David stood at the back patio door of the four bedroom beach house and looked out the glass door at the beach. He was watching Ella who had wasted no time making herself at home here. Ella always took hold of whatever she was doing with both hands and all of her heart. She had squealed with glee upon seeing the beach house. It was the off-season and a little too cool for swimming in the ocean, but that hadn't stopped her from slipping into some sexy swim wear and taking to the beach.<br/><br/>Watching Ella, who was only 21, made the 45 year old psychology professor feel both young and old at the same time. It was hard to explain, but he liked the feeling. Youthful energy mixed with timeless wisdom, that's what being with Ella brought out in him. David found himself gazing for a moment at himself in the glass. He was six feet tall. His blond hair was long, past his shoulder blades, usually tied back, but wavy and full when he left it free. He had a short beard and mustache, almost like a goatee. His eyes were blue gray. Ella described them as "stormy."<br/><br/>Now, Ella sat in a beach chair with her sketch pad. She was drawing something ... she was always drawing something. It's what originally had attracted him to her. He had fancied himself something of an artist when he was a younger man and he took an interest in her sketches. She was a student in his psychology class. He noticed her sketching during one of his lectures and he had been insulted by this intentional display of disinterest in his class.<br/><br/>He took the pad from her, and although she voiced an objection, she was a freshman, and still used to high-school policies, so she accepted the discipline without too much overt resistance. After class he returned the pad to Ella, but first took a look at her work for himself. It was good. Really good, and David commented on it. They talked for over an hour and Ella missed her next class.<br/><br/>After that, Ella paid much more attention in class, and also made a point of showing her drawings to him regularly. These visits quickly became flirtatious and Ella grabbed onto that flirtation with the same gusto she approached everything. David had never dated a student before, and although it was generally frowned upon, there were no formal rules in place against it, and Ella was not only very persuasive, she was also the sexiest most "alive" woman David had ever met.<br/><br/>They've been together for three years now. They love each other.<br/><br/>David looked back over his shoulder for a moment ... to the front door. Funny how quickly the mind could shift gears he thought. But, they were expecting company. Ella had been flirting with a man she met online. Ella and David's relationship was an open one. Honestly, David never expected the youthful exuberant Ella to have stuck with him for so long, and he would never try to tie her down. So, visiting with other men, dating other men. It's something David expected. He welcomed it. There was no reason for their relationship to also equate to a contract of fealty.<br/><br/>The human need to possess another by restricting their access to a single lover, partner, friend, had always puzzled David. It was one of the reasons he began studying psychology in the first place. When he introduced Ella to the concepts of Polyamory, the idea that human love didn't need to be restricted to one person at a time, it was as if he had spoken to Ella's soul and revealed to her a truth she had been seeking all her life. Human beings could be with and love as many people as their hearts could accommodate and there was no reason why one relationship needed to supersede another. All that was really "needed" was honesty.<br/><br/>Ella began reading about Polyamory online and even started chatting with other people who thought like they did. Interestingly, David always believed in Polyamory, but had never pursued it the way Ella had done. Now he found himself thinking of the possibility of building a family. A family of lovers and friends all living and sharing together without restrictions. It was a romantic idea. But, it was a fantasy too tempting not to pursue.<br/><br/>When Ella suggested inviting the couple she had met, the man she had been chatting with and his wife, to come on this vacation with them, David was surprised, but ultimately willing and anxious to try. Now he was excited, but also very nervous about what the next two weeks would have in store for them all.<br/><br/>David smiled as Ella spotted him watching her through the glass door of the porch, and she got up to run towards him. It seemed like Ella never walked anywhere ... she always ran, or skipped, or danced, but she never simply walked.<br/><br/>