Chapter 7: Penny’s Novel Solutions

Jim took Penny and I to the Beach Shack where we could eat outside on their deck over the bay and get a great seafood dinner. The temperature was around eighty. He also requested that we go commando. I knew what he wanted, so I dug up two tennis skirts – one for me and one for Penny. They barely covered our bareness. Up top, we both wore crop tops. We were pretty normal for Florida unless someone checked under the skirts.

Dan, the owner and usual bartender, came running out to get our bar order. He studied Jim, and then Penny and me. He finally said to Jim, “Yep, you’re the luckiest son of bitch in the world. You have the two most beautiful women in the world with you – sisters, too.”

I punched Dan’s hip. “You know I look older than that, but thank you. This is my daughter, Penny. Penny this is Dan. Jim has been a regular here over the years, and introduced us.”

Penny and Dan shook hands. He held that hand up, stared at it, and said, “I’ll never wash this again. It has touched the most beautiful woman in existence.”

Penny laughed, “You are so full of bullshit. Here, touch this.” She lifted her crop top so that one breast showed. She took his hand and molded it to her gorgeous tit flesh.”

Dan’s eyes grew tenfold. “Now, I KNOW I’ll never wash away this moment.” He rolled his eyes, and floated away.

Jim was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes.

Dan was back in two minutes with our drinks. I grabbed Dan’s hand and said, “I insist on equal time.” I slid his hand under my crop top before he could blink.

Dan said, “You’re ruining me for all my other customers. I’ll never leave this table at this rate.” He did slowly back away. Almost in synch, Penny and I flashed our tennis skirts up at him revealing all to him since we were commando. I said, “Food please.” He shook his head and left for the kitchen.

Jim said, “You’ll get preferential treatment here the rest of your life, you realize.” Penny and I just laughed.

Penny said, “Jim, I want you to know what we talked about while you were gone to Starbucks or wherever with Bruce.”

He nodded and allowed, “I was curious, especially with the kind of welcome home I got. I know when not to question my good luck.”

Pen grinned, “I told my mom that I was as much of a nymphomaniac as she is. While I was a pretty good girl, I did secretly and surreptitiously slut my way through high school and college, apparently just as she did. Yes, I know the clinical term is hypersexuality, and after talking to several doctors over the years, they confirm the diagnosis. There’s some correlation with being bipolar, but I don’t seem to have those symptoms, nor does my mom.”

“After thinking about it, I think that the sexcapades you’ve been having with Bruce, Mindy, Hank, and Rita are pretty cool. I’m thinking I might even like to participate at your next event. Edie said it was your turn to host, so that will make it convenient that I’m around the house. I hope you don’t mind. I really liked Bruce and his and your ideas to help me with David and Jean.

“After thinking about my mindset and expectations, everything that you said about the second paradigm appealed to me. I’m going to call David after we get home and talk about our future, our marriage, and our mutual expectations. I’m open for a major renegotiation of our contract. I’m even open to experimenting with Jean being in our relationship. Of course, he’s got to be open to having me bring a friend or two home, as well.”

I nodded at my lover. “I think she’s on the right track. What do you think?”

Jim said, “I guess I need to raise the incest flag about the two of you. You’ve changed the mother-daughter relationship. I assume that’s all right with each of you. No one is being forced to do anything. I’m happy but not everyone that learns of your new relationship may feel that way, for instance, Dave and-or Jean.

“As Edie probably told you, our group of friends are all probably hypersexual. That was why Hank and Bruce came by the house this afternoon – to make love with Edie and have some sexual fun. I might just as well have stopped over at one of their homes for the same reason. In our parlance, those visits are acceptable. We’ve just started doing that.

“My last point concerns David. I recommend taking it slow with him rather than laying out a whole polyamorous image for a family. His affair with Jean may have just been for fun, with nothing further implied or even wanted by him. She may also have some other entanglements, like a husband or boyfriend. I got the feeling from what you said earlier that he never got a chance to explain anything deeper about what the coupling meant.

“When you talk to him, you can tell him about your willingness to have an open marriage, but with freedoms come responsibilities. Communication and sharing about emotions, events, and their impacts are at the top of that list. Inclusion of your mate or mates is another. Start including him ... and her. If what happened earlier between all of us was a revenge fuck or something, you might want to be a little veiled in what you tell him until such emotions are deserved.”

Penny nodded, “Thank you. Good advice, especially since I am hyped up about the sex. And, you and my change of relationship with mom are not revenge fucks or whatever. Since I arrived here, and in our conversations, my eyes have been opened up about options in life I didn’t realize were there. It’s like discovering a whole new universe of opportunities. I’m finding it refreshing and ... I hate to say it so pedantically, but educational and instructive. I have new options in life I didn’t even know about before I arrived.”

Dan brought our dinners out along with our waitress to carry a few items on a tray. After we were served, he sat with us and had a glass of wine while we ate. Later, Jim claimed that he was hoping to see more pussy, but Penny and I disappointed him.

After we got back to my house, Penny went off to telephone David. Jim and I watched some television and waited for Pen to finish. We were curious what she’d have to say. We both got naked, too, and spent the next two hours edging each other with sex play but no orgasms.

Penny finally came inside from the patio where she’d been sitting as she talked to her husband. She looked at the two of us, and then removed the two items of clothing that she’d worn to dinner. She snuggled in on Jim’s other wide, and immediately started to play with his hypersensitive cock. He told her we’d been edging and that she’d do well to leave him alone. She did, but only for a short time.

Penny grinned, “Well, I have a very surprised husband. Let’s see, during the course of the conversation, I encouraged him to be with Jean again, especially since I wasn’t available. I explained about my hypersexuality and that I needed more sex and loving, not only from him but from men that I liked and had affection for.

“I did my best to recite all the points you were making about a second relationship model. I told him I wanted to try it, if he were willing and would participate in that spirit. He will, of course. He chaffed a little about both of us being non-exclusive, but he seemed to like the idea of an open marriage. I had to talk him through the sexual equality issue, but he agreed pending further discussion.

“I finally brought up the idea of Jean being part of our family or something akin to that depending on how much we both like her. I thought he’d faint. He couldn’t believe I was suggesting that. He does really like her, and she is single.

“Now, I have a couple of big questions. First, would you two talk to him if I got him down here. You were so articulate about the model. I know it’s not just becoming swingers, but it does have that flavor attached to it. Jean might come, too.”

I told her, “Yes. A little notice would be appreciated.” Jim nodded in agreement. “And next?”

Pen started again, “The weekend after next for notice, and second, can we all make love again ... right now?”

I picked up David and Jean at the airport. They opted for a change of planes in Atlanta so they could arrive at the local airport, rather than make one of us drive over an hour in each direction to go to Tampa International.

David was a nice-looking young man, about thirty, with sandy hair and about six foot tall. He was very formal in meeting me and then introducing Jean. She could best be described by the word ‘mousy’. She was small, thin, light brown hair, and was shy and seemed to lack a sense of presence. I wondered whether she’d adopted that posture so she was obviously a ‘second’ to Penny in the proposed relationship. Their presence after cheating on Penny plus their living together for past two weeks at Pen’s suggestion created an awkward climate.

Both David and Jean were as nervous as a long-tailed cat in room full of rocking chairs. David jumped at every question I asked him, mostly about the trip from Chicago and the change of planes. I’d done all too much traveling during my tenure at NASA – mostly between Houston and Washington, but there were many other flights as well. Jean was as quiet as a church mouse, but did comment that she’d never been to Florida before.

I’d set Edie and Penny up with the app on their iPhones that could track my whereabouts. Consequently, they were waiting in front of the Edie’s house when I pulled into the semi-circular driveway. They were dressed in casual clothes. I could feel the tension in the car blast through the roof as soon as they saw the pair. I was afraid David would hyperventilate. Jean looked pale as a ghost.

We all got out. Penny went right to David, and despite him flinching slightly, she gave him a hug and kiss on his lips. She then turned to Jean and held her arms out in welcome. Jean allowed a hug and kiss on the cheek. They then greeted Edie. She hadn’t seen David in about two years, and had never met Jean.

David and I brought in their two carry-on bags, and I showed him the guest room. It was the same room that Pen had planned to use, but then she’d been sleeping every night in our bed and we’d been making love with each other. Penny maintained a presence in both rooms, and was uncertain about what sleeping arrangements would be like that night. This was a play-it-by-ear situation.

I served up some soft drinks and we all went and sat on the patio. Edie and Penny were sedately dressed in shorts and a top. It was the most clothes I’d seen on them except when we went out to dinner at other than the Beach Shack.

After about fifteen minutes of small talk about weather, Florida, and traveling from Chicago, Penny took the bull by the horns.

“David and Jean, thank you for coming here. I’d like you to think of my mom’s house as neutral territory. This is a safe zone where you can say anything, express any opinion, and we all pledge, with you two I hope, to curtail our judgments but to seek to understand.

“I confess to reacting badly to finding the two of you ... making love. I reacted with jealousy and rage, and that’s not the way I want to be. I know why now, and it was because I thought there was only one way for a relationship to be, and you’d broken that model for me. Now I know that there are other models, and I think that I’ve rather successfully adopted another model. In this new model, there is not jealousy, but compersion; there’s no rage, but understanding and tolerance; and there is an expansion of the love I have to share.

“Just to be clear, I do love you David, as much as the day we got engaged and then married months later. I want our love to continue, and as I told you on the phone, I am more than willing to expand that love to include Jean or others either of us might embrace in our lives.”

Pen paused and looked eagerly at David and Jean for their responses. He’d been nodding as he followed along and agreed with her. They’d talked through a lot of this on the phone over the past two weeks. Jean had been hanging on every work and looking adoringly at Penny.

After a long silence, David said, “I apologize for breaking our marriage vows and having sex with Jean. When you found us, it wasn’t the first time, as I told you on the phone. We’d gotten fond of each other through our working together at McKennitt & Company. As you know, we travelled together, and ... one of those times we got together. I continue to love you and want you in my life as my wife. I also want Jean in my life. We have had long discussions about all the things you’ve said on our phone calls. As you suggested, I shared them with Jean.