The 80/20 Solution Ch. 09-10

"What are these?"

"They are your own set of boat keys in case old scrawny butt here forgets them again or the bitch he is married to tells him 'not no, but hell no.'" Wendy giggled with delight.

"Hey, my butt may be scrawny but it isn't old. And besides, what if she goes out to the boat and leaves without me?"

"I think in Spanish, it is 'Que sera, sera' and in Polish it is 'toughski shitinski.' You make your bed, you sleep in it." Emily replied.

"Don't worry Rod, if I left without you, I'd leave a forwarding address."

"God, I love these two women. They treat me better than I deserve."

"We know." They said in unison.

Emily resumed the discussion. "I think that we all get the drift here. A reasonable request is probably OK, if everyone agrees. An unreasonable request is an unreasonable request. I don't know how to say it more clearly than that. We have all shown today that we are reasonable and mature about this whole arrangement. I think we can start to trust and work with each other. Does anyone have a problem with that?" Everyone shook their head in agreement. "Well folks, it looks like we have covered just about everything and it is still early. Do we fire up the grill or go out?"

'I have a question." Paula said, she had devilish look on her eye. "What if one of us turns up pregnant?"

Everyone looked at her in surprise. Emily said, "I thought that we were all on birth control."

"Oh it isn't about me, I just wondered what we would do if Jim turned up pregnant." Everyone broke out in huge laughter.

When the laughter slowed down, a slightly red Jim said, "Then I won't tell you that I flushed your birth control pills last month and replaced them with baby aspirin." The laughter resumed.

Then everyone heard Nikki say, "Don't worry about it Paula. He told me that five years ago and now I'm all the way up to five month pregnant." She pushed her belly out to mimic the look.

"Aw Nikki, my sweet wife, you know that you took seriously what I poked at you in fun."

"OK, folks I think we have found that we can be comfortable around our 80."

Oddly, Jordan spoke up. "I suggest going out. The grill means a mess that someone has to clean up. We're having too much fun to waste it on cleaning up."

Rod spoke up, as the official cleaner in the house,"I second that motion. There is a barbeque place I stopped at a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't look like much but the food is great and the beer is cold. And next door is a country music club that has live music."

Seven people raised their hands in approval.

"Let's take two cars so we only have to draw straws for two designated drivers." Wendy announced. She never drank beer and seldom more than one or two glasses of anything else so she was usually a reliable driver.

Rod said, "Let's take the truck, Rod and Emily can ride in the back."

"Nice try bozo, we'll take mine or Jay's car. But it is a nice thought that I could get in a bed with Jay on a night I wasn't expecting to."

"Oh Emily, that was so bad that it was good." Laughed Jim.

Nikki's raised her voice, "Are we going with our 80 or our 20?" Everyone got quiet and looked around the room. The Rod spoke for everyone, "Who are we kidding?" and grabbed Wendy's hand and pulled her out the door. Nikki looked a Emily and smiled, "I just thought I'd ask." As she slipped her arm around Jordan and patted his ass as they went out the door.

Emily turned to Jay and kissed him, "Well I guess it's you and me, kid."

"I think that we are the lucky ones. Let's go."

She locked up and they went out to meet the others.

There was a minor discussion on who would ride in which car.

Emily walked up, "OK, each male call out a number."

"Ten" "Eighteen" "Fifty" "One"

"High and low in this car, middle two in this car."

Jay leaned over and whispered in her ear, "It turns me on when you take charge like that."

She whispered back, "I saw you last week; I turn you on when I'm a sleep."

He smiled. They were riding with Paula and Jim and decided that Jim would drive. Rod gave Jim simple directions and they were off. It was a twenty minute drive in the general direction of the lake and Rod was right, the restaurant did not look like much from the outside. The inside however proved to be much more interesting. The concrete floor was covered in sawdust. In one corner of the dining area was a section reserved for whittlers and the surrounding the walls were literally covered with hundreds of carved figures of every description. There were birds, animals and humans. There were houses, trees, boats, airplanes and scenes of various complexities. Oddly none of the figures were for sale; they were just there for show. They marveled at the display before they finally made their way to the counter to order. Half of them ordered ribs while the rest were divided between sliced beef, ham, and chicken. The side orders were basic and served in large bowls. There was a choice of cornbread or sourdough bread. Finally, there was a choice of beer or iced tea. On the whole, the choices you had to make were simple. Everyone sat at a long table with paper top; napkins were paper towels on the roll. And there were a dozen different condiments available all along the table.

Jordan was the first to exclaim his pleasure with Nikki a close second. The meats were tender and flavorful. The sauce was full but not thick or sweet. The sides did not come out of a can or the freezer and the bread was homemade. Everyone ate heartily. Several shared tastes of the different meats. Five washed their dinner down with beer while the other three has iced tea. Forty five minutes after they entered, they had their biggest surprise, the meal cost them less than $12 each. Everyone complimented Rod for his recommendation as they drove out of the parking lot and into the one next door.

It was a huge lot with the building which appeared to be quite small in back. It turned out that the building was a concession area and office which led to an open arena in back with a large number of tables covered by a metal roof. At the far end was a stage where the band was setting up. They looked at each other and decided to sit closer to the band. There were about fifty people already scattered throughout the seating area which would easily seat several hundred people. They each got a drink and walked toward the stage and selected a table just off center of the stage. It was then that they noticed that virtually the other entire side was a long dance floor.

Shortly after they had seated themselves, the leader of the band picked up the mike and walked to the end on the stage and sat down. He was a fairly tall, nice looking man probably in his late twenties with a nice voice and a slight Texas accent. Wendy told them later that he reminded her of a young George Strait. He began talking to the audience. Since they were the closest, he spent a lot of the time looking at them.

"Good evening folks, I'm Josh Thomas and we are the...," he turned to his band mates and said "What was the name we are going to use tonight?"

The bass guitar said "We're the Best Band."

The keyboardist said, "No, that was last week, this week we are the "Get a Rope Band."

Then the deep mellow voice of the fiddler said, "I thought we were the 'Not with my Woman' Band in this town.

The leader turned back to the audience, "You see folks, in case you haven't seen us before, we couldn't decide what to name ourselves so we decided to go with whatever name the audience started calling us as the evening got along. As you can see, we have picked up a couple of names in our travels, so I guess we will find out our name for tonight later on. And in case you didn't know, we do country music but that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. That's all right because we do all kind of music but in our own way. The sign out front says that we start at 8:30. We like to warm up for a while before the drunks get here so we get started a little early. And we have two new songs we want to try out tonight. So I hope you get settled in and we'll get started in a minute.

The keyboardist piped up, "He told us that you are a captive audience."

"I thought he said that they were a captured audience."

Then the drummer spoke up for the first time, "Whose going to castrate the audience?"

Josh Thomas said, "Sorry folks, you have to forgive Tom, he's our deaf drummer. Besides being almost stone deaf, he can barely read the Sunday comics much less music, but if we keep a steady supply of Kibbles and Bits coming and a bowl of beer next to him, he will play all night for $5."

"You mean I got a raise?"

"We had to, the price of Kibbles and Bits went up."

"Oh."

At that moment the drummer launched into a big drum riff that lasted about a minute. This was followed by a minute of the bass player loving the strings of his guitar. Next the keyboardist danced over the keys that Paula reminded her of an upbeat version of a Debussy opus. Finally, the lead guitarist and fiddler started a moderately paced mixture of notes the slowly evolved into a melodic pattern that evolved into a song that was probably one of their originals. Everyone liked it and were moving to the rhythm by the time the song ended. Then the leader spoke again, "In case you haven't figured it out yet, we like to have fun and we hope you do too. That's all we can hope for."

The drummer called out "Did someone call us dopes? I'll bet that is was that cute one at the end of the table there." He was pointing at Paula. "I'd like to snuggle up with her later on."

The singer looked at Jim, rolled his eyes and said "Go ahead sir, he's earned it." Jim yelled from his seat "Not with my woman." Someone in the back of the room yelled, "Get a rope!" A woman sitting across the room from them yelled "They're the Best!" Then like the beer commercials, different groups around the area began yelling their phrase back and forth to each other. The "They're the Best" group was mostly women. The "Get a Rope" Group was mostly men in the back. The men up front became the "Not with my woman" group. After a few rounds of that everyone broke up in laughter. That was broken up when the keyboardist, the guitarist and the fiddler launched into an unusual rendition ofDueling Banjos.

The crowd which had more than doubled since they sat down was obviously there to enjoy themselves and the four couples were easily caught up in the fun and banter. Throughout the rest of the evening, the songs were mingled with the banter. Several times the groups repeated their slogan wars. Every guy in the band sang one or more song, each with a different style of voice and song. Emily thought to herself that not only were these guys talented, they were enjoying themselves as much as the audience. She knew that there was a big difference between a band that appeared to be having fun and one that truly was having fun.

The music went on until almost 9:30 before the band took a break. The audience headed for the rest rooms and concession stands and the front of the room was fairly empty. Suddenly the five guys in the band were at their table shaking hands and thanking them for playing along with them. They gave the table four copies of their CD and wished them a good evening. Emily thought to herself, "Now that is good PR. It cost them 2 minutes and a couple of bucks for the CDs, but there were eight people who will be back to see them again."

The band resumed at 10:00 and when the couples finally left at 11:00, the band and the audience were still going strong. The eight walked to their cars in the now full parking lot with a nice glow. As they gathered at the cars, Paula spoke up, "I want to make a proposal that tonight be declared a special event. Jay and Nikki, may I have permission to spend the night with my 20?" Jay said it was alright with him if it was alright with Emily, Rod, and Nikki. Nikki said it was alright with her if it was alright with Jordan, Wendy and Jim. Everyone was nodding or saying "yes, I agree."

Emily finally stepped in laughing, "Alright I can take a hint although I don't think we covered this in our discussions. Tonight is declared a 20 night. BUT, all husbands must be home by 10:00 in the morning. It is still chore day tomorrow."

All of the men grumbled while all of the women expressed delight. Then Rod spoke up, "Why are we standing around in the parking lot when we could be with our woman?" Jim replied, "Not with MY woman." Everyone laughed out loud causing others in the area to look at them, wondering if they were drunk. The honest truth was that they had only had about two drinks each spread out over the entire evening. They were enjoying themselves too much. They changed cars because Paula and Nikki lived closer together and Emily and Wendy were neighbors. They would figure out the car situation in the morning.

Rod had driven Emily's car so for the first time, Emily sat in her own back seat with Jay while Rod and Wendy sat in the front.

Wendy started talking as soon as the doors were shut.

"I can't believe how great today has been. I think we were all a little nervous when we got there today, you know afraid something might spoil things. But you took care of that quickly Emily. And then the discussions and agreements went by so easily and I think everyone is satisfied with the results. Things aren't very restrictive but they keep the boundaries in plain sight. And then Rod brought us to a killer restaurant. Thank you for that honey. And this band is the best I've ever seen. I'm surprised that I've never even heard of them. But I'm going to look them up on the internet tomorrow. And now, I get to spend an extra night with my man. What a beautiful ending to a fabulous day."

Jay responded to her, "I couldn't agree with you more, Wendy. All afternoon I kept thinking not so much about what was said but how the process was working. And I've got to hand it to Emily for what she has put together. She discovered the right set of boundaries at the beginning and has kept them in focus during the trial period. I think some of us just wanted to go off in any direction. But her insistence that we go slowly has allowed everyone to adjust and adapt to the new arrangement. You could see that today, nobody was left out of the discussions, yet Emily included everything in the overall perspective and we expanded the boundaries a lot more than any of us thought possible. She has handled the whole process very well. I'm not sure that we would be where we are now if she or someone else had handled it any other way."

Rod spoke up, "Jay, I think that you have just discovered Emily's secret. She is a lot more than a beautiful face and body; she is a drop dead brilliant woman. I've known that for a long time but to be honest, it can be a little intimidating to a guy who thinks he has to control things. But she has never made me feel stupid or foolish. Although I still can't believe she gave Wendy her own set of boat keys. That is going to be a constant reminder of how an excited man can do foolish things. Wendy now constantly asks me if I have forgotten something."

"Rod, honey, do you have our CD?"

"Oh shit, I forgot it."

"I've got it right here."

"See what I mean?"

Emily added with a grin on her face, "Don't tease him too much Wendy; it might ruin his ability to come up with one of his flashes of brilliant creativity. Has he made love to you in the cockpit of the boat while talking to the guy across the way in the marina?"

Wendy flushed, "I couldn't believe it. He was carrying on in this perfectly normal voice while I was scared shitless of being discovered but was more turned on than I had ever been."

"Rod, how can you do that?" Jay asked.

"If she sits in your lap just so..."

"Rod, you don't need to pass along your trade secrets to Jay. He has enough of his own brilliant ideas. Besides, we don't have a boat to try it on."

Wendy picked up, "Speaking about that, do you guys think you might be ready to spend the afternoon on the boat with us? We'd really like that."

Emily looked at Rod who nodded, "I think that that would be great on one condition."

"What's that?"

"Wendy, you have to wear a full swim top. I don't want Jay to spend all afternoon ogling your girls and ignoring me and mine."

"Sorry Em, there are a couple of new Captain's rules. Once we turn out of the marina into the main lake, everyone on the boat is topless and that will apply to you, dear. And once we are out in the big part of the lake, bottomless is preferred but not required as long as the nearest boat is a mile away." Rod said in his captain's voice.

"Why does this come as no surprise to me? He has tried to get me naked on the boat before. Wendy, he is just pulling rank on you. Just threaten to cut him off and he will back down."

"Why would I want to spoil all my fun? Besides, I suggested the rules to him."

"Oh my God, I let my sweet husband enter into a den of wickedness."

"Yeah!" Rod responded with a big smile.

Wendy continued, "Meet us at the dock about one or two on Saturday. We'll have all of the food and stuff. Just bring yourselves and the sunscreen of your choice. We will have you back at the dock by about 9:00 so you can get home before it is too late."

Emily and Jay nodded to each other. "We will be there with at least some clothes on."

Rod pulled the car to stop in front of their house. They all exchanged kisses good night and Emily and Jay walked to the door hand in hand and opened the door. Once inside, Emily pulled him into her arms and said, "You better not be tired tonight because I have plans for you."

"Race you to the bedroom." But Jay started moving before he finished, so he was standing in the middle of the bedroom half undressed before she arrived, but she had lost all of her clothes before he finally got his pants and underwear off because he had to mess with his shoes and socks. He just picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, pulled back the covers and lay her down.

"Since I didn't know that this was going to happen tonight, I didn't change the sheets. Do you want me to...."

His lips covered hers and he kissed her passionately. When his lips sought her nipple, she said quietly, "I'll take that as a no."

They made love for almost two hours before they fell asleep.

They had coffee in bed in the morning and piddled around until others started coming by around 9:30 to pick up cars. They gave everyone a cup of coffee then Jay left ten minutes before Rod arrived.

They sat in the kitchen and drank coffee together.

Rod asked seriously, "Are you really happy with how things are, Emily?"

"I'm kind of embarrassed to tell you that I really am. I love you and have forever, but this is new and exciting and I can do the things I want to without feeling guilty or worrying that I am making you mad."

"That is exactly how Wendy and I both feel. And it does feel a little awkward to say that to your spouse when we all know that I am sleeping with Wendy and you are sleeping with Jay and I know that it isn't all sleep time. I just wanted to make sure because I need to tell you a couple of things."

Emily looked into his eyes and didn't see any pain or fear, just nervousness. "Go on."

"The reason that I wanted to get the vacation thing straightened out now was that Wendy and I want to take the boat down to the coast and sail the Intercoastal Waterway for that time. In order to do that, I've got to do a number of things to do to the boat before we go and they will take time and some money. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time and now I have a partner who wants to do it with me. I hope you understand."

She reached over and took his hand, "I completely understand. There is no way I could handle that and I've always felt like I was keeping you from something really important. I am happy that you found a partner to go with especially someone I know and trust to keep you safe. I want you to go and if you need any money to get the boat right, I'll be glad to help. My only concern is if the boat is big enough to handle that."