Chapter 32: Candidates and Vacation Plans

Chris and Jessica, Nikky’s parents, sat opposite Dave, Nikky, and a few others at the dinner table on Thursday night, about a week after the Independence Day party. Everyone was on the patio at the Circle, and the weather was typical of Florida on a late summer afternoon: hazy, hot, and humid. Thunderheads surrounded the Circle, but the place hadn’t experienced any rain so far that day.

Dave caught a motion by Jessica at her daughter as she winked at her. He knew something was coming that he should be guarded about. Jess said, “Nikky told me ALL about the July fourth party. It sounded like great fun. What part did you enjoy the most?”

Dave’s brain was in high gear, trying to think of a witty response, but nothing came to mind except the great sex he’d experienced up at the Meadows only week earlier. “Errr, yeah. Our friend Ashley Steerman gave a short concert for everybody. She’d even brought her band with her. She’s engaged to her agent now.”

Chris stated, “Oh, I thought there were other ... activities ... that took place that would have appealed more to you.”

Dave sighted on the slightly older man, but he seemed reasonably serious. Had Nikky really told her parents about the sexual merging of the two groups? He’d lost track of Nikky at the party, but learned later from her that she’d been with several of the men and had even made love again with Mark Worthington.

Dave said, “Well, yes, there were. Our friend Mark had arranged a spectacular fireworks display for all of us. There were about a hundred and fifty of us at the party. The sky display was wonderful, and I think better than the one the city traditionally puts on.”

Jess teased, “And tell us what you did AFTER the fireworks?”

Dave knew they were taunting him for sure. He said, “Well, there was some more great music, although it wasn’t live. Somebody in Mark’s group had put together a great dance mix on their iPhone and played it over the patio speakers. The night was hot, like tonight, but no one minded. We still danced up a storm and the pool was right there.”

Chris pushed, “Didn’t things get ... romantic?”

Dave glanced at Nikky but she was sipping her coffee and didn’t appear to be listening too closely to the banter. He glanced past Jessica to Chris and said, “I am blessed, because my life has been one continuous and growing romantic encounter after another. I think you know that even from the veiled stories in print about the Circle.”

Jess goaded him further, “You have six wives. Were all of them at the party?”

“Yes, even Scarlett made it home for the event but she had to turn right around the next day and head down to Austin, Texas, where she’s filming some of the scenes for Crystal Clear. Most of the filming is done, but the director is adding some bridge scenes here and there according to her.”

Chris stated to his wife, “You do realize how evasive he’s been, don’t you?” They nodded at each other proving to Dave that they had been co-conspirators in his teasing. They were both on the verge of laughter.

Jessica turned to him, “Now that you mention it, I do.” She turned to Dave, “Aren’t you forgetting a major activity that took place that night?”

Dave thought a minute, now insistent with himself that he tease them more than they teased him; “OH, OF COURSE. The cookout! The steaks were superb, some of the best meat I’ve ever tasted. Everybody raved about the cuts. The guys cooking the grill had everything down to a fine science, and every medallion of meat was done to perfection.”

Nikky couldn’t stand it any longer; she burst out laughing. “You three are hilarious, and Dave, you should know, that I do tell my mom EVERYTHING. She decides how much to share with my dad, but in this case, he happened to be in the room when I did my little ‘Tell All’ about July fourth and fifth sex party.”

Jessica jumped in, “And we’re not at all upset in any way, just to expand on what Nikky said.” She laughed.

Dave nodded, “That’s surprising. Most parents would come unglued to discover their daughter’s predilection with sex.”

Jessica said, “We share the same fondness for the subject, or maybe we passed along our genes on the subject. As she grew up, we advised her to wait until she was eighteen for a number of reasons, least of all that anybody doing anything with her would have been a felon. The ‘one-size-fits-all’ legal code in this country, especially this state, leaves no wiggle room at all. While she had the clinical knowledge, we also worried she didn’t have the emotional maturity.”

Dave nodded in agreement and said, “Whew!”

Jessica said, “Once she met you and you started to help and support her, she suddenly learned about emotional dedication between a man and a woman. I guess you know she fell for you. Prior to that she thought her life was boring, boring, boring, if I can quote her.”

“The feeling was and is mutual,” Dave injected. “I think Nikky is a great person. I love her dearly.”

“She told us how you plucked her out of a somewhat boring job in accounts receivable and made her your executive assistant. That was ballsy of you.”

“She’s not let me down even once since she started to work for me. I hope I haven’t pushed too much on her plate, but she keeps asking for more work and tougher assignments. That’s what she gets. I’m careful about over-powering her. I do worry about the relative positions we have in the company, in experience, and that she might yield to my intimidation. I’ve been glad when she started to expand her interests to include some of the other men.”

Chris nodded, “I know what you mean. No, I don’t think you’re taking advantage of Nikky for any reason. She does love you though.”

Dave said, “And I love her. She’s a great fit with the rest of the Circle and with my own family. She’s getting to know everyone and has made a lot of friends.”

Nikky interjected, “I love many men now, and I also have many friends-with-benefits.”

Jessica laughed, “Friends-with-benefits? A euphemism, I’m sure.”

Dave responded, “Everyone in the Circle is a friend-with-benefits. We are slightly more careful with those that decide to hang out with us, at least until, like Nikky, they declare their overall love for what happens here and what happens between all of us.”

Jessica teased, “Yes, we’ve heard that Friday and Saturday nights are especially romantic times ... sexually romantic times with all your ‘friends’. Wasn’t that different with the party at the Meadows. There’d been no gradual development of friendships before the sex.”

Dave turned to Nikky, “You comment on that. What’d you think? I’ll give my opinion after you do.”

Nikky thought for a minute, “I’m slowly expanding my own circle of friends that I’m intimate with. Most of them are here in the bigger Circle, but meeting some of the guys in Mark Worthington’s group automatically made them special. If I felt good vibes with two of the men, and I took that as a positive sign to enjoy them, have them enjoy me, and see what develops between us later, instead of the other way around.”

Dave nodded, “I’ve built intimate relationships about every way there is to build them. I’ve watched others build them as well. If a man is out to only add notches in his bedpost, then he’ll discover with this crowd that he strikes out after that rather quickly. We have an institutional memory. We sense that. If he’s open to infinite possibilities about the future of a relationship, we sense that too, and he’ll do well with all the ladies, even if the first link between that man and a woman happens in a highly erotic and sexual environment where they satisfy their lusty feelings for the other first, and then get down to the other parts of relationship building.”

Chris said, “You’ve thought about this a lot.”

Dave nodded, “I have. I worried for a while years ago when I’d quickly fall into a sexual relationship with someone without what to me were the prerequisite intellectual and spiritual intimacy. I found over time, that the end result could be the same providing both parties wanted to ultimately go there. The missing pieces were developed in a different order from what I’d become used to.”

Nikky volunteered, “Mom was worried that I might become over enthralled with indiscriminate sex – in other words, become a slut.”

Dave shook his head. “I read somewhere about being a slut, and I liked that the author expressed that the word is an acronym: S, L, U, T: Sexuality – something each person should relish in their life; L for Love – how they should embrace their partners; Understanding – how they should hope to interact and communicate with their partners; and Tolerance – what we hope each person in this world has for another.”

Jessica smiled, “Oh, I like that. On that basis, I’m a good slut.” She pushed her chest forward toward him.

Dave rolled his eyes. “Be careful how you use the term. The Circle women tease each other with the term, but the guys are very careful in its application. It does pop-up in our dirty talk with each other.”

Nikky said, “I worried about that, too; but I realized that most of my concerns came from outside the Circle. I’d been applying unrealistic standards of behavior that some segments of society decided to adopt, and not some moral compass that I defined for myself and adopted.

“Now, I have my own set of principles. If you allow for the fact that you can simultaneously love more than one person, and in fact many people, then you need to change the paradigm in which you think you’re living. Why not have a lifestyle and code that allows you to be totally intimate with many other people in mind, body, and spirit?”

Chris said, “Is there the worry that you’ll become a devout hedonist?”

Dave chuckled, “I think we’re all guilty of that to some extent. For me, my level of zealous dedication to hedonism depends on how I’m thinking at the moment.” He turned to Chris, “Just so you know, if Nikky didn’t tell you, just about every person in the Circle is hypersexual. We are constantly fired-up, energized, excited, and aroused by all things sexual. The result is that we are constantly interacting with each other in sexual ways. To the outside world we appear to be very naughty hedonists that indulge in continuous orgies and affairs that defy every normal ethical code. To those of us in the Circle, we have a group of friends that are always ready, willing, and able to help us satisfy our primal urges to be with someone in a sexual state. We don’t see the ethical issues, only a readiness to be with each other in loving and sexual ways.”

Jessica said, “So, you’re all receiving love from your friends and neighbors?”

Dave shook his head, “Kind of. We see love not as something you gain, but as something that you give.” He turned to Nikky, “I give you my love, heart, body, and soul. You accept that, and I am doubly blessed because you return those emotions to me. I would still love you if you didn’t. Some call it unconditional love.”

Chris said, “And you feel that way about your wives?”

“My wives and the others in the Circle. Love in any relationship isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion when two people meet and become star struck with each other. Love is a decision that we in the Circle make. I decide to love you – to give to you whatever I can to honor you, respect you, support you, and protect you. In most cases, my heart beats faster when I’m with you. If you return those emotions and make the decision to love me, I am ecstatic.”

Chris and Jessica looked at each other. He nodded to her.

Jessica asked, “I have warm and tender feelings for you, David. I would like to become intimate with you in every way at a deeper level.”

Dave looked at her and checked in with Chris. He was smiling at Dave.

Chris said, “We’d like to become Circle members. Nikky told us about some of the other family situations, so this wouldn’t be unusual, but please consider us.”

Dave eyes shifted rapidly between Chris and Jessica Thomas – the relatively young parents of Nikky. Peripherally, he saw Nikky grinning broadly. She apparently knew of her parent’s desires.

Dave spoke to the senior Thomas’, “You should think about this request. You seem to have a stable and happy marriage. Outside of our gates the conventional wisdom is that participating in a polyamorous and sexually charged situation such as the Circle will fracture the love you have for each other and end in in divorce and acrimonious feelings about each other.”

Jessica spoke softly, “It’s inside your gates that we desire, not the way the outside world functions or thinks. Nikky slowly revealed to me what her life has been like since she met you. Besides being a wonderful mentor, coach, and now boss of my daughter, you are a man with the limitless capability to love others and to show others how to do the same. We also want what she has.” She nodded towards Nikky.

Dave nodded, “Thank you, but I do consider myself unique, especially compared to the normal male. My wives know they’re nothing like the women outside our gates – what society would call ‘normal’ people. That means others may not obtain the same blessings that we’ve found in this environment.”