His Loss Planning the Cruise?

This is the third of the "His Loss" series. It includes oral, coitus, watching, "good clean fun", and polyamory. No names used in the story are the names of anyone actually involved in the actual story.

"What's this?"

"That, my dearest Amanda, is a short timer's calendar."

"Great! Now, what is it?"

"When I was in the Air Force I was sent to a base in Asia. The day I arrived I was given one of these. It started with 364. One page for every day I was going to be there. Ask anyone on the base, they knew exactly how long until they left."

"Are you leaving?"

Barbara jumped in. "Think Amanda, what happens in 29 days?"

Five seconds past. Suddenly her eyes widened and she stood up.

"We leave on a cruise!"

Barbara and I nodded.

"Where are we going to keep our short timer's calendar?"

I chose to ignore that my calendar had become OUR calendar. I turned it over to Amanda and with Barbara's help it became a fixture in the kitchen. I liked thinking that in 29 days we were going on a very important trip. Our wedding trip.

"Pete, have you got some time we can use for planning the trip?"

"Barbara, I think you two have this trip planned within an inch of its life. What could we possibly talk about?'

"Sit right there! I'll get my notebook!" She flew from the room, down the hall to her room and was back before I could even miss her. She sat on the couch and Amanda sat near her.

"Have you ordered your tux?"

I nodded.

"Have you made a packing list so you don't forget anything?"

"Yes. I gave you a copy."

We talked about a couple of new shirts for me. I agreed that I ought to have a couple of new shirts, although I was quite happy with the one's I already had. Amanda volunteered to get me a couple while she was out during the week. This was easy. All I needed to do was let them do whatever they wanted.

We talked about the shore excursions we could pick on our various stops. I wanted to go snorkeling and possibly even scuba. Barbara was up for snorkeling but wasn't sure about scuba. Amanda had never done either so she wanted to wait to decide. We called Crystal (Barbara's Mom) and she wanted both snorkeling and scuba. She wanted to know if we had to wear suits. I said yes, we don't want fish thinking Mark (Barbara's Dad) and I were dangling bait for them.

After Crystal hung up the phone rang. I thought it might be her calling back. I was wrong. It was Julian from work. Three months before he was the first to figure out that Barbara and I were "an item."

"Hi. I called your travel agent and booked a cabin for Marsha and I. We are on deck six, right in the middle of the boat."

"It's a ship. I'm glad you and Marsha are coming. Have you picked any excursions to go on?"

"We wanted to find out what you will be doing before we signed up."

"I'm going snorkeling and maybe scuba diving. Barbara and Amanda can't make up their minds. Would Marsha like to talk to them?"

"I'm sure she would, but over the phone won't work very well. We'd like it if you all would come for dinner tomorrow night."

"I'll check."

I asked my ladies and they said tomorrow night would be fine. I told Julian and he asked if it would be Ok if some of the others going could be there for dinner too. I said yes. We set the time for six-thirty and ended the call.

"We'll be having a dinner meeting with Julian, his wife Marsha, and some of the others who are going on the cruise at six-thirty tomorrow night."

"I smell a trap." Barbara was quick.

"Me too. They want to talk with us about being a triad."

"Call Julian back. Ask them to come here. If we are going to have an intimate conversation about our lifestyle I'd rather we did it here where they can see how great our life is."

"Really?" I looked at Barbara's face for some hint of how she actually felt.

"Sure! We can show off our home and how we designed life to work for all three of us!"

"Amanda, are you up for a house full of hungry people?" I asked.

"How many?"

"We know there are eight cabins booked, not counting our four. If everyone comes that would be sixteen people, eight couples."

"I'm cooking for nineteen people tomorrow?" I heard a little panic.

"Let me check."

I dialed Julian and we talked. We arranged everything so it would work to have them here. I hung up.

"Every couple is bringing something. All we need to provide is something to drink."

Amanda shook her head. "Men. You are sooooo wrong! I still need to get plates, glasses, plastic silverware, napkins and trash bags. Are they bringing appetizers?"

"Yes. Will you have time to get all that stuff tomorrow?"

"I guess so. Wait! There is a party store over on White Street! I can get everything we need there in one stop."

"Get island stuff. Napkins and things with palm trees and stuff." Barbara added.

"OK. Now this can be fun!"

I sensed something was still not quite right.

"Amanda, what's not feeling right?"

"I've never been to a party, much less been the hostess for one. I have no idea what to do."

Barbara sat next to her and held her. "You aren't the hostess. We are. Anytime you don't know what to do or say you can shift it to me. Tell people, 'Oh that's Barbara's responsibility."

"We'll take off an hour early and come help get everything set up. We can do this. As my father wished he had said, "Six hands make the work easier."

They both laughed and we went back to our planning. Right after we decided on the wedding cruise I discovered that both women wanted me in the planning and neither wanted my opinion. My safest way of being was to let them decide and then attempt to take credit for the idea. In so doing I validated their decision and kept them both happy. In the weeks of planning the only real work I had done was to write our vows and the ceremony. Getting someone to marry us wasn't tough. I knew a guy from college who lived here in the city and he had become a minister, sort of. Not a traditional minister. I had called him and after a lunch conversation he was excited to do the ceremony for us.

When Barbara and I left work the next day I thought we would be busy getting the house ready for our guests, Barbara informed me that she guessed the house would already be spotless and decorated when we got home. Amanda was nervous.

Barbara was right. We walked into a home that was so clean it ought to have been in a magazine! Amanda was still flitting around looking for something else to keep her busy. Barbara poured them each a half glass of wine and ten minutes later Amanda was calming down.

We showered and dressed casually for the evening. Amanda showed us the ice chest where she had four bottles of white wine, six beers, and lots of sodas on ice. She showed us where the red wine was and the openers. I hugged her and we both told her what a great job she had done getting ready for the party.

At six-thirty something Julian and Marsha arrived. By six forty-something all nineteen people expected were in the house and loading their plates. For a while the conversation was about food and when most of it had been eaten the conversation shifted to us.

Julian and his wife Marsha sat next to each other on a small couch in our great room. They were in their forties, married with no children. We had worked together for six years. He looked over at me and asked, "Pete, Do you mind if I ask a couple of questions?"

The room got quiet. Now we were getting to what this evening was really about.

"I think I can speak for Barbara, Amanda and myself when I say, 'Ask whatever you would like."

"OK. You know we all like you and Barbara. Our buying tickets for the cruise is evidence of that. We don't know Amanda yet but I trust she is as wonderful in her own way as the two of you. What I don't understand is why you want to marry both of them."

"I wondered when one of you would ask. Let me see if I can answer so it makes sense. Mark has a wife and three children don't you Mark?"

He nodded and so did his wife.

"Now we know Mark loves his wife. We have heard him say so. Together they have three kids. What if the law said that they could only love one of those children. Would that be tough? Mark, which one of the three would you love?"

"That's crazy! I love all three!"

"When I met Amanda she was my neighbor. She was married and we hardly knew each other. I took her into my home and within a couple of days I decided to love her. Everything I found out about her made that an easy decision. At the same time that Amanda came into my life Barbara transferred to our office. She came home with me one day to meet Amanda and we clicked. Our friendship was easy. I discovered quickly that I could love Barbara too. I also discovered I didn't want to choose between them."

Marsha spoke, "You fell in love with both of them?"

Barbara answered, "No. We each discovered that loving each other was a choice we could and wanted to make. I saw who Pete was being in his life. I saw how he treated Amanda who was having major problems in her life and I wanted someone that caring in my life. I saw who Amanda is and how open she is to love and being loved."

Amanda spoke, "I had just had breast cancer surgery when Pete brought me home. He brought me home because my husband abandoned me in the hospital. He brought Barbara home with him to see if she could help me deal emotionally with some feelings I was having. I felt his loving spirit and I wanted more. I've never felt as loved as I have felt from the day of my surgery."

"I met them both at about the same time. I saw who they are, how they treat people and I wanted more. While Amanda recovered from her surgery Barbara and I cared for her. As she got better she started caring for us. One day we had a conversation and decided that the best thing was for us to be a triad."

"Amanda spoke again, "I won't go into detail but I will say that when Pete loved me he convinced me that all the things I had believed about my value in the world were wrong. When Barbara loved me I discovered much more than the sisterhood I had never felt before. I have two partners who love me and who love being loved by me. I never want to be without that feeling."

"Part of me wants to be offended by what you are telling us." Henry said. Henry was also in his forties and married to his second wife, Arlene. They had no children together but she had a son by a previous marriage. Henry and Arlene looked, acted and spoke like they were active members of a fundamentalist Christian church. "Another part of me recognizes that in the Bible there were prophets and kings who had multiple wives and even concubines. There didn't seem to be limitations on who or how many women a man could love and marry. So, to be honest I am a bit envious. It takes a special man to openly love more than one woman and special women to buy into such a partnership."

"Are you telling me you want another wife?" Arlene asked. She was grinning.

"What I'm saying is that I wish I were man enough that the situation would have come to me and that I would have been strong enough to handle it. What I'm saying is that at first I thought all three of you should have been locked up and now I think what you are doing is wonderful and healthy."

"Barbara looked over at Henry. "I can't quote much from the Bible or any other book for that matter but I can tell you what I learned about God from growing up in my Dad's family. God wants us to love. My Dad couldn't find a restriction on who or how many in his study of the Bible. I discovered that as an adult I can and do love more than one person. Next month we will be married. I will marry Pete and I will marry Amanda."

"I will marry Pete and I will marry Barbara."

"I will marry both Barbara and Amanda."

Marsha asked, "Can I ask about the practical side of this?"

"Sure. What do you want to know?"

"Do all three of you sleep in the same bed?"

"Sometimes. Most of the time. There is a king sized bed in one bedroom and a queen in each of the other bedrooms. One of those beds has not been used since we all moved in together here."

"Can I ask an even more personal question?"

"Ask."

"Do you all have sex together?"

"Sometimes. Most of the time." Barbara answered. She looked at Amanda and asked, "Can I say something about our first time together?"

Amanda blushed and nodded. I nodded.

"Amanda was feeling the abandonment of her husband and was convinced that because of her surgery no man would want her. She was damaged goods. She was sitting in Pete's bed wrapped in bandages and I showed her the scar on my breast from my breast cancer surgery. Pete showed her that the scar didn't get in the way of him loving me, wanting me. We joined in the bed with Amanda right there!"

"And after, we cuddled, all three of us." Amanda had eyes full of tears as she spoke.

"Both of you have had breast surgery?" Marsha asked.

"Yes. Mine was three years ago and Amanda's was five months ago. Both of us have had good check-ups in the last month."

"Pete, don't the scars bother you?"

"I don't love either for her flawless skin, her dimples, her great teeth. I love both women for their energy, their heart, their commitment to life and loving. Their scars just show they have been living. I have scars of my own."

"Wow! I signed my wife and I up for the cruise because I thought it would be fun. I really didn't understand what was up. I thought tonight was about picking fun stuff to do on the cruise. Now I'm sitting here wondering what the conversation will be like on the way home."

Jake was the company Sales Manager. His wife, Diane, was sitting beside him. She was a slightly overweight woman who carried herself like he had all the self-esteem in the family. "Are you asking me now?" She quietly asked.

Jake nodded.

"I'll tell you. At first I didn't want to go on a cruise. My picture was of hundreds of bikini wearing skinny women with big breasts parading around all day and then dancing provocatively all night. I thought that would get John all turned on he'd want sex every night. I'm not wearing a bikini. Not here in my own back yard and not on a ship in the ocean. Now that we've met these crazy people who want to be married and love each other the way they explain it, I'm glad we're going. I want to know more about that kind of loving and I want some of it."

"You want to marry Pete too?" Jake asked.

"No. What I want is for you to love me the way Pete loves both Amanda and Barbara. If you aren't willing to do that then maybe I'm interested in marrying Pete."

"You're serious."

"You bet your sweet ass I am!"

Jake turned from his wife to me. "Pete, I'd like an appointment for some coaching. I want my marriage to have whatever yours has. I've been married eight years and your marriage is better than mine already."

"I'll meet with you anytime. It might be better if we met as families though. Maybe if you come to dinner once a week we can talk. I'm not expert but I have thought a lot about what we're doing. We have thought a lot about living this way and together we may have something to contribute."

"Wait! We want in on these dinners!" Anthony and his wife spoke up. It was arranged that every week we would have dinner together and we'd talk. We took them all on a tour of our home and there were appreciative comments about the remodeling we had done to serve our unusual lifestyle. The men particularly liked the huge shower. We talked about the excursions and by eleven than night the three of us were in our home alone.

In our bedroom we undressed.

"Do you all have sex together?"

Both giggled. Amanda finished taking her pants off and leaned over and kissed Barbara.

"Sometimes," she said.

"Most of the time." Barbara said.

"I think next time someone asks I'm going to say I have been having sex with both of you since our first day together."

"You'll mislead them. You can say we've been sharing love every moment from that first day."

"How do you want your share right now?"

"I want a quick shower and then I'd like to be dessert."

"Oh, that sounds really yummy! Can I be dessert too?"

"I think that can be arranged. Let's all shower and I'll shave."

"I'll shave Amanda."

Ten minutes later Amanda's pussy and my face were as smooth as Barbara's pussy and were in bed. I took the middle position and Amanda lay on her side offering me her pussy. Barbara lay with her pussy offered to Amanda's mouth and hands while she took charge of my growing arousal.

I love the taste of Amanda. I don't know what she does to have her juices taste as they do but whatever it is I hope she never stops doing it. The more I got into licking, kissing and sucking on her intimate parts the more she transferred that enthusiasm to Barbara who then gave it back to me. Our coordinated efforts brought each of us to a satisfying and noisy climax. I was bathed in Amanda's juices. I drank as much as I could and lapped up whatever other juices I had missed as they flowed out of her. Barbara drank in all the sperm I could give her and swallowed as though it were chocolate. That left Barbara and Amanda and I turned our full attentions to her.

I shifted on the bed and ministered to Barbara's breasts. With lips and tongue I kissed and sucked and played with both her breasts as Amanda increased her pussy eating expedition. It worked. Barbara was panting and squirming and suddenly went rigid. She shook and screamed. I covered her scream with my mouth and her tongue shot into my mouth. Amanda and I held on for the ride.

Barbara's battery did run down and I covered us and we soon were asleep.

A week later, on a Tuesday evening, the cruise group met at our home again. The dinner was pot luck again and was wonderful. The conversation about loving started while we were still eating. It started with a question from Diane.

"Don't you feel jealousy?"

"Who are you asking?"

"I was aiming the question at either Amanda or Barbara but I guess I also want to know the answer from you too."

Amanda answered. "I was that first day. I hurt. My chest felt like someone parked a car on it. My heart hurt because my husband had just abandoned me and this man was kissing Barbara right there in bed with me! I wanted him to love me! I wanted someone to love me! They showed me that I could be loved, scars and all."

"I have always wanted to be loved without having to change. Pete just loves me. In my past I dated men who let me know how they wanted me to be. I dated a guy who always wanted me to wear stockings and heels. I was an object to him. Pete doesn't care what I wear. He just loves me. At first I was a little jealous because at night I was getting into bed alone and I knew Pete was getting into bed with Amanda."

Amanda interjected, "That lasted less than a week!"

"Yes, less than a week. Being loved like Pete loves is irresistible. I knew it was here for me and I wanted it. When I joined them here I discovered I could find and give that love to Amanda too."

"Jealousy hasn't been much of a problem. I am a little jealous of the orgasms they are capable of, the unspoken communication that they seem to have sometimes and the fact that I had to give up the idea of ever winning an argument, but I have decided it's all good."

The room warmed to the conversation and the feeling of love. I could feel it.

Brian asked, "Does anyone get their feelings hurt? It sounds so make-believe the way you talk about it."

"Yes, of course. I am crude and sharp sometimes and I have hurt both ladies with my actions and my words. We have an agreement that grew out of the first time I hurt Barbara."

"Pete was supposed to pick up something important to me at the market and he forgot it. He came home and put everything away and it wasn't there. I asked about it and he said, 'I forgot.' No apology, no return trip, just 'I forgot' like it wasn't very important."