Chapter 22: A Possible Disciple

Visits by family members had been rare since moving into the Circle Cohousing Project. In part that had been due to the travel plans Circle members made before moving in and then over the holiday periods. One exception had been Aaron and Shelby.

The thought had no sooner been formed at one of the dinner discussions, than the next day Dev announced that his parents and sister were making a Florida tour and wanted to stay a couple of nights, see the new home of their son and daughter-in-law, and catch up. They arrived on a Sunday night and left Tuesday afternoon.

The entire Circle had a meeting the previous Friday to outline the steps they’d go through to prepare for visitors. These included purging the core library of the porn DVDs that everyone had made, including Wendy; sterilizing some of the sexy art work that had come to include nude photos of some of the girls; and declaring all public areas as off-limits for nudity, dirty talk, sex, or anything else that the unenlightened outside world might find offensive.

Walter, Beatrice, and Sally had a good visit, and all the Circle members were well behaved, although there was some subtle teasing. A couple of swaps secretly took place overnight. Nancy stayed over at Dave and Alice’s home, but no one seemed to notice. Shelby snuck into Kat and Sean’s bed, too.

The more general question about handling visitors came up. The case where visitors were parents, relatives, or friends that were identified as ‘nonsexual’ duplicated what they did for Dev’s family.

A more interesting case appeared to be the one pending with Sasha and Martin. The general rule was hard to define since the two of them were both model quality people. Martin belonged on the cover of a romance novel after having saved a damsel in distress, and Sasha could be a Playboy or Penthouse centerfold. Moreover, according to Sasha they were enthralled with the Circle and wanted to fully participate during the week they visited. Aaron and Shelby had loosened them up to the point of eager anticipation.

Ty summed it up with laughter on evening, “The question is are we all horny enough to want to tap some new pussy and get some new cock while they visit? If so, and they meet our other requirements, then we go full speed ahead.”

Having outside people who wanted to participate immediately raised the question about whether Circle members wanted to play with them. Ultimately, and appropriately, that was left as an individual decision. There didn’t need to be a Circle position taken on it that they all adhered to.

Sean said, “They agreed to the STD test; what’s the problem. Let them come, see what we’ve got, and then they can play or not play with those of us of a similar mind. Any of us that want to have sex with them can, if they want to engage. Dave, what’s your saying, ‘Consenting adults can do whatever they want about sex’?”

Kat teased him, “You just want a new piece of pussy, especially that Russian beauty.”

Sean nodded, “Maybe. But where they know about the Circle and our activities ahead of time, I don’t see a reason to change our behavior and return to ‘straight’ mode.”

Dave said, “There should be some affection or positive feelings about them besides seeing them as sex objects, but I don’t think we should legislate that.”

Mike said, “Some of us will surely see them as potentially great sex partners and want to participate, and those not interested just politely opt out of a sexual relationship with them for any reason they choose. That’s kind of how we normally are anyway.”

Grace said, “I think this is called situational ethics. We play it by ear on an individual basis. I also don’t see a Circle decision on this one.”

The situational ethics case came into play sooner rather than later that Friday.

Holly announced in bed with Dave and Pam, “Dave, you’re going to get a big surprise on Saturday morning. I’ve been sworn to secrecy except to say what I just said.”

Pam and Dave tried to pry more information from Holly, but to no avail. Dave did develop a ‘feeling’ that the secret had something to do with something or someone outside of the Circle. He couldn’t even identify why he had that premonition.

Holly teased again at dinner on Friday night, and the way her eyes moved towards the entrance road, confirmed Dave’s initial assumption. He also guessed that the visitor, if he was right, was going to be a single female that he already knew.

When he got into the logic a little more, he concluded that Holly and he shared a limited number of common acquaintances outside the Circle, except for those they met in town – and those hardly qualified as a big surprise, or those from the Leadership Program in Sedona at the end of January.

He further reasoned that a visit from a guy, such as Bud or Dale wouldn’t be much of surprise for Dave, so he figured a female. Of the seven females he’d had sex with the number was more like six, since Holly was already with them; that left Tan, Jenn, Gwen, Tiffany, Katie, and Valerie.

“Jenn!” he muttered aloud. He had a reason or two to eliminate all of the others but Jenn had been especially taken with him and had even mentioned, as Holly had, about coming to visit.

Dave went to Alice and found her with Pam, Julie, and Heather. “I think I figured out Holly’s secret. Tomorrow morning, Jenn Whitaker from our Leadership Program is going to show up.”

“You liked her, right?”

“I love her. She was one of the special ones, and she ended up thinking that way about me. She’s become a marketing guru for her online furniture company. I don’t know why she’s in Florida, but I bet she piggybacked this visit onto some other trip.”

“She knows about the Circle?” Pam asked.

“Yes, in detail, or as much detail as I provided to her in Arizona. Holly might have told her a little more.”

Alice speculated, “She’ll want to be with you in a sexual way. Make her weekend something for her to remember.”

Dave shrugged, “I’m not sure that getting a couple of fast fucks is her motivation, if I’m right and it’s her. I bet we have another ‘Holly’ situation on our hands. I bet she’ll want to become an affiliate member after learning that she can’t form an exclusive relationship with me.”

“What will you tell her?” Julie asked.

“Two days will not an affiliate member make. We gave Holly ten days, and she played every day to the max to ingratiate herself with the Circle. I think that would be a minimum. In general, I’d prefer to see a month or more if they were living with us, even longer if they were in and out of town. I think we were a little abrupt with Aaron and Shelby, too, but that’ll work out because they’re so much like we were.”

“There is the probationary period,” Heather said.

“I would like to never be in a situation where I had to tell anybody that they had to LEAVE the Circle. They’d be crushed even if it were some flagrant violation of some protocol or a mountain of complaints for some reason. They’d want to fix it, to reform, or to start over.”

Alice said to no one in particular, “So, we do what Grace said, and we play it by ear.”

Saturday morning a little after nine o’clock, Holly responded to the alert chimes from the main gate that rang on the core kitchen area intercom. She cycled the gate after talking on the intercom. She shot Dave a look, but he played it cool and didn’t really look up from his iPad. Alice and some of the others were laughing at his cool exterior.

After a few minutes, Dave sat reading when the ‘mystery guest’ snuck up behind him, covered his eyes with her hands, and said, “Guess who?”

Dave played hard to get, “Oh, let me guess! Could it be the tooth fairy? No. Maybe Mrs. Claus? No, her hands are all chapped from living at the North Pole. Tiffany? No. Katie? No. Maybe it’s Gwen trying to sign me up for another course? No, she would have said something first. Oh, I know. It has to be Jenn. Hi, Jenn.”

“Oh, poo. You knew. Did Holly tell you?”

“No. I figured it out by thinking about who would be a surprise to me.”

Jenn came around in front of Dave as he stood. The pair shared a couple of deep kisses. Holly was standing off to the side looking very pleased with herself.

Dave asked as he shot Holly an evil look, “Who organized this?” Holly just laughed.

Jenn said, “I had to be in North Carolina visiting furniture manufacturers to talk about co-marketing efforts for them and my company. Gwen sent out a reminder to all of us to be in touch with each other. You probably got it, too. I sent a note out to Holly and a few of the other girls in the east. Holly explained her situation here and gave me an invite, and I accepted immediately.”

“Thank you, Holly,” Dave said in an aside to her in a neutral tone.

“Aren’t you glad to see me,” Jenn asked. She sounded disappointed that he wasn’t bouncing around the patio.

“Jenn, I am very glad you’re here. I am in a funny mood because I’ve been spoofing Holly so she didn’t know I’d figured out her surprise. Come on; let me introduce you to the others, including my wives. See how many names you can recall afterwards.”

“I’ve never met a guy with four wives, let alone get to meet their wives.”

Dave took Jenn to Alice first, and then escorted her around the Circle pointing out specifically, who was one of his wives, and who belonged to someone else. He could tell she was trying to memorize the names and other relationships in the Circle. He still had the rest of his speculations about her visit.

Dave offered up some breakfast, but Jenn just accepted a mug of hot black coffee. They sat and talked about work. She was interested in the two boards he’d been asked by Holly to sit on. He also told her about his regular job, surprised to find that she knew a little about the public utility industry. Jenn talked about the various furniture companies she’d visited the prior week and would be seeing in the coming week, and about the co-marketing programs she hoped to implement as a result.

The whole time they chatted Dave felt there was another agenda. He figured it would come out soon enough. There was no rush, particularly given the time of day; things were barely warmed up within the Circle. Further, Matthew was in residence and racing around the patio with various toys, and then again working with Holly on his swimming and diving skills, such as they might become for a five-year-old. Jenn looked interested in Heather’s son, but for the time being just accepted his presence.

Dave explained, “That’s Heather’s little boy. His grandmother lives about three miles from here, and they have a great relationship that includes a couple of other boys his age within two or three houses of hers. He loves to spend time over there and will probably return sometime this afternoon.”

Jenn took in his comment and nodded.

Matthew came running over about then and spoke to Dave with great enthusiasm, “Dad! Dad! Watch me dive – head first! Holly taught me.” He ran back to the edge of the pool and did a fairly credible dive into the deep end of the pool. He’d heard Holly telling him earlier never to dive into the shallow end of a pool or anywhere he wasn’t certain of the water’s depth.

Jenn asked, “He’s yours?”

“No, but I love him just as if he was. Everybody here does, but since Heather lives with me, he sees me more than the other men. I’ve been adopted as his ‘Dad’.”

“What does Heather do? She’s beautiful, but obviously younger than you.”

Dave chortled, “She’s going into her sophomore year at the local university, and just changed her major to computer science and engineering. She’s a straight ‘A’ student. She got pregnant near the end of high school, had Matthew, and then went to work as a stripper in the Club Ecstasy, near here. She also worked as a waitress in a diner trying to make ends meet for herself, Matthew, and her mother.

“Heather was also a friend of Christie, the little blonde bombshell with the tattooed arm over there talking with the two couples. Alice and Christie met working at the strip club. Christie still works there and likes it. Anyway, I ended up in a unique situation with Christie and Heather living with me for a week, and we all fell in love. Alice got involved later and decided that Heather needed rescuing to give her the career she really wanted, so set it up with some others to get her a scholarship and spending money. We offered her a place to stay, no strings attached I might add; and over time she became our fourth wife, ergo, Matthew is my kid.”

“That’s great,” Jenn said, “and what you said results in a few more questions. First, what was Alice doing working in a strip club. I thought you said she was an accountant.”

Dave grinned, “Oh, she is and has been since college. She actually works for Roy Goodman, the guy with the salt and pepper hair talking to Pam over on the blue chaise. I might have mentioned our loosening up process that Dori started with us – a series of challenges designed to change our attitude about sexually-related things. Well, one of the challenges was for Alice to be a ‘guest’ stripper; she liked it so much she continued with it for a few months until things got too hectic again. She’s been talking about going back. Most of the other women here also did stints at the Club.”

Jenn said, “I always thought that profession was also the gateway to doing porn videos. For some reason, I associate the two.”

Dave nodded, “No, you’re right. Most of us got involved in films that way, too. One of the guys in the Circle has his own production company – that’s Mike, the tall handsome guy playing cards with Sean and Dev over yonder. Kat, the woman with the dark hair, works for him as a video editor. His live-in fiancée Clarisse is also a star in a lot of the vids, and helps him with distribution, but she works fulltime in a woman’s boutique and spa. She’s also about to restart on her college education.”

“Holy shit. You guys really are plugged into the ... mainstream.” Dave knew she was trying to be polite.

“You had another question?” Dave asked.

“Oh, yeah. The massage table is over there; do you have someone come in and give massages.”

Dave burst out laughing. “No, but several of us are pretty proficient at them. Some nights, when somebody is feeling unusually exhibitionist, they’ll put on a sex show for us on that table.” He laughed harder, “Ask Holly about last night.”