Chapter 26: Graduation

Joe sat on the large raised stage with the other faculty members of the graduate school who had deigned to come to the campus on a beautiful day in May for the graduation ceremony. Many didn’t.

Joe was wearing his maroon doctoral gown with the colorful doctoral hood to signify his graduate degree and doctorate from Harvard University. Others on the stage were similarly dressed, and then were many with black robes and other colorful hoods from their graduate alma maters.

Joe was so proud of his eleven graduates from the Residential MBA program. They each crossed the stage as their names were called in alphabetical order. Joe came forward as the head of the program to shake their hands, but often got hugs.

Morgan Bennett was first of the lot, and Gail Watson was last. Each student was in their cap and gown. Many parents and relatives were in the audience applauding loudly as their relative was named.

There had been many accommodations made by the students. No one wanted to separate from the others after graduation. Moreover, Joe and Marjorie felt extremely close to each of the eleven and to some of the others who’d also become part of the Colburn House cast of characters.

In the audience, near the front sat Joe’s wife Marjorie. With her was Ron Downey, the large donor to the program. His money would be well-spent in the coming years. With them were Tiffany, Amy, Valentine, and Lauren, and then Ryan’s parents. Nearby, were Stacy and Emma. Their graduation had been the prior weekend in Chicago, and Joe and Marjorie had flown in for the event and to help the girls clean out their apartment.

No one needed to be moved out of Colburn House until July first, so they had been given a month to find new quarters, but most of them already had. Emma and Stacy had moved in already. Their shipment of possessions and clothing from Chicago would arrive at the end of the week so they could stop living out of their suitcase.

Several of the students were leaving to pursue their dreams, while others would be nearby in some way. Carlos was headed back to Brazil to start to take over the reins of his family’s large furniture business. Megan was heading back to Montpelier, Vermont to become a district manager for all of the gyms and physical therapy centers in the state belonging to Vermont Physical Fitness Centers. She called it her dream position to be in coming out of Harbridge College.

Katie got a local job with an investment house. She also moved in with Dennis Sulks. Gail had been tapped to be the assistant manager and head of marketing for a local regional insurance carrier. She’d moved in with Mike. The two couples lived close together, and were in each other’s beds, especially when they were at some other gathering of alumni.

Ryan took a marketing and business development job with Boston Dynamics – a regional company building on his experience with robotics. Valentine kept her high paying real estate job. They got a townhouse on the town line in Dillon. Valentine was pregnant and ecstatic about her condition. Ryan was treating her like fine porcelain.

Alisha got recruited for an entry-level consulting job at McKennitt Consulting in Boston. She’d be traveling a lot, but Logan Airport was nearby – a plum position given the nature of the firm and their A-list clientele.

Alisha was one of several that accepted Joe and Marjorie’s invitation to move into their regular home in Dillon. She traveled light and had proven to be a good housemate. Joining Alisha in the large house were also Morgan, Tiffany, Beth, Mark, Dane, and Jason. Tiffany hadn’t been in the program but had been through just about every aspect of it during her ten years as the graduate department’s assistant. The others all got jobs with high tech and software firms around the Route 128-I95 corridor around Boston.

There was much hugging and kissing by everyone connected to Colburn House. There were also tears shed over those departing and for the breakup of a way of life everyone had comfortably adapted to for almost two years.

Joe and Tiffany had arranged a reception for everyone and their relatives back at Colburn House. For a few parents, it was their first time seeing the house and how everyone lived. Dane’s father looked around and said, “This is pretty soft. When I went to college there were three of us in a room the size of one of your studio apartments. You have a room that size for one person, AND a pool and Jacuzzi, AND food is delivered to your kitchen. What a life!”

There were well over seventy people at the reception. At one point, Dean Summers actually made an appearance. He roamed around the house giving himself a tour, but he was all smiles and ‘hail fellow, well met’ with those he recognized. When he was through, he shook everyone’s hand, congratulated them, and wished them well. He was gone as suddenly as he’d arrived.

The house got quiet by late afternoon. Parents living nearby wanted to get home, and those farther away either had flights or wanted to relax at their motel. A few went off to see friends in the Boston area. Their sons and daughters mostly went with them.

Joe sat down on the sofa with a huge sigh. It was the first time he’d sat since he stood on the raised stage at graduation applauding as the graduates paraded by the faculty. Marjorie flopped down beside him and put her head on his shoulder. “I love you, husband.”

“I love you, wife. You’re the light in my sky; my north, east, west, and south, and no one in this world makes me as happy as you do.”

The pair kissed.

Joe felt someone sit on his other side. He turned to find Tiffany there. She said, “I know I don’t have wife status, but I love you truly, madly, deeply. I’m so glad we forged a new relationship with each other. These has been the best months of my life. Having you invite me to live in your house with the others is like a dream come true. I truly love you both.”

Marjorie said, “We love you more than you think.”

Tiffany looked at Marjorie. “I am and will always be eternally grateful that you are willing to share Joe with me. I promise to be a good wife. The other wives of department professors I know are very possessive and jealous of their husband. I don’t think they trust them, either.”

Marjorie said, “And I thank you for sharing yourself with us ... and the others.”

Joe said, “Of course, in two months you’ll both have a new class of Residential MBA students to share yourselves with.”

Marjorie laughed, “I think we’ve already fucked over half of them. Over half of them have been coming to our house parties for the past year.”

Joe said, “Those were my marketing parties, selling the program.”

Tiffany giggled, “So, I was eye candy and pussy bait to help sell your program?”

“And damned good at it, too.”

Morgan came downstairs from her room. “Hey, don’t hog the master of the house.”

Marjorie moved over and Morgan took her place next to Joe, but they cuddled together. They kissed. Joe said to her, “I love you.”

Morgan got teary. “I love you, too. I am genuinely touched that you love me enough to ask me to move in with you – at least into your other house.”

“We’ll be living in that house more frequently than the past two years,” Marjorie said. “I loved being in Colburn House, but always felt remiss about ignoring our old house. Now that you’ll be there, we’ll be there a lot more often.”

Colburn House was well occupied by the middle of August when students could ‘officially’ arrive on campus. Stacy and Emma had moved in at the end of May; Emma took over the guest room in Joe and Marjorie’s apartment, as expected. Amy and Lauren also had picked their rooms and moved in upstairs. Stacy had picked the nicest of the new rooms on the lower level.

Katie’s sons Noah and Seth had picked adjacent rooms upstairs, one of which had been their mother’s the previous two years. Joe had helped them get internships over the summer with local employers.

One of the married couples entering the program had moved in upstairs – Justin and Kelly Broadhurst. Both were in their mid-twenties and from the Washington, DC area. Kelly was marketing rep for a Beltway company, and had convinced her company to let her work remotely from outside of Boston. Justin had been a civil servant engineer with the U. S. Department of Transportation doing project management. Two other ‘newbies’ arrived on the mid-August weekend – Karol Kamenev, and John Wenth, from Manhattan and Buffalo, respectively.

That Saturday in mid-August, the alumni around the area showed up at Colburn House to welcome their replacements and to have a pizza party. The night was warm, starlit, and the pool beckoned for all. Somehow word got out to everyone.

Those from the past two years at the house or aware of its inner workings included Joe, Marjorie, Dennis, Katie, Mike, Gail, Mark, Alisha, Jason, Beth, Dane, Morgan, Lauren, Tiffany, Emma, Stacy, Noah, Seth, Jake, Olga, and Carl. They were primed to make the date a memorable one for both old and new students.

Those not in the know, the innocents, included Justin, Kelly, Karol, and John.

The bathing suits for the ‘in’ crowd were nearly non-existent. Conservative was not a word that would have been used for the residents and friends from the past two years. After sitting around eating pizza and having some beer, people started to use the pool to cool off.

Morgan again got the ball rolling by tossing her bikini bra out of the pool. Others quickly followed suit. Jaws of the innocents dropped open at the blatant sexuality, but the guys in the know didn’t blink an eye. That inspired the women in the innocent side of the ledger to also doff their bikini tops.

Justin came over to Joe almost at a run. “Errr, sir, is this behavior acceptable?”

Joe laughed, “It sure is on my account. Not required in the MBA Program, but very nice.”

“I mean does the school sanction the nudity?”

“Where? I don’t see anybody naked yet. The school is fine with what happens here so long as we stay out of the Boston Globe and off the six o’clock news.”

“So, you don’t care?” Justin expressed amazement.

“Oh, I care a great deal. I care that consent is given, that everyone treats everyone else with respect and kindness, and that people enter into the relationships and friendships with a growing love for each other and a sense of mutual support.”

“What if ... I mean I’m not sure whether Kelly wants to do anything?”

“Then don’t. If you do, fine. If you don’t, fine. There are no rules for what happens here. You make your own just like the class before you. I guess that your predecessors will give you a taste of what life was like here for the past two years. You can replicate that or change it as it you like.”

“And you?”

Joe smirked, “I was here the past two years. Also, I think Kelly has the right spirit, so don’t worry about your wife. By the way, nobody will steal her away from you, so don’t get your knickers in a twist if she shows some interest in somebody else for a short time.” He nodded in one direction.

Justin whirled around. His wife was as naked as some of the others were. She was in Mark’s arms and they were kissing. Her breasts were pushed into his bare chest and their arms were around each other.

Justin’s jaw dropped open and he moaned, “Oh, fuck. That’s so hot.”

Morgan appeared, also naked and moving so that her boobs shimmied like Jello but in a more seductive manner. She latched onto Justin’s arms. “Do you like to make out. I do, and I have a ‘thing’ about married men. You’re so young to be married, but I think we can have some fun. Did you know that MBA also stands for ‘married but available’? I hope that’s you.” She led him away towards a chaise, holding the muscles on one his arms against one bare and bulbous breast.

Dane and Alisha were already naked and on a chaise. They were playing with each other’s genitals obviously preparatory to their making love. Jason and Beth were in a similar state on the chaise beside them.

Dennis had started to eat Lauren’s cunt and finger her. They were in the center of activity and hard to ignore. Amy had captured John, and already had him on a nearby chaise right next to Morgan and Justin. Kelly, Justin’s wife, was increasingly busy with Mark, in any case, and they were taking Justin’s interaction with sexy Morgan as permission to get very sexual. Mark was also pointing out some the benefits of living in the house and Kelly was loving it as they kissed, rubbed against each other, and fondled and kissed key body parts.

Karol was with Seth, and Olga with Noah. Olga had Noah’s cock out and had just started to fellate him as some others watched. Karol’s eyes were the size of saucers as she watched the various sexual activities start to spread, especially among her classmates. A few more chaises filled with lustful couples.

At least two couples were fucking at that point: Alisha and Dane, and Jason and Beth. They were obviously making love and didn’t care whether anybody saw or heard them. Gail and Katie were having a lesbian encounter on a nearby chaise, too.