Chapter 32: Iowa to Minnesota

The day was perfect. The temperature was about eighty; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Cricket cradled his head in her lap as he looked up at the sky and her. They lay on some soft grass at a rest stop along the highway in the middle of Wisconsin again, this time heading for Minneapolis.

Dave ruminated, “We did good, Grasshopper.”

Cricket laughed, “You think I’m some Kung Fu expert? I am a brown belt, you know, in whatever it is that Wan Suh is teaching us. And, yes, I agree with you. That was a fabulous weekend. I think we left five-thousand screaming fans very happy. Your closing remarks yesterday afternoon were sterling.”

“Thank you. I think of the five thousand attending about five hundred of them plan on starting their own circles or groups resembling our Circle. I think we lit a lot of candles.” After a silence he said, “I didn’t know you were that skilled as a public speaker. You wowed two whole rooms of people on Saturday morning. I was very impressed.”

Cricket chuckled, “I didn’t know I was a public speaker either. I’ve done TV interviews and book signings, but nothing like having one- or two-thousand people in a room when I’m talking about something many people think is anti-social – consensual non-monogamy. I’m glad we had sympathetic crowds in the two sessions I did.”

“You had a sympathetic audience, I’m sure. They preselected themselves to like what you were going to say. You made a very persuasive case, by the way.”

Cricket said, “I did my research.”

“I had no idea that so many Biblical characters were non-monogamous. You made it sound like the entire Old Testament and most of the New Testament were that way and that Jesus was teaching about that kind of love.”

“They are,” Cricket insisted. “The people deserving of stories were usually some of the upper-crust of society back then. If you were in that class, you could afford multiple wives or pseudo-wives. There weren’t too many multiple husband situations, but there could have been given the climate. There is even a school of thought that the commandment about adultery actually referred to having sex outside of the relationships a man had with his WIVES – as in multiple women. In other words, keep it at home where THEY all need you. The original text of the commandments used a noun that could be plural or singular. Many people were wed to multiple people. As I mentioned, in some micro-cultures a man was even expected to assume being a husband to his brother’s wife, if that man died.”

Dave said, “Well, the structure and delivery of your talk was very good. I liked not only the history, but your talk about all the variations and options under the CNS umbrella. Moreover, your treatment of the pitfalls of jealousy, insecurity, resentment, and poor or no communication were stellar.”

“You can be in MY fan club,” Cricket said as she leaned in and kissed him.

“I’ve been in your fan club since you propositioned me the night of your graduation.”

“I knew what I wanted, and set out to get it. What I didn’t know was how good it would get after that. What’s that old line: I must have lived in hell in some other life, because I’m living in heaven in this one.”

Dave said, “We should get back on the road, sweetheart. I want to make Cedar Rapids tonight. I think there’s rain tomorrow, so we’ll just ‘camp out’ at the motel.”

“Works for me. I have some definite ideas about what camping out with you will mean.” She giggled, clearly implying a sexual intent to her thinking.

The two got up and got back on the bike. Cricket was wearing some snug shorts and a crop top, along with her cowgirl boots. In anticipation of some cooler weather in the northern tier states, Dave had her bring some warmer clothes and windbreakers in addition to the one-duffle bag limitation. Fortunately, given her size, the extra load was smaller and he could easily fit it onto the bike.

“What’s in Cedar Rapids?” Cricket asked. “I should have asked earlier.”

Dave chuckled, “You and the Cedar River. Everything special and nothing special. It’s supposed to be a beautiful small city. I just wanted to ride through it for no particular reason. It’s part of my forty-eight-state tour.”

The two were soon underway. The GPS on Dave’s phone led him right to the Marriott TownePlace Suites, where they’d made a reservation. Unlike in Chicago, the parking was in the open behind the motel, but getting things to their room was easy. By five-thirty that afternoon, they were both in the hotel’s indoor pool bobbing around and kissing like newlyweds.

As they were cuddling together in the pool’s deep end, two other couples came into the pool area. They were both closer to Cricket’s age than Dave’s and were vibrant in their conversation and laughter with each other. The young men were tall and muscular. The two young women – a blonde and brunette – were pretty. Soon, they too were in the pool and snuggled up at couples.

Cricket whispered to Dave, “The women kissing the men are not the women they walked in with. I think they swapped.”

Dave shrugged, “They seem to like each other.”

After a short time, one of the guys in the foursome emerged from the pool and dried off. He tied a towel around his waist, and then came over to Dave and Cricket.

“Hi. We saw you were the only other people brave enough to swim here. Anyway, I’m going to the bar to get us all some drinks – wine or beer, and I was wondering whether I can get anything for the two of you. It’s on me.”

Dave and Cricket smiled. “Thank you. What a nice gesture. We’d both like a white wine, but only if you allow me to get the next round.”

The guy shook his head, “Don’t worry about it.” He headed out of the pool area towards the hotel bar.

A few minutes later, the guy returned with a tray loaded with a few beers and some plastic glasses full of wine. He set them all out on a nearby table. Dave, Cricket, and the others got out of the pool, Cricket nearly falling out of her brief bikini. She was a good Circle member and believed in displaying her sexy body.

The guy introduced himself as Seth Hardisty and his wife as Sara. The other couple were Andy and May Mott. Sara and May were also bikini clad, with copious amounts of boob flesh trying to spill out of the cups of their bras. Of course, Dave and Cricket introduced themselves as Dave and Cricket Prentiss. There followed the usual short discussion about Cricket’s name. No one of the four seemed to recognize either of them.

They sat and played the ‘Who Are You and What Do You Do?’ game. Dave was ‘between serious jobs, but had found he could sing and had done a couple of gigs with a country music band and another singer’. Cricket wrote books, of course. She didn’t name any of them. They were riding Dave’s Harley up to Minnesota but wanted to see Iowa, and Cricket would fly home to Sarasota from there.

Andy and Seth worked together selling farm equipment in the western part of the state and westward into Nebraska farmland. They’d been at a trade show and some new equipment demonstrations in nearby Iowa City over the weekend and decided to stay over a couple of nights with their wives and make up for the lost weekend nights by having their own small party. Their weekend nights had been sacrificed to some large dinners and trade talks by the vendors putting on the small show. Sara worked with the two men as an AA in their business. May worked in a nearby bank as an assistant manager.

Dave asked them about whether they were seeing any of the new batteries that EneRG makes in any of the new equipment. Andy noted that they were, and that the industry was rapidly headed towards electric vehicles except for the really high-horsepower diesel combines. Some of the smaller tractors were already battery-powered with the long-lasting cells.

Cricket commented proudly that Dave had worked for EneRG for a number of years, even from before they went public. No one asked about his position or what having been an early member of the team meant when they went public.

Before they knew it, an hour had passed. Dave had indeed bought the second round of drinks. Seth suggested they have dinner delivered and they called the restaurant to find out whether they could do that. To his surprise, not only could they do that, the hotel could deliver right to their tables beside the pool. Everyone made some standard meal orders and before they could say anything further, Dave secretly arranged for all the meals and additional drinks to go on his room tab. He smiled and waved off anyone’s concern.

The six had another round, applauded when dinner arrived, and ate together as they had an animated talk about one subject after another. There seemed to be a great harmony and camaraderie between all of them. Several times multiple discussions were going on at one time. People would rearrange to sit nearer to the others they were talking with so there was some moving around.

May wanted to write a book, and when she learned Cricket had published several, the two of them were off on a serious discussion. Sara joined in. Andy and Seth wanted to hear about Dave’s motorcycle journey, which by then had traversed twenty-seven states. They teased him about riding to Hawaii or doing Alaska in the winter.

Around nine o’clock, Seth asked in a whispered aside with Dave, “Do you guys ... you know ... play around ... or swing?”

Dave nodded, “Kind of, but we have a really strict family rule about needing to see a recent STD test. If you want to see mine, it’s a document scan on my iPhone. Cricket’s, too. It’s just we have a few other friends we’re intimate with and we sure don’t want to spread anything around.”

“Oh, I understand completely. We were all tested last week. We kind of knew we’d be with each other for the first time over the weekend. We love the variety, not to mention each other. We feel such a resonance with the two of you, I just had to ask. We were going to go up to our room and make love. I got signals from the others that we’d love to have you. I can show you our paper up there. We’ve only been with each other.”

Dave said, “Let me talk with Cricket.”

Dave nudged Cricket from her conversation with the other women and the two of them went to the other end of the pool where they could go down the steps into the water. “Want to be in a small orgy tonight?”

Cricket broke into a wide grin, “With our new friends? Hell, yes. They’re all so nice.”

Dave suggested, “Why don’t you take off your bikini bra and pass it to me. When you get out of the water, that’ll provoke some interest, I’m sure, as well as provide our answer. Seth asked us to participate with them. They’re all recently tested.”

Under the water, Dave felt the small pieces of fabric and strings pushed into his hand. He turned around, and hid the bra as they got out of the pool. He got his towel to dry off and left the bra on a chair.

Cricket hitched herself out of the pool right in front of the table with the two couples, standing tall and wringing out her hair for a second.

Seth and Andy made loud snapping noises as their heads rotated so rapidly on their necks to watch the sexy topless woman. Cricket said, “In Florida, I rarely wear a bathing suit top. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind? MIND? Hell, no,” Andy declared. The two women were laughing. They quickly doffed their bras to everyone’s delight. There was a hum from the men in appreciation for all the spectacular boob flesh on display.

Dave came up, “You know we are on camera from the front desk. We might want to wrap up the goodies until we’re back in your room.”

Seth said, “Come with us. We have a fun evening planned.”

Everyone rinsed off the chlorine using the shower beside the pool. Andy took it upon himself to help Cricket make sure the last vestiges of pool chemicals had been purged from her body, especially her breasts. Somehow, many kisses and hands also got involved. Seth took care of May, and Dave seemed to end up paired with Sara; not an onerous chore.

After drying off, they headed into the main part of the hotel, and took an elevator up to the top floor. The Hardisty’s and Mott’s had a large double room with two king-size beds in it, side by side. There was also a small kitchenette, which happened to house another bottle of wine and some beer. Drinks were passed around.

As the drinks were served, the women seemed to lose their bikini bottoms. It had been Cricket’s suggestion. Soon, the men joined them. This state of affairs produced a great deal of smoothing, touching, licking, and sucking of members of the opposite sex that weren’t related. At one point, Dave even found himself with May and Sara, while Cricket had started to soar with both Andy and Seth.

Andy eventually whispered to Seth. They both went to separate suitcases, and reappeared with their lab tests. Cricket scanned them and gave a thumbs up to Dave. He laughed and carried on making the two women happy. He saw the two men enfold Cricket back in their arms. She was basking in their attention and wasn’t about to give up either one of them.