Chapter 86: Preparing Ava; Part One

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 (Continued)

When our meal ended, Vanessa said, "Donna, do you want to do the dishes with me so I can tell you some things that will help you convince Mark that you're growing into a mature young woman?"

Helping with the dishes, something Donna often does anyway, was an inconsequential cost for such useful advice. She eagerly agreed.

Vanessa added, "You three go and make your phone calls."

Carol said, "I'll help with the dishes too. Julia doesn't need my help to manage ANYTHING." Helping with the dishes didn't much help either. In this house it meant loading the dishwasher and pushing a button.

Julia said, "If Mom's going to talk with Donna, I should have a quick word to Mom first about Donna's three mistakes in the car. Did you think about those during dinner, Donna?"

"Are you kidding! What you guys were talking about was far too interesting. I tried to at the beginning, but I got distracted. I think I remember them though."

I ignored the parenting stuff. Prof was still in the room and I wanted to ask him something, "Any news about the thing we were waiting 'a few days' for?"

"Not yet. I didn't expect any yet. You're going to be studying here again tonight?"

"Yes. I think the plan is that Carol and I stay with Julia tonight to celebrate the trial's cancellation. I REALLY hope we get to celebrate it. It's four hours since I heard the news and I've barely had a kiss yet. To think I've been saving up for days and I'm still having to wait!"

Prof understood, "To paraphrase Donna's wisdom, sometimes being a big boy SUCKS!"

I chuckled in agreement.

He asked, "I noticed your surprising lack of enthusiasm for bedding girls. You didn't spend too long with Rocky today did you?"

It took me a moment to realize his meaning, "Haha. Definitely not! Not the way you mean, because I DID spend too long with Rocky, but that's nothing to do with my lack of enthusiasm for bedding girls. I just find it hard to agree to that. Those girls are virtually strangers, and I'm not really comfortable with Julia pushing them into my bed. Her bed actually, but you know what I mean."

Prof said, "My understanding is that they're coming running for a chance to get close to you. At the most Julia's choosing who to hold the door open for. Everything that happens after that is their choice. I cannot imagine you or Julia 'pushing' anyone into that situation. That'd be coercive."

"Julia did say she was tricking them."

Julia hadn't gone upstairs yet, as she was still talking to her mother about Donna. She must have had half an ear tuned to my conversation because she immediately explained, "I'm tricking them into realizing how wonderful you are. It's quicker to do it that way, especially because your modesty is making it difficult. I am NOT tricking them into your bed. Once they know how amazing you are, they can make their own decisions about whether or not to accept an invitation to have sex with you. I only want the girls who're eager because I want them to be excited about telling everyone about it afterward."

"Umm, sorry then. I shouldn't have used 'pushing'. I misspoke."

"No you didn't," disagreed Prof. "You spoke what you were thinking. What you did was mis-think. These girls ALL know what they're doing, and Julia won't be misleading them. If they walk into your bedroom - run more like - they'll know exactly why. You are foolish to reduce your enthusiasm and enjoyment by imagining that they are being 'pushed'. Don't worry about it though. By the time you've had a few of them, you'll see what's happening. You're only making that mistake because of your inexperience with girls, something Julia will soon cure you of."

^-- "I must be getting old - I nearly commented that you shouldn't 'celebrate' too late tonight in case it made you miss some of your algebra and calculus time. Imagine thinking that you'd prefer algebra and calculus to having sex with Julia and Carol! Vanessa often teases me for liking mathematics so much, so she's going to chuckle over that."

Prof wandered off, which let Julia start to reassure me and apologize for not remembering how difficult it would be for me to get hard.

I accepted her apologies, and then said, "I need to call Mom, just to check in."

I didn't appreciate Mom asking, "I'm surprised you're calling. Have you worn Julia and Carol out already?"

My explaining, "We haven't even started on that because we had to go shopping," resulted in me being laughed at. My description of what the shopping experience was like got me laughed at even more.

Mom said, "I'm looking forward to seeing you in those clothes." Of course she was, if only so she could laugh at me EVEN more.

"I'm wearing one of the outfits to school tomorrow, and possibly the other on Friday although that's doubtful, so you'll see at least one of them in the morning. Carol and I will be staying here tonight, and by the sounds of it I'll probably be here tomorrow night too, I think, but you'll see me in them when I pick up Donna. By the way, we have to get to school early tomorrow, so we'll be around to pick up Donna about forty minutes early."

Mom suggested, "Come forty five minutes early, so you'll have time to show me your new outfit." No doubt so she and Dad could start the day with a five-minute laugh each.

When I'd finished talking to Mom, I passed the phone over to Vanessa. She'd heard me talking to Mom, and had asked for the next turn. I walked away quickly, but not fast enough to escape the sound of Vanessa saying, "Wait until you see him, haha." The laughter was starting already, excellent!

My early morning studying had come up during my talk with Mom, which had prompted me to worry about the snacks I would need to get me through it (maybe not "need", but I didn't want hunger to distract me from the serious business of algebra and calculus. That and I liked cookies). I was going to grab some for myself, but felt a bit self-conscious about conducting a serious raid without permission, as I'd need sandwiches as well as cookies and a drink. Vanessa was on the phone, so I went in search of Julia, to get her permission.

While I had been busy amusing Mom, Julia had gestured to me that she was going upstairs, and I quickly found her and Carol in 'our' bedroom, sitting side by side on the bed, leaning close together so both could read Ava's letter, with Carol still holding Ava's pictures face up in her hands.

I hesitantly said, "Umm, Ava kind of wanted her photos and letter to be kept private."

The girls looked up at me, and Julia said, "Don't worry, we won't show them to anyone."

How to say this diplomatically? "Umm, I wasn't really expecting you to show them to Carol. I kind of had to let you see them, to get your advice, but I was hoping to keep them as private as possible. Sorry Carol, but I was thinking that just Julia would be able to give me all the advice I needed."

Julia started smiling with anticipation. I suddenly got the urge to back slowly and carefully out of the room. And, for some reason, to climb a tree. Julia smiled sweetly and said, "Carol's not looking at them so she can give you advice. She's doing so out of curiosity."

#3: <Oh. That's okay then. I'm glad we put our foot down so firmly about that!>

#4: <What do we do now guys? I know we're in the wrong somehow, but I've got no idea how. Even worse, I think we're in the right, so finding out we're in the wrong is going to be a big surprise.>

I've noticed that the more Julia enjoys herself in these circumstances, the less I do. This gives me considerable incentive to diminish her enjoyment. I lay myself on the floor, curling into the fetal position with my hands over my head.

Carol giggled, and Julia laughingly asked, "What are you doing, Mark?"

"I know you're about to point out how stupid I am. I don't know why I am, but I know finding out is going to hurt, so I'm getting ready. Okay, I'm ready now. What did I say wrong?"

Carol giggled some more, and Julia said, "Aww. You're no fun."

#1: <It worked!>

"I'm not getting up just so you can have more fun at my expense. Just tell me why I was wrong?"

Julia assured me she would do so without further teasing, and that I could get off the floor and come sit beside her. With some trepidation I did so.

Julia explained, "I appreciate that you were concerned about Ava. That's what you always do: worry too much about what the other person is thinking or feeling, or even just might think or feel. You need to remember some things. First, Carol and I are your WIVES, so the three of us owe our first loyalties to each other, not to people like Ava, who you've barely ever talked to. That's just silly.

^-- "Second, if we start keeping secrets from each other, especially sexual secrets, then our marriage is in trouble.

^-- "Third, Carol isn't as involved in this part of your life as I am, so she could feel left out. So I'm making sure to include her so she feels secure and not threatened.

^-- "Fourth, we need to know what you're doing so we can help you in various ways. Perhaps to see lessons you should be learning, or perhaps in some practical manner. Maybe Carol or I know Ava already and know that a lot of her letter is lies, or maybe we just get the feeling that she's dishonest from reading it. That's not the case - she seems like an honest girl - but if it was, wouldn't you like to be warned?"

#1: <So we were completely, utterly and totally wrong. Not only was our original reason "silly", as Julia so helpfully pointed out, but the counter-reasons are overwhelmingly more important.>

#4: <I'm getting used to that happening. How about you guys? Shall we do what we normally do at such a time?>

"You're absolutely right, Julia. I'm sorry. I'm especially sorry to you, Carol, for me being so 'silly' - as Julia kindly pointed out - as to think it was good idea to exclude you. I was worse than silly and I'll try to never make that mistake again."

Julia said, "It's easy. If you ever think about keeping something secret from either of us, make sure you tell us right away, because those are the most important things to share. Not the special secret stuff that goes on in your head though. It's a good idea to keep that stuff secret."

#3: <"What goes on in our head"! That's a bit too accurate for my liking. I wonder how much she knows?>

#4: <We're not going to ask though, are we? We don't want to start a discussion about ANY of that.>

"Uhh, thanks."

Carol said, "I didn't really feel threatened, or anything like that."

Even I knew the answer to that one, "BUT you might've, especially if I'd carried on keeping secrets from you. Julia was totally right."

Julia added, "But I haven't even told you the main reason to include Carol yet. MORE important than all the others put together."

If it wasn't for the smile already breaking out on her face, I would have been worried. "Okay, give it to me. I can see you're busting to."

"Aww, I can't even tease you about that either. This hasn't been nearly as much fun as I thought it would be."

"You've already had more than enough fun at my expense at Rocky's!"

"That's ALMOST true, haha. Okay, the main reason to share with Carol is so she and I can gossip together about all your girls. We're going to have SO MUCH FUN doing that! I feel sorry for everyone in boring 'one-wife, one-husband' marriages. It is SO much more fun for us when there are two wives."

In all honesty it wasn't too bad for me either. Two Julias would have been have been too many (probably about 1.2 Julias too many, although I'll never voice that thought). But Julia and Carol are a very nice balance.

I said, "Okay. I'll leave you to your letter reading and gossiping. I certainly don't want to hear that!"

Julia said, "You came up here for a reason though, didn't you?"

"Yes, but that doesn't matter. Vanessa will be off the phone now, so I'll ask her. It was just about my making a snack for when I study tomorrow morning." Presuming we didn't disappoint Prof by celebrating all night. It'd be best not do that, if only because Julia will need her wits about her tomorrow when she starts implementing her management structure plan.

Carol firmly declared, "Making your snacks is MY job if I'm here, not yours! That's one of my main jobs. Almost as important as sex and gossip, haha."

#4: <Thank goodness she didn't say "gossip and sex".>

#3: <She didn't SAY it, no. She also didn't say "shopping" and look at how hard it was for Julia to convince her to shop rather than celebrate.>

Carol asked me what and how much I wanted, then happily set off to make it for me.

Julia assured me she'd set up a better system to ensure my snacks every night, without my having to worry about it. I had no doubt she would too. Having two wives is pretty cool sometimes, and we hadn't even started celebrating yet!

Julia put Ava's letter down, telling me, "I'll finish it with Carol. I'll start calling the lunchtime girls now." I wanted to ask her what she thought, especially of the photos, but Julia was already punching buttons on her phone.

Her first call was to Lily, and Julia's side of it went like this:

"Lily, Julia here. I have to make this quick. Mark's having a shower and he's going to ravish me when he comes out."

"Yes, I am lucky."

Thinking Julia was hinting that I should go have a shower, I stood to do so, but she waved me to sit back down.

Julia continued her conversation with Lily, "I'm calling a meeting of all the girls who were at lunch today to discuss some Mark business. Can you meet us thirty minutes before school starts tomorrow morning?"

"Good girl." Julia then described exactly where and when. The middle of the student parking area was apparently too public as Julia specified a significantly quieter location.

"Make VERY sure you're not late, Lily. It's very important you're there on time. Not even a minute late."

"Good. Last question, does your cellphone have a camera on it?"

"Of course it does, silly me, haha. Okay Lily, I've got to call the others. Sweet dreams, goodnight."

Turning to me Julia said, "Good. Lily says she'll definitely be there on time. She's got her own car, so that should be easy. She's a good first choice for Liaison: smart and with the right attitude toward you. It's sexy her being Chinese too, isn't it?"

"Umm. I guess so."

"Don't even pretend that you haven't already been thinking about that!" Julia laughed some more. It'd been at least ten minutes since someone had laughed at me, so by today's standard, it was long overdue. Then Julia added, "I think you'll have a good time with her tomorrow night because she seems so interested in you."

"If she stays here the night, where will you be? I'm kind of hoping you will be able to stay with us, and I thought Lily would like that too."

"Why do you think Lily would like a threesome with us? That's what you're saying, isn't it?"

I explained my logic, which was probably about the point where I started going wrong, "Yes. At lunch I thought she was bisexual. Nearly all of the fourteen girls seemed to be. I later guessed that was part of the reason you chose to invite them."

"What made you think they were bisexual?"

#1: <Uh oh. Julia's got her head tilted to the side. Into the "Mark's being stupid" position.>

"Umm, I just thought so because they seemed happy with you and Carol. They saw you kiss each other first, and then Carol sat in front of you and you often hugged her or caressed her face, or whatever, and none of them seemed uncomfortable. Mostly they seemed happy."

"And you thought that meant they were bisexual?"

#4: <Obviously we thought wrong.>

"Yes, but obviously I was wrong. I knew girls were more tolerant than guys about same-sex relationships, but I assumed their being happy to see you and Carol kiss meant that they were that way inclined."

"You were wrong. I can't understand how guys can get so angry about two guys who're happy together, but thank goodness girls aren't like that. We're much nicer, especially when we can see that there are loving emotions between the couple. You can't judge a girl's bisexuality by her failing to show discomfort or even if she shows happiness. I've got no idea about the lunchtime girls' bisexual inclinations. Until recently I had no inclinations of my own, so you should know it's not an on/off situation with girls."

"Okay. I'm very ignorant about all this stuff."

"You'll be learning quickly. I'll be creating a bisexual atmosphere around you, so there'll be plenty of that going on. It's just that I've got more important things to worry about now than whether or not each of those fourteen girls is consciously bi. I think most of them will happily do whatever it takes to get you, especially after they've had you once. It doesn't matter if any of them kicks up a fuss later - when the bisexual sex starts happening - because they can be easily replaced."

#4: <Oh goody! I like the sound of lots of bisexuality going on around us. On top of us too, hopefully.>

#1: <I'm a little surprised at how definite Julia was about bisexuality happening though. Other than with Carol, she's never shown any interest in it.>

So I said, "Thank you, both for the tolerant explanation and your being so happy to have so much exciting sex around me. I think I'll definitely enjoy that, largely because you'll be with me. It'll make it MUCH easier for me to get hard! But I'm surprised at how interested you seem. Other than with Carol, you've never shown so much interest in girls?"

"I'm not particularly, although my experiences with Carol have expanded what I thought were my interests. I'm including myself mostly because I don't want to be excluded from important things that will be happening in your life, or from your bed. I'm going to encourage the girls you'll be going to bed with to be bi, so I can be with my man too. I don't want to lose ANY of my time with you, if I can avoid it, haha."

"But you shouldn't have to do something so intimate just to be with me. I shouldn't make you..."

"HONESTLY Mark! How can you possibly think you're MAKING me do this? I'm making you do it! You wouldn't have taken the first step if I hadn't been pushing you. I want this to happen. If I have to spend some time in bed with you and another girl, then that's a price I'm willing to enjoy paying! I LOVE sex with you Mark. Love, LOVE, LOVE! I'm sure that if I like the other girl even a little, then I'll enjoy having sex with both of you. I've discovered that about myself, but I don't think that's a big discovery for most girls. I'll especially love it because I'll be seeing how much pleasure it brings you once you've managed to get sufficiently used to having sex with girls that aren't Carol or me. So there IS going to be lots of girl-on-girl action happening around you. Stop walking on your tiptoes and apologizing just because something could conceivable be a problem, especially when it so obviously isn't. I'm enjoying myself! Got it?"

"Yes Julia. I'm sorry I..."

"Argh! We don't have all night for you to apologize for everything under the sun. And before you apologize for that, I'm just going to keep on talking. We need Liaisons as fast as possible if my belief about your popularity is correct. So I won't make that any harder by pushing the bisexuality issue now. I'll let them enjoy some one-on-one time with you. Starting next week that'll change. So, in answer to your original question about Lily, I'll spend the night with Carol at your home in her new, big bed. Perhaps I'll practice on Carol for when you and I can have Lily together. I'm interested in Lily myself because I'm impressed by her so quickly understanding that you're special and wanting to help you. That lights my fuse as much as anything else about her."

Having disappointed Julia with my wimpishness yet again, and strongly resisting the impulse to apologize for it, I forced myself to find something else to use to keep the conversation going. Thinking about what Lily looked like naked made me recall Julia's comment about her phone having a camera (you can work out for yourself how those two topics are connected). It spurred me to ask, "I understand why you asked about her cellphone having a camera, but why were you silly to do so?"

"She reminded me that her parents go back and forth to Hong Kong frequently, especially her father. She has a new phone every few months, and they're always fantastic. We really have talked for too long. This is eating into our celebration time, and I still need to call the others."

"Okay. So..." I managed to bite off all of the rest of the apology. "I'll shut up and let you make your calls."

Because I had nothing better to do, I picked up Ava's photos and re-examined them. Not an unpleasant way to pass the time. I also enjoyed re-reading her letter. There's something enjoyable about such a pretty girl throwing herself at me so totally, so the letter cheered me up.

I also listened to Julia's next couple of conversations (I'm good at doing two things at once, as long as one of them isn't toughening up), and I noticed something curious. Julia's calls went like this:

"Hi [whomever], Julia here. I have to make this quick because I have to call fourteen of you. I'm calling a meeting of all the girls who were at lunch today, to discuss some Mark business. Can you meet us at [the specified exact place and time] tomorrow morning?"

"Good. See you there. Goodnight."

The second conversation was identical, except it ended, "Well, do your best. Goodnight."

There was no stressing of how important it was to be there on time, questions about their phones, or any of the stuff that Julia had said to Lily. The conversation was the absolute bare minimum, and never used other than a normal tone of voice. I listened to the third non-Lily conversation, and it was identical to the other two, other than the different name.

After that'd finished, I asked, "How come these calls are all so much less emphatic than Lily's? I know we've already chosen her, but I don't understand why that changes her treatment so much. Surely you want all fourteen girls to be there on time? Because you've got the Liaison meeting fifteen minutes later, and then school, so you don't have time to wait for anyone."

Julia explained, "I have NO intention of waiting for anyone. The meeting will start EXACTLY on time. I want some of the other thirteen to be late so they'll miss out. That's why I'm deliberately not stressing its importance. They'll lose their chance to be chosen, and they'll be really pissed off. It'll be a strong lesson to all of them, one that the Liaison's will also pass onto the girls under them. The only girl it's important is there on time is Lily, or else we'd look inconsistent picking her."

"Wow. Isn't that rather cruel? Half an hour early is quite a lot earlier, and some girls could easily miss out."

"I don't care, and YOU don't care either. You've not shown any preference for or against any of them, despite my asking you more than once. As long as at least two of them turn up - which I'm SURE will happen - then you can pick two. We don't care who they are, but we do care that they know to be on their toes the whole time. It'll work well."

I felt sorry for any girl that was late. I realize that could be interpreted as my being arrogant, but that's not the way I meant it. "Julia the Merciless" would be on their case!

Julia added, "Mom and Dad are frequently complaining about the amount of time they waste because people are late to meetings. I've heard that a thousand times, and I hate it when people are late to meetings I'm involved in. We're going to make promptness crystal clear to our Liaisons right from the start. Why don't you go have a quick shower, Mark? The rest of the calls will be the same. Carol and I will discuss Ava with you when you come back."

Rocky's locking me in his store and measuring my inside leg had made me sweat, so I went to have a shower.

I finished my shower and dressed in just my robe, with the hope that I'd not need it for long. Then I returned to our bedroom.

Carol and Julia were discussing Ava when I walked in. Julia broke off to tell me, "Mom and Dad have taken Donna back home. They're going to stay there for a while to socialize with your parents. Mom suggested that for your early morning snack she can either make a little extra dinner the night before and leave it in the fridge on a plate that you can heat up in the microwave - you do know how to use a microwave, don't you?"

"Sure." That and the can opener were the two kitchen appliances I knew how to use.

"Good. She can't leave it in the study because that wouldn't be healthy. Or she suggested that when you get up, you make yourself an early, extra breakfast of your usual cereal and fruit. Either is fine with her, so it's up to you?"

I hesitated. Not for long though, because Julia said, "Let me repeat myself, EITHER is fine with Mom. It is up to YOU! Don't think about ANYTHING else other than what you want, okay?"

"Umm, the cereal I guess." It'd be less work for Vanessa too.

"Good. I'll tell her later. There's already food in your room for tomorrow morning, but cereal from then on. I'll leave some cookies in the room each night so you won't have to interrupt your studies once they start. Dad's already asked Andrew to get some little lights for our hallways to make it easier for you to walk between the study and kitchen. Andrew will get those on Saturday." [Vanessa improved on Julia's cookies idea. A couple of jars of different cookies were soon permanently installed in my study. They mysteriously refilled themselves every few days. Life can be tough, but not around here.]

Julia asked, "Shall we talk about Ava?"

I told her, "I'm looking forward to it." Not so much the talking about Ava part, but what that would lead to me doing with her (I'm assuming you're not worried about my erectile dysfunction).

Julia led off, "I recognize her from her pictures. I've seen her around school but I don't know anything useful about her. She's the last thing holding us up before we can begin celebrating so I'm CERTAINLY not going to waste time calling around to find out about her now! I'll ask around about her when we get to school. So let's try to take care of the Ava issue quickly. To start with, what do you think of her Mark? Does she turn you on?"

"In the interests of speed: Yes."

"Do you want her as a Liaison, with all that implies?"

"Yes."

Julia said, "Good. We have to find out whether she wants that job, so we'll invite her to the second of the two meetings tomorrow morning. She doesn't know anything about your being 'allowed' to play around, unlike the girls from lunch, so we need to tell her that. We want her to be a Liaison because her grade is probably going to be the second most popular high-school grade for you. I also like her as a choice because she values intelligence even though she's not smart herself. It appears that she's been interested in you for a few months, which reinforces her valuing intelligence, because intelligence was mostly what you were known for back then. She said nice things about me so I immediately trust her judgment, haha. More than anything else though, is that she's begging. Begging is good - I can definitely work with that. All the Liaisons have to report to me, so the first thing we need to do is to make her aware that I know all about her letter and photos. That's a rule for ALL the girls. I don't want any of them to think they can get around me. I suggest you call her now to ask her permission to show her letter and photos to me. If she agrees tell her 'you'll call her back in ten minutes after Julia has read the letter and we've discussed it'. If she balks give me the phone and I'll explain it to her. Okay?"

"Umm, yeah, that's okay with me."

Julia picked up her bedside phone, dialed the number from the bottom of the letter, and handed me the phone. It was a bit quick for me as I hadn't worked out what to say. Something that wasn't helped when Ava answered the phone instantly.

(When I quote a phone conversation I usually quote just the half that I can hear. This conversation starts with me talking to Ava so I could hear both sides, but that lasted such a short time that I've stuck to one-sided quotes.)

"Umm. Hello Ava. It's Mark here."

"Yes, I said I would. Um, I've been reading your letter, of course, and I want to show it to Julia. Is that okay with you?"

"No, no. It's all right. It's nothing bad. I promise."

"No, nothing like that. Julia is a nice girl. She won't behave like that."

"No, I don't hate you. Really I don't. I'm not trying to embarrass you." I rolled my eyes at Julia, who put out her hand. I gladly gave her the phone. (Told you I didn't last long.)

Julia said, "Julia here, Ava. Tomorrow at school Mark is picking a second girlfriend. Do you want to be his girlfriend?"