Chapter 57: Mixed Couple

Monday August 25, 2008

A Beach Near LA

Phil Townes and Red (Ariel Millavich) got married between my ceremony with Abril and the extended weekend. Since one worked at the law firm and the other worked at the computer service company, I called it a “mixed marriage.” Their pillow talk after the law firm collapsed seemed like a potential problem to me.

Red and Phil met as competitive surfers when they were on the California circuit as teenagers. Besides California they competed in Hawaii and Australia. As surfers they were friends, but the age difference, “friend zone” and roving eyes for local talent kept them from getting too involved physically.

As a teenager, Red lost a leg (above the knee) feeding a poor, naked, hungry, homeless shark, who probably thought he was getting some rich seal blubber, off a beach in Oz. (Have you ever heard of a wealthy, well-dressed shark? No? I rest my case.) Unlike a shark, Red had the support of her well-to-do family and she was not going to give up the thrill of the surf so she took up the sea kayak, and was back to riding the waves until she was 18. (Talking about families, did you know that some sharks practice cannibalism on their siblings before they are born? No wonder they are pissed off. Maybe I watched too much Nature channel.)

When Red graduated from high school she pivoted her interests, getting into computers with the same intensity that she put into surfing. Her parents were overjoyed with the step away from childhood. Red spent time taking courses at two universities simultaneously (they don’t cross-check), she was not really working for a degree but getting as many deep technical courses as she could because she was so into it. Almost immediately she began to hire herself out as a programmer for the new inter-web thing. (It was before the turn of the century, so the web really was new.) As a geek she met Samantha (Red stood out) and when I started the computer service firm in May 2008 she was Sam’s first hire as her #2 for both computer work and managing staff. Sam actually had a deal in place with Red before I gave the okay, she knew where I was headed and wanted to hit the ground running.

Meanwhile, in May of 2007 law school grad Phil was on track to become a partner with the law firm until his fiancee was killed in an auto accident. That sent his world tumbling. The partners were sympathetic but the rules allowed only married men to become partners and frankly, there were a number of partners who were looking for a excuse to keep the firm small so as not to dilute their share of the profits. This loss of the promotion which Phil thought he had earned was on top of his personal trauma from the loss of the woman he loved. So Phil took a break from the law firm and went another way for a time. He wondered if it was really an accident or something else, because the other driver met with a fatal accident in custody.

Part of the change under the surface had to do with attachment to just one person and the “straight and narrow” path, Phil sincerely felt both concepts had failed him. Most people suspected the time off involved a surfboard, and that was the impression Phil nurtured. But that was a false front. Instead, for a time he became a different man, with a driven personality looking for some answers. He found something like what he wanted, but there was a price that had to be paid. Like most amateurs, Phil made mistakes.

When he came back to LA and the law firm Phil deflected all questions on the “gap period,” it was like he fell off the world for a time, then suddenly reappeared in his lawyer outfit again. He looked and sounded unchanged, like he had worked through his loss.

David Barnes was always sure Phil would snap back so he left Phil’s office untouched during the break.

Now Phil was back at the law firm and was an outstanding lawyer. He thrived on overwork until Red reappeared. Barnes knew Phil was wasted as an associate, plus the loss of so many partners was creating a critical situation at the firm.

As it happened, Phil had a picture from his teen years in his office, and the picture showed Red in the background. This became known to both CEOs. They asked a few questions of the pair, discovered the connection was still intact, and tried to play matchmakers. Or maybe they tried to “light a match,” given the tactics they used to get the two together. Both CEOs expected to gain some advantage from one of “their people” being married to somebody in the other firm.

One CEO was right, the other greatly misunderstood the realities.

The trick that Barnes and Sam used was to set up a gang-bang at the contract closing party for the long-term contract (White Witch #3). In the party room Red eagerly embraced the public role of everybody’s fucking gang-bang girlfriend for the night. Phil was one of the guys assigned to enjoy her body with his cock as part of sealing the deal. They both enjoyed their first time even if she was rather sloppy and there was a line.

They were surfers and friends who had seen each other before on the beach, getting it on with others around the fire, but they never did more than make-out themselves. So Phil’s seeing his old friend getting off under each of the other guys at the party did not bother him. Quite the opposite, in the past decade while they were in different scenes their views on love and sex were amplified by the intense twenty-something sex life they both lived through, got off on, and matured beyond during all the “mornings after.” In LA, is anybody 30 or older a virgin? Both had found their hearts broken by others who claimed “love” and “fidelity” were two sides of a coin, then acted like they were different coins.

Enjoying the gang-bang ignited their feeling for each other, during that night they leapt beyond simple friendship into something they both wanted more of - without overdoing the “fidelity” thing. (They agreed to that explicitly.) During their past independent sexual lives they had put aside many experiences and inhibitions, now they knew what they wanted. When the sun came up after the party they were “hanging ten” together and well on the wave to shared emotional connections.

Barnes and Sam each did little things to encourage them. Barnes talked to some of the partners and as a group they agreed that, if Phil was married, and given their need for more partners, he would be viewed favorably in the next round of promotions. His value to the firm was never an issue, and now they needed him more than ever. They missed the formal June “wife evaluation social” because that was before they were back together. But the partners agreed that was not a concern, especially in light of the sudden lack of partners and the proportional increase in work that they faced. Plus, Barnes insisted that Red “was already a part of the extended family” so they could skip the “wife evaluation” stage and go right to the “wife exchange” at the auction. Billy, a partner who also got off in Red’s body at the gang-bang, backed Barnes 100% based on his experience. Most partners agreed that a sexual encounter was a better measuring stick than a social with a schedule.

The pair started spending nights with each other, and came to my wedding as a couple. They were inspired by the ceremony, after my wedding they spent an intense 36 hours together and made the decision to get hitched ASAP. California is a “no waiting period” state so they got married on the beach at sunrise Monday August 25, nine days after my ceremony with Abril. Both CEOs (Samantha and David Barnes) plus Rose Barnes attended the wedding on the beach. Samantha was the “bridal matron” for the couple, she paid homage to Do Wong by tucking both wedding rings in her skimpy tight bikini top. The couple helped themselves to the rings when the time came. A surfer named “Preacher Bob” officiated. The paperwork was filed on the way to work after the Monday morning ceremony.

Besides being an “instant wedding” state, California also grants “confidential” weddings where all information, even the fact of the wedding, is private. The main requirement is that the couple must swear that, before the wedding, they lived together as husband and wife. No documentation is required for this, the state trusts people to be truthful about such things. Both had reason to keep the beach wedding a secret.

Both sets of parents wanted a big wedding for their kids, it was why Red and Phil went the “confidential” route. As soon as the engagement was announced both mothers started planning a big church wedding. Barnes understood the issue, he granted Phil 10 days off next June for a big family wedding and honeymoon that would make the parents happy. With 10 months to prepare the folks were very pleased with their children.