Chapter 21: Balmain, Here We Are

Moving Days

Friday, June 2^nd, 2000

Friday morning, I was up early since we had a shitload of stuff to get done. Shower, dressed, breakfast; Megan, Lori and I attached the trailer to my car, and headed up to the storage unit at Warriewood. We met the others – Paul, Phil, Garry, Bruce, Mary Beth, and Chris – and started to move the furniture out of the unit into my trailer. Meanwhile, Lori, Megan, Rachel, and Kate were carrying the lighter items – mainly pictures and similar stuff – and putting them into the back of my car. With everyone helping it didn’t take long to have everything out of the unit. Once it was empty, I went to the office, cancelled my rental, and then it was back to Balmain.

When we were all at the terrace, Lori assumed the role of director, telling everyone where things had to go. We started in the top floor bedroom, it was a challenge getting the king size bed up the two flights of stairs, but we managed to get it done, without damaging the walls. That was followed by the dressers, then the main bedroom on the first floor, overlooking the street, the living room, dining room, and finally the office and sunroom. Meanwhile, some of the guys had been back at Megan’s studio, disconnecting the equipment and positioning it downstairs ready to be loaded into my trailer.

The first things to move were the PA equipment, microphones, the mixing desk, and speakers, so Chris and Mary Beth could start setting them up in the new studio. As soon as the trailer was unloaded, it was back to Lilyfield to get the next load – the drum kits, my keyboards, the guitar amps, and the remainder of our instruments. All that was left was Megan’s piano – that would take considerable muscle – and the furniture for Megan and Lori. When we had unloaded the second load, it was time to break for lunch, and some cold drinks; Chris had the PA equipment working, however he still had to run the various microphone leads under the wooden platform that was in place.

After lunch it was back to Megan’s place, we loaded up the furniture and the boxes that they had packed with their clothes and other personal items. Back at Balmain, we unloaded yet another trailer load, and the furniture was moved to the two bedrooms at the back of the first floor. The final trip saw Megan’s baby grand piano loaded into the trailer, and with considerable effort, we got that up into the new studio. The next task was to test everything in the studio, everything worked, but over the next few days we would have to work out better ways to run audio leads, so they weren’t in the way of where we would be standing. The monitor speakers weren’t in the best of locations, and Chris made a note of ways to improve the lighting. At least, we had everything set up so we could at least play and rehearse.

All the heavy pieces of furniture were in place, the only tasks we had left were to put our clothes in the closets and dressers, and to organize stuff in the office. Chris and Mary Beth still had work to do in the studio, but they would continue with that over the next two days. Lori, Megan, and I would finish off the work inside the house; that would be our task for the weekend.

I thanked the others for all their help, telling them that all going well, we would be ready for the next rehearsal this coming Wednesday. Chris and Mary Beth would be back tomorrow to continue in the studio, he would get some of the old studio lights left over from the old studio that were in the second storage unit tomorrow morning and get them installed. When I moved out of Banksia Lodge, we moved a lot of our surplus equipment into storage, just for a time like this.

“My body is aching!” Lori complained, once we had the house to ourselves. “I don’t think I can lift or carry another thing! How much is left to do?”

“Do we have any Radox bath salts?” Megan said. “I think I want to test out the bath in the main bathroom! Can I interest anyone else in that?”

“You do realize there’s a spa tub in the main bathroom, Megan?” I said.

“Oh, I had forgotten about that completely,” she said. “Can you show me how to work it? There should be enough room for all three of us in it. Or would it be better to wait until tomorrow or Sunday for us sharing the spa together? I don’t want to rush into things.”

“I might wait a day or two,” I said. “A spa together would lead to other things, and I’m not sure if I’m up to doing that right now. Can I ask for a rain check on the spa?”

“Sure, no problems,” Megan said. “I’ll still have a nice hot shower though.

“Any thoughts about dinner?” I said. “There’s a Thai place just around the corner; while you ladies freshen up, or whatever you need to do, I’ll get something for us if you want. I’ll have my shower because I’m a bit on the pongy side to be rather sociable...”

“And wash all those nice pheromones off your body?” Lori said. “Why?”

“I’m sure someone put clean sheets on our bed, I don’t want to get into our nice clean bed all sweaty and grungy.”

“So? I’m sure we will all get rather sweaty soon enough,” Lori said. “Dinner, sure, Thai sounds nice, a green chicken curry for me, and a bunch of satay sticks. Megan?”

“Sounds pretty good, something porkish for me, if they have that,” Megan said.

“Okay, what’s the time... 5:45 ... give me time for my shower, I’ll probably be back in about an hour. 6:45 for dinner? Will that work?”

“It will, we’ll have the table set. Wine? You don’t have to drive anywhere, Will,” Megan said. “I think we brought our stash of booze over.”

I headed upstairs to our bedroom, found some clothes to get changed into, and, checking the attached bathroom to make sure there were towels in there, undressed, and had a nice, hot shower. This was the first time I had tried the shower, except for running the water and fan when making the punch list, and it worked fantastically. I was tempted to stay longer in the shower, but I didn’t want to use all the hot water. Once I was dressed, I walked the short distance to the ‘Pattaya Palace’, ordered our food – green chicken curry, red pork curry, the ‘crying tiger’ for me, and a big mix of satay beef and chicken. Steamed rice to go around, of course. While I was waiting for the food to be cooked, I spoke with the staff, introducing myself to them, and saying I had just moved in around the corner. They had a take-away menu, so I took one to keep in our kitchen. They asked what my address was, and when I told them, they said that they could do delivery if I wanted, all I would need to do is phone in an order, and when it was ready, one of their staff would bring it around to the front door.

When I had returned home with the food, I took it into the kitchen.

“Is that you, Will? We are eating in the dining room,” I heard Megan call out.

I looked in the dining room, and I was amazed by the transformation. There were candles on both the table and the sideboard, the table had been set with the good dinner set, and there were placemats (that matched the fabric of the table runner) at each place setting. Lori was in the process of pouring wine into three wine glasses, and there were several large serving platters in the centre of the table.

“We can put each dish on a platter,” Megan said. “We felt that we should have our first meal in our new place in the dining room, at least try to make it a special event.”

Megan and I emptied each plastic container onto the serving platters, placed the satay sticks on another platter, and I took the empty containers into the kitchen. Megan had selected some music, Linda Ronstadt’s ‘What’s New’, on the media player. We sat down at the table, starting to serve our food. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the meal; the food was at least as good as the ‘Blue Elephant’ at St Leonards, if not better.

“This is really good stuff!” Megan said. “It’s just around the corner? Living here is going to be so much better than where we were, there was nothing close to us.”

I told the others how the restaurant would bring our order directly to the door, and I had put their take-away menu on the counter in the kitchen. I suggested that as we explore places to eat, we should make sure we kept a selection of menus for places that we felt were worth eating from.

“This is a nice way to start our lives together here,” Lori said. “We wanted to make it a nice meal for us to start with, not just sitting on a sofa around a low table, but a formal meal, with the candles, placemats, everything like that.”

“Where did the place mats come from? I know you ordered the runners...” I asked,

“I got the antique place to make the place mats to match the runners and seat upholstery,” Lori said. “We had those candleholders, the glass cylinders with the candles in them, but we never had a reason to use them before. I think the colour goes well in this room.”

While we ate, we talked about the remaining tasks we had to get everything moved in and organized, I said that in the morning I would go to the hardware store at White Bay, get some tools and things so I could put up all the pictures. Lori said she would start to organize things in the office, while Megan would be working with Chris and Mary Beth to get the studio sorted out. We finished our meal and took the plates into the kitchen.

“There’s enough left over for lunch tomorrow,” Megan said. “I’ll put the leftovers back into those plastic containers, and they can go into the fridge.”

She then rinsed off the plates and we loaded them into the dishwasher. There wasn’t enough to justify running the dishwasher tonight, so that could wait until there was more items in it. We retired to the living room, Megan suggesting I stop in the dining room, and pour myself a glass of bourbon.

“The decanter has the last of your ‘George Dickel’ in it,” she said. “You may have one glass, no more!”

We sat in the living room – on the three-seater sofa, with me between the other two.

“You choose the music, Will,” Megan said. “I think I’ve had enough Linda for this evening; that’s a great album, she has a fantastic voice, but it’s all a bit too melancholy.”

I took the remote control tablet, scrolled through the albums until I found the entry for Joe Jackson’s ‘Jumpin’ Jive’, turned off the dining room amp, turned on the one in the living room, and pressed play. A quick adjustment of the tone controls and the volume, and we had our music.

“That’s so convenient, Will,” Lori said. “How many albums do you have on the server?”

“About two hundred,” I said. “I need to put more storage into the server, then I’ll digitize more of them. If you two have any records or CD’s that I haven’t got, we could rip them into the system, too.”

“How similar is that system to some of these new all-digital studio workbench systems?” Megan asked. “I’ve seen some, they don’t have a big reel-to-reel tape deck, but everything is stored in digital format on computer hard disc drives.”

“I guess the principal is the same, but what I have isn’t as big or as sophisticated, there aren’t as many separate channels, and there isn’t the advanced digital signal processing, like reverb, compression, and stuff like that. I could get a full blown ‘Digital Audio Workbench’, but that’s overkill for a home music system.”

It was very pleasant, sitting back on the sofa, between Lori and Megan. The music was enjoyable, and the George Dickel was the perfect drink to accompany things. We had been sitting back, just enjoying the music and being together for about thirty minutes, when Megan said she had a request to make.

“You both probably think I’m being silly, or something, but...” she started saying. “I know tonight is going to be our first night where we were all planning on sleeping together, making love. But ... would you two mind if I slept by myself tonight; Will, you could have Lori all to yourself tonight, and tomorrow night, it would just be me in bed with you? After that, all three of us can share the one bed. I’m just ... just ... well, I would like our first time back together, if that makes sense, to be like second edition of our first time, to just be the two of us.”

“Are you sure, Megan” Lori asked. “Would you like to go first? I guess I can wait...”

“Megan, I understand how you feel; as I said originally, there’s no expectations on anyone, no demands, we just do what we feel comfortable with,” I said. “I promise that if you want to wait until tomorrow night, I’ll do my best to make you feel special.”

“Thank you both for understanding,” Megan said. “I feel like I’m spoiling things for us, tonight was meant to be the night for all three of us, but I just want ... I guess I want it to be how it was the first time we make love, Will. Am I being a silly girl, chasing some fantasy? It’s not that I don’t want us to be the threesome – or is it a ‘triple’? – I do want that, but not for our first time back together. Maybe I am feeling a bit self-conscious, maybe I am scared that I’m way out of practice, it’s been a few years since I’ve been with a man. Will you be patient with me, Will?”

“Of course, Megan,” I said. “I will fit in with whatever you want.”

“Thank you, both of you, “she said. “Now, I might go off to bed, it’s been a pretty exhausting day for me.”

I hugged and kissed her, as did Lori.

“Thanks for all the stuff you did today, Megan,” I said. “Our place, our home is starting to look good.”

Megan made her way upstairs to her bedroom, and I looked at Lori.

“When do you want to go to bed?” I asked her.

“We could go now,” she said. “Can you give me a few minutes, just to get ready?”

We Become a Triple – Part the First

Friday Evening, June 2^nd – Saturday June 3^rd2000

Lori headed upstairs for our bedroom, I turned off the music, and took my empty glass into the kitchen, turning out the lights as I went. After a few minutes, I slowly climbed the two flights of stairs to our bedroom; Lori was standing against one of the French doors, naked, looking out at the lights of the city. She had turned the bedroom lights out, and I could see her body, silhouetted against the city lights. Her body was still as slim, still as well-toned as it was back when we started sailing together, in 1974. I felt slightly self-conscious, my body wasn’t as firm, I wasn’t in as good a physical condition as I was even a few years ago; I had let myself go over the last two years.

I got undressed quietly, and moved to stand behind Lori, I wrapped my arms around her body, and felt the warmth of her against me.

“It’s such a beautiful view,” she said, pressing her hands over my arms. “Do you think we could leave the curtains open when we go to bed? I want to wake up to this view in the morning. All the years I was away, living in the US and London, I had views of those cities, but I really missed being in Sydney, there’s nothing like the views of the Harbour and the beaches.”

“You don’t mind that Megan will be sleeping by herself tonight?” I asked. “And you are happy with her spending tomorrow night with me, and you being by yourself?”

“That will be fine,” she said. “Will, I’m scared. You probably think I’m being silly, but ... I’m scared shitless about us making love. I know I’ve been going on about how much I want us to have sex, how I am so incredibly horny, how I need to be fucked many times a day. That’s not ... that’s not how I am feeling right now. Don’t get me wrong, I want us to make love, I REALLY want us to make love.

“Can I confess something? Since I left you, in the last twenty years, I’ve made love to only three guys – not counting what O’Rourke did to me, that’s something completely different. The job I had really didn’t leave time for romantic relationships; something would develop, start going well, then I would be assigned overseas, and it would end. Then I would have to start from scratch, find someone, go through all the preliminaries, we would start hitting it off, then I end up travelling around Europe three weeks in every month.

“At least with my job back here, I’m not likely to be reassigned to another location. But ... I haven’t slept with another man for over four years, you’ve had lots of relationships, slept with all these beautiful women, the only sexual activity I’ve had since my last serious relationship, which ended in 1996, has either been with my vibrator, or with Megan, and that was only since January. I’m scared that I’ll be no good in bed, I won’t be able to satisfy you, you will find me tame, boring. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, me moving in with you and Megan, you would have been better with just her. Or I could have left you to be with Monica, and not complicate things with you having to work around time with me.”

She started to cry softly, all I could do was just hold her against me, and rock slightly from side to side. I let her cry for a while, so I could gather my thoughts, and work out what to say to her.

“Lori, Lori, so you think that I’m going to be scoring you on how well we make love?” I said softly. “Just as I said to Megan, we don’t have to do anything that we don’t want to do, there’s no expectation of anything at all. Do you remember when we first made love, some twenty-five years ago, in front of the fireplace at my parent’s house? We then spent the next few months learning, experimenting, discovering what each of us enjoyed, what we liked, what we didn’t want. What we are doing now, it’s not just a second chance of us finding love, it’s a second chance to experience making love with each other. We can re-learn everything; I’m not assuming that you might still want to do things the way we did before 1980. I am expecting you to guide me, tell me what you want me to do, what you no longer like, what you want now. And just because Lisa, or any other of my partners liked something, I’m not assuming you would like that.

“Just as I gave my life a reboot two years ago, consider this as a ‘reboot’ for our relationship, we have the luxury of being able to start from a clean slate. Maybe all we do tonight, is just reacquaint ourselves with each other’s bodies, it’s been a long time. How about for this evening, we forget everything over the last twenty-something years, what if we go back to when we were at High School, before Cathy and I started going steady, and you and I are on your father’s old boat, staying overnight at Castle Lagoon...”

“Not the time we got blind drunk drinking all of that beer!” she said. “I can still remember us spewing our guts out in the morning!”

“No, definitely not that time!” I said. “Imagine that instead of Cathy and me getting involved, you and I decided that we were meant for each other, and ... somehow, we found the opportunity to get away together for a night, we spent the time exploring each other’s bodies, kissing, and touching each other, discovering all about love, the opposite sex, what each other enjoys. Let’s forget about how we screwed up our relationship in the past, the stupid fights we got into, the misunderstandings, the times we broke each other’s hearts. It’s a new beginning for us, what we should have done right from when we first met.”

“I wish that was what had really happened, that you and I didn’t waste all the time and opportunities that we did, and we were each other’s ‘first’,” she said. “I know that you were my first, and best. But I wish I had got you before Cathy did, and it was all because I was so stupid, I was scared that you might just fuck me and dump me. I know you would never have done that, you’re not that kind of guy. But I was scared, unsure of how I would feel after we made love, I didn’t know how I would react. And back when O’Rourke raped and abused me, I should have been able to tell you what happened, to be honest with you. Instead, I took my anger out on you, made you feel that you were the reason why I was going overseas, and I was mad at you because you didn’t want to come with me.”

“It’s amazing just how much more we know, how more intelligent and how much more we understand about things looking back at them,” I said. “When a problem or issue comes up, we make decisions on what we know at the time; we rarely have the luxury of putting decisions or action off until we know everything that can be known. So, of course we will make some poor choices, at least when we look back on things in the future, with the full benefit of knowing everything.

“For example, looking back at some of my decisions, I should not have allowed Cathy Parsons to tempt me into getting back with her, in the August before our final high school exams. But I was a horny teenager, and the little head dominated the big head, so what I might have thought was a good idea, or what was a bad idea never stood a chance. Maybe, the fling I had with Angie last year wasn’t such a good idea – but on the positive side, she did help me get over my fear of flying. Could you have imagined me sitting up in the co-pilot’s seat of a single-engine or twin-engine light plane?”

“That’s true, she really knew how to get you over your fears,” Lori said. “Weren’t you saying something about some talisman that Alexa’s grandmother gave you though?”

“Yeah, she made it from scraps of wire and fabric, taken from the plane her husband had, and had it blessed in her church,” I said. “She told me to wear it inside my shirt next to my heart, and to have my first few flights in a small plane, sitting next to the pilot, and have the pilot explain everything to me – much the way Angie did. Now, I’m not putting any of the success with me being able to fly without getting a major panic attack down to Baba’s talisman; it was all to do with Angie keeping my mind occupied.”

“Maybe though, because you had that talisman, and knowing that Baba had said to you, subconsciously you knew there was nothing to worry about,” she said. “Anyway, that’s way, way off topic ... shall we get into bed? Even if we don’t make love, we can cuddle, kiss, and rediscover each other’s bodies.”

“Do you want me to keep the curtains open?” I asked.

“Yes, we can wake up when the sun comes up,” she replied.

We got into the bed, I was sort of in the middle, with Lori on one side, there was certainly plenty of room for us in the king-sized bed.

“You are so far away from me!” she said, rolling over to face me. “I guess when all three of us are in here it will be better, but...”

“We will appreciate all the room in the bed when Megan is with us,” I said. “Now, where did you get to...”

I put my arms around her, pulled her in close to me, and we started to kiss. My hands caressed her back, down to her buttocks, then back up her side. Lori rolled over onto her back, so I could caress her breasts, and she sighed as my fingers ran across her hardening nipples. I moved my face across to kiss and suck on her nipples, and she moaned softly, pressing on the back of my head, forcing my face harder against her breasts.

I continued sucking on her nipples, my hand caressed down to her stomach, I could feel her moving her legs, and she kept moaning softly. As my hand moved lower, down closer to her crotch, I could feel her arch her back slightly, and as my fingers brushed the top of her mound, she spread her legs a little wider apart. I pushed my fingers lower, between her legs, and felt the wetness flowing between her labia. My fingers moved lower still, brushing over the top of her clit, and I heard her suck her breath in sharply. My fingertips spread her warm wetness around her pussy, circling her clit, touching the tip of my finger to her opening. I was tempted to slide the tip of my finger inside her, but thought I wouldn’t go that fast, given what Lori had told me about her fears earlier. I didn’t want to do anything that might make her feel uncomfortable by rushing things.

She certainly seemed to enjoy what I was doing to her, sucking on her hard nipples, and rubbing around her clit. I was in no hurry to make her come, it was enjoyable rubbing her slowly, feeling the warm wetness around her pussy, and seeing her reactions to what I was doing. It was clear to me that she was getting more and more aroused, and closer to reaching her orgasm; I concentrated my rubbing to just circling her clit, pressing harder, then relaxing, harder then softer. Lori had abandoned herself to the pleasure I was giving her, she was moaning, imploring me to make her come. I used two fingers to rub around her clit, pressing hard against the rigid nub, spreading her wetness along the length of her slot.

With an explosive grunt, Lori came; her body started shaking, her hips jerked up and down, and I had to concentrate hard to keep my fingers ‘on target’; the shaking and the extra wetness made the area very slippery.

“Oh my God ... Oh my God,” she cried out. “That was wonderful...”

She pulled my shoulders across so that I was lying on top of her, and as I scooted upwards so my face was level with hers, I felt the tip of my prick press against her pussy, Lori pulled on my shoulders, and I could feel my knob start to slide into her.

“Oh yes, that’s so nice,” she moaned.

“I didn’t mean to do that,” I said. “Do you want me to stop, pull out of you?”

“If you stop right now, I swear I will kill you with my bare hands, Will Morris,” she said softly but firmly. “Keep on doing that, fuck me, I want you inside me!”

I adjusted my position so I could slide in and out, taking my weight up on my arms. I could hear her breathing getting faster, and my heart was pounding in my ears. As I thrust in and out, I felt a strange sensation around my groin; it was almost as if I could feel the same sensations that Lori was feeling. Yes, there was that delightful sensation of her wet vaginal walls sliding around my knob and pressing on my shaft. There were sensations that I could only describe as feeling something sliding inside of me, sure, it was as weird as hell, but the pleasurable sensations, and the arousal! I looked down at Lori, her eyes were closed, her mouth open, and her head was moving from side to side as I thrust in and out. She was moaning softly, clearly enjoying everything. Somehow, I could sense that she was close to coming, I changed my position slightly, so that my knob was pressing up higher, closer to where I thought her g-spot would be. She sighed softly, and I felt her tighten around my shaft, and there was a warmth, a pulsating throbbing around my cock. Was I somehow sharing the sensations of her orgasm? It certainly felt like it.

I continued with the steady, rhythmic thrusting, I was getting closer, Lori had opened her eyes, and was murmuring encouragement to me, crying out ‘fuck my wet pussy’, ‘come inside me, fill me with your hot cream’, ‘take your wet pussy, it’s all yours’, and similar phrases. Hearing Lori turned on to that extent, with her vocalizing her desire, got me even more aroused, my orgasm was imminent.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Do it, Will, come inside me!” Lori urged, as if she knew I was about to come. “Fill me, oh YES! Oh my GOD! That’s what I want!”

That was all it took; I closed my eyes as I started to pump my come into her. It had been a few weeks since my last time making love with Monica, and there was quite a lot of my come stored up to needed to be spurted out inside her. There were at least ten strong blasts into Lori, during that, she cried out, her body shaking, and her cunt clenching and releasing around my prick. The feelings of pleasure were intense, I don’t recall coming as hard or with as much pleasure – strong, intense pleasure - for a long time. When I was finished – ‘spent’ in every sense of the word – I let myself collapse against Lori’s body; we were both panting for breath, completely exhausted.

I pulled out, and rolled over on my side next to her, my hand resting on her stomach. Lori placed a hand on mine and started to sob softly. I was worried that I shouldn’t have allowed us to make love, given the fears that she had expressed to me before we got into the bed.

“Are you okay? What’s the matter?” I asked her.

“Nothing’s the matter, silly, that was just so lovely, so beautiful,” she said, through her tears. “It felt so different from previous times I made love; it’s been quite a while since I’ve had sex with any guy, but just then, with you ... I can’t explain how it felt, I sort of remember how it was for our first time, back in front of your parent’s fireplace. This was even better than that was ... I don’t know why I was so worried about us making love, maybe I thought that I somehow wouldn’t be any good at it, you wouldn’t enjoy it...”

“I know, I was somehow worried that I would do something that you didn’t want to do,” I said.

“I can’t think that there would be anything I don’t want you to do with me,” she said. “Now, you probably think I’m going crazy, or something ... but when you were inside me, I had the strangest feeling. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was like I could feel the same sensations that you were feeling, I somehow could feel that you were close to coming, and when you came ... as well as feeling my own orgasm, I could feel the heat and intense pleasure inside me with each of your spurts, as if I was coming that way, too. Is that crazy? I can’t explain it any better, but it was as if I was tapped into your feelings and sensations.”