Chapter 58: Sext Resolution. Dealing with Joe’s Proposal

A day later, Dan and Terry were more nervous than I was, and I’d again worked myself up into a frenzy of raw nerves. Dan had so many requests from the press for an interview about the allegations that he felt he had to do something.

I’d gone for a run, and did fifteen slow miles while I thought about the problem. When I got back home, I had an idea.

Dan and Terry hadn’t slept well, despite the prior evening’s sexual play. We were all trying to figure out what Dan called ‘Damage Control.’

After the three of us had breakfasts thanks to Nadia, she gave us the winning idea. Nadia looked at the three of us and our picked over breakfasts, “You’re a mess, and you’re making too much of this. A huge majority of the population have sent dirty pictures of themselves to someone they love – to tease them, to seduce them, to entice them, to proposition them – so what you and the rest of us did is no big deal. If it were, we wouldn’t have done it. And, one person that is pretty liberal about this kind of stuff is Oprah. I’ve watched her show, and she’s had all sorts of people on her show. She even had Penny Flame, a porn actress, on her show not too long ago, and they talked quite openly about the porn business – mostly bad stuff, but it surely was out in the open – drugs, fucking, kinks, and everything. Anyway, Oprah talked about sexting with someone a couple of weeks ago, and it was just laughs and like everyone’s doing it.”

Terry and Dan sat there with their mouths hanging open. I’d already grabbed my MacBook Air and started to search on the Internet to see what the statistics about sexting were. Why hadn’t any of us thought of this?

About two minutes later, I announced, “Hey guys, listen to this. ‘A recent study shows that sixty percent of college student received or sent sexual images and almost eighty percent sexually suggestive messages on their cell phones. Usually, the sext is to or from a relationship partner ... and the only legal issue seems to be doing anything with a minor.”

I breezed along to some other articles that Google popped up to my search. I’d blurt out a statistic occasionally, ‘About a third of teens and young adults sext.’ ‘The older the cohort, the higher the percentage that sext, peaking in the mid-twenties apparently, and rolling off after that.’ ‘Forty-six percent of young adults in their late twenties send sexts to each other.’ I told the two, “There’s a lot on the Wikipedia site too; apparently the incidence in Europe is higher.”

Nadia had been listening. She said, “I’m the youngest of all of you at age twenty-four, and I can tell you I think your statistics are low. At the College that I attend, I think everybody has done it. Sean and I do it to each other a couple of times a week. PJ’s even let me include her in some of the pictures I sent Sean, and he shows his roommates sometimes. You know Sean, Dan, PJ, and I sent one to you of the four of us fucking in the living room. It was no big deal.”

Dan muttered, “Somehow, that’s not really comforting.”

I said, “Maybe not, but I had an idea during my run, and now I’m sure of it. Let’s use Edie and the Dayton Daily News, if they’re willing. It’d give us a single media outlet to respond through, and position us better with the media. After that, we can just refer to whatever they printed. Should I call her?”

Terry and Dan spoke in unison, “YES!”

Crystal sashayed into the kitchen, “Yes, what?”

I spoke, “Yes, call Edie, and see whether she’d like another exclusive from Jim Mellon and Crystal Lee about the sexting allegations.”

Crystal smiled. “I like that idea. She’s nice. Maybe she could come down here, or we could go see George, Summer, Little Jim, and Little Crystal, too. Maybe we could mess around a little too?”

I pondered the options as I called Edie. I got her recorded message, and asked for her to call me ASAP. I gave her my new cell phone number. My phone rang about five minutes later, “Jim, this is Edie. I’ve called you old cell phone number two-dozen times, but it’s out of service.”

I told her, “Yeah, we shut it down since the number and phone had been hacked. That’s why I called you. Do you want another exclusive interview with Jim and Crystal?”

“Heck, yes!” Edie practically screamed into the phone. “When, how?”

“First, tell me what George and Summer are doing. How’re the babies? I haven’t talked to them for almost four weeks.”

Edie went, “Ugghh. Both kids have the flu or some bug. I just hung up talking to Summer. She suggested I not come up to the house for the weekend unless I wanted to contract some dread disease up there.”

I said, “I’ll give them a call to try to add some cheer to their day. Thanks. That makes the decision easier. You come to Nashville to interview us. Do you want me to send a plane?”

“Really? You’d do that for me? A whole airplane just for me?”

“Edie, I love you, and yes, I’d do that for you.”

We sorted out the details of her trip to Nashville. I got Ellen on her new cell phone arranging for a direct flight that afternoon from Dayton to Nashville, a trip normally requiring one or two stops. She’d call Edie back with the details.

Terry and Dan went off to prepare a set of talking points regarding the sexts. I wasn’t sure but that they were over thinking the whole situation. After the initial embarrassment wore off, I was all for just admitting that some of us in my circle of very close friends had swapped some pictures we never thought would see the light of day. And let it go, at that. For the first time since the story broke, I’d started to feel better about the situation.”

I also thought about some of the last face-to-face conversations I’d had with Edie. She’d asked for me to make her pregnant – to be the father of a child we’d share. At the time, I thought it was the halo effect from spending time with George and Summer. Summer had two of my children, at the request of her and her husband. I would do anything for George, but impregnating his wife had been one of the most pleasing things in the world to help him with. He had injuries that had made him sterile and had taken part of one leg. Predictably, Summer and I had fallen in love, only with his blessing.

Edie now lived a good part of the time with George and Summer, and Little Jim, and Little Crystal. Despite modest protests from us, the couple had named their children after Crystal and me. I hoped we wouldn’t tarnish their names too badly. George now enjoyed the pleasure of the two women who also loved each other. The three of them formed a comfortable and loving trio.

Crystal and I spent the day learning two new songs that PJ had written. PJ came down for most of the afternoon and played the synthesizer keyboard while Crystal and I played guitars and sang.

About five-thirty, the door to the studio opened, and Ellen escorted Edie in who had a big smile on her face. We stopped working, gave her a hundred serious kisses, and introduced her to PJ – the one new face she hadn’t met.