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.

After a polite hug, Edie bluntly asked PJ in a pleasant way, “Are you a Mellon Girl?”

PJ nodded, grinned, laughed, and said, “Of course, isn’t every female that gets within fifty feet of Jim a Mellon Girl? Yes, I’ve had the Jim Mellon experience many times – fortunately.” They all had a good laugh at my expense.

We went into the living room, and Nadia brought us some hors d’oeuvres and wine.

Edie said, “Before my brain gets too clouded with the wine, I want to see what the press was talking about.”

Nadia had heard the remark and showed up two minutes later with a silver tray carrying eight cell phones. She said smugly, “They’re all charged up.”

I booted up my cell phone first, and showed Edie the pictures that had been sexted to me and that I’d sent to some of the others. She laughed and grinned, taking the pornographic images in the spirit in which they were given – erotic teasing and titillation.

One by one we went through the phones, pointing out that we weren’t sure which if any of the other phones had been hacked. I explained we’d switched off all our phones just to be on the safe side. Edie agreed that had been a good idea.

Dan and Terry arrived and met Edie. Terry remembered her from a year or so earlier when she kicked off the revelation about my fatherhood after some good reporter research and deduction. After introductions, they presented her with a page of ‘talking points’ the pair had put together, basically ways to waffle around the facts of the situation.

Edie read the page and said, “OK, now just change the subject, and let me distill all this stuff until after dinner or tomorrow. I want to see what my little mental brownies can come up with.”

On that note, Edie went into great detail about my children and their latest accomplishments and growth. Her iPhone was full of photographs, so we fawned all over them for a while. I could tell she had become enthralled with her extended family, plus she glowed whenever she mentioned George, Summer, or the children. She openly talked about her ménage-á-trois with George and Summer too.

Crystal paid particular attention to Edie’s report about Little Jim and Little Crystal. She sat on the edge of her seat, taking in every detail about their growth, development, and daily activities. When Edie started showing pictures, it was Crystal’s eyes that had to see them first.

After dinner, Edie became quite affectionate, cuddling up to me in the living room and urging Crystal to join us on my other side. “Let’s surround Jim with love tonight,” she urged. Crystal didn’t need a second invitation, and towards bedtime she whispered in my ear, “You make love with Edie tonight – put the emphasis on her. She needs you.” I gave Crystal a questioning look, and she nodded her affirmation of what she’d just said back to me.

At one point, while Edie left the room, I said to Crystal, “Edie’s going to want me to make her pregnant?”

Crystal just smiled and said, “Well, do it. Duh! You’ve got a reputation to uphold.” The way she said it let me know she was truly sincere in seeing me father another child.

An hour later, I tried to create a third child, this time with Edie as the mother. Edie didn’t have the kind of clairvoyance that Summer had, so there were no “We did it” pronouncements from her after our initial orgasmic event. Instead, we just reconnected on many levels, reestablishing the love we felt for each other, and our bodies bringing together our mind and spirits, as well. I felt that something had happened, some inner sense of knowing and accomplishment that I hadn’t felt before.

In the morning, before Edie and I joined the others, we made love again. This time, I felt even surer about having planted my seed. As I cuddled Edie in our post-coital bliss, I whispered to her, “Thank you for having my child. I feel so privileged that you chose me.”

Edie hesitated, “But, we won’t know for a few weeks.”

I just kissed each of her eyelids closed and said, “I know now.” I gave her a full body hug.

We showered, dressed, and joined the others for a long, leisurely breakfast.

Margo called about ten o’clock with an update from the U.K. “The six people they arrested are out on bail. They pleaded not guilty at their arraignment. They’re jobless and no newspaper or magazine will touch them; the same for the others who were fired. Scotland Yard apparently will press for the maximum penalties under the law, and they’re using this situation as an object lesson to other would-be celebrity hackers. Coincidentally, they found evidence that a couple of the blokes they arrested had been trying to hack Prince William and Prince Harry’s cell phones. I think the lot of them are doomed to long jail terms. The Globe has responded to the civil lawsuit on your behalf; they’re trying to negotiate for a much smaller amount; however, the paper has been on the financial edge for over a decade, so there’s no way they can come up with anything close to £50 million.”

I muttered something about justice being served.

Margo went on, “Get this. The paper published a full-page apology to you and ten other celebrities they admit to hacking and exposing, plus the parents of a young woman who was later found murdered. These are the ‘caught-red-handed’ cases, but there are a few dozen others we suspect. Scotland Yard is on it. My guess is that the paper will fold in bankruptcy within the week.”

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people. Any word about Mansard?”

“Mansard Industries, the holding company, issued a press release this morning deploring the acts as ‘way over the line’ in terms of propriety and acknowledging the illegality. He said all prosecutions of the guilty should receive the maximum penalty, and all civil lawsuits should be recompensed at whatever level the courts and juries decide. Basically, he’s disowned the paper and the people in it. He stated he had no knowledge of the shenanigans, and is friends with several people the paper trespassed on. He didn’t mention your name specifically.”

“Well, I hope he’s not mad at me.”

“Doubtful. You might give him a friendly call.”

Less than five minutes later, I talked to Joe Mansard. He was ripping mad at the newspaper. I volunteered to withdraw my civil suit, but he asked that I leave it filed as is. “The paper will fold shortly, if not of their own will, then of mine. I’ve wanted to dump that asset for a while, and this will be as good a time as any. They weren’t making any money, and the men that run it weren’t getting into the Information Age with online capability. Now, it’s too late.”