5 comments/ 8386 views/ 3 favorites The 80/20 Solution Ch. 09-10 By: TexasFarmBoy 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 of Dueling 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. The 80/20 Solution Ch. 09-10 "It is big enough for the Waterway but I wouldn't want to take it too far offshore. So don't worry about that. We can keep in touch although there might be areas where phone service is blank. I'll give you an itinerary and areas where we should be able to talk. The main thing is that I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support in this. It is a long time dream and I would hate to go if I didn't have your support. Have you and Jay decided on what you want to do?" "No, he mentioned today about renting an RV and traveling the little out of the way roads around the state. We are going to look into that. I don't think that either Jay or I are 'fly to a resort and sit in one place' kind of people. So an adventure like this fits both of us well. We'll see how it works out." "I know a guy at work who has a really nice RV. He rents it out to a few people that he knows and trusts. I think he mainly wants to keep it running and not sitting getting dirty and rusty. I'll ask him about it, if you want?" "That would be great. I'm sure that most of the rental places will have high prices for mostly worn out stuff. I think we would like to consider it. You said there were a couple of things you wanted to talk about. What is the other?" "It was dependent on the first. I said that I have a lot to do to the boat. One of those things is to overhaul the engine. It is one thing to crap out on the lake and another for it to crap out in the middle of nowhere. That is going to take a lot of time. That and the other things that need to be done can be done on weekends but may take more than every other weekend to get done. Wendy wants to learn everything about the boat. She is a wonder about it. So I don't have a schedule or anything but I might need to ask for a weekend or two and maybe even a night or two during the week to get it all done. And Wendy wants to be with me while we do it. That would be a lot of special nights based on what we talked about. I don't want to short change you and Wendy doesn't want to hurt Jordan, but we'd really like to work together on it. So..." "You want extra time with Wendy although it sounds like work time, right?" He nodded. "I can't think of anything coming up except your birthday that I need you for specifically other than the normal routine, so I say go for it, but I want you for your birthday. As long as Jordan is OK with it, I'm fine just let me know when. Are you going to overhaul the engine yourself?" "No. I can save $1000 if I pull it and take it to the shop for the work but I'm going to let them do the work. They will reinstall it when it is done. I will probably start pulling it next week. This is their slow season and they gave me a good quote so now is the time to get it done. Once that is done, most of the rest of the work can be done on weekends. We might need a week night or two in June if things don't go smoothly which they seldom do on a boat. But I think that that is it. Wendy is talking with Jordan today about it." "I'm OK with it. I have a new girl friend I recently met; I can use the extra time to get to know her better and I might just con Jordan into cooking dinner for me some night. Just get it done right. I want you safe." "That's a deal." "If it's OK with you, I'm going to take short nap. I then promise to get all the chores done." "Jay and I slept there last night and I haven't changed the sheets yet." "That doesn't bother me. I'll be up before noon." And so the second phase of the 80/20 relationships began to evolve. There were a few minor issues that came up but they were easily resolved. They settled into an every other week schedule like it was normal. Emily noticed that there were more special events than she expected. When she looked it over, it seemed that almost all couples found a reason to have an extra night with their 20 during the two week separation. But she heard no one complain. She and Jay spent their weekends doing a wide variety of activities. They had double dates with each of the other couples several times. Things were going smoothly but she could tell that everyone was looking forward to vacation week. True to his prediction, Rod spent several extra weekends on the boat. She spent the time with Sandra or doing some extra work. She even took Sandra to a dinner which Jordan prepared. Nikki also came explaining that Jim had been called out of town. They all had a great time getting to know each other and teasing Jordan, the lone male. She and Jay had rented the RV from Rod's friend for a reasonable rate and spent the vacation week roaming the state and never spent more than an hour on a major highway. They made love every morning and every night and a couple of times in a farmer's field. They added hundreds of photographs to their personal album. Rod and Wendy had a ball sailing the Intercoastal. Paula and Jim went to Boston and hit every show and museum in a 100 mile radius. Jordan and Nikki went to Seattle and spent the week eating in every restaurant they could find. They fell in love with Pikes Peak Marketplace and bemoaned that there was nothing like it near home. The first Friday Night back lasted late as each couple talked about their fabulous vacation. There were a lot of pictures to share. Toward the middle of July, Emily noticed a subtle change in Rod. He seemed a little more remote. Jay said the same seemed to be true about Paula. On Wednesday, Paula called her at work and asked if she could bring up something at the Friday night get together. Wendy asked the same thing. While not knowing anything for sure, Emily had the feeling that their cozy arrangement was about to make a major change. She didn't know who might be hurt and how the change would affect everyone else. Friday night, she went to Wendy and Jordan's with a serious look on her face. Even Rod asked if she was OK. He had also been pre-occupied for over a week but she answered him with "I'm OK. I just have a couple of things on my mind." When they arrived, Jay met her at the door with a kiss. He looked at Rod who just shrugged his shoulders. Jay took her hand and led her to the love seat and got her a glass of wine. She just held it between her fingers. Once they were settled, Paula stood up and began, "Hi everyone. I told Emily that I wanted to present the group with something and she agreed. I then talked with Wendy and she has a similar problem so we are both going to talk tonight. Please bear with us, this may take some time. When Jim and I went to Boston for vacation we had a great time as I have told you. What I didn't say was that one of the museums had a posting for an internship. On a whim I applied for it. I didn't for a minute think I would even be considered. To make a long story short, I have been offered the internship in Boston from September until after Thanksgiving. In the meantime, Jim discovered that an old college friend has started a business up there who needs the skills Jim has. As a result we have been talking about possibly going up there for the next three months to take advantage of these opportunities. I talked to Jay Wednesday night about it. I know that it is sudden but we have to make a decision quickly. Jay has given his approval to go. Jim also talked to Nikki about it on Wednesday, and she has also agreed. Now we want this group's input. We aren't sure how to proceed. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Wendy." Wendy stood and started to speak. "Actually, it Is Rod who needs to talk but he is still uncertain about what he wants to do. I have pushed him to bring it to the table tonight. Please be gentle with him. Honey, the floor is yours." She took Rod's hand and pulled him up. Rod began hesitantly, "Like Paula, I found something while on our vacation. I found that I love the freedom of sailing the open waters. The thought of going back to a job in the office almost made me sick. We went to a boat show while down there and I found myself captivated with a boat designed to sail blue water. To make a long story short, I no longer dream of a week on the Intercoastal, I dream of sailing the Caribbean for two or three months. I found out that I can get work in almost every small town and port wherever I go. I have not gotten my thoughts clear enough to even mention it to Emily yet. This is the first time she has heard this. Wendy talked to Jordan last night but I don't know what his reaction is. In short, I am terribly confused and I don't know what I want to do. That's my story." Everyone was silent. Everyone was waiting for something to happen. Suddenly Emily handed Jay her untouched wine and she stood up. She had a stern resolve in her eye. "I am hearing that four of our spouses want to go away for three months with their 20 and leave the rest of us to fend for ourselves. I am going to pull no punches and I want gut wrenching answers from the four of us when I ask. First, I have never denied Rod his dreams. Some of them I can't or won't be a part of but I love him too much to deny him anything. But this is by far the biggest thing he has ever dreamed about. It is life changing. It could bring about the end of our marriage. Rod, I will not deny you this dream; I am scared, I haven't had any time to think this through, but I trust you and will not stand in your way of fulfilling your dream." She looked Rod squarely in the eye as she said this. She turned to Jordan and looked him in the eye, "Jordan my big hearted friend, my husband wants to go away for three months of freedom on the ocean. He wants to take your wife of ten years with him. How do you feel? I'm not asking what you think; I'm asking what you feel." Jordan cleared his throat. "Emily, to be totally honest I don't know what I feel. I love Wendy and that won't change but since she has discovered sailing with Rod, she is a changed woman. I love her more now than the old Wendy. She is kinder, softer, and gentler. Whatever Rod did to her or for her, I am eternally grateful. On a selfish level, I will miss her if she is gone for three months, but I will survive. I have you, my friend, and Nikki, my lover, to lean on. I would survive without you two, but I will survive more easily with you two at my side. Last night I said these same words to Wendy. I don't know what the future will bring, but I am not afraid of it. That is about the best that I can say." Emily leaned forward and kissed his cheek and then turned to Nikki. "Nikki, my sweet, sweet friend. Your husband wants to leave you alone to spend time with his 20 in Boston. What do you feel?" Nikki looked directly into her eyes. "Emily, I am scared. I have never been alone and had to deal with all of the responsibilities of a house, a job, and all that. I love both Jim and Jordan but in different ways. I could survive and live without one but not without the other. I am not as strong as you are. I need support. I have known for some time that Jim isn't real happy at his job here. I wouldn't deny him the chance to change. But as long as I have Jordan to lean on and friends like you I know that I will be OK. That is the best that I can say." She held Jordan's hand the entire time. Emily leaned forward and kissed her cheek. Then she turned to Jay. Tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Jay, my lover and friend, your wife has an opportunity of a lifetime but the price of her taking it is leaving you alone. You have me if you want me, but that may not be enough. What do you feel?" She held his eyes with hers. Jay reached out and touched her cheek. "Emily my love, you once said that most marriages were 60% compatible and 40% differences. In Paula and my case, I think that it is more like 50/50. I have always known that she has a free spirit that if I tried to control her, I would either destroy her or destroy us. I love her because of that free spirit. I sometimes wish I had more of that in me. So like you, there is no way on earth I could deny her this opportunity. I knew the day I married her that there was a high risk that I might lose her one day because of it; but I accepted the risk then and I accept it now. I like Jim and trust him. I would not feel nearly as good about this if she was going alone or with somebody I didn't know. I have concerns about keeping up the house like Nikki said. But I have you and I know that I can count on Jordan and Nikki for support. So I am neither afraid nor scared to let this happen." Emily leaned forward and kissed him on the lips and whispered, "I love you." She stood up and pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment while deep in thought. Nobody made a sound. Finally, she opened her eyes and began to speak but her voice sounded tired. "Here is my proposal. For now, all discussions about ending marriages or divorce or anything like that are put on hold until at least December. All of our marriages are put on temporary suspension. Nikki and Jim and Paula and Jay, put your houses on the market as soon as you can. When they sell, each of you take half of the proceeds. Jay will come live with me and Nikki will live with Jordan. The four of you pursue your dreams with all of our blessings but I am afraid we aren't going to be able to provide much other support than our thoughts and love. We will all get together probably in December after you get through and we will see where we are at that time. That is my proposal. It is the best that I can come up with. Now if you will excuse me, Jay if you still want me, take me somewhere and fuck me until I pass out. If you don't want me, I understand, I'll go get drunk or get laid on my own." Jay stood up and went and took her hand. "You aren't going anywhere without me. Friends please excuse us." And he led her to the door. But Emily stopped and turned back to the group. Tears were running down her face. "I want to apologize to all of you because I love you all so much. When this started, I saw the opportunity to add more to all of our already good marriages. I knew that there were risks but I probably didn't pay enough attention to them. Now I feel like I have presided over the destruction of four marriages of people I like and respect so much. And I don't like myself very much. Please forgive me." She turned and ran out the door with Jay in close pursuit. He caught her by the street and put his arm around her and led her to her house. He used his key to open the door and led her inside. She turned to him and said, "I may run you off, but I don't want you to tell me you love me, don't say nice things about me, just use me. Fuck me, don't make love to me. Fuck my mouth, fuck my pussy, spank my ass, fuck my ass. I don't care. Take me, use me." He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom and took her clothes off. Then he took his off. "Alright cunt, get your worthless ass on the bed." She did as she said. "Now suck my cock and I want it sucked like you mean it. Now!" Her mouth took his cock inside in one movement. She sucked on it and licked and grabbed his balls. He rolled her on her sideand slapped her ass cheek. Her efforts were intensified. "Get busy cunt. I want you to suck me until I cum down your worthless throat. And you better not spill a drop or you will pay dearly." She redoubled her efforts. He spanked her several more times when he felt her slow down. Finally, he shot a load of cum in her mouth. "That was a pretty pathetic effort. Get up on the bed and play with yourself until I am ready to fuck you and you better be good and wet because I'm not going to use any lubrication." She stuck two finger in her pussy and began fucking herself. "Play with your clit too, cunt. I like watching a slut getting herself all hot." She put her thumb on her clit and began to rub. Soon Jay's cock was hard again. "Alright slut, get on your hands and knees. I want your pussy and your ass." She got on all fours and he positioned himself behind her and found that he easily slipped into her pussy. He soaked his finger in his mouth until it was very wet and carefully put it against her puckered opening and pushed the first joint inside. She gasped. He stroked his cock in and out of her several times. "OK cunt, now I'm going to ride you until I cum again." He pushed his finger deeper into her ass and began a constant rhythm in and out of her pussy. In spite of himself, he came inside her before she was ready. He pulled his cock and finger from her. "OK slut, on your back, spread your legs and hold them up with your hands. And don't you dare cum before I tell you to." He lowered her head and began licking her slit and paying special attention to her clit. He probed her opening with his tongue and tasted his own cum as it sought its way out of her. He wet his finger with her own juices and reinserted it into her ass. His tongue continued its assault on her clit. Finally he could feel her response start to build. Thankfully, he sucked her clit between his lips and began sucking on it. When he knew that she was there, he said "Cum for me now slut, cum for me now." He took her clit back in his mouth and he felt her let go and waves of pent up energy began leaving her body. He released her clit and removed his finger and scooted up and held her in his arms until she finally passed out. He pulled the covers over her and went to the bathroom and washed his hands. Then he went to the toilet and threw up. When he was finished, he rinsed his mouth out and then turned off all of the lights and crawled in to next to her and held her in his arms. Emily rolled over when she smelled the coffee. The bed was empty next to her. She didn't remember much about last night after she had run out of Wendy's house. She remembered Jay walking her home and putting her to bed. Suddenly she was horrified. She might have said or done something stupid or worse to Jay. She heard a knock at the door and hoped that it would be Jay with her coffee so she could apologize to him. The door opened and Rod stepped in with a tray and two cups of coffee. All of a sudden she was afraid that her worst fears had been realized. "What's going on and why are you here and where is Jay?" she rambled. "I'm here because I'm your husband and I want to talk to you. Jay is in the kitchen feeling sorry for himself." "Oh God, I have to go talk to him." She started to get up. "No. Sit and drink your coffee. You can see him when we are through; I want to talk to you first. Honey, ever since I first met you, I have realized how smart you are. But I have also seen a flaw in you. It isn't noticeable to everyone but I can see it every now and then again. Remember when you lost the Jenkins account and how you beat yourself up over losing the account. You had worked your ass off for over a month and he still took his business down the street. But that showed your flaw. Like all smart people, you get so deeply involved in things that when things don't work, you only see that you failed and you don't see what is plain to others. Old man Jenkins didn't leave because you failed. You offered him more and better for less than before. But you never saw the truth that he is a cheap old bastard. He went down the street because they offered him a lot less for less. He's already pissed at them and is ready to move on to the next guy who will offer him less for less. It wasn't you at all. What happened last night wasn't your failure. Now let's go to the kitchen and eat some breakfast. You need to mend some fences with Jay." "I'm afraid to face him." "Bullshit. Now get out of bed or I'll drag you out there." "I don't have anything on and I'm a mess." "Who the fuck cares? Come on." She got out of bed and he took her hand and led her down the hall. They found Jay sitting in a chair in the kitchen his head in his hands. "Jay, here she is. She is your problem now." Rod went further in the kitchen and poured another cup of coffee and leaned back against the counter. He reached in his pocket and pressed the speed dial on his phone, waited for it to ring, and then shut it off. The 80/20 Solution Ch. 09-10 Emily looked at Jay and said, "I'm sorry Jay. I think I let you down." "You let me down? Like hell. I am worried that I hurt you or said something that pissed you off. If I did, I might just go somewhere and hurt myself." He pulled her into his lap and held her. "What are you talking about? I'm the one who was stupid. All you did was stand by me and show me that you love me." Before he could reply, the front door opened and five people walked in. Jordan and Nikki carried platters of food. When everyone was in the kitchen, Paula said, "Last night's meeting will reconvene. There is only one item on the agenda and Wendy is the only one allowed to speak. "Can I at least go put some clothes on?" Paula replied, "Who the fuck cares? Sit there and listen." Wendy stepped in front of Emily and started to speak. "Emily, you are my best friend in the world but I'm going to yell at you this morning. You are not responsible for a damn thing that has or will happen between any of us. You showed all of us a door. That is all you did. Each and every one of us, for our own reasons, decided to enter that door not because you wanted it to happen or forced us to go through it. I was feeling stale in my life. My life wasn't bad and I didn't stop loving Jordan. Frankly, I wasn't treating Jordan with the love he deserves. I needed to grow as a person. You showed me a way. I decided to take advantage of it. In the process, I fell in love with Rod too, not because I loved Jordan less but because each one brought a different fullness to my life. In the process I found out that I loved sailing. Rod was the means to find that out. But I could go sailing on my own if I wanted to. But because I love him, I would much rather sail with him than sail alone. He is still teaching me things and I am still growing. And guess what, he has started growing again too. He is discovering new things about himself. And this is true for all of us, not just me." "We talked a lot after you left last night. We have all looked to you for guidance and advice, but none of us looked to you to tell us what to do. Most of the time, your advice has been dead on and we follow it because we decided that it is the right thing to do, not because you told us what to do. Rod and I and Paula and Jim aren't running away from our marriages and our spouses. We are pursuing something important to each of us. But you forgot to consider something important. Like you, Jordan would never follow me on this kind of adventure. He has his own dreams and now he can pursue them also. And guess what, he has Nikki to share those dreams with because her dreams are very similar to his. She wants to learn more about becoming a baker. She has no desire to go to Boston. She wants to stay here and look into opening a bakery. Jordan wants to open a cooking school and maybe write a cookbook. I can't speak for Jay because he wasn't there. He was taking care of you." "None of us knows what we will feel or will happen in three months, six months or three years. We all might be married to our spouses or we may not be. We don't know and no one can tell us or control what will happen. But I can tell you one thing for sure, when I come back in three months, I will be a different Wendy. Jordan will be a different Jordan. We will deal with that when the time comes. And if Jordan and I don't continue as a couple, it won't be because we don't love each other; it will be because we love each other enough to let each other continue to grow as we need to." "What you did last night wasn't presiding over the end of our marriages. You gave us a road map on how we can grow. All of us were concerned about how to make this all happen. In very simple term you gave us plan that would satisfy everyone and we could all chase our own star. Where the roads lead, we will find out eventually." "Now if you ever try to take responsibility for my life again, tell me. I'm going to take you across my knee and spank you until you give up. You are not allowed to take responsibility for my life. End of statement. This meeting is adjourned. Let's eat breakfast before Jordan's creations get cold." "I guess I owe everyone an apology." Emily replied. "No honey; everyone owes you a thank you." Wendy said as she reached for a cup of coffee. Emily turned to Jay and looked in his eyes. "Do you still love me or did I ruin that?" "I love you more this morning than I did before because I saw so much more of you that I hadn't seen before. I am upset because I had to do and say things that I didn't want to do but I felt I had to do in order to help you through last night. I hope I never, ever have to do those things again." "Do you think you can live with me for three months?" "I can live with you for longer than that, but we will only look to the next three months for now." She leaned in and kissed him. "Can I put some clothes on now?" "Who the fuck cares?" Rod brought two plates of food and set them on the table. He then kissed Emily and said, "Emily, the only reason I would even think of doing something like this is if I knew that someone I trust would be with you not to take care of you but to share with you. I trust you; I trust Jay; and I trust you both together."