Chapter 2: More New Arrivals and a Pool Party

Joe left Sunday afternoon to take a flight to Silicon Valley. He was doing a seminar there on innovation strategies, and then consulting to two high tech companies in the area before taking the red-eye flight home on Thursday night. The money he’d make from the four days in the Valley, including his preparation time, would equal about a third of his annual take home pay from Harbridge College.

College teaching was fun, but didn’t pay well. It gave him the opportunity to do research and to write books. Executives bought his books because they were on an important topic to any business. Many liked what they read and wanted more, so he was called and invited to speak or better yet consult to the company. Given the demand for his time and services, he could command $35,000 for day-long seminar and discussion workshop. His consulting work fetched about $12,000 for day’s work. He insisted on first class travel, too.

Another advantage of the academic setting was that he could use his students to do some the leg work on his research or even his consulting. The college encouraged it, and even allowed him to define college credits for their work in exchange for their time. He’d pay them, too. It was a win-win situation. Further, after looking at the quality of the work students did for him, he could route them to some of the companies that he consulted with, giving them great talent that he’d vetted, and getting a graduating student a superb job at top income. His track record was sterling.

Joe slogged into the apartment where he and Marjorie lived about six-thirty on Friday morning after his red-eye flight had arrived. He’d managed to get about four hours of sleep on the plane. She was up, dressed, and preparing to leave to meet a client about a pending property in Wellesley Hills that she hoped to sell for $7 million.

Marjorie kissed him. “I’m glad you’re home. We all missed you. As I told you, six more of your chicks and roosters have checked into their rooms, and two or three more are due today or this weekend according to admissions. The last arrive on Sunday. You said classes and hence our meal service starts next Monday? I’m ready for some university food.”

Joe nodded, “Yes and good on the arrivals. I hope there are no no-shows. Maybe we can arrange a group dinner somehow for tonight. After I get two more hours of sleep, I’ll see what I can arrange. What time are you home?”

“If this goes well, I’ll be home by five. If not, I may be home by lunch.” On that note, Marjorie headed out the door. Joe headed into the bedroom hoping for two more hours of sleep. The timing on the red eye from San Francisco just didn’t give a passenger enough Z-time.

Later, Joe made the rounds in the house to see who was there and what they were up for in terms of dinner.

Mark Taylor he’d interviewed during his campus visit. He had an upstairs studio apartment and was juiced about the idea of a communal dinner, the program, Colburn House, and anything else one might say. He was truly gung-ho about being in the residential program. Mark had worked in Boston at Fidelity Investments, but wanted to get an executive marketing position, preferably in a high-tech company. He commented about having sublet his old condo to some new hires at Fidelity.

Mark was twenty-five, and had been a wrestler in high school and college. He was a stud, and Joe was sure all the women in the program would swoon over his square jaw, good looks, and muscular body. Despite being tall, dark, and handsome, Mark seemed to have kept a lid on his ego. He actually had a humble streak, Joe detected.

Beth Neva had the room next door to Mark’s. She was still unpacking from her arrival the day before. Just as Mark was tall, dark, and handsome, Beth was short, stacked, and unbelievably attractive. Joe knew she’d be the heartthrob in the entire MBA program, and not just in his small group.

Beth had shoulder length black hair, an hour-glass figure with boobs to die for, and the serious motivation to do well in the program. She’d been a straight-A student at U. Mass Amherst in business, and wanted to quickly get her MBA. She even worked through most of her undergrad program in campus jobs. She also had sufficient scholarships to get through the program with little debt. He did not know how she was paying for the next two years, although he suspected she’d attracted some further scholarships for her graduate work.

Megan Taggart had the room next to Beth. Joe knocked but no one answered. Beth stuck her head out of her door, and informed Joe, “She went for twelve-mile run. Megan is a jock. She should be back soon.”

Joe also had met Megan when she’d visited the campus. She was a University of Vermont graduate, had become a physical trainer, and worked in a gym. Her aspirations had risen, and she now wanted to run a chain of gyms. She thought the MBA program would give her the knowledge and credentials to that before she got too deep into her thirties. The redhead was twenty-seven, shapely, and also a potential heartthrob and distraction to the men on campus.

He went down his list of assigned rooms. Dane Clauder had checked in but wasn’t in his room. Gail Watson was due in a day or so. The next person in residence was Jason Gardner, a twenty-seven-year-old engineering graduate of Lehigh who’d been in the military for most of the past six years. He’d not met Dane, but had two long telephone calls with him about Harbridge College, the MBA program in general, and the new Residential MBA Program.

Jason answered the door to his room when Joe knocked and just about stood at attention. He often referred to Joe as ‘Sir’ and crisply answered his questions ‘Yes, sir’ or “No, sir’. Jason was a dark sandy haired six-footer in top physical condition. He’d specialized in security of some kind while in the U. S. Army and then parlayed that into a job with a security and alarm company in Boston where he’d been for the past year. Jason was twenty-eight.

Alisha Graves had also checked in. He found her in the living room eating a bowl of cereal and watching CNN on the common television. Alisha was an Auburn University grad who’d moved to Boston with a boyfriend a few years earlier. He blew her off shortly after their arrival, but she stayed in Beantown. She’d landed a job as a secretary thinking she could convert it to a more meaningful post in the same company; she couldn’t and that had proven to be a dead-end position. She didn’t have too much money and had commented to him during their telephone interview with the selection committee that she was saddled with student loans but trusted her ability to recover after her MBA.

Alisha rated the term ‘Cute’ in Joe’s book. She was a light-skinned black American with a trim body and delightful sense of humor. She did have a southern drawl, but it wasn’t too pronounced. She commented about how eager she was to start the program and particularly participate in the mini-internships the program offered with companies within thirty or so miles of campus.

Katie and Morgan were around in the public rooms preparing to go to one of the nearby malls to shop. He bid them a cheerful hello, and then headed off to his regular office in the graduate education building. Any awkwardness from the night they’d skinny-dipped in the pool was nonexistent. Both women were warm and friendly. They liked the group dinner idea.

Joe headed off to the graduate building and his office to meet some colleagues and join them for lunch. Joe returned home to Colburn House at four o’clock and went in the main front door, which put him squarely in the spacious living room of the multi-use home. Two new faces jumped up and greeted him.

“Oh, Dr. Basehart. Hello.” The pretty redhead put her hand out to shake hands. This was Megan. She was the athletic redhead with some active hobbies: skydiving and scuba diving, he recalled from her application.

Joe accepted the shake and said, “I’m very informal, and prefer to go by Joe.” He turned to the young man with a mane of brown curly hair, “I’m guessing you are Carlos?”

“Si,” the young man said in a heavy Brazilian accent. “Carlos Revez at your service. I thank you for accepting me into this special program. I am now in residence upstairs in room seven.”

Joe mentioned the group dinner and both Carlos and Megan wanted to be included. Their inclusion made it unanimous that everyone at the house wanted to go. Dinner turned out to be twelve of them. They made a reservation at TGIFridays.

As he and Marjorie drove in the caravan of cars to the restaurant, he finally got to ask his wife, “Anything interesting happen while I was away?”

She laughed, “Depends on what you mean by interesting. I think so, yes. We had a nude pool swim every night, even after Mark and Dane and the others moved in. My take is also that Morgan and Dane hooked up, and I think Megan and Mark might have also scored on each other. I’m not sure about the others.”

She locked eyes with him, “And just so you know for sure, I did nothing other than skinny-dip and sit around naked with no more than two glasses of wine. I’m increasingly interested in what’s happening with this group. I think you need to set the pace. My belief is that everyone wanted to get involved sexually with everybody else.”

Joe teased, “Do you include yourself in that?”

“Honestly, yes. Maybe I’m feeling my middle-age blues, but I was attracted to everybody and I think they were attracted to me. I left before anything really heavy started, if it did. I look to you for some limits or boundaries or something. I’m not sure right this minute what I want, but in a half-hour that might change again if I even stated a position.”

Joe digressed, “I don’t think I can do anything. I have a colossal conflict of interest, not to mention all the strictures about faculty and students. I was over-the-line with them last Saturday.”

“Katie and Morgan wanted to have you fuck them. They were even explicit last night about that fact. I’m glad you took it out on me that night. As for any imaginary lines with them or anybody in the group, I think you need to loosen up and ignore the boundaries. Let things play out the way they naturally want.”

“You want me to have sex with Katie and Morgan?”

After a thoughtful silence, Marjorie said, “Yes, I think ... any of the women. Every one of them is a gem.”

“And you’d be available to the men?”

“Would that bother you? I admit to being turned on by them.”

“One fantasy that most married men share is seeing their wife with another man ... or men. I confess to favoring the MFM videos on porn websites when I’m on the road. I think I could handle the situation if you could handle seeing me with other women. We’d be opening up our marriage and maybe a can of worms.”

Marjorie said, “You make the decision seem black and white, and ignore the impact of developing relationships with the other people. If we did anything, it wouldn’t be a one-night stand. We have to keep seeing this group for at least two years. What if, for instance, Morgan or Katie fell madly in love with you, and you with them? Would you give me up?”

“NO!” Joe protested instantly and then chuckled. “I’ve got this – an innovative solution is called for, some serious rule breaking. Maybe we all marry each other, or we form a group marriage? You might have similar feelings for Mark and Jason, and maybe they also like Morgan and Katie. We need to keep all options open and on the table. I just talked about this yesterday with my client – well, not a sexual situation; we were talking about making outside acquisitions of other companies.”

Marjorie laughed, “I like your ideas, but you need to not be so serious about business or relationships. One of the things that allows me to be a success if that I bend and twist just about every deal I put together until it’s acceptable to buyer and seller. I’m flexible and loosey-goosey. You know that I’ve had a life-long project since we met to get you to accept the chaos that life gives us without trying to turn it into a three-by-four matrix with innovative solutions in each cell.”

They both laughed. Marjorie was glad he could laugh at himself. He’d described himself for a while as being born with a stick up his ass.

As they pulled into the restaurant, Joe said, “So, what do you want me to do tonight?”

Marjorie leaned over and kissed him. “Love me and always remember that I love you and that I’m in love with you. Roll with the situation of the moment and don’t invoke too many rules about it. If you don’t, I won’t. Be willing to go further than you might otherwise, and keep coming up with innovative ways where everyone ends up satisfied and happy.” She pecked his lips again, and they got out of the car.

As they walked towards to restaurant door holding hands, Joe added, “I don’t want to lose you in the mayhem that might result from all this.”

Marjorie took his arm and squeezed, “Don’t worry. The future is ours to make the way we want. I’m certain we’ll be there with each other. You won’t lose me but I want you to watch me have some fun – maybe even some really hot erotic fun. If it turns out to be terrible, we’ll put most of the toothpaste back in the tube and try to forget it ever happened. We can be very forgiving with each other; we’ve done it in the past, why not now?”

Dinner was a genuinely lively affair. Their long table was not static. People often changed positions so they could talk, tease, or just be next to someone else. At one point, Joe found himself surrounded by the women in the growing group. Both Morgan and Katie had seats beside him, and they took advantage to not only touch him, sometimes in intimate ways, but to also kiss his cheek and whisper sexy things in his ear about wanting to repeat the previous Sunday night at the pool and to even go further.

Katie whispered, “I remember every second we were ‘in touch’ in the pool a few days ago. I want more of that; a lot more. I like to be touched and I like to touch, too. I want to do more of that with you – even tonight.”

Morgan, who had heard every word, added, “Include me in that. I could feel your cock against my body. I want you to think about what else we could do about that situation. I want us to be really intimate – sexually and relationally.”

Joe was embarrassed that both Marjorie and Megan had heard their remarks, but then realized it didn’t seem to matter. They seemed to ignore things and go back to talking about Marjorie’s work.

While that was going on, Joe noticed that Mark and Marjorie had something going on between then. They’d come to be sitting beside each other, and their heads were often together as they whispered about one thing or another. Joe heard Mark telling his wife that she was ‘hotter than the sun’ at one point. Marjorie seemed to like that news.

Jason and Carlos ganged up on little Alisha. She seemed to be in second heaven with the attention from the two handsome men – one a swarthy South American. Dane came around the table to sit by Morgan, and they also started canoodling together.

Katie, the oldest person in the program, told him in low tones, “I know you’re nervous about the formation of relationships between you, a teacher and faculty, and with us, as students. Don’t be concerned. We all want the intimacy, closeness, and passion between all of us. No one has explicitly said that, but I’m a good judge of what people have been thinking at our evening gatherings. There’s a lot more to happen for all of us, and we want that. We also know when to keep our mouths shut.”

Joe glanced around the restaurant. “Just so you know, there are some other faculty in here. Many of us live close to the campus.”

“There’s nothing but team building going on here,” she giggled. “Colburn House is supposed to be an experimental program that includes close and intimate relationships between ALL the program participants. That includes you and certainly us. We’re supposed to learn from each other and be deeply involved with each other. There were no boundaries put on the experience, at least in all the brochures and verbiage the college put out.” She stroked his thigh, right up to his privates, although out of sight from anyone else.

Joe rolled his eyes. He caught a wink from his wife a few seats away on the other side of the table. This time Jason had his arm around her as they had a passionate discussion about something. Joe heard something about real estate and security systems.