Elli

This story is the third in a series. The stories are told in sequence, so I think it is advisable to read my stories "Kelli" and "Kelli CH 02" before reading this story.

This story is a work of fiction. Some real institutions are mentioned, but they are used fictitiously. Insofar as the author knows, no real person affiliated with any of those institutions has ever behaved like the characters in this story. Any similarities between any character in this story and any real person are coincidental and unintended. Comments on this story, both favorable and unfavorable, are always welcome. Thank you for reading this.

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My optimism when I woke on New Year's Day cuddling Kelli and sharing a bed with Karla, Robin, Peter, and Brandt took some hits. The first bit of bad news had come on New Year's Eve. Clarissa told us that she was starting a new job as the GM of a large YWCA. It was a major move up for her but, since the Y had 24/7 security guards, it was the end of our nude sports club outings. Robin was particularly disappointed that her career as a nude gymnast for our small but appreciative audience was at an end.

Later in January, Kelli came home from work almost in tears. She had been required to attend a meeting of all the lawyers in her firm. As she told it, the managing partner had stood up and said, "The mission of every lawyer in this firm is twofold. First, if our clients are making money at something it is our job to make sure they do not suffer adverse consequences. Second, it is our job to get as much of the money our clients make into this firm as possible."

According to Kelli, the woman who chaired her department was blunter. "The standard for whether something is legal," Kelli's chairwoman had said, "is not found in any statute book or court decision you find online. There is only one standard: if our clients are making money at it, it is legal. If we all internalize that principle, clients will gladly pay us the money we deserve."

Kelli looked at me. "Is that what we went to law school to learn? How to justify anything and get rich doing it?" Kelli and I talked long into the night that night. She was having serious second thoughts about her career path.

My career was looking less secure than I had thought. I had a semi-annual review in January. I was told in so many words that, despite doing good work and billing lots of hours, my future hinged on bringing in new clients. My firm charged the highest rates in Ohio, ranging from $ 275/hour for brand new lawyers up to

$ 1,100/hour for the big-name partners. I was billed at $ 400/hour. I did not know anyone who could afford those rates and no one at the firm gave advice on how to find them.

Added to the career anxieties was the fact that our first winter in the house was miserable weather: constant cold with almost weekly, it seemed, heavy snows. It was depressing.

On the plus side, sharing a house with Karla and Peter was working out very well. They both were, and are, intelligent, kind, considerate people. Both were, and are, a joy to be around. They shared many interests with Kelli and me.

Warm weather came, and stayed, in mid-April. We had the pool open on May 1, which is early in Ohio. The four of us agreed on a hard and fast rule: no clothing of any sort was allowed in the pool or anywhere else in the backyard, no exceptions. That was no sacrifice for us because none of us wanted to wear clothes at home anyway and did not unless we were in the front yard visible to the neighbors.

It was the second Saturday in May, around noon, when our front doorbell rang. Karla and Peter were out. Kelli and I grabbed the cover-ups (long tee shirts) we kept in the kitchen for such situations, put them on, and answered the door.

At our front door was a couple. I guessed them to be late forties. Both were unusually tan for Ohio. The man was thin but wiry looking. The woman had a friendly face and a noticeably large chest. "Hi," the woman said, "I'm Judy Abbott and this is my husband Tom. We're your neighbors." She pointed at the house to our left as we looked out the front door. "I know we should have introduced ourselves sooner, but between the crappy weather and just being busy, we didn't get time. Sorry."

Kelli and I invited them in and offered them iced tea. Kelli and I were careful to sit down at the dining table opposite Judy and Tom, so we would have cover if our shirts rode up. I had to believe that Judy and Tom realized we were nude under the shirts. We explained a little about our lease and that Karla and Peter lived with us.

We chatted amiably for a while before Tom said, "You have the pool open already, don't you?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Nicole likes to walk in the woods behind the cul de sac," Tom said, "she told us that you and your roommates don't believe in swimsuits."

"Nicole is our daughter," Judy interjected. "She turned 18 in January and graduates at the end of the month."

Shit, I thought. The pool was a big reason we decided to lease the house. Now, because of the neighbors' daughter, we were not going to be able to use it nude!

Kelli started apologetically. "We're sorry if we offended anyone. Yes, we do like to skinny dip. Maybe, if your daughter could let us know when she is going into the woods behind this property, we would just not use the pool then."

Judy laughed. "No," she said, "you don't understand. We are not offended that you use your pool in the nude. We are just hoping you will invite us over some so we can skinny dip too. The Walthams can see our pool from their second-floor windows so we have to wear suit in our pool."

Tom added, "Judy and I have been naturists since college. We're thrilled to have neighbors who enjoy being clothes free. Frankly, some people on this street make Puritans look tolerant."

That gave Kelli and me an idea. Karla and Peter would be back around 5:00 and we intended to grill by the pool that night. We invited Judy and Tom to eat and skinny dip with us that night. We warned them we weren't going to tell Karla and Peter in advance. We thought it would be a fun surprise.

Judy and Tom were happy to play along. "You didn't expect to feed us," Judy said, "so we'll bring some meat for the grill and Tom makes great sides." We agreed they would show up about 6:30. Kelli and I did not know that Judy and Tom had a surprise for us.

The four of us were lounging around the pool nude that evening when the doorbell chimed. I got up to answer it, stopped, and said, "Kelli, where are our cover-ups? I didn't see them in the kitchen."

"Shit," Kelli said. "They're in the wash wet." The door chimed sounded again.

"I guess I'm answering it nude," I said. I started up the stairs to the first floor of the house.

"It's my bad," Kelli said, "I'll go with you."

As we went up the steps grinning to ourselves, Karla called, "Don't. Grab something. You'll get us in trouble and we've only been here five months."

Chuckling, Kelli and I went to the front door. We tried to stand strategically so the doorframe would conceal us from the street. We opened the door to Judy and Tom. They were not alone. Standing with them was thin young woman with the look of a fashion model. Judy was smiling broadly as they stepped inside. "Kelli, Will, we'd like you to meet our daughter Nicole," Judy said. "Nicole, these are two of the neighbors you told us about: Kelli Stouffer and Will Lampe."

Nicole smiled and extended her hand. "Pleased to meet you. I love your pool. The daughter of the people you lease from is a year older than me. She would invite me over to swim here a lot but, of course, I had to wear a suit. I'm looking forward to using your pool naked."

Kelli and I were caught off guard by Judy and Tom bringing their daughter. I guess that showed in our faces. Tom said, "We raised Nicole as a naturist." As the surprise wore off, I looked at Kelli. She smiled. I knew she was thinking that Nicole would add Karla's and Peter's surprise.

We led the Abbotts through the first floor to the outside steps that ran from the back of the first floor down to the pool. As Kelli led the Abbotts down the steps, she announced, "Uh, Karla, Peter, these folks are Judy and Tom Abbott and their daughter Nicole. They live in the house to the left as you look out the front. Judy and Tom stopped by earlier. They want to talk to us about the pool."

I could see the "oh shit" look on Karla's face as she thought what I had thought when Tom mentioned Nicole seeing us nude earlier in the day. Kelli got out of the way as she reached the pool deck. Judy, Nicole, and Tom walked out on the deck in something of a line. They were in the early evening sun. Karla and Peter were sharing a lounge chair on the shaded side of the pool. I stayed on the steps to have a better view of the amusing scene.

Judy and Tom both looked at their daughter. Nicole said, "You wouldn't know, but I walk a lot in those woods." She pointed at the woods behind the pool and yard. "I couldn't help noticing that none of you wear clothes when you're out here."

In a stern tone, Tom started "We're very offended that you go nude around this pool." "We're offended because you didn't invite us," Judy finished. Judy, Nicole, and Tom grabbed the hems of the light cover-ups they were wearing and pulled them over their heads. Judy and Tom just dropped theirs. Nicole twirled hers to the ground with a flourish. Our neighbors were standing in the sun as naked as we were. From the steps behind them, I could not help noticing that Judy had a full, rounded ass while Nicole's was tight and very cute. Both mother and daughter looked great with nothing on.

*

Karla and Peter were as surprised as we hoped. Judy went back upstairs to get the food cooler she had brought from their house. Between the excellent sausage and sides the Abbotts brought, Kelli's salad, and my slaving at the grill, we had a wonderful meal. Of course, several bottles of wine helped too.

The Abbotts were charming people. Tom was a chef. Together with Judy, an accountant by training, they owned three restaurants and a pub around town. Their places were well-known enough that we had heard of all of them. We had been in their pub a few times.

Nicole Abbot was, in fact, a model and a singer with a repertoire ranging from bel canto to blues. She was going to IU in the fall with a scholarship to study voice. "I had some other scholarships," she told me, "but they have an outstanding music school, I preferred to stay in the Midwest, and a close friend is already there studying piano." Nicole smiled and added, "And, I've already talked to the Fine Arts Department. I will be able to model the entire time I'm there."

Although Nicole's model-style appearance was not really to my taste, she did impress me. She did not seem self-centered or egotistical. She did seem articulate, informed, and mature. Her parents, whom I got to know much better as time went on, were good, smart, fun people.

The Abbotts stayed until after midnight. Kelli and I accompanied them to our front door when they left. All five of us were still nude. Looking out at the quiet street, Judy said, "I don't think we need to cover up just to walk home at this time of night." Kelli and I thanked them for coming over. We watched mother, father, and daughter walk back to their house completely nude.

Meeting the Abbotts was a positive amidst several downers. The company Karla and Peter worked for announced in April that it was "right-sizing" by closing some facilities and laying off a few hundred employees. A dissident director, who owned about five percent of the company's stock, had called for the CEO to step down because the company had become "bloated" and "inefficient." The perception inside the company, according to Karla and Peter, was that lower level staff were being sacrificed so the CEO could keep his ten-figure annual salary. On May 1, Karla was notified that her job was being abolished effective May 31 but that she would be paid through the end of July as severance.

The company's "right-sizing" also caught Brandt. Ohio had changed how it funded public schools a few years earlier so school districts received less from the state and relied more on taxes from residents and businesses in their districts. Karla's company had an R & D facility in the district where Brandt worked that was closing over the summer. Anticipating a huge reduction in revenues, the school board announced that 80 staff would not be renewed for the next school year. They cut administrators, librarians, nurses, bus drivers, janitors, assistant coaches, and Brandt to keep teachers.

The event that hit me hardest befell Kelli. Kelli was having doubts about her firm already. In early April, she was assigned to draft documents for a client to solicit new investors. Kelli had drafted the documents with the disclosures required by federal securities law and sent them to the client in mid- April. A few days later, she was called into the office of the partner responsible for that client. "How in God's name do you think our client can lure investors using documents with this shit in them?" the partner asked angrily.

"Sir," Kelli had replied, "that 'shit' is required by federal law."

"Fuck federal law," the partner said. "The client's taking their work to Mudd & Rose unless we draft documents that will actual entice investors. Fix this now! The client needs documents showing this is a once-in-a-lifetime, can't lose investment. Attribute it to Motley Fool or someone."

Kelli did not take that well and had pushed back. That earned her a meeting with her firm's managing partner. The managing partner old Kelli, "You're absolutely right that federal law requires those disclosures. You are right that it is fraudulent to claim an investment has endorsements which it does not have. That is not the point. The point is that we lose the client's business if we provide lawful documents. That much is certain. We do not know whether the kind of documents they want will ever cause blowback. Maybe everyone invests, gets rich, and no one cares. In a worst case, well, that's why we have malpractice insurance."

Kelli was, she said, appalled. She started to respond but the managing partner cut her off. "More troubling," he continued, "is that you've been here over three years. You are a fine young lawyer, but you have not internalized the ethos of this firm. You were also insubordinate to a partner. I must take this to the associates committee. I know what they will think. You cannot recover from mistakes this grave. You need to look for other employment."

Karla, Peter, Robin, Brandt, Kelli, and I considered ourselves a family. By the end of May, three of us were unemployed and it was probably only a matter of time until I joined them. We suspected that more cuts at Peter's company might include him.

For obvious reasons, we didn't think we could do much over the Memorial Day holiday. Karla, Peter, Kelli, and I stayed home and just hung out by the pool. Robin and Brandt had gone to visit his brother in Cleveland. Judy and Tom Abbott had gone to Nicole's graduation on Sunday but spent Memorial Day with us by our pool

During the afternoon, Judy said casually, "I do wish we could take that charity gig."

"Yeah, it's too bad," Tom replied.

"What gig are you talking about?" Kelli asked.

"Do you know Roger and Penelope Cornett?" Judy asked. None of us knew the Cornetts but everyone in town knew of them. Penelope DeWitt was the heiress of a fortune her forebearers had started before the Civil War. About 40 years ago, she had married, and funded, an aggressive and skillful entrepreneur named Roger Cornett. Now in their 70s, the Cornetts were reputed to be one of the wealthier couples in America. Not Bill and Melinda Gates, but well up in the one percent. Locally, the Cornetts were known as the area's premier arts patrons. They supported mainstream art, like the symphony orchestra, but they also supported edgy art that some people called "pornographic."

"We know them very slightly," Judy said. "They eat at one of our restaurants. They sponsor a group known as AFHF, which stands for 'Art Featuring the Human Form.' AFHF promotes visual and performance art involving nudity. AFHF wants to rent the pub for a fundraiser in June."

"Why can't you do it?" Kelli asked.

Tom said, "AFHF wants our bartenders and servers to work the event nude. Some our staff might agree, but not enough; and the lawyers told us we shouldn't even ask."

"How many people do you need?" Karla asked.

"If I help behind the bar," Tom said, "at least eight: two more behind the bar and six on the floor."

"Can you teach us to do in time?" Karla asked. "We'd be happy to do it and I'm sure Robin, Brandt, Pam, and Ed would too." Karla sometimes committed us to things without talking to the rest of us first. But, being a nude server at a charity event sounded like fun so I kept my mouth shut. Kelli and Peter did not say anything either.

"Yes," Tom said, looking at Judy who was nodding emphatically, "we can show you what you need to know in an evening. Given what AFHF has offered to rent the pub, we can pay you each $ 300 for the night, plus tips." Karla smiled at the rest of us, proud of herself. "Could you make sure that your friends will do it?" Tom asked.

"When is it?" Karla asked.

"Thursday, June 18. The event runs 6:30 to 9:30," Tom replied. "We need you there an hour before and clean-up afterwards will take an hour or less. Say 5:30 to 10:30 p.m."

Karla picked her cell phone up from a patio table. "I'll call right now." We heard Karla's side of her call to Robin, which Karla ended by saying "yeah, it should be fun." "Robin and Brandt are in," she told us. Karla talked longer, making more effort at persuasion, with Pam. That call ended with Karla saying, "Thanks very much. I owe you." "Pam and Ed are in," Karla reported.

Tom and Judy had us to come to the pub the Tuesday before the AFHF event. Tuesdays are a slow night for bars, so the staff had time to show us what we needed to do. Judy and Tom's regular employees knew why we were there, and we got some curious looks. However, we were shown how to take orders, serve, and swipe credit cards. The food was buffet and included in the rent. We would be serving booze from the cash bar. We decided that Kelli and I would spend the first hour and a half behind the bar with Tom and Pam and Ed help at the bar for the second half of the event. Tom showed us how to pour wine, clean glassware, make basic drinks, and ring things into the register. "I'll take care of it if someone wants something exotic," he said.

Arriving at the pub that Thursday, I noticed someone had moved in a piano which had not been there Tuesday. Judy and Tom had lowered the blinds on the outside windows, but anyone walking by could still see in. Signs on the doors said, "Closed for Private Party."

We stripped off except for shoes. We drew looks from the clothed kitchen staff who were setting up the buffet. The six working as servers put on nylon belts which had small pouches to hold cash and order books. That looked mildly sexy on Karla, Robin, and Pam. Kelli and I went behind the bar with Tom, also nude, while he gave us a quick refresher.

I had never gone nude in a bar before. I initially felt very exposed. Kelli gave me a hug and a quick kiss. "This will be fun," she said. I didn't know if she was really that enthused or if she was covering her own nervousness.

People started coming in on the dot of 6:30. The crowd was primarily older, forties to sixties I would say. Most of the men wore a coat and tie while most of the women were in dresses. It was a crowd that wanted to drink. I was quickly so busy I forgot I was nude. We sold a lot of wine and mixed drinks. Scotch, gin and tonic, and vodka tonic were the favorites. We served little beer.