Chapter 13: Retreat

Edie and I were cuddled together on the pool patio of our new house. We sold our two houses that we’d each had through the latter part of our marriages and then our widowhood, and jointly bought a larger and more nicely appointed house on Sarasota Bay with a view across the water at the pretty city. While we were on the water with the back of the house facing east, our view from the front was also of another part of the bay, but looking across our street.

On one side of the house was another owned by an older couple who lived in Switzerland that only appeared in the winter for four weeks a year. The landscaping on the other side of the house blocked any view of our patio from that house. Since the people from Switzerland had already come and gone, Edie and I were laying naked together. We’d also just made love and the last rays of the departing sun gave way to the midnight blue sky.

“I love you, Jim.”

“I love you, Edie.”

“My whole life was to prepare me for living this way; for loving you like this and for loving all the other people we do the way we do.”

I smiled and kissed her, “I agree. I feel so blessed. I’m grateful every moment I’m with you.”

Edie giggled, “Are you excited about being a father again?”

“Kind of. I’m glad I won’t have to raise the little critter.”

“David and Penny have that under control. You know there’s a slight chance he might be the father.”

“Won’t matter. I love Jean, Penny, and everyone else.”

“With high probability. Jean was here without other ‘distractions’ at her peak time. You were the only proboscis that probed her little pussy that week, and... ‘POOF’ ... she shows up in a family way two missed periods later.” She laughed.

“I offered to have her here.”

Edie laughed, “Oh, you’re going to get her ‘here’ in ways you don’t even know about.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just found out before you diverted my telling you the news and made love to me.”

“You seem happy, so it must be good news.”

“It is. The three of them are moving to Sarasota. They’ll be nearby. They’re coming down in a week to look at real estate. They’ll be staying here on and off as they look for a home and relocate.”

I sat up straight, “WHAT?! That’s fabulous. What about their jobs?”

Edie grinned, “Penny talked her publishing house into letting her work remotely. They love her work, so that was a no-brainer for them. Doug and Jean work for McKennitt Consulting. They’ll continue to do that from here, using the Tampa office as their base. Jean will be taking a few months of maternity leave when the baby arrives.”

I was astounded at what was happening.

Edie continued, “They told me flat out that they wanted to participate with us in our sexual gatherings with Bruce, Mindy, Hank, and Rita, and anybody else we deem loveable.”

“Will Jean want to do that while she’s pregnant?”

Edie broke into nearly uncontrollable laughter. “She’s hornier now than the rest of us put together. Penny said that she wants to fuck every male she sees. No problem there, right?”

“Bring it on. She’ll fit right in here. What about Penny?”

“She wants to ensure that David is the father of her baby. She’s got the bug, so you’ll find you have to use a condom with her when she’s midway in her monthly cycle. Other than that, she’s your ‘eager little fuck toy’; I believe she used that exact phrase. She loves making love with you.”

I shrugged, “The feeling is mutual, so long as her mother approves.”

Edie kissed me. “She approves so long as she gets her share.”

“You’re my top priority.”

“Likewise, Bub. I have something for us to do that I discovered on the Internet. It’s a touchy-feely couple’s thing.”

“Say more. Am I in trouble here?” I sat up a little straighter. I remember several times in my long marriage with Diane when we did some couples counseling. I was too wrapped up in my job and ignoring her was the usual root cause.

Edie kissed me, “We are fine and I want to keep us this way. We’ve been a couple for over a year-and-a-half, and I want another fifty years just like it. It’s kind of like group therapy in a way, we go and let it all hang out, learn about each other and ourselves, and remind ourselves how to communicate better with each other. That’s my simplistic explanation of the weekend.”

I spoke emphatically, “I will do anything like this that you want. I just want to ensure that we have the best relationship we can. If this will help in even a small way, I’m onboard.” I also knew I had nothing else to do, so if this made Edie happy, I was happy; happy wife, happy life. We weren’t married, but we may as well have been.

Edie kind of shrugged, “Not sure, but the local retreat sounded really nice. It’s four days and three nights at some rustic lodge in the middle of the state. Since you approve, I’ll sign us up. I’ll be sure the dates don’t conflict with anything that might be going on other than our Saturday’s with our friends. We can shift those to midweek around that weekend.”

I was immediately worried when I saw the ‘lodge’ where the Relationship Couples Therapy Retreat was to be held. I was fine with it, but I still wasn’t too sure about Jim’s view of the place. I knew he liked ‘upscale’ and ‘creature comforts’. This place was stark and minimalist, with few distractions. A big core lodge with several large meeting rooms and then two wings with a few bedrooms that were all pretty plain. There was no pool, no Jacuzzi, no sauna, no TV, no nothing! A couple of nature trails were marked.

We’d arrived as suggested, shortly before lunch. There were ten couples in the ‘retreat’ including us. We were the oldest, but not by much. The youngest couple were in their mid-thirties. The others seemed to space out in age between that couple and us.

Our room was stark. No TV, but we did have Internet. The lunch meal was a buffet with burgers and various salads as the primary emphasis. The favored drink seemed to be iced tea.

After lunch, the twenty attending the retreat and the two instructors – a couple – gathered in one of the meeting rooms. A big ‘U-shaped’ table opened in front to a projector, screen, and a couple of flip charts.

Alice Ryder was the lead female instructor. She told us that the austerity of the lodge was to get us to focus on each other and not on the creature comforts in many other venues. She was friendly and very engaging.

Alice talked about being a couple and how the love we had was also wrapped up in emotional attachment, nurturing, soothing, and protection. She ran a short exercise in talking to versus at each other, that produced a lot of laughs, but also raised out awareness that we were hearing our partner but not necessarily listening to them. That led to our first more serious exercise based on the principles of ‘active listening’. We were given an hour and some questions to talk to each other about. Instead of going to our room, Jim and I walked outside as we talked and tried to apply the principles we’d just been given. I admit to blowing off Jim in some of our earlier discussions; so, I got more serious about this. Jim was MY PARTNER, I hoped for the rest of my life. Moreover, this retreat had been my idea, and I wanted this to work for both of us.

Back in the seminar room, Carl Ryder, the male instructor, emphasized what we’d just learned, and also drew out of the class a few observations people had about listening to each other. He then led the class into a discussion about Intimacy, particularly the component parts of dialogue, transparency, vulnerability, and reciprocity. He added in the other dimensions of mind, body, and spiritual connection. The class quickly got into talking about emotional and interpersonal awareness, and the general term ‘connection’. He asked, “How long does it take to build a connection with someone you don’t know?” The class responses were all over the map.

Carl grinned, “An experiment is needed. Since none of you know each other, I want to pair you with a member of the opposite sex that you don’t know. Armed with your active listening skills and what we just talked about in terms of intimacy, I want you to develop an intimate relationship with a new person.”

Alice stepped forward and had the men and women draw numbers from two separate hats. My partner for the exercise was the man who’d drawn a ‘6’. Jim’s partner was the woman who’d drawn a ‘4’. Per chance, we got a husband-wife couple: Molly and Sean.

Molly was a dark blonde, about forty years old, and cute as a button. She’d have been a spinner in her youth, and had retained much of her sex appeal. Jim’s term for women like that was ‘easy on the eyes’. Sean was the same age and could have come off the cover of GQ magazine; he was ‘easy on the eyes’, too, and hyper friendly.

Each new couple was to go off for forty-five minutes and see what developed in the context that Carl laid out. His final words were, “Go be intimate!”

Sean and I went out the front door of the lodge, and walked partway down a nature trail to a crude log bench in the side yard. We were both at a loss as to how to start.

I suddenly had an idea. “Kiss me; touch me.”

Sean saw where I was headed and we immediately went into a romantic clinch. I found our hug and kiss very engaging, so I poured a little passion into it, and so did he. I took one of his hands and put it on the outside of my colorful top. In only a few seconds, I was sure he could feel my nipple harden. I was commando, but I had expected to be a good girl and not flash anybody; thus, my skirt was knee-length.

Sean and I made out for about five minutes and then slowed. We were both panting. I said, “I really like that kind of intimacy with you.” He smiled and agreed, “We could go further, but I wouldn’t without Molly being onboard. What about your husband?”