As the fourth weekly party was breaking up, I noticed Bree, Allison, Kurt, and Peter exchange glances. Something is up, I thought. Have we offended these people somehow?
Peter was again the spokesman. “Kelly, Harry, we’re really happy that you have become a part of our Friday evening group. The people who had your house before you were always invited, but never came. So, for as long as we’ve been doing these, it has been just Allison, Kurt, Bree, and me. We changed our party a little to accommodate the two of you. Now that we’ve gotten to know you, we’d like to talk about going back to the way we’ve done these for most of the last couple of years.”
Bree interjected quietly, “What Peter is getting to is that we have always done our pool parties in the nude. We didn’t know how you would react to that so we’ve worn suits for the last month. I think that we all really like you and you seem to be reasonable people, so we wanted to let you know that the four of us will be nude next Friday and the Fridays thereafter. We hope that you will join us in the nude, but, if you prefer to leave your suits on, that is perfectly fine. Of course, we hope that you will keep coming.”
Wow! I had not seen that coming at all. Our neighbors were backyard nudists. I looked at Kelly. She looked as surprised as I felt.
After a moment of silence, Kelly stammered out, “Well, thank you for telling us. Of course, you should dress for your parties however you feel comfortable.” Looking at me, Kelly went on, “Of course, we enjoy these parties and would love to keep coming.” I nodded. “As for the rest,” Kelly said, “we’ll have to think about it.”
Walking back to our house, I asked Kelly, “Did you have any idea that the nudist thing was coming?”
“Absolutely not,” she said.
“I wonder if, maybe, it is a practical joke on the new kids on the block,” I said. “We show up naked next Friday and they’re clothed with a bunch of other clothed guests.”
“Uh, I don’t think so,” Kelly responded. “I told them that we’d come Friday. You’re ok with that?”
“Yeah, I’m ok,” I answered. “The question is; do we go naked?”
“I don’t know,” Kelly answered. “I need to think about that, a lot.”
My practical joke suspicion was dissipated somewhat when Peter called the next day. I think that he wanted to gauge our reaction to their revelation. He emphasized that they had not told anyone else that they had their Friday parties in the nude and that no one else was ever invited. He repeated that they were perfectly okay if we decided to leave our suits on. To deflect the discussion of nudity, and to keep from thinking about the possibility of going naked with our neighbors, I asked Peter if we could bring the meat for dinner the following Friday. He and Bree always provided all of the food, which seemed unfair to me.
Wednesday evening, Allison knocked at our front door. When I answered it, Allison asked if Kelly was in and if she could speak to her. I called Kelly to the door and left them two women in privacy. After a brief conversation in the foyer, I heard them walking back to the kitchen. Kelly and Allison talked for about 45 minutes. Occasionally, I heard laughter or giggles, but I did not try to hear what they were talking about. Finally, Kelly, with a glass of wine in her hand, walked Allison back to the door.