I flew to Chicago on the morning of January 23rd and had arranged to spend the night with Jody and Mark. Before I flew to Chicago, I called Carol and asked if she would have lunch with me on that Thursday. No expectations of an "Afternoon Delight." We met at a restaurant near the office where she and Catie worked. After the initial pleasantries, I got to the point. I thanked her for her honesty both in her note and in our conversations. My goal was to relieve her of any apprehension she had about this type of ending. It was predicated on something that Catie had wanted. She seemed to be relieved at what I said and how I said it.

We ordered lunch and continued to talk. Carol waved to someone in the restaurant and then waved her over to our table. A woman approached out table.

Carol said "Denise, this is Gary. Gary, this is Denise."

I stood up to shake her hand and asked Carol "the same Denise?"

"Yes," Carol said.

"Carol told me you had quite a party." Denise acknowledged that they did. I asked if Denise wanted to join us for lunch. I wasn't clueless about what was going on. Denise was Carol's safety valve if things went badly at lunchtime. Carol indicated that it was okay, we let our servers know and so the three of us had lunch. We (quietly) had a conversation about the "party" that Carol told me about and the one that took place after the football game (that I suspected would take place). It was a pretty lighthearted sexual discussion over lunch. I knew this lunch was limited by time and would have to end in a reasonable time for "lunch hour."

Toward the end of lunch Denise said to Carol "Maybe we should have invited him (referring to me) to our parties."

Turning to me and saying "Particularly after Carol told me about your unique skills." I expressed my thanks but told her that they had a mighty good time without me.

It was a pleasant lunch and a way to get closure in person.

I had my ski equipment with me and I decided that one way to spend my afternoon was looking at ski equipment. I went to one of the downtown hotels where there were telephone booths and phone books. I picked out a couple of places I could go to look and kill some time. I called Jody at her office and told her I was in Chicago. I had Mark's address and time to be there. So, I spent the afternoon looking at ski accessories and talking with people about where I was planning to ski in Colorado. I bought some binding covers for my skis when they were up on the ski rack of my rental car in Denver.

I arrived at Mark's house outside of Chicago after sunset (about 5 PM). I asked him if I could bring my ski equipment in so that it wasn't sitting in the car overnight. He came out and helped bring my gear in. He offered me some beer or wine. I opened a bottle of white wine and poured myself a glass. He was already starting dinner and indicated that Jody would be along shortly. While we were waiting we talked about where I had thought about going skiing (Breckenridge, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin, or A-Basin for short). There was a possibility of going skiing at the end of the trip, too. That hadn't been finalized. But this was the front-end of the trip that Catie and I had talked about her coming out and skiing with me. A number of people advocated for going to Copper Mountain when I was in the ski stores.

All I really knew about the resorts was what I read in the two magazines for skiers: SKI and SKIING. I also knew about getting discount lift tickets at King Soopers, so I also planned on that. Jody arrived a few minutes later and I poured her some wine. Mark and I continued our conversation about skiing near Denver for a bit longer. Jody asked me where I was going to stay.

"I have reservations for the Brown Palace in Denver and am planning to commute to the ski resorts," I said. She asked why.

"It's where the workshop and meeting will be next week and it would give Catie and I a place to stay if we didn't want to go skiing and wanted to stay around and explore Denver," I said. "I decided not to change the reservations."

Note: The Brown Palace is still there and still quite a nice hotel in Denver.

Our conversation turned to other things. Mark served up a marvelous candlelight dinner of salmon, roasted potatoes, and asparagus. I had come to appreciate salmon while I worked out in the Pacific Northwest. After dinner and cleaning off the table, we sat in the living room and talked for a long time. We did a lot of talking about Catie and the nature of our relationship and how that was going to fit in with my soon-to-be divorce. In many ways it was therapeutic to talk about and through these things with people who knew Catie and I.

I remarked that one of the things that amazed me about the relationship was not only how it "clicked" but how it stayed clicked together. "You know when you meet someone and for a short time there seems to be a connection and then it goes away or just completely derails?" I asked. "I've had a few of those where things seem wonderful for 24 hours or so and then they seem to flame out." My relationship with Catie wasn't like that at all. It stayed lit up.

I told them it was the easiest relationship I had ever had. My ex-wife and my high school girlfriend were similar in a relatively easy start but ran into an occasional bind here and there at the beginning. Catie and I hadn't had any of those in the four months we knew each other. It seemed more than just wisdom with age. We took a break from this conversation and Jody suggested that we get more comfortable by getting into our sleepwear, robes, or whatever. We reconvened in the kitchen a few minutes later. Mark was in pajamas, Jody was wearing a robe, and I was wearing a black satin jumpsuit with white trim and a white tie belt.

We had dessert (tiramisu) along with Irish coffee (a couple of Irish coffees) and the conversation turned away from Catie and got a lot lighter. It was much more about places we had been, things we liked to do (in addition to sex. Lots and lots of sex), and funny things that had happened to us along the way. It was getting late and I had a plane to catch mid-morning. I said my goodnights and headed to the bedroom I was given for the night. Mark and Jody were downstairs talking and taking care of the remaining dishes while I was upstairs brushing and flossing my teeth. I had just entered the bedroom and closed the door when I heard them come up the stairs to the second floor. I heard the master bedroom door close quietly at the other end of the house.

I had just closed my suitcase and I was busy checking and making sure that I had what I wanted in my boot bag since that would be my carry-on luggage (just in case my luggage got lost I would have my skiing gear, at least), when there was a knock on the bedroom door and Jody called out my name. I opened the bedroom door and Jody was standing in front of it.

She reached out with her right hand and said "Mark and I have a question to ask you." I took her hand as she lead me across the balcony that separated the two ends of the second floor. When I stepped into the master bedroom, Mark was sitting against the headboard of the bed, still in his pajamas. She stopped guiding me with her right hand and turned to face me at an angle so that Mark could see both our faces and grabbed both my hands and said:

"Ever since Catie first raised the issue of wanting double penetration with two guys and then told me about your experiences in Minneapolis, I, no we, have been fantasizing about that. She told us about being double penetrated and swapping out your partner to watch them experience sexual ecstasy with someone else while watching. You've told us pretty much the same thing. Catie told us that we'd arrange it after she got back from Portland. Did she tell you that?"

"Not exactly. She told me that you were still talking but hadn't worked out the details," I said.

"That's true. We had tentatively set this date because we knew that you'd be coming to Chicago before going to Denver," she said. "She must have been in the accident before she had a chance to tell you what we were thinking."

I looked over at Mark and he shook his head to acknowledge that this was true.

Jody spoke again and I turned back to her. "With Catie's death, we didn't know whether to ask you for this, but there's nothing lost in asking. Along with Mark, you're the one lover I would be most comfortable with sharing this experience with Mark and I. If Catie were here, I have no doubt that she'd already have Mark and you inside me giving me pointers. Our question is: Would you do this with us?"

This was a request I hadn't expected. Another of Catie's legacies.

I turned to Mark, while I was still holding Jody's hands. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" I asked. "This can't be just her fantasy we're fulfilling. You've got to want it, too."

He told me that after talking with Jody he wanted to turn this fantasy into a reality for both Jody and himself. And they had both agreed that I should be the guy this first time to turn this fantasy into reality.

"Then I accept," I said.

Jody told me "Thank you" and gave me a kiss.