Chapter 2: More Candidates

Dave arrived home on Wednesday evening and got a boatload of kisses from his four wives. Matthew was also in the welcoming line. Alice said, “You have a message on the home machine. I wrote down the number on the pad by the phone, but listen to it.”

Dave went into the home’s den and hit the ‘Play’ button on the answering machine. ‘Hi Dave, Alice, Pam, Julie, and Heather – and, oh, everyone else. This is Susan. Dale and I were hoping we could join you all for another stay with the Circle starting the Memorial Day weekend for a week. If that’s too much of an imposition, tell us either when would be good or aim us at a motel nearby. We loved our time with all of you and wanted more, more, more; but if we weren’t reading the mood correctly as we left, please someone just let us know. With love, peace, and kindness in our hearts we think of all of you every day. Hugs and kisses. Namasté. Dale and Susan. XXX-XXX-XXXX.’

Dave called them back immediately and got Dale on the phone. “If you don’t get your butts down here, we’ll never forgive you. Yes, come and stay at the house or use it as a base of operations – whatever you need. The guesthouse is gone for now, but we have a guest room with bath in our house, and you’re more than welcome to hang your hats with us. It is no inconvenience at all.”

Dale expressed his thanks and confirmed the dates. He said he’d provide more specific times after they got flight information and arranged for a rental car. Dave offered to get them at the airport and give them a loaner car from the Circle.

One of the side-effects from everyone living together was that there was always a car or two sitting idle every day, but not necessarily the same car. If someone needed a loaner car because of car repair or a visitor, they posted the need on the bulletin board, and quickly got responses.

Dale took him up on the offer of a pick-up and loaner, since it would save them several hundred dollars for the week. He asked whether it was inappropriate to offer that money up to the Cohousing Project’s treasury as a way to say thanks and pay something towards the meals and facilities they were using while they were with us. He knew the benefit from that amount would ripple through the group indirectly. David accepted on behalf of the Circle.

A couple of weeks later, Dave picked up Dale and Susan at curbside at the main airport about forty-five minutes away from home. Susan literally flew into his arms and planted a knock-your-socks-off kiss on him as several dozen people looked on at the passionate reunion. She was squealing with delight at being with her favorite lover. Dale was laughing and waiting a turn to shake his hand and execute a man hug with Dave.

The voluble couple made the drive home seem shorter and full of their news, thoughts, and questions about the Circle and what had been going on with each Circle member. The more they talked the more Dave realized how perfect they would be as new members of their small closed society.

They arrived at the house, and Dale and Dave carried the two suitcases upstairs to the guest bedroom and put them on the bed. Susan said, “What’s everybody wearing out on the patio? The usual?”

Dave grinned, “I suspect the usual; either nude or just about.”

“Give me a minute and I’ll be down. You two guys have to dress that way, too,” she teased.

Dale shrugged. Dave said, “Meet you downstairs.” He left them to attend to his own wardrobe.

Dave had just stripped down to the athletic shorts he usually wore when Dale and Susan appeared in the master bedroom doorway. She decided that naked had the look she wanted and looked really fine that way to Dave. Her breasts with the chocolate areolas and nipples were swollen and erect. She’d trimmed her pubic hair into the shape of a heart since the last time she’d been with the group. Susan was sexy.

The three went through the corridor to the core and out onto the patio.

“MIKE!” Susan yelled as she encountered the person nearest the door. Mike was stretched out reading the manual for a new video camera. The camera itself sat on a small table next to him.

“Susan, how nice – how very nice! I saw on the board that you were arriving today.” He jumped up. The pair hugged and kissed, her bulbous breasts pressing against his bare chest in a sexy way. Susan took the opportunity to grind against him, the result being an immense lump in his shorts that needed some attention.

After that Dave escorted the couple around the rest of the patio, making sure the other Circle members properly welcomed them. When they were through, they came back and joined Mike per his earlier invitation.

Dave went back to his house to fetch his iPad and get the mail. When he came back out Susan was in a deep conversation with Mike. He chuckled to himself; he could guess the subject. As he sat down, he listened rather than interrupt Mike’s pitch.

Mike was building his case as Dave tuned in. “Ask the other women. They’ve each done at least one video. Alice has eight that are posted and selling like hotcakes. Kat has done a few. Clarisse has over a dozen online, and Christie about thirty. Some of the other women’s vids haven’t been up long enough to know how they’ll be received in the market. Heck, if even one person buys a copy, you’re a star.” He grinned broadly.

“I don’t know ... it seems like such a big step,” Susan said in an uncertain tone.

Mike pulled his phone out of his pocket, “Take a look at this video. See if you recognize anybody.” He punched at the screen with one of his fingers and then passed the phone to Susan.

Susan studied the video on the screen for over two minutes. Finally, she said, “The video is really hot, but I don’t recognize anybody. Should I?”

Mike turned and said, “Dave?”

He smiled without looking, “The video is Alice. She’s disguised with wig, makeup, and a few other things. You could also just wear a mask, too.”

“WOW! That is so hot. Mike, you were fucking her.”

“I was and we do frequently in any case. She also did a gangbang video with the men in the Circle. We all had a lot of fun doing that one, but she’s waiting to make it public.” Mike paused, “Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you that Kat does almost all my editing now; I do the rest. She’s got a real knack for putting together really erotic videos. She helped me re-edit the one you just looked at and did a much job of it than I did the first time around.”

Dale said to his wife, “I fully support you doing one. Try it. I bet you’d have a lot of fun. Mike could disguise you, if that’s your concern.”

Susan looked him in the eye, “I’d be fucking another man on film. You could watch it any time you wanted. It might come to haunt you.”

Dale chuckled, “In only the nicest of ways. I’d love to have a video celebrating this time in our lives. Think of everything that’s happened in the last three months. We’ve broken out.”

Dave muttered, “Loosened up.” He thought again of his own journey with Alice a couple of years earlier.

Susan turned to Dave, “Should I do a porn video?”

He held his hand up, “Oh, no, you don’t. You can’t push this off on me. I enjoy watching porn and I’d delight having one of you in my library, but I will not accept the burden of advising you. I’m ill equipped to do that. Talk to almost any of the other women. Holly is the Circle member that hasn’t done a video, but I do know that she wants to do one; she’s waiting for the muse to tell her when.”

Mike coughed, “That’s not quite accurate, Dave. The muse, Holly, and I did a vid about a week ago. It’s still in the editing queue.”

“Oh. I didn’t hear that news.” He turned back to Susan, “So, ask any or all of the women about it. Get their input about it, but you have to make the final decision.”

Mike nodded, “He’s right. If you don’t do one this trip, then maybe on your next one.”

Kat came to the table and sat down. Susan didn’t immediately grill her about any videos that she’d done, but she was curious about the editing work she was doing. Kat explained about taking the raw video footage from multiple cameras and synching them as she played them back, picking the best camera angles, even doing overlays or picture-in-a-picture at some points in the edited version. She also talked about sound editing where she could remove instructions Mike gave to his ‘model’ or add appropriate sounds or background music.

The discussion migrated to how Susan used computers in her paralegal work, covering everything from researching obscure cases that might be used as precedents, to simple word processing of huge contracts or legal documents. Dave showed Susan the foundation documents for the Circle Cohousing Project when he heard that part of the discussion occur. She asked whether she could pore over the notebook later, and he told her no problem.

During the afternoon, Alice and Pam each had flying lessons with Ken Toomey. He’d flown the Cessna 172 over to Circle Airport, and each woman spent a little over ninety minutes with him rehearsing for their flight tests, which had been scheduled for the following Friday afternoon at Sky Ranch with an FAA examiner who would test one and then the other of the two women.

Ken rode up to the patio from the Circle’s airport in the golf cart with Alice, who’d had the later lesson that afternoon. He met Dale and Susan, and there was some polite talk about aviation, the airport, the kind of planes he’d flown, and the number of hours he had. Dale knew a little about flying, but was blown away when he learned that Ken had flown F-35s and had over 20,000 flying hours in his logbook. Those kind of hours meant that he’d come face to face with about every flying situation there was to confront, and in Ken’s case, some of them had been entitled ‘combat’.

As expected, Ken stayed for the cocktail hour but stuck with soft drinks, and then joined in the Circle dinner. Susan succeeded in getting the seat next to the handsome pilot for dinner, and then both Dave and Alice noticed they got deep into several conversations.

After dinner, Susan talked to Wendy, Kat, Grace, and Nancy in separate conversations of varying length about Mike’s offer to do a porn video of some kind. To no one’s surprise, she ended up back with Ken when the others in the Circle started to form couples and get romantic.

Dale managed to corral Rachel into an assignation to start the evening. The two had made love on Dale and Susan’s earlier visit to the Circle, so this was a reuniting of friends. Rachel knew she was often desired because of her age and youthful looks, yet she was content to play that role for any of men from time to time. She’d really become a teen that loved older men of any age.

Ken quickly fell for Susan – the cute curly strawberry blonde who’d befriended him at dinner. Apparently, she felt the same urge to merge that he did. He noted that her husband had made up to Rachel, and the two of them were already making out with him often sucking on her bare breasts.

Ken turned back to Susan, “What can I do to bring you pleasure?”

“I hope you like oral sex a lot, because I do.”

“I just happen to hold an advanced university degree in the subject, and I excelled in the laboratory work leading up to my academic achievement – magna cum laude.”

Seconds later, Ken buried his face in Susan’s sex muffin, inhaling not only her feminine aromas, but also the sexy wetness she’d created in anticipation of their being together.

Dave watched the couple as the likely newest male member of the Circle made love to the wife of the friend that he’d met at his leadership seminar in Sedona a few months earlier. Of course, Dale would probably become some kind of member of the Circle, too; at least Dave hoped so. He did wonder what Dale really did for work; that was kind of hazy in his thinking. Dale had ducked every opportunity to fill in that blank in their various discussions.

Monday night at the regular board meeting Ty announced that the board was considering a building program elsewhere on the property owned by the Circle Cohousing Project or CCP. He explained about a request from one of the ‘singles’ that lived off campus to be closer to the group, yet not have a full house devoted to them the way Christie did.

Christie was at the meeting and expressed interest in something smaller than she’d bit off with the house. She told the group, “If I had an apartment or townhouse, I think I’d be happier. I’d be able to save money, too. Right now much of what I earn is spent for the monthly CCP fee, and I am NOT complaining one bit. Plus, I don’t need all the space I signed up for.”

Ty reminded her and everyone that if they want to sell their home, they have to comply with the provisions in the CCP foundation documents regarding the acceptability of the buyers to the membership in order for the sale to be completed.

Dave saw a flurry of activity and hand gestures between Susan and Dale at the back of the large core living room where they’d been invited to attend the meeting as observers. He made a guess as to the reason, expecting he’d find out later. He inwardly smiled to himself. The Universe made things work out just right for its citizens.

Jack was invited to say a few remarks regarding the expansion. He pulled an easel to center stage and put up a large artist’s rendition he’d drawn for a cluster of eight townhouses. He spoke, “I recommend something like this two-story building that contains eight apartments. I’d locate this complex where the land rolls off towards our airport. This would lower the profile of the building relative to the existing homes. With landscaping we could make it almost disappear, even from Circle Drive. There is also room for additional units along that road.”

Jack put up a second sketch on the large two-by-three-foot foam board. “This is a typical floor plan for one of the units. As you can see, downstairs we can comfortably have a kitchen and open plan living-dining room, a small den, powder room, utility room, and stairway. The upstairs in this design can be parsed into three bedrooms with baths, and the small hallway. If you were to only do two bedrooms you could make each larger. In this design the unit is around 1,800 square feet. If you cut down on various room sizes here and there, you could get it down to 1,500 square feet without impacting the functionality very much. Lower is also possible, but given our neighborhood I recommend against it.”

Ty asked, “What are next steps?”

Jack smiled, “Another round of interviews, emphasizing the singles this time since they might be the potential occupants. I plan to start those this week, and if all goes well, I’ll finish by Friday. I will be asking each of you what you think of this strawman design as part of the interview, so you can start to form you opinions. I’ll leave these panels here in the core living room so you can examine them more closely at your leisure. I’ll stand them up on the sideboard over there.”