Chapter 160

March 10, 2018

Dear Ms. Diary,

Despite the clear, blue sky when we rose from bed, our air was gloomy, and my mood was not helped by the poor night’s sleep I had gotten. None of us were looking forward to the multi-family discussion this morning. My mind began wandering through the multi-family ... discussion Thursday night. When I realized that I was wallowing in self-pity, I breathed deeply, then slowly made my way out of bed, then headed to the bathroom. At one of the sinks after flushing, I carefully went through the discussions Thursday night here and Friday morning at lunch. After some time, I am not sure how long, but not all that long, I perked up. While I was pondering something that suggested that today might not be too horrible, Meka walked in and went straight to one of the stalls. I quickly rinsed my mouth with the mouthwash we use and waited for her. I said nary a word as she washed her hands and rinsed her mouth, then wrapped me in a tight embrace and laid an intense kiss on me. Huffing a bit for air after we separated a couple of minutes later, I told her what I had realized about the Thursday-night discussion and asked her if she took the same meaning from that that I had.

She thought for a few moments, then replied, “That’s interesting, and I missed that, too. However, I suggest that we not count on it.”

“Yes. That would just provide more roller-coaster effects. Hopefully, I can banish that to the back of my brain for this morning’s ... talking-to, discussion, whatever.”

We decided to start on breakfast for everyone, so traipsed upstairs. We were well into making breakfast burritos when Heather and Celeste joined us.

“How can we help?”

Meka answered Celeste, “Set the table and get out drinks.”

We had nine chorizo-potato-egg burritos in the warming oven as the rest of our housemates straggled into the kitchen.

Partway into eating, Kim said, “This is one of the ... aspects of living here that I like most.”

“What,” asked Rhee, “our own private chefs to have breakfast waiting on us?”

While that could have been taken as a dig at Kim, it was not and she did not take it that way, instead smiling at Rhee and responding, “The teamwork, is the best way I can describe it. Everyone just ... does what needs doing, whether it’s Meka and Beth having breakfast ready for us, Liya and Gracey immediately working on the house’s information-and-security system when it hiccups, or Heather and you being our ‘what-did-we-forget-before-leaving-for-the-day’ team.” Just a month ago, I could not imagine how much ... ummm ... behind-the-scenes work everyone does to make our lives together run as smoothly as we can make them. While it took me a while to realize the importance of ... all that, I now understand how critical that effort is for us, as it greatly reduces the number of stupid, little things that can crop up that might cause tension within the house. This is so different from ... my parents’ house.”

There were loving looks passing around the table when I responded, “We try very hard to anticipate prob...”

Kim cut me off, “I understand that, but what I meant is that it’s only just dawned on me ... how ... extensive your efforts are and have been at anticipating problems.” She sighed, then added, “I haven’t been pulling my weight. Since I’m sure ... absolutely positive, now, that this is where I belong, where ... I need to be, I need to do the work that helps to enable ... this ... all this.” I began to respond, but she gave me the stop sign and said, “I know that I don’t have the strongest history of making good choices, and planning ahead. I know that we’re all on edge about this morning. I know that there’s at least some chance that I may have to ... divorce the LA as a result of this morning’s upcoming ... discussion. But if I don’t, I’d appreciate everyone allowing me to throw myself more completely into this life. I’d appreciate you suggesting ... anticipatory tasks such as those you readily take on. I’d appreciate you allowing me to take on a larger portion of the huge efforts that are required just to feed us. I’d appreciate ... I’d love it, Beth, Liya, whoever, if you’d take me on as an ... apprentice at grocery shopping or some other task that would both make your lives a bit simpler and help make our life together smoother.”

Liya beat me to standing, walking behind Kim, and hugging her in her seat from behind.

She kissed Kim’s crown, then asked, “What do you know about heavy-duty lawn care?”

The Jacobs-Webster family arrived around 10:30, bringing the inchoate, low-level anxiety screaming upward into ... I am not sure how to describe it. Suffice it to say that I was nervous and a bit fearful. I was surprised when Steph smiled at Dad and the Moms as they entered through the front door. However, I found her expression impossible to parse when she looked over those of us LA members here for this meeting. We had all but Celeste and Andy present of the sexual part of Las Amadas and were sitting on chairs brought from the kitchen, which allowed the six parents to occupy the comfier couches and loveseats. As they sat, they curtailed the arrival chit-chat, although Steph eyeballed Lana as she joined us, with Heather offering to share her chair.

Sandy said, “Steph, you have the floor.”

“Thanks, Sandy, and thanks for inviting us to, what could be an antagonistic meeting, but which I very much hope will not be. Matt and I enjoy your ... clan, I guess, and we’ve greatly appreciated the impetus your daughters provided Brett to get himself out of his ... self-imposed shell. Girls, I tell you that, too. You’ve been very good for Brett, and we’ve very much enjoyed his more open, happier personality. I assume that ... all of you being here, now, indicates that what Brett and Lana told us last night is true. You are ... all involved. Yes?”

I was sitting at the left end of the first rank of chairs, and I did not look behind me, but I assume that all of us nodded or gave some indication of agreement.

“We ... found their ... words difficult to believe, but couldn’t imagine any reason for them to make up a tale so ... seemingly preposterous. However, I recalled that on Thursday, Sandy kept mentioning Beth and the other girls ... plural. I admit that I missed that then. Beth, you’re obviously the ... I don’t want to say ‘ringleader,’ as that has a negative connotation. You’re the leader of a group of girls with whom Brett, as he says, is in love. Would you provide a ... brief synopsis of how something like this came about?”

I thought for nearly ten seconds, then nodded. While what I said may not have been as brief as she wished, I started in first grade. I explained how I had really liked him then, liked his intelligence and his sense of humor. I then explained how over the years I had kept hoping that he’d come out of his case of shyness into which he’d almost disappeared in second grade, and how that had never happened. I told her about inviting him to our lunch table in the fall, how he’d gradually become more and more open, and less and less shy. I explained how I had become guardedly optimistic about him, then somewhat giddy as he threw himself into conversations, and exercised that sense of humor, that intelligence. I explained how inviting him to be an assistant for the team had made him have to interact with more than 30 girls and zero boys five days a week at practice or games, how that had seemed to bootstrap him into higher levels of comfort, not just with the lunch-table gang, but also with the members of the team. I summarized how and why the feelings of attraction and interest in him all those years had changed, deepened, and become love.

She and Matt continued to let me speak, not interrupting once, so I backed up, and briefly explained about the Go5, its transition to a gang of a larger number of girls, girls that were all intelligent, fun, and ... very interested in Brett. I explained how we came to agree that, if we could get to where we wanted to go, we would share him, but only if he truly wished that. I explained that, if he wished for only one or a few of us, then we would decline the opportunity because we were then a group of girls committed to the group, that he needed to want a relationship with all of us, and not even one fewer girl than all of us.

“He seemed quite willing.”

“I would imagine so. I would think that you might be hard-pressed to find a 14-year-old boy that would not be willing.”

“Ah. But none of us has ever known a boy other than Brett to whom we would even ponder making such an offer. Brett is one of only three ... males that all of us consider as really great guys, and the only one of those three that is less than 40 years old.”

“All of us are somewhere left of the heterosexual end of the spectrum of sexuality, and most of us are probably on the other side of the midpoint, a few are probably rather far from that midpoint. We are not interested in Brett because he’s one of the most attractive boys we know, but because he’s kind, loving, intelligent, funny, fun, and witty. He makes us laugh. He makes us sigh. [Allusion intended.] He makes us stare at him in wonder that any 14-year-old boy could be ... so wonderful, so nearly perfect.

“Steph, Matt, the marriages of four of the five mothers of the original Go5 members failed. Discussions we’ve had at our lunch tables got us thinking that it may be better for a ... female to find and hang onto a really great guy, even if she had to share to have him, rather than each having 100% of the wrong guy. Personal experience with Rhee’s, Gracey’s, and Liya’s parents provide some data in support.

“In summary, we each love Brett, we all love Brett.”

The silence that followed was deafening. Steph and Matt stared at me for at least 30 seconds. Even Dad and the three Moms stared at me. Eventually, Steph looked over the LA, then looked at our parents, then back at me.

“Given that you wanted Brett to have his fertility tested, I assume that you have not had sex with him.”

“We ... none of us has had sexual intercourse with him. We have had sex ... of sorts ... with him. We ... cooperated to get him to ... ejaculate into the jar for his fertility test. That is the only time any of us has ... handled his penis.” My face went scarlet, but I kept my head up, my eyes on her face, then added, “That is highly personal information that we would prefer not to share with anyone. The only reason we were willing to share it was that we would prefer not to have to wait three years and 12 days before we could be with him again.”

Steph dropped her chin in surprise; Matt’s expression was not much less surprised.

I decided that this was the time, so said, “Steph, Matt, we love Brett, and he loves us. We want Brett, and he wants us. Despite that every one of us is strongly sexually attracted to him, we’re all smart. We all have post-high school plans that do not include being pregnant or being mothers before holding college degrees. We are being very careful with him, and have had many conversations with him as to what we want, and where we want this to go. While we girls understand that any one of us could succumb to desires in the throes of passion, we don’t. In addition to our individual strengths, we have two other sources of ability to resist temptation. The first is Brett’s moral compass and his ability to say ‘no’ to us. The second is that no one of us is ever alone with him.”

That last sentence created another pocket of surprised silence, but a silence that was ended, surprisingly, by Brett.

“I guess I had never realized that, but it’s true. The girls have told me ... a few times ... that the single largest threat to our relationship is jealousy among the girls. We’ve had many discussions in that vein, with a few of us or all of us. I’m rarely with fewer than four of them and am usually with most or all of them. And, Mom, it’s just so incredibly ... wonderful ... just being with them. Sitting on the deck with Brit painting our nails; sitting at the lunch table talking about anything and everything; socializing with all the parents on Wednesday evenings; socializing with the Williams clan and some of our families on Thursdays; sharing ice creams at Katie’s ice cream parlor; having Meka drive us all breathless during soccer workouts at the pitch near here; riding in the Sprinter on the nearly four-hour roundtrip to rescue Char; bantering with Civia and her friend Maren while we make home-made pizzas. I’ve never, ever enjoyed my life so much as I have since I pulled myself out of my stupid shyness and let these girls into my life. I love them all so very much.”

This time, everyone was staring at Brett. After at least 15 seconds, Steph looked at, then appeared to be communing with, Matt. He shrugged with a small smile on his face. After a while, she looked at our parents, then at each of the LA, ending with Meka.

“Aren’t you a bit old for him?”

“Am I? What’re three years? Yes, for most in high school, three years is a chasm. I certainly had no interest in or intention of falling for him. But I liked these girls so much, that I began spending time with them at lunch, then here with Beth’s amazing ... super-family, and, then, there’s the soccer team. He was, seemingly, always around, being this somewhat quiet, sort of shy, but incredibly witty guy, that could hold his own against me in lunch-table repartee. I wasn’t looking; not at all. But you raised an amazing son and inculcated him with values and beliefs of right and wrong. You two are obviously good parents because Brett is a really great guy. The heart wants what the heart wants, and mine wants him.”

Meka’s voice went a bit liquid in the last few sentences, and Steph’s eyes widened at that.

Another period of silence, with Lana breaking it, “Aunt Steph.”

She said that in an odd voice, with an odd inflection, so I turned to look at her behind me. She was focused on Steph, so I looked at her and saw her close her eyes and tilt her head onto her back. More than 15 seconds later, she brought her head back down and opened her eyes.

“My favorite niece, who is more like a daughter than a niece, told me that there are two more ... girls in the group. Is that right? They’re in college. Yes?”

I was aghast that Lana would reveal such damaging information but then thought back to the way Lana had said what she’d said and the set of her face as she looked at Steph. Perhaps she was helping and not hurting, so I focused on Steph.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I want to know the truth ... solely to know with whom my only son and only niece are with. I ... we care very much for both, but Lana knows that Matt is five years older than me and ... that we’ve been dating since before I turned 16.”

I couldn’t help it, my eyes widened of their own accord and my eyebrows raced to my hairline, but I now knew what Lana was doing.

With the first words out of his mouth since the greetings, Matt said, “We want to be involved in our children’s lives. We understand that we can’t save them from all scraped knees and bruised hearts. However, what Brett and Lana described is so far outside ... expectations, outside of our ... understanding, that we had to look into ... this.” He looked at the parents and asked, “How do you see this relationship?”

I was surprised that it was Dad who replied, but not at what he said.

“Beth and Rhee have been thick as thieves since shortly before they turned nine. Because of Carol’s marriage beginning to crumble about then, Rhee spent a lot of time with us. There was the expected amount of bickering and disagreements between them, but as they aged, the relationship seemed to generate less friction. By that point, Gracey and Liya were becoming fast friends, and the four of them did a lot together. However, last summer, Heather suddenly entered their lives, and that seems to have been the catalyst for something of a sea change in their group relationship. It became much closer, and they spent a lot of the summer together, running around in our house, planning how to take over the world.

“They did almost everything together, and seemed not only to revel in that togetherness, but they all seemed to shine more brightly than they had before. A month or so into this school year, Cera and Brit became attached to them, and we began hearing about them more often, seeing them quite often. Brett was a boy that Beth talked about a lot in first grade, but not much after that, but his name began popping up in conversation again last fall. The eight of them ate lunch together every day, at least that’s what it seemed like from what we heard from our girls. Then they all began spending time here, starting in December, with the amount of time they were here quickly increasing through January. Like the Gang of Five, the eight of them were obviously very close, and some of the seniors from the team began joining them regularly, particularly Meka and Kim. Now, they have a committed group of 14 centered on Beth and Brett.

“We’ve seen no signs of dissension, and they talk about their group something like a couple talks about their marriage. They’re very open with us, letting us know what’s going on in their lives, in their relationship. Sandy, Carol, and I think that our ... plural marriage, to which we added Inez this winter, has ... influenced how the Go5 members look at committed relationships. I know that Beth, in particular, but the Go5 in general, loves easily and ... fiercely. The five of them are something like Mama Bears when it comes to their ... relationship group and those two features seem to me to be something of the foundation of their group.

“All 14 of them, even all the freshmen, are wonderfully reliable and responsible, including your two. We parents have a relationship with them more like close adult friends than adults and children. We greatly enjoy them being in our lives.”

Steph, who had been looking at Dad as he spoke, turned and put her forehead on Matt’s right shoulder, which encouraged him to put his right arm around her. Steph stayed in that position for nearly a minute, then picked her head up and turned back to us.

“Thank you, Beth, for being honest and open with us. Even though I was hoping for a more concise summation of your relationship, I did appreciate the background, which seems particularly important for the basis of how ... this ... got going. Brett was obviously interested in you in first grade, and, from a few things he let out over the years, he never seemed to lose that interest. It is heartening to hear that you had maintained some interest in him all these years despite his inability to talk to you.”

She breathed deeply, then continued, “I ... we would like to meet the other two girls ... or women, and would like to spend some time with some or all of you, at least occasionally. If Brett’s going to have a ... committed relationship, I’d like to get to know his ... girlfriends better. While we did not at all appreciate your trying to go around us, we do appreciate that you’re being careful and not rushing into sex. We would prefer that you ... Do you have thoughts about contraception?”

Thankfully, and a bit surprisingly, Kim responded, “We don’t know what we’re going to do, but Dr. Lopez gave us information about a variety of options. We’ve been wondering about IUDs but know little about them. The failure rate seems to be much better than that of The Pill, and that – the failure rate -- has been the facet of contraception that has seemed most important to us, given how many freshmen are in our group. Speaking of which, in case neither Brett nor Lana has told you, we’ve named our group Las Amadas, a name that Lana suggested.”

“That sounds Spanish. What does it mean, Lana?”

Lana said, “That’s Gracey’s family’s first language, so I’ll let her explain.”

Gracey explained the various uses of the term, then said, “I think it’s very good for us because our group has ... something of an adjunct member that is not involved in the ... potentially sexual aspect. We love Civia, so ‘beloved’ works for her as well as for my beloveds.”

“And your beloveds are the other 13 of the group?”

“Yes, certainly.”

“As I said on Thursday, I want to be involved in any decision-making about contraception. I’ll probably be able to get Ginny’s ... Lana’s mother’s notarized authorization for contraception, but... [Lana squeaked, and Steph and others looked at her, but Steph continued] ... nothing could happen until our return.”

“Of course,” Kim responded. “There’s little chance that we could come to any sort of firm conclusion about contraception before then. I’ve volunteered to be the group’s lead on the topic, as, at least among those of us here, I have the only experience with it. I’ll be gathering information from a lot of sources, and I’d appreciate any knowledge or help you could provide if you’d be willing.”

Steph stared at Kim for a few seconds, shook her head rapidly, and responded, “You’re one of the seniors. Right?” When Kim nodded, she asked, “And you’re interested in Brett enough to ... need contraception?”

“Yes, he’s not yet 15, but he’s like no other boy I’ve ever met. I didn’t really see that until I moved into the house with the girls, but I’d not really paid any attention, either. Steph, your only child is ... He’s a wonderful man. In fact, more of a man than most of the seniors at Central. I sort of wish I’d met him before I went ... boy-crazy around 15. Of course, he’d have been only 12, and that wouldn’t have worked. But, because I didn’t meet him then, I have experience with the other end of the spectrum, boys that really weren’t worth the time I spent with them.”

Steph asked Meka, “Did you have the same experience with your classmates?”

“I was never interested in any of the boys at school. There are a few good guys in our class, and Rachel, one of Kim’s and my best friends, snagged one of them a couple of years ago and has never looked back. For the most part, though, I never considered any boy in school worth the effort ... until Brett entered my life.”

Steph looked at Meka, shook her head in incredulity, smiled, then said, “Perhaps we could invite all of you for a meal sometime after we return from Thailand.”

Liya replied, “We’ve got a lot more room, and we’d like to invite you two for a meal. We cook most of our own meals, and we’re reasonably good at it. I think we wouldn’t poison you.”

Steph and Matt smiled at her, and Matt said, “Since we seem to have decided not to object to Brett being involved with you girls, we need to get to a few of the seemingly endless list of tasks we need to complete before leaving on the 20^th. They’re both welcome to stay here tonight and Wednesday night, but we’ll want them around on Saturday, as we think we can carve out a significant chunk of the day to spend with them. If it’s all right with ... the various powers that be, we could drop them here on Sunday afternoon, the 18^th. We’ll probably be manic on the 19^th, and our flight on the 20^th is very early.”

Since everyone seemed to be waiting for me to respond, I said, “Thanks. We’re always happy to have them with us, as it somehow doesn’t seem quite right when they’re not.”

Once Matt and Steph departed, I stepped into Kim’s space and kissed her hard. She responded in kind and kept the kiss going for at least a minute.

“What was that for? Not that I didn’t like it. I certainly did.”

“Thanks for taking on the contraception task.”

“Oh. Well, I was just saying this morning that you should give me more tasks, so this one seemed relatively right up my alley.”

“I still appreciate that you jumped in and grabbed it.” I looked at her for a couple of seconds, then stated, “You’re a lot happier now. You were quite pretty before, but you’re even prettier happy.”

“I am. Happier that is. I’ve made love with Meka twice, now, and I’ve gotten to be ... sexy with Jim, and I’m beginning to think about setting up loving nights with ... all my wives. I don’t know how this ... happened, but I’m now very much into girls. At least, our girls.”

“And I’m very much getting into you, Kim. I’d like a night with you when you’re ready.”

“Oh, you’ll get that, ‘cause I’ve found somewhere inside me a very strong desire for you.” She gave me a peck on the lips, then added, “Meka and I have been talking ... between bouts of sex. Could you and I plan a night sometime... [she looked behind her briefly] ... a surprise for Meka, when we get all of our blondes together and send her to the moon?”

“I’d love that, Kim. If you want, I can start working on the ... skullduggery.”

Kim giggled, grinned at me, grabbed my head with both hands, and kissed the daylights out of me.

After lunch, which was somewhat later than we usually eat, we gathered in our bed.

“I call this meeting of the Las Amadas to order. We will be discussing the agreement and possible amendments, some with the possibility to change the agreement substantially. Who wishes to start?”

Heather said, “I volunteer ... Meka for that task. Even as our de facto agreement enforcer, she seems to feel, like many of us do, that we should revisit most or all aspects of it to see if it still fits our needs.”

Liya asked, “Don’t you mean ‘wants?’”

“No, I need to show Brett my voluptuous figure more often.”

There was much laughing, but Brett solemnly said, “You might not be voluptuous, Heather, but I love your body.”

That got Brett a 96-pound dynamo slamming him onto his back and lying on his prone form looking into his eyes.

“Brett Jacobs, except for Charlie, I’ve never, ever felt for a guy the feelings I feel for you. And, even though it will be female choice when we get fully into the family, I tell you now in front of my sister-wives that you can have me anytime you want. I’ll willingly take your cock into my mouth or pussy anytime. You may fondle my pretty little titties or adorably cute ass whenever you want. I love you, Brett.”

“I love you, Heather, and I tell you that even if it weren’t female choice, I’d still offer all of me to you whenever you wanted it.”

“Oh, god. Brett, you know I’ll be wanting it a lot.”

“I hope so because from what all the girls say, making love with you is incredible.”

Meka said in a deadpan manner, “Would someone find me my insulin dose, please?”

There was much laughing, and Heather grinned at her, then climbed off Brett, and returned to her place.

Meka began, “I think the best way to deal with this is to take a vote on whether we want to relax the clothing rules. If we vote to do that, then we should have a discussion about how much to relax them.”

Brit responded, “Wouldn’t that vote need to be unanimous to make a change? If so, what happens if there’s only one vote against it?”

I broke the subsequent silence, “Let’s step back a bit. I think Brit’s point was that with the unanimous vote required to alter the agreement, a single nay vote could generate antagonism. Perhaps we could just talk about what we’ve thought of the past couple of weeks in which we’ve put some of the rules in abeyance more than once. How did we feel about that? What was good about it? Was there anything bad about it?”

Brit responded immediately, “Since I’ve, at least in the past, been among the most conservative, I’ll say that I’ve enjoyed the shared nudity with Brett, primarily because I’m no longer hesitant to show him my body. Part of that is that I’m becoming used to it, but another part is that I’m not ashamed of my body anymore. Yes, I was only 10-15 pounds overweight, well, as much as 20 at times, but, while I’m not a hard body like Meka, I very much like myself, now.”

Many of those within arm’s length of her put a hand or two on her, and Lana even gave her a wolf whistle.

“Thanks, Lana. That change was mostly due to you, my spouses, being encouraging. The final part of all that is that it now turns me on a lot more to have Brett looking at me naked. While I’d still like to take it slow on the way to intercourse with him, I would not mind – actually, I’d like it if we could increase the amount of time we’re naked with him. He’s proven that we can trust him not to push us. I’d also like it, if we do increase nude time with him, that we greatly restrict ... touching of erogenous zones. If it were just Brett and me, I’d ask that we be ... naked quite a bit, but only very slowly bring in the full array of places we could touch each other.”

Lana bowled Brit over, lay on her, and kissed her hard. She also snuck her right hand inside Brit’s shirt and fondled her left tit for a few seconds.

Brett said, “That’s something that I’d like to be a larger part of our time together, nude or not. I like watching you girls ... do stuff with each other like that. You know the sorts of things that make you feel good more and better than I do, and the more of that I see, the more I learn.”

Rhee asked, “Do I understand you to mean that you’d like the girls to do loving and sex in front of you?”

“I don’t know that I’d say it precisely like that. It’s more that I’d like you to feel ... freer to initiate stuff when I’m with you. I know you all love each other and have sex with each other. I’m mostly talking about the sort of fun stuff that you do like Lana just did. I don’t want it to be two ... or three ... or whatever of you having sex to orgasm in front of me. I guess I just want to unshackle your playfulness with each other.