Halloween Postlude - Pt. 05

This is a kind of bridge story; so not as much sex and a lot more exposition.

We set up appointments with three Berkeley realtors, even though Ellen's house was across the line in Albany.

Two were sharp, young and excited to list the two homes and help us buy a third one -- if a little uncertain about how our relationship -- which we'd explained except for the fact that Ellen's new baby was mine and that we were all fucking -- would look to a bank.

But I had a ton of equity in the Northside house; I'd spent two years at DFJ as a senior analyst and my bonuses the second year had almost paid for the house. When Ellen and I split up, I took out a small mortgage to refi the smaller one I'd had and pay her $50k for a down payment on her house. Her parents had kicked in a little more and so between our homes, we had equity.

The third broker was different. She was maybe twenty years older than us, hair the even color of a good dye job, and a been-there-done-that-cashed-the-check kind of style. She looked at the three of us as we explained our story and nodded, with her tongue firmly in her cheek.

"Mmmkay. Let's think about how to do this in a way that won't tie all of your hands together quite so much. What if there was a way to keep each of your homes and buy another one? There's a lot of equity here. I might be able to get you a private loan cross-collateralizing all three properties. You could rent the two you have and generate some income, and when you decide to split up... the properties... we could have release provisions that allowed the loan to be paid down and release any one of the homes."

For the last twenty years, we've sent her a box of bakery cookies and a damn good bottle of wine, because hiring her and executing on that decision paid for all the kid's college. She's retired in a home up in the hills above Sacramento, and we're hoping she's got dozens of clients who she guided as well as she guided us.

One of her minions walked our houses and gave us a list of things we needed to do in order to maximize rentability. Ellen's house... a small Craftsman-esque three bedroom in Albany needed the most work, so we decided we'd move her and Ted into our four-bedroom while we did it, then shop.

In parallel, we did a lot of negotiating and wound up with a LLC that was held by the three of us who owned half equally, and half by a trust we set up for Ted and any children born to Ellen or Shelly between now and three years from now.

The new house would be owned by the LLC, and each of us would keep ownership of the house we started with.

Then we needed a formal contract on money, which we treated as an update to the provisions of Ellen's and my divorce. She'd pay rent and we'd pay rent to the LLC as well as a portion of the new three-house mortgage. We decided to pool the risks of renting and simply treat the net rental income as going toward the mortgage, with a shared set-aside for maintenance vacancy at the end of the year (I did mention that I was an analyst and structure guy for a VC, then a bank?).

Finally, we needed a personal contract. We didn't ask the lawyer to help with that. It was a kind of a Constitution for the next three years. We talked about it over the weeks and then took a Friday off to try and agree.

This had three pillars: 1) kids first -- everything we did needed to center on giving the kids a loving, consistent, and united experience of us as parents. Ellen and Shelly had already worked through much of this around Ted when we got together; 2) we're committed to make this work for the three-year window it would take for Shelly's and my child to get to 1 year old; 3) we're going to have a bunch of sex. That was both for gratification and as a way of trying to stay connected through what were 100% going to be challenging times. There are three rules around that: a) we're exclusive to each other; b) we each get to say "no" -- but we have expectations of each other that will evolve over our time together; c) Shelly and I are primary, so we get more time together; d) we'll try and do and keep a rough calendar, with the intent that on bad days it'll force us together or give us pre-set up space. We had done the "what does Ellen want" and so we agreed the three of us would try once a week to do a rotating "what does X want" night. I suggested that Shelly and I get a few nights together a week, and was surprised when Shelly agreed, but said that there ought to be a schedule with Ellen and I and Ellen and her.

I thought about that, and Shelly explained that in bed, sweating and dripping, was the likely place each of us would heal or strengthen our relationship with the others.

Finally, we agreed to look for a counselor who had some grounding in complex relationships.

When it was all written down on yellow pads, we sat back and looked at each other.

"Can we do this for three years?" I asked.

"Do we have a choice?" Shelly asked.

"Yeah, we can stay in our houses... I don't know. It scares the fuck out of me. But I guess we can't if Ellen and you want any time off. OK, I'm buckled up."

Ellen looked at Shelly and giggled -- not a sound I was used to hearing from her.

"This asshole," she pointed at me, "is questioning whether he wants to live with two women and have more and better sex than he's ever had in his damn life. Not to mention surround his children with loving parents 24/7."

She and Shelly looked at me, heads cocked to the side. I knew when to surrender.

"This asshole," pointing my thumb to my chest, "just wants to make sure that we're all going to be OK."

"I'm not OK," Ellen said meaningfully. "I'm pregnant by my ex-husband who I left and divorced. His gorgeous new wife watched him plant his seed in me. I have to lay next to them all the time and listen to them fuck -- something I had nightmares about before all this, and which is somehow weirdly being turned into something I like a lot, which seems odd as hell. If my parents knew what was going on here, they'd have me committed. And I'm terrified that in ten months, we'll fight and all break up and I'll have a toddler and a two month-old baby that I have to take care of all by myself."

Shelly leaned forward. "I'm not OK, either. I like you, but you've always intimidated me. You're so fucking smart and strong. Van always talks so happily about your sex life that I worry about ours. I worry that whatever broke between you and him will break between me and him as well. But if this does break, I swear right now that I'll be with you until the new baby is a year old, with or without Van."

I guess it was my turn.

"I'm terrified by all this. But it's the most OK of the options any of us can think of. And we're not making a commitment forever, but for three years. Shelley, I love you, and you're my wife - but yeah, I want you both and most of all I want happiness for our children. We can do anything for three years. So what's this month's schedule?"

Ellen pulled a pad to her and started writing:

Sunday -- Shelly & Van

Monday -- Shelly & Van

Tues -- Ellen & Shelly

Weds -- Ellen & Van

Thurs -- whatever we feel like

Friday -- rotating 'one of us picks'

Sat -- whatever we feel like

I said "Hmmm. It's Friday. Ellen picked last time. Shelly, what do you want?"

She looked at her watch. "It's 3. We have to pick Ted up in an hour. What's going to be quick? Hmmm. I'll be right back. Arouse each other."

She went upstairs, and I closed the blinds to the street and neighbor's.

Ellen kicked off her shoes, lifted her skirt and pulled down her panties.

She turned around and knelt on the sofa. I walked up behind her and lifted her skirt onto her back, exposing her pale rounded ass, with the crease running down to her puckered ass and the pink lips just below, already shiny and wet.

I kicked my shoes off, unbuckled my belt, and freed my hardening cock by dropping my pants to my ankles.

Shelly came downstairs, nude, and I took a moment to admire her.

Five foot seven, a hundred twenty pounds, slender legs with a clear thigh gap running to her trimmed black bush and displaying her long red inner lips. Perfect heart-shaped ass, narrow waist and flat belly leading to small hand-sized breasts with long thick nipples. Hard and erect at the moment.

She looked at us and shook her head.

"How the fuck do you get wet so fast, Ellen? Have you ever heard of foreplay? Go ahead, Van."

I stepped out of my pants, and in a polo shirt and socks walked my erection toward my ex-wife, who was looking back over her shoulder expectantly. As I moved close to her, I ran the head of my cock against the slippery wetness of her and then pushed forward into her warm grip. I buried myself to my base and stood there, pressed into her.

Shelley came and sat next to her.

"Having fun?" she smirked.

"Starting to," said Ellen. Her words made her pussy vibrate a bit and made me harder.

"Here's what I want," Shelly said, and opened her hands. She held a bottle of lube, a condom, and her dildo.

I stripped off my shirt, and Ellen pulled her skirt over her head, and then took off her blouse and bra. That left me in my socks... a mad sexy look, if I've ever seen one.

Shelly came over and cupped my balls, then slowly pulled me out of Ellen.

"This," she said, "in my ass." The she pointed at Ellen. "Your tongue on my clit. That dildo in your pussy. That's my plan."