Chapter 6: Classes Start

All classes at Harbridge College had conducted at least one session by Wednesday, at least that was the plan. There was the usual mayhem due to overbooked and double-booked classrooms, and a flood of students with Drop/Add slips in hand lined up outside the Registrar’s office.

Joe’s undergrad class on Innovation Management aimed mainly at seniors had ended with about three-dozen students, almost an equal mix of men and women. In this case the age range seemed pretty close. Joe spent the first class having each student introduce themselves and talk about why they’d signed up for his elective, and then walking them through the syllabus and the assignments. The next class would be Friday morning when they’d start to get into some of the material. He sent them off early but with a reading assignment in one of his books.

The rest of Wednesday morning, Joe started playing with an outline for a book on Innovative Relationships, or something in that realm. When he taught, he distinguished between four types of innovation for companies: incremental, disruptive, architectural, and radical. These were based on whether the technology or markets were existing or new. He toyed with the kind of people involved in the relationship, and whether they were initially known or unknown to the people involved.

His initial foray onto his computer produced a list of buzzwords and phrases for his later consideration. He’d start to make linkages between some of them, organize them into various groupings, and even try to come up with matrices or graphics to help explain them. One thought he had involved the various phases of a long-term relationship. A little research on the Internet and he had several generic phases that might help organize the material. He was, of course, heavily influenced by the new and flexible relationships that were forming at Colburn House.

Joe stopped for lunch with three other profs from his department at the Student Union. He saw Morgan with some friends and got a smile and energetic wave from the pretty co-ed that lit up the building. She was obviously enthralled to see him. Her flirt was on high.

“Who’s THAT?” Brad Winslow, an IT prof, asked after she was out of earshot.

“That’s Morgan Bennett. She lives in Colburn House with me.”

“She sure seemed to like you.”

Joe laughed, “Her classes with me don’t start until this afternoon. We are friends and housemates, however.”

Dennis Sulks continued to watch her pert ass walking away, “She’s hot ... and you LIVE with her?” Dennis taught corporate psychology and politics, and had a unique consulting business for large family-run enterprises.

Joe said, “That’s the deal. I live with what is now called the Colburn 14, yours truly included – eight females, including my Marjorie and the wife of one married MBA student, and six males; thus, eleven students, one sponsoring professor, and a couple of wives.”

Brad said, “Now, why didn’t I think of doing that.” He turned to Dennis and Walt Sonderson, another management professor, “He has all that pussy on his doorstep all the time. I’d be in pig heaven.”

Joe teased, “We even have a pool and Jacuzzi behind the house, and yes, we’ve been had evening pool parties, at least until last night. Now that classes have started, I suspect those won’t be as frequent. The cooler weather is coming, too.”

“And you just had to force yourself to look at the eight females in teeny-weeny bikinis?”

Joe nodded, “It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it. Yes, I took on the onerous task with the Harbridge College banner held on high. The candidates in the residential program were chosen on the basis of brains AND beauty, unlike the rest of campus.” He had to laugh at his taunt.

All four men burst out laughing at the audacious comment. The focus on Colburn House shifted to a problem with the electronics in three adjacent classrooms that they all used. Walt had come up with a work-around until a real fix could be implemented by the college’s I.T. department.

Joe came in the door of Colburn House just after six o’clock. To his surprise Marjorie and Valentine were sitting on one of the sofas with an array of paper spread out in front of them. There were both dressed in their professional garb including sexy heels, so Joe guessed they’d met only a short time before after coming from work at their respective real estate offices.

Both women came to Joe and kissed him with meaning. He held one pretty woman in each arm and asked, “What’s up?” He gestured with his chin to the pile of papers.

Valentine eagerly responded, “Marjorie is teaching me how to sign-up and sell high-end properties. We’ve been talking for the past hour.” She gave him a look seeking for his approval.

Joe teased, “That’s great. As you know, she makes all the dough in the family. I’m just a kept man.”

Joe’s statement was not the reality of the situation. In truth, they both had significant incomes. Marjorie’s income was from the sale of expensive homes, whereas Joe’s came from multiple sources: Harbridge College, the sale of his management books and text books, his speaking engagements, and his consulting. Their joint income had crossed into seven digits two years earlier and continued to grow.

Joe released the two women, and started to walk towards the door of his apartment. He waved and said, “I’m going to take a swim. The weather is still so nice. In another few months we’ll be ice skating on the pool instead of swimming in it.” He went in the door of his apartment.

When he returned to the living room wearing his swim suit, he found that Carlos had joined the two women. Joe asked, “Hey, does anybody know what the deal is about dinner?”

Marjorie raised her hand. “I just got home this afternoon when the man that runs the catering service for the school came by. He was checking on our orders. We have a dinner for fourteen being delivered about any minute, with apologies for being late – chicken marsala, veggies, drinks, and a dessert. He promised better service tomorrow after they got up the learning curve on the situation in the house.

“There’ll be a breakfast buffet set up in the kitchen about seven a.m., a sandwich bar on the dining room counter for lunch, and then another dinner. I think he said tomorrow was eggplant parmigiana. We’ll get a menu for the coming week on Friday, and he asked us to let him know if we needed fewer meals or whether anyone had special dietary restrictions. If we have visitors and want additional place settings, he told us to also let him know. I told him about Emma coming in eight days, and we’ll get extra meals for her until we tell him otherwise. He wrote down the dates.”

Joe was impressed. “That’s great. I intend to enjoy some wine with dinner. I’ll be back after I swim.” He headed to the kitchen and out the back door to the pool patio. Joe was on his thirtieth lap when Morgan joined him in her little bikini. After checking the surroundings, she ditched the bra on a table and dove in to swim beside him.

Joe stopped at a hundred laps. Morgan also stopped and floated up to him; they kissed and hugged. This small woman made Joe’s temperature rise, especially rubbing her bare tits back and forth on his chest, wrapping her legs around his body, and pressing her crotch against his rising erection.”

Joe teased, “The guys at lunch thought you were hot – me especially.”

“I only wanted to entice you. Did you think about me this afternoon and plundering my hot little naked body?”

“You did entice me and I did think about you. That was a cute outfit you were wearing.”

She rubbed her bare breasts against his chest as her nipples hardened. “Don’t you like this outfit better?”

Joe snickered, “I do, but I don’t think the Student Union would approve.”

“Probably not, but I’m enough of an exhibitionist that I’d love to see how close I could get to this without being asked to leave.”

“Or get thrown out of school.” He laughed.

“Oh, there’s a thought. I guess I’ll have to conform. Is Colburn House considered part of the campus?”

Joe pondered the point, “You know, you could make an argument either way. The college owns the property and maintains it, BUT the campus maps don’t show it. I guess we could secede up to a point. We do need to keep a low profile with the sex stuff.”

“Good, because with all the sex going on, it’d be nice to consider this an ‘off campus’ facility not subject to the usual rules and constraints the sex police impose.”

“Hey, you went here. Did you ever have a run-in with the campus cops?”

Morgan laughed, “Only once. I was fucking with a guy in his car in the student parking lot one night. They drove by and lit us up with a spotlight. Of course, we stopped and pulled a panic. Last time I ever had sex with that guy. I think he ended up wilted for a month or more.”

Joe rolled his eyes, “Cute. As for Colburn House, I declare this is hereby private housing. Nudity and public fornication are allowed; however, all town and state laws must be complied with.”

“What’s that mean?” Morgan asked.

“Don’t fuck naked on the front stoop.”

“Oh, sure ... and not on the fifty-yard line of the athletic field either.”

“Morgan, you sure are fun.”

Dinner arrived by way of a small panel truck. The driver, in white duds and an apron, carried in trays with plates and warming covers over them. There was then a large insulated urn with coffee, another with milk, and a cooler with the dessert in it. He laid out everything in the kitchen, and then left. Joe and Morgan thanked him. Morgan had put on her tiny bra, but he gawked at her nonetheless.

Everyone gathered in the dining room after claiming one of the covered plates and getting a glass of their favorite beverage. Most of the group had beer from the kitchen refrigerator or a glass of white wine.

Megan said, “This is pretty nice. Just show up, and there’s food. Do we have to wash the dishes?”

Joe shrugged, “Nobody said anything about that. I think we should rinse and stack. The kitchen sink has a garbage disposal in it. Either that, or we can ditch food waste into the trash. I assume they’ll take the plates and flatware back to wash and reuse.”

“Are we ever going to cook here?” Jason asked. “I have some recipes I could scale up for all of us, plus there is our grill. We could chip in for steaks or something fun to barbecue.”

Megan elbowed him and said, “Not everyone can chip in.” He looked embarrassed.

Joe said, “Instead of a uniform contribution of funds, those of us that can contribute will do so. Those not contributing money can help in food prep, serving, and clean up. How’s that sound?”

“Great,” Alisha said instantly. “That allows me to contribute what I can. I have a question in this regard. What happens here over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the other week-long breaks, or further out between the end of the spring semester and the start of the summer sessions when we’re on internships? For some of us, this is our home. There’s not another home to go to.”

Joe said, “I will talk to the catering service. I have a feeling we are on our own, thus, those would be good times to expect to be doing our own food prep or eating out.”

Marjorie said, “Maybe we can arrange something in the way of bulk take-out with some of the local restaurants.”

Mark laughed, “Twelve pounds of chop suey, please.” Everyone laughed.

Mark asked Joe, “How was the swim?”

“Wonderful. It’ll be nice after dinner, too. Warm evening.”

Mark said, “Then I declare it’s a Pool Party Night. Let’s reconvene at nine o’clock on the patio. That’ll give us some time with our studies and writing home to mom and dad. There shouldn’t take too much time, right.” He chuckled.