Loosening Up Bk. 04 Ch. 16-20

As the group walked onto the patio and towards the bar, Dave did a brief assessment of Patti Turner. She had long brunette hair done in a French twist that looked very stylish around her pleasant face. She had a beautiful smile, and wore only a modicum of makeup to highlight her pretty greenish eyes. She was not zaftig and in the snug slacks, medium heels, and white blouse looked pert and really pretty. Dave pegged her about his own age of thirty-six.

As Alice questioned Ken about the post-accident interviews and formalities, Dave watched how Patti watched him adoringly. For his part, Ken kept touching her in some way. If not holding her hand or an arm around her shoulders, then simply sitting close together. The intimate connection between the two was not lost on the others either. She was angelic in her behavior and Dave judged her pretty staid in terms of her social life.

Dave made the jump to the behavior of the Circle after dinner, and guessed that various two- and threesomes would form and disappear to people's homes or apartments for a while. He wondered whether Ken had warned Patti about the lifestyle around the place.

Patti accepted the explanation about Alice and Pam and two other women being Dave's wife without blinking an eye, so Dave figured that Ken had said something about at least their relationship. Patti had also seen the aircraft carrier size bed in their master as they'd walked the pair to the guest room. At one point or another Ken had fucked each of his wives on that bed, often beside Dave while he was with a wife or one of the other women. The Circle was fun, and just the thought of that made him smile.

Ken then explained what had happened inside of Atlantic Airlines. "Even though we were doing exactly what we'd been trained to do, Patti and I came out of the whole experience smelling like a bouquet of roses. We were both labeled heroes -- or I should say hero and heroine, although we both chaff at that moniker. The head office in Raleigh pulled us out of the line-up for the time being and asked if we'd take advantage of our visibility to help promote a few of the airline's new routes and our safety program. We both agreed."

Patti said, "There's also the side of this for recruitment. The airline wants top-notch pilots and flight crews, and we're also trying to stimulate employment applications." She looked around the group and teased, "Anybody interested?"

Ken said, "There's even better news though. Only a few days ago I sat in a meeting where the airline was determining which new cities to use as destinations. I had a major say, and so guess what?"

"What?" Pam said with a broad grin.

"Sarasota is going to be a new city-pair with Raleigh. Moreover, Patti and I are going to be on the crew that helps open the route commencing on October first. Our 'rotation', as they call it, through marketing will be over and we can return to duty."

Everyone was speechless for a few seconds, and then Alice and Pam were all over Ken with hugs and kisses again. Patti laughed.

"What's that mean? Can you move back in with us?" Dave asked, casting a sideways glance at Patti.

Ken said, "That's what we're hoping. I acted too soon in selling my townhouse, but I guess we'll live in town like I did when I first connected with you guys."

Alice said, "Nooooo! We learned you were too isolated from everything going on. You have to live in the compound someway ... or don't you want to rejoin the Circle?" She'd had the after-thought suddenly, feeling some kind of vibe from Patti.

Ken looked at Patti and spoke, "Oh, no. WE want to come back and be full Circle members, if you'll have US."

Patti said in an upbeat tone, "I hope you'll let me ride in on Ken's coattails. He's told me about EVERYTHING Circle related. Needless to say, I'm totally onboard with the whole scene. I would have been before I met Ken, but after his descriptions, including each of the thirty-five or so of you, I'm even more excited about the prospect."

Dave kind of choked at the news, not because of the housing problem the couple faced, but because of how attracted he was to Patti, and if he read the situation correctly she had just announced her availability to the Circle. A quick glance at his wives verified that they were ecstatic that one of their 'stud muffins', as they sometimes called the men, was returning to be in the fold.

Chapter 17 -- Another Patio Party

The Halloween party was a blowout, just like the previous parties Dave threw on the patio. The weather was warm and clear, too; and that time of year there could have been a Category 5 hurricane arriving on the scene.

About three-hundred people showed up including the entire upper management teams of the utility where Dave worked and of Knightsbridge Manufacturing where Alice, Dori, Abby, and Roy worked. Doug and Pete brought everyone that worked at Sky Ranch, and there were a few other companies well represented because Circle members worked there.

There was the usual mix of costumes spread out among the attendees: zombies, witches, princesses, genies, nurses, doctors, astronauts, batmans, supermans, superwoman, cat woman, sea captains, farmers, cowboys, school girls, and girl scouts. Some of the Circle women spiced up their costumes with minimal clothing, but nothing was really over the top because so many executives were present.

Donna had again been coopted into being the Chief Party Planner, and she'd done an outstanding job. The same band came back as the prior party providing a great mix of music to both listen to and dance to. The caterers left people feeling awesome about their meals and hors d'oeuvres, and when the desserts were brought out -- in Halloween format and colors, of course -- everyone gathered and applauded the catering crew to their amazement.

Joan and Pam waddled around greeting people when they weren't sitting uncomfortably waiting for the stork to arrive or heading off to the bathroom because of the pressure of the impending babies on their bladders. Pam thought of herself as overdue at that point.

Owen had managed to snag Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence (again), and Bradley Cooper as the 'token' celebrities to mix with the crowd. They were all doing movies or appearances in Florida, so he just put a gentle arm on them to appear. He'd put them all up at the new Westin hotel in downtown Sarasota after flying them right into Circle Airport to their delight. The four had already been briefed on the culture and lifestyle of the Circle by Owen, but expressed constant curiosity to see it all in action around the edges of the party.

Scarlett, dressed as Little Bo Peep, searched out Dave at one point and the two engaged in quite a long discussion about the Circle including the group's philosophy about relationships and sex. By the end of their forty-minute chat, she understood clearly that he had four 'wives', that the Circle consisted of many fluid relationships that usually involved sex, and the major tenets of those living together in the cohousing project.

Dave had initially been intimidated and a little embarrassed in sharing so much detail with Scarlett, but she had a knack of putting him at ease and getting him to talk. He later thought he'd left no stone unturned in her questioning about the Circle.

Scarlett expressed neither approval nor disapproval of the lifestyle. She was thoughtful about it all, obviously taking it all in as a learning experience. Dave guessed that the press of being a celebrity prevented even experimenting with the lifestyle, lest they be crucified in the media that seemed to enjoy sex, but only as they defined how to make it acceptable.

As slightly lesser celebs, Ken Toomey and Patti Turner were also present. They'd flown into SRQ in the newly inaugurated Atlantic Airlines flight from Raleigh. They were living out of Dave and Alice's guest suite, but that wasn't that burdensome on anybody since the couple was on the road much of the time.

Dave had also invited the surrounding neighbors to the party. More of them showed up this time once the word got back from those that came in the afternoon about the movie stars and celebs that were present. Billionaire Owen being present wasn't unnoticed either.

To augment some of the 'spooky' decorations typical of Halloween, the Cessna 152 had been towed up the road down to the airport, and a small crane had hoisted the plane up on top of the Circle core living room just above the patio at a rakish angle. The plane had been decked out in crazy Halloween lights, and then a ghost and Frankenstein were each getting out of one of the doors of the plane. The ploy provoked lots of discussion about how the plane had 'landed' on the roof.

Dave had let it be known that families were welcome, so a few of the outsiders had come with teens or youngsters. There were also a few babies held or wheeled around by outsiders. They joined the contingent of babies Circle members brought for show 'n tell.

Bobbie was off the hook for all meals that day because of the catering. She was just enjoying herself fully. Maddy had opted to work, and enlisted a couple of local high school seniors to help manage all the babies. They'd set up a penned area in the living room, so kids and parents could see each other, but the parents didn't have to micro-manage their child. Matthew had even been enlisted to help with the' little kids', a point that made him feel like a 'Big Boy'.

At nine o'clock, there was again a fireworks show over one of the fields. Because of the lack of rain a fire truck had been hired to stand-by and put out any sparks that made it to the ground and the dried grass. Fortunately, there were no incidents. Most of the guests left after the fireworks. There was a joke around the city that had a population greatly tilted towards the elderly that nine p.m. was what was called Sarasota Midnight.

The band reduced itself to a jazz quartet playing very danceable but slow numbers after the fireworks. With the movie stars gone and the party population reduced significantly, Dave started to enjoy the party more rather than feeling he had to circulate and mingle, especially with the other execs from the utility. Almost all of them had left anyway.

Alice, too, had felt she had to mingle with others from Knightsbridge. She and the others that worked there did a credible job of involving everybody in the party activities and making them feel welcome.

Alice grabbed Dave on the way back from watching the fireworks on their front stoop with a few others. "Can I have the next dance?"

"You can have all my dances from here on out," he said as he hugged her. He turned her and kissed her, "Have I told you lately what a fabulous wife you are?"

Alice teased, "I've loosened up, right?"

"Hey, we both did."

"So did your mother. Did you see her dancing with Jim Parker -- your utility's CEO?"

"No, what'd I miss?" he spoke quickly and sounded worried.

"Just she was being very pleasing. It was a slow song, and so she plastered herself against him and the two did a groin grind for the entire song. He had a huge lump in his pants when they stopped. They even kissed."

"Oh, shit. I don't need that to be happening." Dave held his head.

"They didn't talk the rest of the evening, so I think that was just a little teasing on her part. I bet he doesn't even know the relation between Elise and you."

"I hope not, especially if she was in the role of 'bad mother'."

After the husband-wife dance, Alice went off to bid some colleagues goodbye. Dave stood for a few seconds on the edge of the dance floor, and then felt a pair of feminine arms wrap around him.

He spoke over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of brunette hair as he turned. "Hmmmm. Delightful arms. Shorter than me. Brunette. Seems very loving and affectionate. OOOH! Likes to grind her mons into my ass. Let me narrow that down a little ... would you care to dance, Patti?"

There was a small squeak. "How'd you know it was me?"

"How'd you know I was Dave? I like you and am learning your look and feel."

"I want to have you study that in depth a little later after things thin out. Could we go off again? And, yes, I'll dance with you."

Dave adopted an intimate dance posture with the woman currently living in his guest room and the girlfriend of his friend and former flight instructor Ken. She snuggled into his arms. "Oh, you are the best cuddler of any man I know. I wish you'd give lessons to Ken."

"Only if he asks, and don't go comparing the men to each other, especially in conversations. I think it could be demoralizing, especially coming from someone as hot as yourself."

Patti leaned up and kissed Dave. She wearing her flight attendant's uniform for Atlantic Airlines as her costume, but had put on some very sexy CFM heels to amplify her height and make her legs more attractive. She'd also put on a skirt that was especially short, making her about the sexiest flight attendant anybody would ever find."

Dave kissed back and promised an 'interlude' with her a little later.

Patti asked as they danced, "You were really surprised that I blended into the Circle so quickly weren't you?"

"I was astounded. You arrive, and a few hours later it was like you'd been hanging around with us all your life."

"And the fact that I'm hypersexual seemed to help, too." She laughed.

"It still helps," Dave teased. "Yes, it did. You were trying to 'do' all the men that one night weren't you?"

"I would have succeeded except that other women had worn our Roy, Paul, and Derek. I had fun with them the next evening, plus now I think I've properly consorted with all of the women, although that took a little longer."

"I'm glad you like us, because we sure love you."

"I love this. I was born to live like this. I just wish I didn't have to be on the road quite so much. I heard about one of your rants about taking control of your work-life balance and not letting a job rule you."

"What were you like growing up?"

Patti laughed, "A bit of a slut in hindsight. I really learned about sex and how much I liked it at a young age. I usually had multiple boyfriends at the same time. Before you ask, I told them that if they were bothered by that they wouldn't be my boyfriend; they had to just suck-it-up and forget any rivalry to be with me, or not be inmy Circle.

"I did all the things a cute, well-shaped young woman would do. I was a cheerleader, prom queen, on all the school committees, and then did much the same in college, except I was also active in a sorority. I joined Northern Airlines right out of school and was doing a lot of stuff to position me for seniority when Atlantic bought them. A few factors worked in my favor, so if I picked the right routes, I got to be the senior attendant. I met Ken, and bingo, here I am."

"What'd he say to get you interested in the Circle? I know you told Alice all this, but I never heard it first hand."

"We were doing a lot of flights together and we were both horny, so by some amazing twist of fate we ended up fucking each other's brains out in a lot of cities on the Atlantic Airlines route map. We fell in love, too, but we both made sure the other knew that while we loved them, we also wanted to be nonexclusive.

"Ken readily agreed with what I told him, and I asked him why he found that so easy to agree to. I'd been with other guys and they wanted to possess me; he didn't. Over a few nights, he slowly revealed about the Circle and how he'd adopted and integrated how you live into his own life.

"We had a lot of deep discussions. We were practically living together by the time the 737 about fell out of the sky. Ken managed to get us both assigned to that marketing task force, and we came and saw you. By then, I heard all about the Circle and decided it was some kind of heaven on earth, and I wanted to see if he was trolling me or this place was real.

"I knew as soon as I met you, Alice, and Pam that this was the real deal. You were exactly as Ken described. Well, Pam was a lot more pregnant than he remembered.

"By the end of my first hour here, after everyone was gathering for the Friday cocktail hour, I knew I couldn't live any place else. You might wonder what I saw in that hour? I saw a large group of people that all loved each other and was glad to be together after whatever else they'd been doing. They're an eclectic bunch, too. Nobody's the same as anybody else. All that was without the sex, but I could feel the pulsing undercurrent between the men and women. God, some of those kisses melted my nylons."

Dave posed, "So, were you attracted to the situation or the people?"

"Both. You can't separate them. The situation you have here wouldn't exist without the people and the people have created the situation they want. People are managing their work-life balance. To cap all that off, I met Kat."

Dave laughed, he could guess what was coming.

"Well, I asked Kat what she did, and I guess she trusted me from the get-go, because almost her first words to me were 'I do the editing on porn films; wanna see some of my stuff?' I briefly thought she was kidding, and so I called her bluff. She led me over to Mike and Clarisse's house but talked about Mike having a college girl and two guys in on Monday for filming, and how she had about twenty hours of videos from multiple cameras she needed to distill down to one coherent hour-long video. I started to believe her. She then showed me what she'd been working on using the computer at her workstation. My God, the film was sexy as all fuck."

"Not always the best introduction to the Circle. Some of us do have more reputable jobs."

"Oh, I found that out later, and I knew it anyway from Ken. He just hadn't mentioned Mike and Kat's business, whether by intent or his forgetfulness."

"If you haven't already, you'll be solicited by Mike to do a video. I think all the women have done a video. Hell, even my MOTHER has done a video."

Patti pulled away and looked at him, "Your mother is Elise?"

"One and the same."

"Oh, we're going to have to talk a little later."

"Is everything all right?"

"Oh, yes. Nothing bad and nothing about this party. It's just she's got to be the horniest older woman I've ever met. She wants sex ALL the time. She really is a nymphomaniac. She and Ken were together last weekend, and she about turned him inside out."

"I know." Dave said and cuddled Patti back into his arms. "She's a slut case, and I have to admit she's my own mother. Apparently, she always has been. Do you know the story?"

"Only that she started to show up in your life after your dad died a year or so ago."

"I think she tried to reestablish herself up in Ohio as a single, hot, independent widow, but discovered that men her age weren't up to snuff. She came down here, figured out what was happening with the Circle, and then put the make on everybody. She succeeded until she finally got admitted to the Circle. Now, she's waiting to have a place to live down here permanently, and then she'll sell off the Ohio home. As it is, she's spending less and less time there."

"There's more, isn't there?"

"Oh, I know what you mean. Yes, she started to drop revelations on us after she figured out that Alice and I had really loosened up and were sexually free with our affections. First, she admitted that another man had gotten her pregnant with Aaron -- my brother, or half brother as it turned out, but my father took Aaron on and was always his dad. Second, was that my father got that man's wife pregnant, and so I end up with a half-sister -- Gail Watson."

"OH! Yes!" Patti said. "I met her earlier. She's here, right?"

"Yes. She got invited. She's staying with Aaron and Shelby, since he's kind of her half-brother, too; although actually they're not officially related. The third thing my mother revealed is that she and my father were swingers for two decades. I've since figured out from little comments that although their regular parties stopped, that the two of them kind of kept in touch -- and I mean sexually -- with some of the people who'd been in their sex club.