The Pilots Ch. 01

This story, like my others, is based on real events in my life with a significant degree of fictional license applied. I've intertwined reality and fiction often within the same sentence or paragraph. As in my other stories there is a dose of philosophy as well as more closure for the characters that you'll find in many other Literotica stories. Perhaps I've written too long an introduction before a juicy sex scene, but I find my life is like this – lots of lead in before the "good stuff." In this story a loving and romantic couple initially struggle with their togetherness and the building of a business; ultimately the story involves romance, polyamory, group sex, incest, lesbian sex, and some creative lovemaking. This story also builds some connections to two other stories I wrote entitled Circle of Love and The Experiment. I am now thinking about a sequel to this story too – stay tuned! Please vote or send me your comments. R1

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I broke out of the overcast just as the altimeter touched my decision height. I glanced out the cockpit window and there were the runway lights through the fog and haze guiding me the rest of the way into MCO. Orlando International was often foggy on mornings like this. The air was CAVU a thousand feet up – just what I liked: calm air, visibility unlimited. My wheels touched down with a sharp squeak.

"Cessna four-eight-golf, Ground Control on one-two-one-point-eight," the tower controller radioed to me.

"One-point-eight for four-eight-golf, good day" I replied. I switched to the ground frequency that I'd already dialed in on the top navcom unit, "Ground, four-eight-golf with you going to Air Services."

"Four-eight golf is cleared to Air Services," they replied; my headphones went silent again. I acknowledged the permission to taxi as I came off the active runway and started to shut down some of the panel equipment I didn't need now that I was on the ground. The airport was quiet except for activity over in the main passenger terminal.

A lineman came out and through arm motions with red batons showed me where to park. After I was in position, I shut off the rest of the plane's electronic gear and then pulled the mixture out; starved for fuel the large engine came to an abrupt stop about ten seconds later. I went through my shut down checklist, popped the door and got out. The lineman had already tied the plane down. "Thanks," I said, "I'll be here for most of the week I think." He shot me thumbs up.

I pulled my briefcase and overnight bag from the backseat and walked into the FBO's office. A few minutes later I'd checked the plane in, left contact information and gotten the keys to my rental car.

As I started to leave the building there was an attractive young woman pacing by the exit door watching the parking lot; she also had two pieces of luggage lying on the floor near the door. "Can I give you a life someplace?" I questioned, "I'm headed towards downtown and you look like you're waiting for a cab."

"Well I'm trying to get to the Intercontinental Hotel," she said. "I've been waiting an hour and I've called the taxi company twice. They keep saying 'any minute'. I should have gotten a rental." She shrugged.

"The Intercontinental is where I'm headed. Are you going to the Energy Futures Conference?"

She gave me a big smile, "Why, yes, I am. I'm tomorrow's keynote speaker at lunch." She paused then extended a hand, "I'm Kim Winslow. And, yes, I'd love a ride if it doesn't inconvenience you."

I shook her hand, "Come on then and nice to meet you, I'm Ron Hume. How'd you end up at the general aviation terminal? Did you fly in?"

"Yes I did," she offered as she collected her luggage and we exited the building into the gray, damp air. "My plane is the red and white Mooney next to your Cessna. I watched you come in. Low ceiling out there!"

We did pilot talk as we packed our stuff into the Camero I'd rented and drove towards downtown. Meanwhile I was assessing my passenger: very pretty, very professional, very smart, and at least an instrument rated pilot. Finally I asked, "What do you do when you're not flying or giving keynote talks to a bunch of energy geeks?"

"Well," she said watching me, "I hang out near Chapel Hill. I run a business there that builds specialized solar cell equipment. I have an electronics background from my undergrad. I got started about five years ago while in grad school at UNC when I was working on my MBA; I had an idea that I did a paper on and I thought I could make some money if I really implemented my business plan. Turned out I was right. So far I've paid off my student loans, my company's backers, bought a house, and most recently bought the airplane but I've been flying for years; I started when I was sixteen. Tell me about you, where do you hang out?"

"I have three of them," I responded somewhat humbly. "I have a year-around camp near Sugarloaf, Maine, a condo at the Watergate in DC, and my main home is on Amelia Island, outside of Jacksonville. I've had my own management consulting company for the past fifteen years; before that I worked for a couple of other consulting firms doing the same thing – taking people's watch, telling them the time, and keeping the watch."

She gave a delightful laugh at my very old joke. "You must have a lot of watches," she said. Her blue-green eyes sparkled; her brunette locks were pulled back in a ponytail. I noticed a beauty mole up by her right cheekbone as she turned to talk to me. Her youthful face had lovely angular features. I'd read somewhere about a study of beauty; people perceive beauty based on placement of facial features, distance between the eyes, eye shape, mouth and lip shape, and hair, profile, on and on. This young woman was exceptionally beautiful, no doubt about it. Even though she was sitting and wearing slacks I noted her trim figure. She had a healthy glow and a suntan so I speculated that she had some athletic ability that put her outside.

"If that means you think I've been in this business too long," I said to her comment, "you're probably right. I'm long of tooth and experience. I do have a lot of wisdom from all my mistakes, however." I chuckled and gave her a big grin.

"Oh, dear," she said, putting her hand on my right arm, "I didn't mean to imply that you're old or anything like that. I wasn't thinking. Your comment about watches and you look like your good at your job and …" she stuttered.

I stepped in and rescued her, "Oh, hey, I know I've got a few years on you. And, yes, I think I'm good at my job; at least I fool my clients into thinking so. These graying temples are worth an additional $400 an hour on my billing rate," I gestured to my temples. "It's even gotten easier finding people to pay twice that to have me work with them on company change projects. I seem to specialize in the energy field; didn't plan it, just happened that way. It's taken me around the world several times, but not in the Cessna."

We had a great banter all the way to the hotel. I parked and we strolled into the lobby carrying our luggage. I gestured for her to go to checkout first, but I was standing close by. At the desk she said, "Reservation for Kim Winslow."

The clerk glanced at the two of us and said, Mr. And Mrs. Kim Winslow."

"Oh no," she said. "That's just 'Miss'." This gentleman has his own reservation.

"Be with you in a moment, sir," the clerk said, ignoring her faux paux.

She finished registering and I went to the desk, nodding what I thought was goodbye to my pretty hitchhiker. I did my check-in and when I turned Kim was still standing there by our luggage.

"Ron," she said, "I don't meet many pilots as nice as you are at these events and, well, would you be free for drinks and dinner?"

"I think that's supposed to be my line, isn't it?" I smiled with a big grin then added in a less teasing tone, "Yes, I can think of nothing that appeals to me more than being with you this evening. And, I mean nothing in the world."

"Great," Kim said. "Me too. I'll meet you over there," she gestured toward the lounge area, "in about thirty minutes."

We headed for the elevator. Both of us were on the twenty-second floor it turned out, she kept going past my door just as I found my room number. Her room was two doors down. I said, "When you're ready to go, just bang on my door!"

"OK," she yelled over her shoulder as she disappeared into her room.

Twenty minutes later I heard a light rap-rap-rap at the door. I was ready. I came out to meet her pulling the door shut behind me. I gave a cheery greeting, bowed and offered my arm; Kim took it and moved in close to walk down the hall with me. My heart skipped a beat. We were happy together.

We each nursed two glasses of wine in the lounge as we explored each other's lives for over an hour. I'm pretty good at interviewing since it is an integral part of my job. I interviewed Kim; she was very open, level headed, but had a sense of innocence and an invincible air about her; in a very short time I felt I'd known her for years and I'd learned a lot about her life. I marveled at the maturity and business savvy of this thirty-three year old. She had a company with over a two-hundred people working in it that was growing in a tough and highly competitive market; further she had more ideas about what she wanted to do with the company and her product line than there was time to pursue them all.

I finally suggested dinner and we walked across the hotel lobby to the upscale restaurant. We were offered a choice of tables and picked a booth that the two of us slid into. I felt privileged to sit next to this young go-getter. She scooted over to be closer to me than I expected; my heart skipped another beat.

Kim then turned the tables on me; her interview skills were good too. In a few minutes she'd learned I'd been a widow for over three years, my wife had died of cancer. I'd flown since I was a sophomore in college, had two grown and married daughters and three young grandchildren, and was also running a vibrant strategic consulting business and keeping ten 'stringers' busy. She picked up that my business skills were about changing things – big things in a big way, and we talked about areas of the energy industry that needed transformation. The dialogue was electric between the two of us.

I finally said to her, "OK. Now it's time for the nitty-gritty questions that reveal the real you … and me that we haven't talked about. I'll flip you for who goes first."

"No, I'll start," she laughed and asked, "Do you have someone you're close to? Someone in your life?"

"Score!" I said with a laugh. "No, right now I'm single. I've had lots of offers, mostly from divorcés. They're very nice but I'm looking for a comfortable relationship like I had with my wife; it was unconventional yet very supportive of our personal and spiritual growth and evolution. I just haven't met anyone that turns my switch on yet." I paused, "Now it's my turn. You don't wear a wedding ring so I presume you're single, yet you are one of the prettiest and most talented women I've ever met. Is there someone special out there?"

"Score!" she said with a bigger smile. "No, I'm also very single. Like you I've had offers but nothing that turned my head. I don't date because I'm so wrapped up in my company. My social life is sort of limited. My sister June thinks I should use computer dating but I'm just not up for it yet." After a pause, "OK, my question. What do you mean by 'unconventional marriage' and growth and all?"

"Well," I began, "after my wife and I'd been married a few years, we realized that we weren't too happy with each other or our marriage. The discussion went something like 'You're not making me happy.' A lot of our friends were in messy divorces, some were fighting over custody of kids, house, pets, music collections and so forth, and just about everyone else we knew was 'just settling' for a sad state of affairs in their marriage." I looked at Kim to see if I was boring her; she nodded to encourage me to continue.

"Anyway, we said we both wanted more, a lot more from our relationship – any relationship, so we started listing the things that we felt would make an ideal marriage and tried to figure out what we'd have to do to change or make them happen. Cutting to the chase, we both finally affirmed that we were responsible for our own happiness; neither one of us could be the sole source or cause of the other's joy. There are lots of implications when you say that. We had to really change our mindsets."

"Next we talked about commitment because that was the big buzz phrase that everyone was talking about when it came to being married or building a relationship. We came to realize that 'commitment' as it is used around most relationships means you'll adhere to a set of rules, some created in the relationship and many created by society. We made a list of a lot of the rules and didn't like most of them; they were really restrictive and prevented our growth and development. For instance, as a 'committed husband' I could never have offered you a ride today; I could have if you were a guy, but not to a woman. I could have dinner with a guy, but not a woman I'd just met. When we started to throw out most of the rules we really had a lot of implications that we talked about."

I went on, "Lastly we embraced the concept of unselfish and unconditional love – a friend helped us with this part of things. We realized that many of the sources of our growth and development were outside of our marriage. We had to be willing to have each other go into the world and grow and develop without fear, jealousy or distrust, and while they were out there in the world to accept and love other people without conditions … or rules. This is where our spiritual side comes into play too; we weren't too religious but we were spiritual. Loving someone you've just met is really a novel idea, but we'd realized that there wasn't enough love in the world. To us it meant an unlimited way of being and of helping others in their being."

"Wow," Kim said. "That IS unconventional. Did it work?"

I laughed and said, "Only for the twenty-five years we were married. We loved each other dearly and I miss her. Her name was Mindy and I think of her all the time."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Kim offered as she put her hand on my arm again.

We continued to converse through dinner then coffee then found ourselves back in the lounge nursing more wine. We talked and talked. Finally the barman came to our table and told us that they normally closed at two o'clock in the morning. We'd lost complete track of time.

"Can I see you again tomorrow?" I asked hopefully. "Er ah, later today?" I added.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Kim said as we got in the elevator. We made arrangements to meet after her luncheon keynote. She held my arm again. With her low heels on, the top of her head was just below my eye level. I could smell her, a feminine aroma that I'd treasure for the night.

At the door to my room she released my arm and took a step towards her door. She then retraced the step and kissed me, not on the cheek but on the lips. "Thank you," she said looking into my eyes. "You taught me a lot about myself tonight. I want to continue our conversation tomorrow." My heart skipped two beats.

In the morning I registered at the conference and attended a few sessions, did some networking with a few of the hundreds of people attending, and then went into the luncheon. About a hundred round tables were spread out across a huge ballroom with eight or ten chairs per table. There was a dais with about ten seats. Lots of people were milling around. As I usually do, I took a table in the rear so I could sneak out if things were unbearable. Food arrived in waves. Finally the moderator stood and started the introductions.

Kim Winslow was introduced as the youngest, most influential person in the room, a person who was going to change the face of energy technology, etcetera, etcetera. She was the newest member of the Young President's Organization, an honor she'd failed to mention to me. I felt privileged to have such a person as my friend even before the introduction started, now I was wowed by a few facts I learned about her that she hadn't mentioned the day before.

Kim's address to the 800 people in the room was visionary. She has an engaging and energetic speaking style and she painted a new picture of energy provision in the world that was dramatically different from the conventional and yet did it in a way so that every person in the room believed they could contribute to making it happen and more importantly they wanted to make it happen. The speech was later published in the conference proceedings and is well worth the read. Now, as I look back, much of what she said is coming to fruition. Kim got a standing ovation.

I greeted a few of my friends and colleagues as I milled around the ballroom and then slowly wound my way up toward the dais to shake her hand as many others were doing. I hung back a little so she could collect her well-deserved accolades but she saw me.

"Ron," she yelled out above the din. "Come here, join me." I closed the gap to her as she continued in an animated discussion with a dozen people, some of who were the conference leaders. Much to my surprise she gave me a hug when I reached her; it was a polite, professional hug, the kind friends give to each other. She whispered in my ear, "If I'm not through here in ten minutes you throw me over your shoulder and carry me out of here." She grinned as we parted.

Kim gave me a stellar introduction to her colleagues. Suddenly I was in the inner circle of the futures conference, a nice place to be. Much to my surprise there were business cards exchanged and upon learning a few of my credentials an invitation by the moderator to speak at the conference the following year – as a keynote. I glanced at Kim and she gave me thumbs up.

At the ten-minute mark I made eye contact with Kim and she nodded at me. I said in an audible voice so others in the circle could hear, "Kim, we have a conference call in ten minutes and we need to talk about a few things before then." She acknowledged and said, "Oh yes," made polite goodbyes and thank yous, and we headed out of the ballroom.

"Whew," she said. "I've never spoken to a group this large. Could you hear my knees knocking?" She led me towards to the elevator and as the doors closed she latched onto my arm again. "It took me five minutes to find you in that room; I was worried you'd skipped my talk. I really wanted you to hear what I had to say; I want your thoughts about it. I talked to you the whole time."

"I'm honored," I responded hugging her arm into my body in a polite way. I prattled on about how wonderful her talk was as we rode the elevator and then I asked, "What is your pleasure for the afternoon? I'm all yours. More conference? Play?"

She looked at me sideways and then in a slow childish voice said, "Play. I want you to take me to Disneyworld." She leaned up and kissed me on the cheek after I'd said I would.

The afternoon got more romantic as it went on; we were drawn to each other on so many levels. We walked through the amusement park and even went on a few of the rides – those without a waiting line. We talked about everything – family, business, consulting, homes, hobbies, and more. Neither one of us planned our hearts skipping around, it just happened. We touched each other – deeply and tenderly, but a little tentatively a first. Maybe it was because each of us was lonely, or alone, or away from home, or maybe there was a cupid flying over us frantically shooting arrows into our hearts.