Loosening Up Bk. 05 Ch. 05-09

The following Monday afternoon, Dave was chatting with Derek in his office when Donna interrupted at the door. "Excuse me, Derek, but Mr. Parker wants you in his office. Something is up. I think the chairman is with him. The board met this morning and there seem to have been lots of secret meetings with the other execs since lunch. I've heard nothing in the grapevine but I'm sure you'll tell me." She gave him a conspiratorial grin.

Donna was usually the source of complete and accurate information, both personal and business, about all doings in the electric utility. Somehow, she'd become the hub for information. If someone was expecting a baby, having an affair, experiencing marital difficulties, or if some department head was having a series of bad days, she knew about it or anything similar. The only consistent messages in the rumor mill were how poorly the utility had reacted to Hurricane Marco. The influx of help from out-of-state utilities that continued helped the utility dig out from the damage from Hurricane Marco.

Derek slipped on the jacket that went with his suit. He muttered aloud so Dave could hear, "I bet this is more fallout from Hurricane Marco. We still have homes and areas in the state without power. This may be painful. I hope I survive."

Dave said, "If you don't survive, I don't survive, and nor do a lot of other people who've been working like crazy. If only we'd followed more of the recommendations Nancy and I put together after visiting Puerto Rico and talking to the utilities on some of the Caribbean islands."

Derek waved over his head as he headed out the door. Dave snuck a kiss with Donna, and then headed back to his own office.

A half-hour later, Donna appeared at the door to Dave's inner office. She looked grim. "Dave, they want you in Mr. Parker's office. Derek hasn't come back, so he's still in there. At least two of the other vice presidents are in there, too, along with the board chairman and the president."

Dave cursed, "Shit. This is probably not good."

Donna hugged him as he went out the door. Sheri Seaton and Nancy Mason had been sitting with him. Nancy had just started back at work after delivering Sarah Lynn. They were going over the triage criteria for restoring power to the remaining citizens in the state. There were still pockets of outages as well as about two thousand individual homes not included within an outage area just in Sarasota County.

As Dave reached the outer office of James Elsworth Parker, the CEO of Florida Power and Light, his secretary Pam Ellis indicated that he should go right into the luxurious quarters. In the room in the rough circle of chairs and on the sofa sat Chairman Smith, Parker, Derek, and four of the other VPs. Dave moved around the outside of the circle to the only open chair but didn't sit until Derek gave him a nod.

Jim Parker said, "Thank you for coming up to this unanticipated meeting, Dave. I'll tell you right off that there are major changes in the structure of the utility executive corps that you are about to become part of."

Dave nodded and said, "Yes, sir." He remained grim, expecting the sword of Damocles to fall on his head any second. He thought, 'At least Alice had a good paying job'.

Parker went on talking mainly to Dave, "Effective today, I have been relieved by the board of my position as CEO. Derek Wilson will replace me, and you will be replacing him as the new Vice President of Lines. My premature retirement results from the way the utility handled things during this past hurricane and several prior storms. We all know that you and Derek put forth many recommendations that we did not follow and I even overrode some of them with what turned out to be bad judgment. One of those was marshaling all our resources in each county in a single location. We suffered a lot of damage we wouldn't have otherwise. In our opinion and that of the Board we would be considerably better off as would be the citizens of the state if we had followed your ideas."

Dave sat in shock. One of his best friends was becoming the new CEO and he was moving into his position as a vice president of the utility – perhaps the most important one given the problems with the past storms, especially Hurricane Marco.

Derek looked neutral and appeared to want to hold a glum look. Occasionally, the corners of his mouth would turn up betraying his happiness about the promotion. Dave knew there were many other changes that Derek had wanted to make in the organization of the company, and now he'd have a chance.

Parker had continued talking, but the words weren't entirely sinking into Dave's cerebral cortex. He was itemizing some of the major ideas that the utility hadn't followed that had come to bit them: concentrating the trucks turned out only one; hardening key substations and lines; the use of underground feeders for vulnerable facilities, especially in heavily treed areas were others. He went on and on.

Parker said, "At least, I'm leaving a financially healthy company in Derek's hands." He turned to Dave, "I think you're well positioned to get a rate increase to invest further in hardening the lines across the state, too. The state utilities commission seemed sympathetic to such a request when I talked to the chairman last week. You should make that in the very near future as a priority."

Dave blurted out, "What will you do?"

Jim laughed, "Play golf. Take my trophy wife to Europe. Pay more attention to her and our friends. Get laid. Devote my time to several charities I've supported with money but not my time. I have a growing list. I sure won't be bored."

Just then Margo Cummings, the head of public relations appeared at the door. She spoke towards Jim Parker as he looked up and waved her into the room, "I have a draft press release for your consideration." She had tears in her eyes. Apparently her mentor and one of her favorite people in the company was being dismissed. Her voice had a tremor in it and her hands were shaking.

Parker held his hand out and she passed him the two-page press release. He slowly read it and then passed it to Derek. Derek scanned the pages and then gave it to Margo. He said, "This is fine. Get that out as soon as you can. Why don't you set up a press conference if anyone is interested tomorrow at ten a.m."

Margo nodded and left. Dave heard the stifled sob just as she got outside the office. Jim Parker was very well liked; he would be missed.

Author's Note to Readers: The books,Road Trip andCrystal Clear are works I wrote and published. They may be found in my list of my contributions here for your reading enjoyment and under the author's names TLCgiver and Romantic1.

"Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God." Nancy's voice carried partway across the patio from the gazebo. Several of the other lovers laughed despite being in their own throes of passion and lovemaking. Her voice was so strident and needful. She was with Dave and Sheri.

In the middle of the patio, Nancy was feeling Dave's large cock slowly stroking smoothly into her warm interior for the first time in months due to her pregnancy and the recovery from the birth. Sheri Seaton sat on her facing moaning from the tongue-lashing she was receiving.

This was a series of firsts for Sheri: first threesome, first time enjoying sex with another woman – she was truly enjoying what was happening to her cunt, first time with a guy who was more than one year older than she was, first time having sex with others around in a group setting, and first time in a kind of orgy situation where other people were swapping partners. Her initial embarrassment ceased when she realized that no one paid much attention to any of the others also making love on the patio.

Sheri had grown up a nerd because she excelled in mathematics. In high school she took every AP course they offered and scored easy A's. In the ACT and SAT tests, she could be counted on to have perfect or near perfect score in the field. With that background, she'd been funneled into STEM classes, and then electrical engineering in college. She joined the utility right from school and was assigned to Nancy as for mentoring and as a coworker.

Overtime, she lost some of the nerdiness. She dated, and Nancy coached her on her personal life including her then lackluster wardrobe of chinos, men's shirts, and cloddish shoes.

As soon as Sheri started to wear skirts, some low heels, and colorful tops, the other engineers at the utility started to beat a path to her door asking her for coffee or on more serious dates. Sheri went on dates, but soon developed a reputation as an ice queen because she didn't do anything beside a few kisses to encourage the men. After a year, Sheri dressed better but was again devoid of much of a social life.

Sheri watched Nancy and her interaction with Dave, her boss. Dave was so nice and so solicitous of her. He always stopped and talked, and when Nancy went off on maternity leave he proudly announced that she was her replacement during the planned leave. Sheri went as far above the norm for performance as she knew how to do, spending hours working at Nancy's job and her job, and then even at Dave's job. When Hurricane Marco came, she quickly volunteered to take his place as the County Emergency Center, and once there worked tirelessly, even round the clock a few days. Her work did not go unnoticed by Dave, the rest of the utility, or others at the CEC. Sheri got a couple of awards for her diligence and effort, both from the utility and from the county because she helped out in so many ways.

Sheri was naturally curious and it didn't take a Ph.D. in psychology or intelligence analysis for her to realize that there was something special between Dave and Nancy. She felt certain that the 'something' included sex, but also a lot of love. They often looked longingly at each other and there was no hesitation for them to touch one another – a hand on a shoulder, or comfortable sitting very close on the sofa in his office going over some designs or letters. She'd even caught them kissing a couple of times.

Her idea of a special relationship got further reinforced one day when Alice came by the office to collect her husband for a lunch date. Alice hugged and kissed Nancy like they were long-lost cousins, but then there was something else, something sexual she was sure. Alice was 'in' on whatever was going on between Dave and Nancy.

Sheri worked up courage and finally asked Nancy one day, "I detect some kind of special relationship between you and Dave. Am I right?"

Nancy laughed, "Yes, and it's not exactly a secret. We don't advertise it because we work together and he is my boss. He's Sarah Lynn's father and I love him dearly."

Sheri held in the reaction of surprise that almost made her blurt out something inappropriate. She just said, "Oh. I thought so." She assessed and ran through other information in her data banks and said, "I thought he was married."

Nancy chuckled, "He is – to four lovely women. Alice, who you met here a week or so ago, is his legal wife, but their family also includes Pam, Julie, and Heather ... and I guess Cricket is almost part of the family, but they haven't made it official. She's off working on her book, screenplay, and a movie in Hollywood. Not bad for someone that just graduated from the university."

Sheri tucked all that information away, carefully assessing each piece. She wanted to definitely ask more about her boss' boss having four or five wives. She knew of her own naiveté and wondered whether Nancy was teasing her.

"Nancy, did I understand you to say that Dave Prentiss has five wives? You sounded like you're not one of them."

Nancy looked at her watch. It was eleven-thirty in the morning, and late enough for an early lunch. Nancy took her friend's hand, stood, and led her towards the door. "Come on, we're going out to lunch and I'll tell you about the Circle."

The term 'Circle' didn't mean much to Sheri. She recalled hearing some oblique references to a 'Circle' by Dave or Nancy in their offhand remarks with each other, but she found it meaningless. She knew that there had been some parties that some of the higher-ups went to at the Circle, too.

Nancy decided that a picture was worth a million words. She drove Sheri to the Circle enclave, pulling through the electric gate and up the access road to the homes. She drove completely around Circle Drive and then parked in front of Dave's home. She pointed out her townhouse as she drove by.

Nancy led Sheri into Dave's home, gave a brief tour that emphasized the double-width king-size bed and immense master bedroom. Nancy commented that she'd been in the room many times, and loved making love on the big bed, especially when some of her dearest friends were beside her.

Nancy's tour of the core included brief introductions to Mike and Kat who were having lunch at one of the high top tables. Kat was only wearing her usual monokini. Julie had been reading, but came over to meet Sheri; she was nude. Holly was sitting at one of end of one of the long dinner tables with papers spread out in front of her; she waved but was on the phone. She, too, was nearly naked.

Bobbie came out and saw the guest. She was wearing a monokini. After introductions, Bobbie said, "If you haven't eaten yet, there are still some great leftovers from last night's pork roast. I can prepare two plates for you with salads. Hot or cold?"

Nancy told Bobbie that cold would be fine and they followed Bobbie into the core living room, dining area, and kitchen for the interior tour. They visited Maddy and the kiddies in the nursery. Nancy picked up and played with her daughter. A few minutes later Sheri and Nancy sat at the kitchen counter eating the great leftovers.

Dev came into the kitchen area searching for food. He gave Nancy a really long hot kiss that made the water in the sink boil, and told her he wanted to be 'with her' later, some terminology that meant only one thing to Sheri. The couple would have sex with wild abandon. She marveled at Dev; his muscles had muscles, and he looked like a movie star all handsome and tan.

Sheri said after he'd left, "Is that your boyfriend?"

Nancy replied, "Oh, no. Dev is married to Wendy. He was a contractor until a week or so ago when he sold his business at a huge profit. He's getting ready to do something else with his life besides build stuff; that's why he's around here during the day."

Aaron came through the core and changed his path to give Nancy a kiss and another invitation for later. She accepted his invitation, too.

After Aaron had gone, Sheri said, "You told both men you'd be intimate with them later?" She turned her statement into a question at the last minute.

Nancy laughed, "Yes. The Circle is a place where we love each other and we willingly share ourselves with each other in every way you can imagine. I'm horny all the time, so the situation can be very satisfying – loving many men, that is. I do love multiple men – and women."

"Intimately?"

"Very intimately," Nancy confirmed. "I love both of those men, if that makes you feel better. I love all the men in the Circle."

"How many are there?"

"About two dozen, and I also love the women. I didn't know I loved the women when I became aware of the relationships that Dave was involved with, but as I learned and then participated, I became enthralled with the way we live. I have never been happier, more loved, more loving, and truly content than I have since I came here."

"How many women are there?"

"About forty, I think."

"Wow. And, if I understand you, everybody has sex with everybody else?"

Nancy laughed, "Yes, but not all at once. I haven't been with Dev or Aaron for several weeks, so tonight we'll rededicate our love for each other."

"Will you see both of them at the same time?"

"Maybe, but more than likely I'll be with one of them after dinner and then connect with the other around ten o'clock. I might spend the night with one of them depending on whether they need to be home with their wives or have another promise to fulfill."

Nancy went on to explain how the Circle was formed, how the initial founders decided to live together and created the cohousing project, and then how the group had grown and expanded as others adopted the way of life.

Sheri asked, "Why shouldn't I be interested in this lifestyle?"

Nancy shrugged, "Maybe you are. If the major tenets don't offend you, and you don't feel that unrestricted sex is a sin, then maybe you do belong with us. Alice, Dave's wife, claims that we're all really devout hedonists and nymphomaniacs."

Sheri explained, "Nymphomania is actually hyper-sexuality. A person who wants to engage in sex all the time."

Nancy nodded, "You just perfectly described the sixty or so people here and a few of our outside friends." She laughed. "Come on; we have to get back to work."

Sheri stewed the rest of the week about her exposure to the Circle. She had learned that Derek, his wife Emily and of all people his girlfriend Abby, Donna – Derek's secretary, Dave, and Nancy were all members. She figured out that Ron Wonder, one of the new EEs in engineering also visited all the time. She also learned that Owen Bennett the billionaire belonged, and that Ken Toomey, the heroic pilot of that Atlantic Airlines jet that crashed in Kansas, also belonged with his fiancée. She grappled with the concept of Dave having five wives. She liked Dave and thought he was one of the most grounded and nice men she'd ever met. He wasn't at all flakey or hippie like. Nancy had also explained how eight of the university's most recent graduating class were also hanging around, hoping to become members in the near future; Ron was one of them.

Nancy invited her to come back on Saturday afternoon to swim and hang around with everybody. She explained how Sheri would get a further look at how she and Dave lived. Nancy did explain about the routine nudity that would prevail so that if Sheri came, she wouldn't be freaked out.

Sheri examined every principle and value that she felt important, and analyzed them in the context of returning to the Circle and considering herself a candidate. She made lists of things important to her, values she held sacred, and thought about her mission in life. She had always felt she was too tightly wound, too prim, too prudish, and even too quick to judge. She hadn't judged what Nancy told her and showed her, and found her lack of normal behavior somewhat strange. She wanted to loosen up, and maybe the Circle was that avenue.

Just before the close of business on Friday, Sheri had finally decided to make the Saturday visit that Nancy had suggested. She thanked Nancy for the invitation and confirmed that she would be there shortly after lunch. Nancy reminded her about how to gain access and gave her the code to use on the entry gate.

Nancy was breast-feeding little Sarah when Sheri arrived late Saturday morning. She was also only wearing a monokini. Another woman was with her, Erin, with a baby about the same age also nursing. Nancy explained that they both birthed minutes apart in Dave's guest room during the hurricane. She said, "That was appropriate since Dave got us both pregnant the same night nine months earlier when we had a threesome with him." She laughed and so did Erin. They treated the sex and resulting pregnancies and births as so normal and not something to hide or be embarrassed about.

Sheri set down her large bag and paused. Nancy nodded at her, so she removed her top exposing her modest breasts in 'public' for the first time in her life. She quickly sat down and joined the conversation the other women were having about one of their new friends named Scarlett and the role she was due to play in some movie. Nancy passed her suntan lotion and indicated she should apply some to her breasts.