from on Tuesday when I met you.”

“You’re on,” Kim said. “I accept.” She clapped her hands with glee and kissed me again. I was really getting used to all this affection. I think she was, too. Moreover, I had flashes about where it could lead. I wanted more of her.

We went back to the hotel and made mad, passionate love to each other twice I’m proud to say. We fell asleep in each other’s embrace and awoke to each other’s love. Kim and I went separate directions again in the morning, meeting associates, talking to clients, doing deals, and trying to do deals. I saw Kim at another luncheon table near where I sat; she had an attentive audience to something she was saying. I had trouble taking my eyes off of her. After lunch there were a few mundane remarks that closed the conference, and then the meeting was adjourned. Many attendees raced off to the airport – the airline side.

We’d both arranged for late checkout from the Intercontinental, so after lunch we gathered our luggage, checked out, put our bags in the car and headed to the general aviation side of Orlando airport. We both settled our accounts and I went over with Kim the route up to the Fernandina Beach Airport, familiarizing her with procedures for transiting Jacksonville International, the runway layout, traffic pattern, and location of the FBO and where I’d park.

We agreed we’d file MCO direct to FHB – my ‘home’ airport, and pulled her Jeppesen chart for the airport up on our iPads and I ‘penciled’ in some key points. We both filed IFR even though the weather was VFR all the way. We get good treatment leaving Orlando and up around Jacksonville that way. A few minutes later we each picked up our clearances ‘as filed’ from MCO clearance delivery and started our engines.

As agreed, I took off first so I’d be on the ground when she arrived. She could spot my plane and head for the FBO and parking area a little easier that way. I went from tower frequency to departure and heard Kim’s voice pop up on the frequency about three minutes behind me. We’d agreed to monitor 122.7 Mhz in case we wanted to talk but all we did was just briefly say hello over that channel. That frequency was algo the CTAF or common traffic advisory frequency for the Fernandina Beach municipal airport. If there were planes in the pattern there, we should hear the calls.

Kim heard my handoff to Jacksonville Approach and followed me a few minutes later; then I was cleared for the visual approach into Fernandina Beach Airport. Kim followed and a few minutes later we landed on runway nine, cancelled our IFR flight plans on the ground, and taxied to the parking area. Kim parked beside me where I’d indicated.

I knew the airport staff and was warmly greeted. I’d left a car at the airport. I pulled the car from my hanger to near where she parked, walked back and pushed my plane into the hanger with my small motorized tug and closed the hanger doors. We put our luggage in my car. Kim said she was impressed with my Florida car; it was an old Porsche 944 I’d had for almost thirty years. I got the car used; it had been a repo. I introduced Kim to my friends at the FBO and helped her check in, a job made easier since she was staying with me and they had all my contact information.

My Florida home overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. Neighboring houses were close by, but we had mutually allowed the vegetation to grow thick and lush between our homes so each one seemed like an isolated oasis. I explained to Kim that Mindy and I had bought the land during a real estate downturn about fifteen years prior and gotten the property at a song; we’d built when rates were low and builders were crying for work.

Kim was blown away as we pulled through the electric gates into the circular driveway off of Route A1A. The two-story home was superbly landscaped and presented well. Front to back there was a lot of glass; as we went up a few steps to the front door you could look through the house and see the ocean about three hundred feet away over some undulating dunes. Unlike other parts of the island, we were supposedly well above where any hurricane surge might come.

Kim kept saying, “Wow!” I explained to her that I called this my “Wow House” because all my visitors always walk in and go “Wow”. I gave Kim a walkthrough of the house, adjusting the air conditioning, hot water system, and turning on some of the circulating fans as we went from room to room. Many of those things I could control from my cellphone but hadn’t bothered while I was in Orlando.