Chapter 12: Love is not a zero sum game, and New Year's party

By some kind of strange consensus, the neighborhood couples decided to do a group Thanksgiving together. I guess the stars must have been aligned, because most of the singles and couples weren't traveling or having guests. Lisa was the only one missing, since she'd flown to Utica to be with her family over the holiday. Melissa would make up for the shortfall, and then in the late afternoon Summer was coming over to spend a few nights with us, officially on a sleepover with her BFF at her new house. Unofficially, well...

The party was at Bob and Kate's large house, but a lot of the cooking took place in each of the other kitchens. Kate did the turkey, and everyone else did salads, desserts, or side dishes to complement the bird.

Bob and Kate's two teenagers (assisted by Kate and Melissa) hosted their own party for the four smaller kids about an hour before the rest of us ate in the early afternoon. After that they walked them down to the play yard, and despite the cool temperatures worked them through every piece of jungle gym equipment a dozen times.

We had an extra large dining table for the twelve of us adults. Bob, Matt, John, Steve, Mike, and I made up the male contingent, and Kate, Deb, Melissa, Tina, Brenda – my sexy secretary, and Stacy – my wife, made up the female delegation. Kate sat the table so no one was next to their spouse and it was boy-girl all around. She laughed and said she was doing this to foster 'relations, ' and we all knew she was thinking of sexual relations the way she said it.

After dinner, everyone put on their heavy coats and we took a group walk around the neighborhood, stopping by the schoolyard to watch the children playing but without interfering with the great job the teens were doing. We waved and kept walking.

Back at the house, Bob started to serve some Irish coffee, or coffee with other liqueurs. After all, it was a chilly gray day, just the way Thanksgivings are supposed to be.

Kate came up to me, "Care to slip away with me for a half hour? I'd love to make love with you. It's been several weeks, and I miss you."

I turned and caught Stacy probably being propositioned by Mike. We both smiled and nodded affirmatively to each other. Apparently, a few of us could slip away and our absence wouldn't be that noticed should the children come back to the house.

Kate led me to their master bedroom suite, and as I went in I saw Stacy and Mike slip into the adjacent guest room. I heard the click as the door locked, and I made sure to push in the lock button on Kate's bedroom door.

A few minutes later, I gave Kate her first orgasm. She practically turned inside out it hit her so hard. I got that lovely validation one gets from pleasing someone you love. Of course, as her orgasm hit she also squirted right while I was in front of her; I got covered from head to waist in her wonderfully tasting girl juice. She'd also flooded the bed.

Kate said, "Don't worry about the wet spot. I'll take care of it later. Besides someone else is apt to leave one after we're through and go back in the other room. I'll put a towel down when we're through."

I moved up and the two of us made out, and I penetrated her with my iron shaft, and we eked out another twenty minutes with me delivering a couple more orgasms to Kate. After that, we took a couple of quick showers, redressed, and went to join the others.

As I opened the door, Mike was waiting patiently outside. He said, "Errr, this is kind of awkward. Stacy needs to borrow some girlie undies from you, Kate. She'll return them tomorrow."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, I sort of came a lot. She tried to clean out, but it's ... errr ... a slow leak, I think is what she called it. She needs to make an absorbent pad. She didn't wear undies over either."

Kate laughed, "I know just what to do for her."

Mike left and I went into the guest room. Stacy was partly dressed. She was holding a wodge of tissues to her pussy, and looked kind of embarrassed. I burst out laughing.

I teased, "You want me to clean you up with my amazing oral skills? I can give you an orgasm or two along the way."

Stacy gave me her helpless look, "I don't think that would help. His spunk is deep in there, and it's not racing to exit the nice warm place I provided for it. I'll be leaking until bedtime. I'll probably smell like cum too."

Kate came into the room and heard Stacy's last comment. She sniffed the air and said, "I think you can pull it off once you get your skirt back on. All the adults will know what the smell is and won't care. If they ask, just tell the kids that you dropped gravy in your lap or something."

Kate passed Stacy some old lady undies and a maxi-pad, and Stacy slipped them on and put the pad in place. She went and flushed the tissues down the toilet. I saw Kate give her another pad to use for when the one in her undies got saturated. Kate also presented Stacy with a small bottle of perfume. Women always have the right equipment and tools for the job.

We returned to the group. Brenda and John disappeared down the hallway, followed by Steve, Summer, and Melissa. The latter trio had met several times, but this would be the first time they had sex together. Melissa had an oxymoronic look of worried eagerness on her face as she followed him. Summer looked gung-ho for whatever would happen.

Brenda and John had returned just as the teens brought the children back from the play yard. Despite having packed away a lot of turkey and trimmings, they were all hungry again. Kate set up a kids' table again, and got them working on an early dinner.

Melissa, Summer, and Steve eventually reappeared. The two girls looked starry eyed and very happy; for that matter, Steve did too. Summer kept holding Steve's hand, and trying to snuggle up next to him. Melissa came over to me and gave me a little kiss. I asked, "Have fun?"

She nodded and whispered, "Yes, but you're a much better lover. Steve's nice, and I'd want to get together with him again, but ... well, maybe it was that Summer was there too, but he wasn't you."

I just nodded.

Melissa then went on, "Summer likes him, as you can tell. When we were cleaning up she told me what I just told you; that you're the best lover we've ever had, but she felt she was competing for your charms with Stacy and me. Even when you have three women in your bed, you rise to the occasion and we all feel well sexed and wrapped up in your love." She kissed me again, and then went off to get herself some coffee.

By then, I noticed that Deb and Matt had left, this time to go over to his house for a few minutes. John and Tina, however, had taken over the master bedroom. It was nice of Kate to arrange this for our holiday gathering.

The adults had some leftovers around seven o'clock, and after that we took the kids home and got them ready for bed. There was Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special on TV, so we let them watch that before escorting them to bed. We urged the kids to sleep late.

After the kids were in bed, Melissa, Summer, and Stacy took showers together. I could guess at some of the activities that went on. The trio appeared in terry cloth robes and flashed me their naked bodies along with come hither looks that I didn't need a doctorate degree to figure out. I went from a one to an eight very quickly. I'd be a 'ten' before we all got to the bedroom mostly because all three were flipping up the back of their robes and showing me their sexy asses.

For some reason, I put a little special loving in my heart for Summer. If she was feeling 'competitive' for my affection, I wanted to reverse that feeling in her some way. Stacy would understand, and Melissa appeared perceptive enough to understand too.

After about twenty minutes I left Summer whimpering in a corner of the bed in a fetal ball who'd just been awash with too much pleasure. It only took me fifteen minutes to do that to Melissa, and then I turned on the charm with my wife. Stacy and I went back and forth, and pretty soon it was a draw; we both exploded in orgasm, and fell into each other's arms with words of love that were far beyond what Romeo and Juliette ever dreamed of saying to each other.

I snuggled Stacy and Summer to me, and Melissa snuggled up behind Stacy. Somewhere in the middle of the night, I made love to Summer once again.

Friday morning – Black Friday when everyone is supposed to rush out and shop till you drop – I made breakfast for everyone in the house, plus Deb who drag assed in about nine a.m. from Matt's house. She looked well fucked and was walking kind of funny, but happy.

The kids loved the Eggs Benedict I made, and I shoed them off to watch TV before more football games began. This was a big college weekend full of great games. I served everyone else, and then after we'd partially cleaned up, I asked Summer to stick around.

I think she thought she was in trouble, but she did stay in the kitchen while Melissa and Stacy went off to do other things. I'd already clued Stacy in about the upcoming conversation.

I went and hugged Summer. "Summer, do you know that I love you?"

She said tentatively, "I think so."

"Well, I do." I paused and went on, "I also love Melissa and Stacy ... and Deb, Kate, Tina, Lisa, and Brenda. Does that seem impossible to you?" I took both of Summer's hands in mind as I sat in front of her.

"Honestly, I'm not sure."

"Thank you for being candid in your reply. Let me explain myself. Until a couple of years ago, I thought – I'd been taught – that you were only supposed to love one other person ... and to be clear we're talking about romantic love that involves sex. Well that started to change as I did some critical thinking about the things we're taught growing up. I realized many of them were just wrong. I found I had strong feelings – love – for other people besides Stacy, and I realized that I wanted to follow through on how I felt about them. So did Stacy.

"We started to open ourselves up to loving other people close to how we loved each other. It was a slow process, and we tested and experimented along the way. What I've come to know for certain is that I can love multiple people at the same time."

Summer said carefully, "I can see where that's possible."

"We're taught that love is a zero sum game. Do you know what that is?"

"No, I've never heard the term zero sum game."

It puts whatever the game or situation is on a basis of winning or losing based on a fixed reward. If I win, you lose. If there are a group of us playing, when I win, everyone else loses to make up what I win. The sum of whatever we all have together is constant. Think of it like cutting a cake; if I take a large piece, everybody else gets less."

"OK, I understand that."

"Well, I have learned that love is NOT like that. The more I love, the more people love me. The size of the cake grows, so to speak. If I take a lot of love and give it in return, I make the cake bigger and everybody benefits. I got out of the zero sum mentality about love at least a year ago.

"Stacy feels this way too. I want her to love the other people around us – the ones we were with last night, for instance. When she does, she expands; I feel it, and I benefit from it by getting deeper and more intense feelings of love from her and from the others she's passed on her love to. I do it for her too."

"But Melissa loves you too."

"And I love her. So does Stacy. That just means there's that much more love in this house. The kids feel it. We all feel it with each other. This place is harmonious and a joyful place to be."

"I know, that's why I like to be here with you." Summer's voice almost sounded desperate.

I smiled, "Then give up thinking that love and affection are a zero sum game. Melissa said you felt you were competing for my love because Stacy, Melissa, and some of the others were there ahead of you. That doesn't mean I love you any less than the others. Maybe I love you more, and when I do I expand the amount of love in the universe so there's more to go around; you get more and so does everyone else."

Summer started to cry. Tears started to flow down her cheeks, and I could see she was choked up and unable to speak.

I held her hands in mine and went on, "You don't need to compete for my love. It's there for you to claim if you want it. There's an infinite supply. You can take as much as you want, and know that there's always more for you because I love you. I'm not putting restrictions on it, like saying I'll give you 25% of my love, Melissa 25%, and Stacy gets half. That's impossible to figure out. I love all of you – period – full stop – nothing more need be said. You each get all I have and more."

I heard a sob behind me, and turned. Deb was standing there. She'd been listening. Apparently, Summer could see her, but I couldn't. Deb said in a choked up tone, "That's so beautiful. I get it. I now understand how you feel about me too."

I held my arm out, and Deb came up my side as I sat and allowed me to kiss and hug her. I said boldly, "I love you, Deb. I also love Summer, and the others in the other room, and others beyond that."