Chapter 21: Surprise Visitor

The front door to Colburn House opened slowly. An older man’s head appeared – white hair and ruddy complexion. “Anybody home?”

Joe rose from the dining room table where he’d been working – about a hundred three-by-five cards spread out all over the table.

“Yes, may I help you. Hello. Come in. I bet you’re Lauren’s father?”

The man smiled, “I am – stepfather actually. Is she home? She knew we were coming.” He gestured out the door and an older woman also came into the room. He shut the door. “Air conditioning is nice in here – not too cold like some places.”

Joe said, “I’ll fetch Lauren for you.” He turned and bounded up the stairs two at a time. He went to Beth’s room and announced by knocking. “Lauren, your folks are here.”

The door opened and Lauren burst into the hallway. She wore Bermuda shorts, a t-shirt from a rock band, and sneakers. “Thanks, Joe.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and then bounded downstairs to greet them, waving to them over the balcony. “Hi. I’m here. I was studying something for Joe.”

Lauren hugged her mother and dad. “I’ll give you the quick tour. This is much nicer than the dorms.” She commented on the living room-dining room area, noted the sun porch far off one end, the media room, and then led them off to the kitchen and the back patio and pool.

When she returned, she took them upstairs. Joe had gone back to work but they seemed impressed with the double house and bridging addition the college had built about fifteen years earlier. The elegance of the stately mansions along Forest Street had been retained. The place was exceptionally neat and clean.

Joe heard Lauren introducing her parents to her ‘roommate’ Beth – a graduate student. Everyone had noted how conservative Beth had dressed at breakfast. Somedays, she barely wore anything – often a carryover from her lovemaking the night before or even that morning. We were all out to make a good impression.

Lauren came downstairs leading them, bringing them right over to the dining room table. She asked her parents, “Did you meet Joe?”

“Kind of. He was working here when we arrived.”

Lauren said, “This is Professor Joseph Basehart – he teaches at the college, mostly in their graduate programs and executive education offerings. He’s also the head of Innovation Consulting Group, my summer employer. I’m his administrative assistant and jack-of-all-trades. He’s written a dozen books on management and innovation, has a list of papers as long as your arm, gives speeches all over the world, and has his flourishing consulting business with clients begging for his assistance. He’s just GREAT!” The awe and love in her tone was palpable.

Joe blushed and mumbled, “I just do what seems to be a good idea at the time. Don’t oversell the merchandise.” He chuckled.

This time Joe shook hands and added, “I also live here in Colburn House with my wife. She’s a real estate agent.”

Lauren extolled about her, “Her name is Marjorie and she specializes in selling really expensive homes – like estates that sell for twenty million dollars. She’s beautiful and is also tutoring Valentine, Ryan’s wife, who’s just starting out in real estate. Together, they’re a power couple!”

Lauren added, “They have a ‘real’ home about a mile from here in that direction.” She pointed. “It’s gorgeous. They take all of us there frequently, and that’s where my office is along with Joe’s, but they deign to live here with the rest of us.”

Joe explained, “We wanted to be close to the students in the Residential MBA Program, and this house has two very nice apartments – one on this floor and one above it where Ryan and Valentine live.” He gestured.

Lauren’s father said, “Well, I’m Fred and this is my wife is Marty. It is a pleasure to meet you.” He gestured to all the cards on the table, “It looks like you’re organizing some material.”

“I am. I specialize in the subject of Innovation. I’m working on another book on the subject, but only at the beginning stages. I’ve been making notes for months about the content – that’s what’s on the various cards. Now, I’m trying to arrange them in patterns and clumps that most likely will become the chapters of the book. The method works for me.”

Fred said, “Very impressive. We’ll leave you to it. We’re planning on taking Lauren out to lunch somewhere, and then after that we’re heading back home to Leominster. We met some friends for dinner in Boston last night, and stayed over to attend a party with them. We’ve never done that before – stayed in the city like that; it was a lot of fun, plus good to see old friends. Since we were around the area, we wanted to see where our daughter lived. I feel privileged to meet you, as well.”

“Well, we’re all glad that Lauren chose to live over here with us. Of course, she’s one of our first recruits to be in the program after she graduates.”

Marty said, “I couldn’t help but notice that she gave you kiss when you were fetching her for us.” Her eyebrows had gone up.

Joe smiled, “She’s affectionate, and working together as we have been, we’ve formed a close relationship. Marjorie also gets the same treatment, so don’t worry. Perhaps, in some ways, we’re her parents away from home. We do have that feeling sometimes that we’re more like residence hall advisors or surrogate parents than faculty happening to live on campus to create a collegial environment.”

Marty seemed satisfied with his reply, but Joe noted that Lauren made note to have more of a reply at the ready when they were at lunch. He suspected her mother was likely to bore in on that issue again. Lauren had told him that she constantly wanted her to meet boyfriends ‘her age’ when she’d been at home.

Lauren ran back to her room to get her backpack that also served as a purse and carryall. Upon returning, the three of them left.

Joe turned to return to his organizing job, but from the balcony he heard, “They gone?”

He looked up; Beth and Jason were looking down.

Joe laughed, “Yes, out to lunch, and then it sounded like her parents are headed home to Leominster. I’m pretty sure they’re gone.”

The two upstairs did little happy dances. “Oh, goody. We can have our Saturday night party just like we usually do.”

Joe said, “We need to check with Lauren to be sure they actually leave as they said. We don’t need parents dropping in on a Saturday evening. On that note, the weather is looking ideal; I think we’ll all be outdoors in the pool.”

More happy dances took place to random singing the two were making.

Jason asked, “Are Mike and Dennis coming back?”

Joe laughed, “I don’t know for sure, but I’d bet on it. They’ve discovered the mother lode of free pussy and the fountain of love.”

Beth giggled, “I like both of them. I hope they become regulars.”

Joe said, “Tell them that. Ask them. The more welcome they feel, the more likely they’ll be to hang around more. I did let the caterers know that we needed two extra meals, so I’m counting on their being here.

Jason said, “By the way, what’s Emma doing today?”

Joe shrugged, “Went off this morning saying something about seeing friends. Remember, she grew up and went to school around here, so she’s got an embedded base of buddies.”

Beth looked down from above, “All your three-by-five cards; is that for a book?”

“I’m still thinking about an Innovative Relationships book. I’ve been making notes and collecting resources for months.” He gestured at all the cards. “Seeing what I have I think there’s enough material here to justify a book.”

“What do you do next?”

“I’ll bang out the first two chapters or maybe the first and last, and then submit a book proposal to my publisher. If they like it, I write more, fill in the details, edit repeatedly, and we might have a book. That’s a long way off.”

Jason asked, “Are you going to write about us – about Colburn House?”

Joe laughed, “Count on it, but names and locales will be changed to protect the guilty and deflect attention from here to some other part of the country.”

Saturday night began with a cocktail hour and many congratulations to Valentine. She’d sold another ‘mega-house’ and made a bundle of money – or would when the closing took place.

Ryan looked happy. He said, “We did some financial and estate planning with a guy our accountant recommended. We both had student loans from our undergrad days. We paid them off – about ninety-thousand dollars for the two of us. We also prepaid the coming year for my MBA. We have a new car on order for Valentine, and I’ll take over her SUV since it’s the newer of the two we owned. We’re putting money into investments. I may just end up managing my wife’s fortune.” He chuckled.

Mike and Gail were also sharing an ‘event’ at the party. He’d given her what he referred to as a Friendship Ring. The best anyone could determine was that it was kind of like a pre-engagement ring. Gail said that the two of them were having many long conversations about their relationship, including the multi-partner sex in Colburn House.

Several people heard Mark ask, “What’s the nature of the conversations? Are we losing you?”

Gail said, “We were all conditioned that a valid relationship is between a man and a woman. The TWO of them fall in love, get engaged, get married, have two-point-one kids, a dog, a cat, and a gerbil, and they live in a nice little house in the burbs and spend weekends on DIY projects and kid’s soccer games.

“Well, we know that’s bullshit. Only about fifteen percent of the populace get to do that. The rest have various perturbations to that ideal model. They’re gay, lesbian, can’t have children, don’t like cats, the gerbil escapes, and so on. In our case, I’m in love with a dozen other people – maybe more. What’s that mean when Mike is just one of those people – although a special one?”

Mark said, “You mean us – the people in Colburn House?”

“Yes. I love all of you and I especially love Mike.” She took hold of his arm and pulled him to her so she could kiss his cheek. He kissed back.

Just then the front door opened tentatively, and Dennis came into the room wearing nice looking casual clothes.

Joe turned and puffed himself up in front of the new man. “You fucked my wife last night! What do you have to say for yourself?” He tried to sound belligerent.

The room went silent and all eyes went to Dennis. He was frozen and felt he’d suddenly entered a very dangerous situation. He stepped back, but only the closed door was there.

Dennis stuttered, “Errr, I thought ... I ... I ... I didn’t fuck her ... she told me you ... open marriage ... I made love to her. I’ve felt a resonance and attraction to Marjorie ever since I met her seven or eight years ago. Last night was a dream come true. I hope that I showed her how special I thought she was and how much I love her.”

Marjorie wove through a group of people and went to Dennis. “You did and I appreciated every second we were together, AND I want to do it again and again.” She turned and looked peeved at her husband, “Besides, Joe is just messing with you. Relax. It’s his sick sense of humor. I loved FUCKING you.”

Joe burst out laughing. He couldn’t hold a straight face all that long. Most of the others chuckled.

Joe came over to the couple, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist. I’d been reading about cheating couples this afternoon and the alternatives to dealing with the situation after the act or acts have occurred. I could never be a BTB or ‘Burn the Bitch’ kind of guy.”

Dennis looked puzzled. Marjorie explained, “Joe is working on a new book about Innovation in Relationships, or approaching relationships in innovative ways including problems like cheating, loss of trust, and so on.”