Chapter 19: About Steve’s Friends

I received a hero’s welcome at home about eight o’clock Friday after the trip home from Pittsburgh. The girls had held dinner for me, and were hyper-attentive to my every need. Ally helped me unpack and deal with my dirty clothes. She snickered that I hadn’t used my gym clothes, and that I must have gotten my exercise some other way.

Fran made sure I had a glass of Chardonnay with ice in it, and some light hors d’oeuvres. Sheila fussed in the kitchen to get things reheated. I sat and expressed my gratitude to each of them, as well as my delight in being home with them again.

Fran had apparently been ‘elected’ to ask the delicate questions that hadn’t come up in our short talks or emails. “Steve, tell us about your ... hook-up in New Jersey with this Jane person.”

I grinned and slowly each of them grinned back at me. “Her name is Jane Ellis, and she’s one of the senior executives at TCI – the one responsible for most of the projects my company has with them. Apparently, we both found the spark of friendship really early after we met. Jane told me she wanted me within the first ten seconds of meeting me. I think she feels stronger about me right now than I do about her, so strong that I think she probably wanted to tell me she loved me when we parted. I’m close but not there yet.”

Ally said, “It’s okay by me for you to love her, just don’t stop loving us.”

“I have no intentions of stopping my love for any of you. You know I strongly believe that a person can love multiple people at the same time – and I include intimate, sexual relationships as part of that. I feel that way about Nancy and Gale, too; from our intimacy together, we’ve grown very close and developed emotional feelings for each other.”

The girls all nodded.

As we talked I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and showed them pictures of Jane and some of the other people we’d worked with during the week. I described more about Jane’s background, her role in TCI, and how she was using the weekend to do a little soul searching because I’d rocked her world so much.

I speculated, “And I suspect, particularly after this past week, that the three of you are feeling similarly inclined about Aidan. Right?”

The heads kept nodding.

Sheila said, “Aidan treated us like princesses all week. He told us you’d called him and urged him to come and make us happy and attend to our needs. Thank you. He did, and not once did any of us feel that he was trying to supplant you or undermine you or change how we felt about you. He was supportive of you and us.”

Ally said with a touch of humor, “One might have thought his presence in the evenings was to be sure we were here with him, and not out cruising the bars and clubs with our friends where we might meet an ‘outsider’ who might win our hearts.” She laughed at the thought.

I admitted, “I felt as though I took a risk in sending him here. He would have discovered I was away and found you anyway, but ... well, I really did care about you guys and wanted you to have the fun of interacting with him, and of allowing him to be your protector for a few days.”

“He did well on all counts,” Fran volunteered.

Sheila said, “You know we’re seeing him tomorrow for dinner and evening festivities with the Reddicks and Dunns.”

“Yes, I assumed that was still on.” I thought for a moment, “Oh, one thing about Jane. She’s very insightful. She not only finagled from me that you three were my partners, but also learned about Aidan, thanks to the photos he sent, and based on that accurately surmised that there are others in our relationships that we are intimate with. I had to duck or postpone answering her questions beyond that level of knowledge, but she knows there’s a lot more that she wants to uncover about me, us, and whomever. She’s very curious, but I trust her.”

Fran said, “I think you should bring her up to visit some weekend soon, maybe when we’re getting together with one of the groups like the Fabulous 5 and the swing group my parents have. We could try to blow her mind.”

“Hey, she’s my main client and I have to tiptoe so we don’t blow all our business with TCI out of the water. That’s a complicating factor.”

Ally said, “That’s what you get for dipping your pen in the company inkwell.”

The rest of the weekend went predictably. Our dinner with the Reddicks and Dunns went smoothly, Aidan was a perfect gentleman and I encouraged him to be a visitor to the girls the following week. Gale had created a den of iniquity where we could all make love in sight of each other. She also insisted that we keep changing partners, recognizing the fact that I hadn’t spent as much time with my three girls as I liked the prior week. We parted warmly and satisfied at the end of the night.

Sunday, we did a ‘Love In’ at the condo with just the four of us. I spent dedicated quality time with Ally, Sheila, and Fran that included lovemaking while the others were out somewhere. In the evening, we talked about how I should respond to Jane, but there were no big action steps beyond the obvious ones of being nice, kind, loving, and managing expectations. The last point was a major emphasis from each of them. We also talked about Aidan being with them the coming week. After that, we went to bed, and I made love to the three of them.

Monday morning, I caught the seven-a.m. flight to Newark Airport, and I was at TCI headquarters by nine-fifteen. This week, I’d be in New Jersey the entire week.

Jane lit up in a huge smile when I stuck my head in her door, blew her a kiss, and waved hello. I didn’t even say anything, just waved. She was busy, but I could tell I’d made her day with the mock kiss.

I started meeting with the teams from my systems and consulting company, FDC, that we’d reviewed the prior week. I’d broken down my recommendations to each team into two parts. Part A were general things that most all the teams needed to do to improve the work and relationships with TCI, and Part B were a project specific action list as I saw it.

The first couple of teams were a little nervous until they really understood that I was not there as a hatchet man. After that, they started to really get onboard with more ideas and recommendations, even adding and elaborating on their own. The two teams I did that day left our meetings really fired up and full of motivation to improve things.

I finished about five-thirty, and sat in the conference room I’d been assigned going over notes for Tuesday’s meeting with three more teams. About six o’clock, Jane sauntered into the room looking relaxed and ready to quit for the day.

Jane asked, “Do you have plans for dinner?”

I smiled at her, “I have nothing scheduled until nine tomorrow morning.”

“Well, I’d like you to come home with me for drinks and dinner. You can see how I live, and we can see how the evening progresses from there.”

“I should follow you in my car I assume? I have to check-in to the hotel again.”

Jane paused and looked at me a long time. She then said in a soft voice, “You don’t need the hotel. I was kind of hoping you’d stay with me.”

I smiled warmly, “And I was kind of hoping you’d invite me.”

I called and cancelled the hotel, and via a text also let the home front know I’d be staying with Jane the rest of the week.

Jane had a cozy three-bedroom, mid-century home overlooking a wide brook in Chatham, New Jersey. She’d obviously done a lot of renovations recently, because the house looked new, but the neighborhood was made up of well-kempt older homes that were all well landscaped. Probably the most renovated room in the home was the kitchen. The room had obviously been enlarged, but I couldn’t figure out what other room was taken to create the modern eat-in room that sparkled with stainless steel and black glass appliances, and granite countertops.