Mia and I live on a cul-de-sac off a short road in a heavily wooded area just outside the city limits. There are three homes on the cul-de-sac, each on a two-acre lot. Our home is the one in the middle. All three homes are similar in design with enough differences to make each of them unique. They’re all about the same size, have three bedrooms on the second floor, two and a half baths, and a large great room on the main floor. No matter which home you were in, it was intuitive where the facilities and the bedrooms were.
A local contractor built them as spec houses and left each of them unfinished before he sold them. His approach allowed each buyer to specify textures, colors, appliances and fixtures ensuring that each home reflected the buyers’ personalities as much as it did the builder’s.
Our home was the first completed and, within two months, we had neighbors on each side. If you stood on our porch facing the road, Donte and Robin Bennett were on the right side and Jim and Abbey Trace were on the left side. We’re Todd and Mia Johanson. We’re all in our late thirties or early forties, childless, and have been here for almost nine years.
We quickly became friends. The relative isolation of our location encouraged our reliance on each other when help was needed. The women bonded quickly, We share meals frequently and the six of us gather together at least monthly for more social contact.
As you might expect, the isolation and concomitant privacy led to a level of familiarity between the couples not usually experienced between neighbors. Our gatherings frequently included polite hugging, respectful kissing, and more touching than you might normally expect.
Six years ago, Donte and Robin installed a pool in their backyard. Mia immediately latched on to the idea. We began to investigate a pool in our yard. Mia discussed the pool with Robin and their contractor. The conversation led to Robin suggesting that Mia and I were welcome to use their pool at any time and we should save the expense of having a duplicate pool installed. The invitation soon included Jim and Abbey. We agreed to contribute to the upkeep of the pool and, during the warmer weather, it became common for us to walk through the backyards to use the pool.
Within a year, Mia and I had a large patio useful for outdoor gatherings and meals and Jim and Abbey had a Pickleball court for use by all. Together we had a complete neighborhood activity environment.
The presence of swimwear changed the nature of our relationships. The women would whistle at the men in their swim trunks and the men would stifle their comments about their wives in their swimsuits. By the second year with the pool, the women replaced their one-piece suits with two-piece suits and the men were less willing to suppress their comments. The level of camaraderie reached a new high as the sizes of the women’s two-piece bikinis shrunk considerably. I suspected that it might be competitive between the women but I didn’t ask. Neither did Jim or Dante.