Chapter 4: Cohousing Construction Starts

A month after the party where Jack, Grace, and Rachel joined the Circle, a small cluster of people stood on a knoll at the edge of the new property and watched the cavalcade of cement trucks coming onto the property the Circle corporation had purchased from Owen. The trucks were pouring the foundations and pads for the new homes they would all occupy in a few months.

Dave said to Ty, “I can’t believe how fast this has gone to even start. Owen promises we’ll be living here before Halloween. That’s only five months. I’m betting with myself that it’ll be more like Christmas or Easter.”

Ty nodded and laughed, “Money talks, and his money is apparently telling the general contractors to get the lead out of their asses. With a lot of planning and coordination, there’s no reason for this to take a long time.

“I was at a management retreat over the winter, and one of the guest lecturers showed a film entitled ‘The Four-Hour House’. It showed a complete ranch home being built from bare lot to completed structure ready to occupy in under four hours – nothing prefab about it, either. The people doing it even had the place sodded and landscaped. The message to all of us was to change how we looked at our business, to put ourselves in the customer’s shoes, and, of course, to take all the unintentional time buffers out of the way we do business.”

“Four hours? That’s amazing. Was the house shoddy workmanship?”

“Oh, no; not at all. They commented about that in the film and also showed the various city inspectors on the site, too. That’s happening here, as well. That white car parked out on the road belongs to one of the building inspectors. He’s checking the foundations on ten homes and the core buildings even as they pour. I think Owen pledged a new wing on the town library providing we never had to wait more than an hour or two for an inspection the way many projects do. See, a major time buffer taken out of the construction process. Ah, bureaucracy can be overcome.”

“It’s nice to have a friend with money, but I feel kind of strange getting this kind of preferential treatment.

Ty said, “I’m certain that nothing specific got ordered or put on paper by Owen. His words to the GCs were only suggestions, and they just know he has a lot of sway about who gets business on lots of other jobs in the area. His words to the town were probably some oblique reference to ‘how fast the job could go with cooperating inspection teams, and, oh by the way, doesn’t the library need to expand?’”

The other men and women were also abuzz with comments about how fast things had moved. In the intervening month, Jack Anders had finished interviewing everyone, done three strawman designs for the cohousing project and run them by everyone getting comments and cost options. That iteration led to a fourth design combining parts of the three into a single plan, and a much firmer set of financials for The Circle Cohousing Project.

The lawyers got involved, creating trust accounts for everyone, detailing the ownership and responsibilities of the cohousing members, and then helping people ensure the agreements were to their liking. Ty’s bank underwrote some of the float loans at great rates. Roy and Alice’s company Knightsbridge Manufacturing had expressed interest in some of their previous homes and apartments for potential new hires that were relocating to the area. Owen pledged to support the project and any shortfalls along the way, but it didn’t look like that support would be needed.

Surprisingly, that only took a week or so. After all the signing, a bus showed up on Saturday morning with a realtor to show green-field properties that could accommodate the design and leave room for expansion. Jack gave the tour and discussed the pros and cons of each site.

The Circle selected a large one that Owen owned, and three days later a starting permit was issued and the bulldozers showed up to start to shape the land for the project. A few days later the cement trucks were pouring the foundations. Dave knew that some of the crews were already working from dawn to dusk, and he expected more of the same until completion.

Off to the side, other building materials were being amassed so that as soon as the foundations and slabs were ready and could carry load, building of the actual homes and core buildings could commence without waiting for deliveries.

Grace came up and held onto Dave’s arm. “This is so exciting. I feel like I’m about to be reborn into a whole new life.” She leaned up and kissed him and whispered, “Daddy.” She laughed.

Dave laughed and kissed the older woman on the cheek. “If you get squeamish about the transition, please come and talk to any of us. We know you, Jack, and Rachel are being swept into this maelstrom a bit like three leaves in a hurricane. We want you to feel loved and supported, regardless of the way you choose to live with us.”

Grace kissed his cheek and laughed, “Oh, I know exactly how I want to live with you and everyone. I get wet between my legs every time I think about it. So does Rachel. After our time with you, we’ve become best friends.”

“Is Rachel ... or you for that matter ... feeling a little salacious because you’ve been spending time with so many men in so short a time period?”

Grace softly laughed, “You mean do we feel slutty because we’re fucking our way around your Circle?” She cocked her head to one side and looked at him with a goofy smile.

Dave smirked, “I was trying to be polite.”

“Well, I’m not; I’m having a really good time. I’m also watching for signs that Rachel is reacting in some adverse way, but so far it seems she’s taking it all in stride. Jack is in some kind of heaven with the other women, so he’s all right. It’s like I’ve given him an unrestricted hall pass to have sex with anybody he chooses – at least within the Circle. I’m feeling good because he often chooses me; our sex life has gone through the roof. We had talked about our first Saturday night with the Circle, and I came expecting exactly what happened. I like that it has happened several times since. Rachel, too. I can hardly wait for the weekends now. I want to do things like we do every day, now.”

“You’re making me horny.”

“David, according to your wives, everything makes you horny.”

“There is that, I suppose.” He grinned at the older woman as they headed back to their cars from the observation point overlooking the cohousing construction. The small hill would actually hide the project from the entry road and vice versa.

The nature of the project was a large circle with common buildings and a pool inside the ring of ten connected homes around the periphery.

That evening things were exceptionally quiet in the Prentiss household. Heather was at a special evening lecture for one of her summer classes; Matthew was at his grandmother’s. Pam was traveling in the Midwest visiting two power companies. Owen was in New York doing some business deal; Julie had accepted his invitation to accompany him on the trip, taking advantage of his business meetings to go shopping during the days and fuck his brains out at night.

Alice and Dave looked at each other as they found themselves in the living room of their home. Alice laughed, “This is strange – just the two of us, again.”

“I agree. It’s been months since we’ve been alone. I don’t regret those times, but I really like being with you like this.”

“Aaaaah, you say the nicest things.” Alice flowed into his arms and kissed him. As she pulled away, she said, “Want to get lucky?”

“With you? Of course.”

About an hour later, Dave picked up their clothes from the living room floor and followed Alice to the master bathroom for showers. After redressing in casual clothes the pair went out to dinner. The each ordered their usual fare at that restaurant: French Dip for Dave, and Mediterranean Chicken for Alice.

“So, are we OK?” Alice asked.

Dave reached across the table and held her hand, “We have never been better, although I worry that I’m not spending enough time with you. How would you answer that question?”

“Oh, I’d say the same thing. I almost feel relieved in some ways.”

“Relieved?”

“Two years ago we ate here the night after Dori gave me my first challenge to help me loosen up. I was to wear next to nothing and welcome you home from work by fucking your brains out. I was so nervous. I’d never done anything like that, and I knew you hadn’t. Remember, I met you at the door only wearing sexy heels and some skimpy lingerie. I wasn’t sure whether you’d think I was being too forward or sexually aggressive; I thought you might get mad at me.”

Dave smiled as he squeezed her hand affectionately, “I’d never dreamed of us having sex like we did that night ... and many nights since. You were phenomenal. She also had you dress sexy for our pool party that weekend.”

Alice grinned, “And that led to all her challenges to help me – or us, really – to loosen up. I like the new, looser me. I hope you do.”

“Oh, I do,” Dave added with emphasis. “You’re feeling uneasy about something, and as far as I’m concerned there’s no need. I love you more than I ever thought I could.”

“You’re not upset that I have sex with other men?” Alice probed.

“No. In case you didn’t notice, I have sex with other women, too. Moreover, we seem to have increased the size of our family with three additional women, your sister, and another man. I love all of them, but you are my sunrise and sunset and my world. Without you this would all be meaningless.”

“That’s right where I am with you. And don’t forget that I’ve discovered I like women almost as much as men when it comes to sex. The orgasms are just as good, except with you.”

“Me?”

“Yours are spectacular. We set new records every time we make love.”

“I’m pleased. I did do some homework on the subject, and I still do some reading on how to please you and the others every month or two.”

“Most people don’t. You inspired the other men in the Circle to take on similar challenges. Even Ty started to improve based on your information sharing; I thought he was supposed to be the sex god because he’d been a swinger for a few years, but you out did him from the get go.”

“Oh, you knew about that? My tutoring.”

“I heard you and the other men talking at one of our Saturday dinners. You were describing how to tease a woman’s clit with your tongue while fingering her G-spot at the same time for maximum effect. I heard Sean ask you some questions, and you were quick with answers and recommendations. You sounded a bit academic, but boy when you get three fingers in me and your tongue on my little bud, all that academic knowledge becomes an orgasmic reality.”

“We aim to please,” Dave said with a chuckle. “Seriously, are you worried about ‘us’?”

“No more than usual. Let me tell you something I just realized. Before we started all this loosening up stuff, I worried almost every day about you and our marriage and whether it would survive the trials of time and events.

“Time and again I heard about men leaving their wives to be with a younger woman that loved sex morning, noon, and night. We weren’t having much sex and we weren’t talking about that embarrassing subject, and I figured that meant we weren’t talking about a lot of things like how we really felt about each other. I felt sure our marriage was doomed to fail because of the lack of sex in it, our limited communication, and the attendant lack of intimacy.”

Alice started nodding to herself, “So, as we started to get sexual with our neighbors, at first I worried even more, afraid you were going to leave me for Wendy, Kat, or Dori, but then you were even more attentive to me. I worried you were overcompensating, but you kept it up and I knew you weren’t. This was a new you. Pam came in that mix, too.

“Then I started to get really sexual with the men, and I was afraid for a while that you’d get angry at me for being promiscuous and leave me, but you hugged me tighter, made love to me more often, told me sweet things more frequently.

“And then, after we’d both been having sex with others, I went on that trip with Owen to Paris and Rome. I was sure that would doom our relationship, and I know you were worried a lot more than I was. I had no idea at the time; I just gave myself over to Owen. Maybe I thought he’d be a fallback after you left me. But when I came home to you, we had a major disruption in the Force.”

Dave asked, “What do you mean? Star wars?”

“I mean we truly redesigned our marriage. Pam was already with us, but I don’t think either of us thought of her as anything other than an ‘add on’ up to that point. Suddenly, I was confronted with Pam, Owen, and you, not to mention our close friends. I had to embrace it all or none of it. We talked. We took the whole enchilada, as the saying goes. That was over a year ago – almost two.”

“And you’re happy? Less worried?”

“Less worried, but I still need to check in with you, like now. You’re my primary and everyone else is secondary – everyone! I am happy, I feel loved by so many people. I knew Owen loved me before that trip, and I had stars in my eyes about him. If he’d continued to obsess about me instead of broadening out, I would have worried a lot more, not about us, but about him and how to deflect some of his attention and focus.”

She laughed, “He’s now focused on Julie, and I bet right now they’re joined in some sexual union. I’ll hear about it when they get home.”

“Well, consider your check-in complete as far as I’m concerned. I’m happy. I’m not worried about our relationship unless you signal something else to me. I also feel loved, and just to confirm, you are MY primary relationship, no doubt.”

Alice grinned, “Let’s race home and fuck some more.”

Dave hurriedly threw some bills on the table for the meal and tip, and they scurried home.